Free Republic

It is all too easy to forget the past. As Israel, a multi-cultural, and diverse democratic nation engages in war with murderers from Hezbalah and Hamas, it is important to remember the 241 Marines who gave their lives on a peacekeeping mission in Beirut, Lebanon. These brave soldiers were rewarded for their sacrifice with a suicide bombing that used 15-20 tons of explosives by the same Hezbalah that Israel today battles. They say that those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it. The bombing was done by Hezbalah with the backing of Iran. Sound familiar? We honor...

On Bill Bennett's radio show this morning he said that in 1983 we had broken the Iranian's code that they were using to communicate with groups in Lebanon. The Washington Post published that information. As a result the communication ceased (I guess it could have changed code & frequency rather than ceased but Bennett said ceased). Two months latter the Marine Barracks Beirut Lebanon was bombed. Is this story accurate and does anyone have confirmation that's on the web? This would go nicely with the recent NY Times stories and how responsible the press is.

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY President Bush had an exceptionally full calendar today. He left Washington shortly after dawn this morning to fly to Oklahoma, where he delivered the commencement address at the University of Oklahoma. While in flight aboard Air Force One, the President got some work done, including a phone call to discuss Darfur with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. On his return to Washington, the President joined the First Lady and former President George H. W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, at a wedding for family friends. Transcript of the President's Commencement Address at the University of Oklahoma...

WASHINGTON - A former defense secretary for Ronald Reagan says he implored the president to put Marines serving in Beirut in a safer position before terrorists attacked them in 1983, killing 241 servicemen. "I was not persuasive enough to persuade the president that the Marines were there on an impossible mission," Caspar Weinberger says in an oral history project capturing the views of former Reagan administration officials. He said one of his greatest regrets was in failing to overcome the arguments that "'Marines don't cut and run,' and 'We can't leave because we're there'" before the devastating suicide attack on...

MARINE BARRACKS WASHINGTON, Washington D.C. (Jan.19) -- Morning colors started the day on a historical note here at Marine Barracks Washington, Jan. 19. Sgt. Clint Owens of Arlington, Tx. rang the bell and sounded the familiar tune using a valveless bugle - the first time the United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps has used this traditional type of horn since after the Korean War. "We've reinstated these straight bugles for the same reason we still fly the 1801 flag at Evening Parades here at the 'Oldest Post of the Corps,'" said Chief Warrant Officer Brian Dix, D&B director. "The...

Iran’s new defence minister tied to bombing that killed 241 U.S. Marines Sun. 14 Aug 2005 Iran Focus London, Aug. 14 - 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...

ARLINGTON, Va. (Oct. 23, 2005) -- Marines and family members gathered under sunny skies Sunday at the Arlington National Cemetery to remember service members killed in a terrorist attack at a Marine barracks in Lebanon 22 years ago. The somber ceremony took place where 21 of the 241 servicemembers killed were laid to rest. A memorial stone marking the site sits alongside a Lebanese cedar symbolizing the nation in which they died. The Marines of First Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment were stationed in Beirut, as part of an international peacekeeping force in a nation torn by war. On Oct. 23,...

On March 24th, 1983, the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit arrived on station in Lebanon. The Americans were a peace-keeping force attempting to pacify a civil war between several different Moslem and Christian factions in Lebanon. As the line between war and peace distingrated, the Moslem factions began to see the Americans as enemies and began firing mortars and rockets at the Marines guarding the Beirut airport.

Two things happened on Oct. 23, 1983. Most of you probably recognize that date as the day that 241 Marines were killed in the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon. That pretty much is the start date for the US involvement in the War on Terrorism. Up until then, we were by-standers in the Middle East confilct, assisting where we could, but our blood wasn't spilled. The Marine Barracks Bombing changed everything. I was 12 years old then. I really had only been cognizant of the world outside of me for a few years. I don't think I could have...

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...

Muslims 'draw line in the sand' in D.C. Civil rights rally touted as largest Islamic gathering in capital Posted: May 17, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Art Moore © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com U.S. Islamic activists are uniting with a leading anti-war group to hold a civil rights march and rally they tout as the largest gathering of Muslims ever in the nation's capital. Participants in the May 24 event "will demand an end to the mounting attack on the civil rights of Muslims in America" since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to the organizer, the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation....

On Meet the Press Vice President Cheney ticked off a list of attacks on Americans that have largely gone unanswered: the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, the destruction of the Khobar Towers military complex in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the east Africa embassy bombings in 1998, and the attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Cheney said that "each time there was almost no credible response from the United States to those attacks." He left one out – the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 by Libya over Lockerbie,...

(This is written without notes and is intended as an overview. It does not include the stories of all those who stood with us. Those who were there, please add your stories.) The Patriots Rally for America III in support of our troops fighting the war on terrorism was held at Constitution Gardens near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall early on Saturday morning, January 18, 2003. From the podium just before the rally ended, an announcement was made about our plans for the afternoon observance of the IAC/ANSWER-sponsored anti-war protest march through the streets of D.C., past the Marine Barracks...