Posted on 03/21/2004 5:27:29 PM PST by richardtavor
Does anyone remember who Robert Stethem was? He was the the U.S. Navy Diver that Imad Mugniyah of the Hizbollah tortured and murdered, and tossed his body to the ground aboard Flight TWA Flight 847 in June, 1985 amid media coverage on the flight from Greece to Beirut. I am currently reading Kenneth Timmerman's book "The French Betrayal of America" to understand the current circumstances of Jack Chirac and his stooge Villipain and their role in the current crisis in the Iraq situtation--it is a must read--Please forgive me for quoting some very interesting background: "Mitterand's lecture (about fighting terrorism after the attack by Libya on the U.S. and the retaliatory response in the 200 mile zone of death from the Libyan coast) was intended as a slight (to Chirac), since Chirac had sent his own emissaries to Lebanon and Gabon in an effort to free the French hostages before the elections. But his claim that he would never negotiate with terrorists was pretentious mush. France has repeatedly with terrorists, their representatives, their proxies, and their supporters, in the vain hope of preventing further terrorists attacks on French soil or against French citizens overseas. And French governments have repeatedly turned a blind eye to notorious murderers who have come to safe haven or for medical treatment. Right after World War II, de Gaulle's government welcomed Haj Mohammad Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, who had been Hitler's personal guest in Berlin just 3 days before the demise of the Third Reich, when he fled to France. Al-Husseini was employed by Hitler and the SS to stir the Arab Masses to slaughter Jews in Palestine and Egypt, as part of Hitler's 'Final Solution.' In January 1977, the French government invited Mohammad Daoud Odeh, commonly known by the nom de guerre of Abu Daoud, to visit France to mmet with top Foreign Ministry officials, according to former Fatah colleague Abu Iyad. Daoud was the notorious ringleader of the PLO hit squad that had murdered eleven Israli athletes and traniners (including one American) at the 1972 Munich Olympics, just 12 miles from Dachau. More--On several occasions in the early 1980's, Mitterand's government welcomed Lebanese terrorist Imad Mugniyah to France, despite his role in the 1982 hijacking of TWA flight 847 from Greece to Beirut in June 1985, where he held 39 Americans hostage for seventeen days. Wearing a ski mask, Mugniyah prowled the aisles of the aircraft looking for American military personnel. When he discovered U.S. Navy Diver Robert Stethem, Mugniyah tortured him, shot him, then dumped his body out on the tarmac in full view of international television cameras. Later, the FBI was able to identify Mugniyah's fingerprints in the rear toilet of the aircraft and indicted him for Stethem's murder. More-- the very day that Chirac's new government came to power, Lebanese terrorists (hizbollah) exploded a bomb at the Point-Show Shopping Mall on the Champs-Elysees (near the seat of government), killing two people and wounding 28. The new interior minister, Charles Pasqua, rushed to the scene and told reporters that the new governmentwould "terrorize the terrorists." Instead he continued the standard practice of sending secret emissaries to negotiate with the terrorists. And the bombings continued.
More--Does this sound familiar? Syria/Lebanon/Hizbollah is not the problem--France is... Some of you may not remember the footage of seeing a dead sailor tossed out of the TWA plane, but I sure has hell did--I have spent considerable time in Israel, and I can assure you that this happens on a consistent basis there. Is France, Germany our friends? I think our interest have diverged.
I was living in Norfolk, Va. at the time and one of my best friends attended his funeral. Stethem had joined the Salvation Army a few weeks before his death and they provided the funeral services.
The story does include characters based on real life hostages of the TWA crisis: Navy diver Robert Stethem - the only passenger who was singled out and killed by the TWA hijackers - is known simply as "Tom" in "The Delta Force." Also, the film's character "Ingrid" was clearly drawn from Uli Derickson, a courageous flight attendant aboard the TWA jet who stood up to her captors in attempt to save passengers' lives. And let's not forget the hijackers themselves: In "The Delta Force," only two terrorists actually make the flight while the third is detained in Athens, just as in the TWA incident.
Exactly so. Well said.
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