Robert Dean Stethem
SW-2 (Diver), United States Navy
Maryland State Flag
This young Navy diver was returning from an assignment in the Middle East when the commercial jet on which he was a passenger was hijacked by terrorists. He was shot to death, after being tortured, by the terrorists on June 15, 1985.
He is buried in Section 59 of Arlington National Cemtery, near a number of other Americans who were victims of worldwide terrorism.
Long before Osama bin Laden burst onto the scene and President Bush declared war on terrorism, there was the elusive Imad Mughniyah. One of the world's most wanted -- and accomplished -- alleged terrorists, he has been accused of playing a leading role in killing more than 250 Americans, taking a half-dozen others hostage and driving the United States out of Lebanon.
The hunt for Mughniyah has waned in the past decade as the memory of his bloody record in the Beirut of the mid-1980s faded and diplomatic imperatives shifted elsewhere. But now the U.S. anti-terrorism campaign has revived interest in the Shiite shadow warrior whom Lebanese and U.S. officials blame for pioneering suicide bombing, destroying a large Marine encampment and taking out the entire CIA station in Beirut.
Although Mughniyah has not been implicated in the recent attacks in the United States, his whereabouts since September 11 have provoked intense speculation centering on reports that he has returned from Iran to his native Lebanon in an effort to escape a U.S. manhunt.
How seriously the United States pursues its old nemesis may be one measure of the breadth of U.S. intentions to wage a global war beyond the search for bin Laden and the bombing of Afghanistan.
The FBI included Mughniyah and two fellow Lebanese, Hasan Izz-Al-Din and Ali Atwa, on a list issued October 10 of 22 people wanted for terrorist acts.
It cited an indictment handed up in Washington for the June 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 in which a 23-year-old U.S. Navy diver, Robert Dean Stethem, of Waldorf, Md., was shot and dumped on the tarmac of Beirut International Airport.
The U.S. government also has asked the Lebanese and other governments to freeze any assets belonging to Mughniyah, Izz-Al-Din and Atwa, citing their alleged links to terrorist attacks. Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri said in an interview that the Bank of Lebanon has conducted a search and found no accounts or other assets in the three men's names.
Recently
Failed Lebanon embraces killers
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (subscription), AR - Aug 10, 2006 ... States should take no side in Israel’s fight with Hezbollah, remember Stethem. ... In Germany, however, murderers serving a life sentence can apply for parole ...
I don't want to log into their site to get the rest of their article, but it's there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BOTTOM LINE OF THIS WHOLE PATH TO 9/11: 8 YRS VS. 8 MO.
Robert Dean Stethem
SW-2 (Diver), United States Navy
Navy ship named for Stethem based in San Diego
Thank you STARWISE....this is something to keep track of...whether they try to get that guy in Lebanon..we'll see.
And hoping this is made very clear tomorrow night. So far it appears to be straight forward and calling a spade a spade. We'll see...
You know those 36 days in Florida caused us to suffer. If I remember correctly, the whole country was focused on that in 2000 and Clinton wasn't sharing intelligence with Bush. We paid for that.