A fugitive murderer from New Jersey could be tried as a terrorist today because he helped hijack an airliner in 1972, a former FBI agent who worked on the case for 17 years said Wednesday.

R.J. Gallagher told Congress that George Wright, convicted in the murder of a New Jersey gas station owner a half-century ago, should not be allowed to continue living a normal life in Portugal — where he was tracked down after 40 years at large and allowed to remain after courts rejected extradition.

An ex-State Department official, Jonathan Winer, even suggested that Wright could be nabbed by the U.S. government by means of an "extraordinary rendition," a method used by the Bush administration to capture terrorists — or by private bounty hunters who would be paid by the U.S. government.

But he warned that snatching Wright would result in "chilling the bilateral relationship" with Portugal for years.