Posted on 08/15/2005 9:38:33 AM PDT by West Coast Conservative
The nomination of a veteran commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as the new defence minister has been greeted with calls for an investigation into his possible ties to the suicide bombing of the U.S. Marines compound in Beirut airport in October 1983, which killed 241 Americans.
Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, a senior commander in the Revolutionary Guards, was in command of the IRGC expeditionary force in Lebanon when on October 23, 1983, at 6:22 a.m., a suicide bomber drove a large water delivery truck to the Beirut International Airport where the Marine Barracks was located. The bomber and his accomplices had hijacked the original truck on its way to the airport and sent another one, loaded with explosives, in its place.
After turning onto an access road leading to the compound, the driver rushed through a barbed-wire fence, passed between two sentry posts, crashed through the gate, and slammed into the lobby of the barracks. The huge explosion crumbled the four-story building, crushing the soldiers to death while they were sleeping.
All the windows at the airport control tower, half a mile away, shattered. A crater eight feet deep was carved into the earth, and 15 feet of rubble was all that remained of the four-story Marine barracks.
The attack killed 241 U.S. service members. The Americans quickly withdrew their forces from Lebanon and the suicide operation became a turning point in the increasing use of terrorism by radical Islamic fundamentalists across the world.
Two years ago, a U.S. federal court order identified the suicide bomber as Ismail Ascari, an Iranian national.
In July 1987, Iran’s then-Minister of Revolutionary Guards, Mohsen Rafiqdoost, said, “Both the TNT and the ideology which in one blast sent to hell 400 officers, NCOs, and soldiers at the Marines headquarters were provided by Iran”.
(Excerpt) Read more at iranfocus.com ...
They got next, which is why we are withdrawing as we can from Iraq.
Just one more reason, in a long line of reasons, to evaporate Tehran. They have been at the center of the terrorism game ever since ol' Jimmy gave the Mullah's a country. Time to correct another Rat mistake.
have the legal restrictions on use of "hit teams" been lifted from US intelligence?
"evaporate Tehran"
By Tehran, I hope, you mean the regime, 'cause there are millions upon millions in Iran who hate those guys even more than we do. Good our troops are already there.
do a little google on MEK
They are so emboldened by out lack of action and their ease of encouraging insurgents into Iraq that they could care less if they promote a known terrorist as part of the ruling class. This is Iran giving us the finger again, taunting us to do something about them.
Unlike Iraq, I do believe we should let the EU fall on it's stupid appeasment face for the next twelve months in failed dialogue with Iran while we beef up aircraft and armour and cruise missle units for what we know must be an inevitable attack.
We also need to be getting Iraqi oil as part of new legal contracts by then so we don't have $5.00 gasoline prices here when Tehran shuts us off.
"I believe you are right but I don't think it will be more than air and missile attacks.
Unless the Iranian's show some willingness to rise up we will not go in on the ground. Too large a land mass, unlike Iraq favors defense more heavily."
To destroy any potention of them ever completing their nuclear programme, it will likely require a land invasion. The ruling elite are the 1970's terrorists now in charge that have no restraint in their madness. I am not saying America will stomach such an invasion, I am no military guy but I do know countries and geography, your right, their terrain favors defense. They have less open desert to use air power to destroy hoardes of ground troops and tanks like we did in Iraq. Probably require 400,000 ground troops and that is IF we have the full cooperation of the people behind us. Although a large segment of the Iranian population are friendlier towards America, they still also have large populations of islamic nut jobs who hate America.
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