Posted on 07/19/2006 4:33:07 PM PDT by got_moab?
Kathleen Williams spent last Wednesday night on the roof of a downtown building in Beirut enjoying the opening of a new nightclub and the moonlight shimmering over the Mediterranean. Then all at once the cell phones of her Lebanese friends and fellow wedding guests began going off.
The Israelis, they told her, were bombing the cities of Saida and Tyr to the south.
Yesterday, as Israeli and Hezbollah fighting claimed more lives, and hundreds of the 25,000 Americans now in Lebanon waited nervously to leave the country, Williams expressed relief she had ignored U.S. State Department advice and got out when she could Friday.
"I'm very relieved," she said from her Providence home. "I would have been abandoned by my country and my bank," which put a block on her credit cards, leaving her without money.
Williams, 57, flew to Beirut last month for three weeks of wedding festivities for a friend's sister. It ended with the wife and mother of two watching the Israelis bomb the Beirut airport on the morning she was to fly home and enduring a tense 16-hour bus ride along narrow dirt roads to an airport in Aleppo, Syria.
At times the scenes she witnessed seemed hard to comprehend, she said, like the Thursday morning after the nightclub opening.
"I was standing in my room on the seventh floor of the hotel when suddenly I heard this huge boom," said Williams, who had never been to Lebanon before. "I looked out and saw smoke rising from behind an apartment building."
She called downstairs to the desk:
"I'm sorry, but are they bombing here?" she asked the clerk.
"Madam," the clerk replied, "I will have to call you right back."
When other explosions went off, followed by rising plumes of smoke, Williams said she called the desk again to inquire whether the neighborhood was under attack.
"You have a TV in your room," she said the clerk told her. "Turn it on."
Williams called over to the house of her friend. Someone there calmly advised her of the ways in the war-torn city: Don't go to the airport because of the bombing. Go have breakfast, instead.
"They have lived for 15 years with war so they knew what to do," Williams said.
In the meantime Williams called the U.S. embassy for a second time (the first time she called, she says the office wasn't yet open) to make arrangements for a speedy exit from the country. Williams said the embassy told her she would have to fill out paperwork on line. Then they would get back to her. Williams says she was told to stay put until she had heard back from embassy officials about evacuation plans.
Worried about the bombing and not wanting to be alone, Williams left the hotel Thursday and went to her friend's family house about a quarter-mile away.
Exploding bombs, screeching jets and the rattle of anti-aircraft guns shook her awake later that night. When she approached a porch window to look out, the mother of the new bride screamed at her to get away from the glass.
"She told us to go into the hallway where there are walls. She knew from her experience that it was safer there."
Over the next several hours, a relative of her affluent Lebanese friends, who works in Washington, somehow arranged for a tour bus to take Williams and 16 others over the northern border to Syria. On a normal day the bus ride to Aleppo would have taken about six hours. Friday it took 16 (without a bus bathroom) as the driver tried to avoid bombed out Hezbollah neighborhoods and roads.
At the border, women with their faces covered in Muslim tradition, and men pushing wheelbarrows crowded along the narrow dirt road. Many were Syrians looking to leave the country. At one point a wheelbarrow clanked loudly beside the bus and Williams said she jumped, believing the noise was an attacking jet.
"They bombed that road," she said, "a little bit after we went through."
Williams said the Lebanese are both surprised and enraged by the Israelis' military response to Hezbollah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers.
"The people we were with don't agree with Hezbollah politics but they don't believe they deserve this," said Williams. "These people have been under siege and occupied for over 30 years. Last year they finally kicked the Syrians out. They were just getting back on their feet. Now they're destroyed."
Meanwhile, days after calling the U.S. officials in Beirut for help, and now safely home, "I still haven't received any word from the embassy."
Somehow? Actually paid big $$$ to get someone to drive that tour bus to get their guest out of there.
"I still haven't received any word from the embassy."
Why should she. She didn't stay at the hotel, probably didn't advise the embassee of her bus trip, probably didn't advise the embassee that she arrived back in the states.
If Americans ignore State Dept. warnings on travel they have only themselves to blame for their circumstances.
That's the risk you take when you go to a country under the control of a terrorist organization.
What the hell is wrong with countries like Syria that they can't or will not construct paved roads!! Haven't they heard of asphalt or concrete? And it's just too bad the lady got caught in the middle of a war zone. Is a party worth risking your freedom or life? As far as I'm concerned travel to Lebanon ought to banned. I consider it an enemy nation as long as Hezbollah is there.
SAFETY AND SECURITY: Recent events in Lebanon underscore the need for caution and sound personal security precautions. Former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri was assassinated on February 14, 2005 in a car bomb attack in which 22 people were killed and many others seriously wounded; the potential for violence remains. Since February 2005, there have been 15 separate bombings in Lebanon, resulting in ten dead and 121 wounded.Americans have been the targets of numerous terrorist attacks in Lebanon in the past. The perpetrators of many of these attacks are still present and retain the ability to act. American citizens should thus keep a low profile, varying times and routes for all required travel. Americans should also pay close attention to their personal security at locations where Westerners are generally known to congregate, and should avoid demonstrations and large gatherings. Unofficial travel to Lebanon by U.S. Government employees and their family members requires prior approval by the Department of State.
U.S. citizens who travel to Lebanon should exercise heightened caution when traveling in parts of the southern suburbs of Beirut, portions of the Bekaa Valley and South Lebanon, and the cities of Sidon and Tripoli. Hizballah has not been disarmed. It maintains a strong presence in many of these areas, and there is potential for action by other extremist groups in the city of Tripoli. Tensions remain in Lebanon's southern border with the possibility of Hizballah and Palestinian militant activity at any time.
Palestinian groups hostile to both the Lebanese government and the U.S. operate largely autonomously inside refugee camps in different areas of the country. Intra-communal violence within the camps has resulted in violent incidents such as shootings and explosions. Travel by U.S. citizens to Palestinian camps should be avoided. Asbat al-Ansar, a terrorist group with apparent links to Al-Qaida, has targeted Lebanese, U.S. and other foreign government interests. It has been outlawed by the Lebanese government but continues to maintain a presence in Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp.
In addition, dangers posed by landmines and unexploded ordnance throughout south Lebanon are significant and also exist in other areas where civil war fighting was intense.
Meanwhile, days after calling the U.S. officials in Beirut for help, and now safely home, "I still haven't received any word from the embassy."
Why would she expect to? She's home now. They have other people to worry about.
Idiot! But she's from Rhode Island, so what can we expect?
Uh, they probably avoided the main roads, as they were being bombed. The roads were in Lebanon leading to Syria.
Which is why the trip took much longer, back roads, dirt roads.
We should have left them to fend for themselves. (Well, maybe not...)
They put themselves in that stupid position to begin with, they have zero rights to expect a perfect anything in return.
Try riding a bus in Israel lady...
O'Reilly (no spin zone) on Foxnewstv got in the act by 'saving' a Mass. women who was over there to adopt a Lebanese baby--(no babies to adopt in the USA?)--her husband was on tonite and when O'Reilly asked why he adoption there, he answered he is 3rd generation Lebanese so it was a 'cultural thing'---sheesh--I am who knows how many generations English, French and Dutch extraction but sure don't have to go there to do anything "cultural"---these more 'money than brains' so-called Americans make me sick---hope the b-=--ds get caught in a real war before they are dead and gone--O'Reilly was an ass to get mixed up in this s--t,in my opinion, but "the show must go on"--by the way, Kennedy and Sununu and the Embassy and Homeland Security all got involved for this 'show of shows'---what a sick country we live in today--God help us if we get into a all-out shooting war that hits here at home
I just wonder how any of the people in these stories can get out of bed in the morning without government help!
The poor desk clerk would be standing in the unemployment line, because a spoiled rich woman had to use her power to take away a $10.00 per hour job from a guy just trying to make a living.
Just saw on Fox & Friends about 45 minutes ago a guy with very curly hair (with a little tail in the back) ending up his interview complaining about Bush.
Williams: Hello?
US Embassy: Mrs. Williams?
Williams: Yes?
US Embassy: This is the US Embassy in Lebanon.
Williams: Yes?
US Embassy: Just checking to see if you are back in the United States, safe and sound.
Williams: Why yes I am! Thank you for calling and thinking about me.
US Embassy: Quitcher bitchin' then.
Click.
LOL!
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