Safeguarding Our Freedoms As We Cover Terrorist Acts

An Update

History Repeating Itself

Katharine Graham, Washington Post, Sunday, April 20, 1986; Page C1

Tragically, however, we in the media have made mistakes. You may recall that in April 1983, some 60 people were killed in a bomb attack on the U.S. embassy in Beirut. At the time, there was coded radio traffic between Syria, where the operation was being run, and Iran, which was supporting it. Alas, one television network and a newspaper columnist reported that the U.S. government had intercepted the traffic. Shortly thereafter the traffic ceased. This undermined efforts to capture the terrorist leaders and eliminated a source of information about future attacks. Five months later, apparently the same terrorists struck again at the Marine barracks in Beirut; 241 servicemen were killed.

1983 Marine Barracks Bombing

The responsibility for the bombing is uncertain. Most (notably the U.S. government) believe the Hezbollah militant group, backed by Iran and Syria, was responsible for the bombings, as well as the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in April of that year. Hezbollah, Iran and Syria, all staunch opponents of a Western presence in Lebanon, denied any involvement. Several Shia militant groups claimed responsibility for the attacks, and one, the Free Islamic Revolutionary Movement, identified the two suicide bombers as Abu Mazen, 26, and Abu Sijaan, 24.^[3]

Along with the US Embassy bombing, the barracks bombing prompted the Inman Report, a review of the security of US facilities overseas for the US Department of State.

In May 2003, US District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth declared that the Islamic Republic of Iran was responsible for the 1983 attack, on the grounds that Iran had originally founded Hezbollah and financed the group throughout the years.^{[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Beirut_barracks_bombing}

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
~George Santayana

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Santayana

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