Free Republic

Rochester, N.Y. (WHAM) — Marine Mike Zawacki of Webster said when Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants attacked the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon on April 18, 1983, it was the start of a different kind of warfare. “And then Sunday, Oct. 23, 1983, Hezbollah drove a truck bomb into the Marine barracks at 6:22 a.m.” Zawacki said the bomb was some 12,000 pounds. On detonation, it took the four-story barracks and blew it "a story and half" in the air. “And then it came down and pancaked with our Marines, sailors and soldiers in it — killing 220 Marines, 18 sailors and...

Early on the morning of March 16th, 1984, William Buckley left for work at the American embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Officially, Mr. Buckley, a decorated veteran of the Special Forces, served as the political officer at the embassy. In reality, however, Mr. Buckley was the embassy’s CIA station chief. On his way to the compound, Buckley’s car was stopped by a group of masked men, who forced him from his car at gunpoint. His assailants would later be identified as terrorists from the group Islamic Jihad, which served as an alias for the real perpetrators, Hezbollah. The circumstances surrounding the...