Secrets Of The 1983 Beirut Bombings: The Role Of Iran's IRGC
09 November 2017By Heshmat Alavi
The 1983 double bombing in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, left 241 American
service members, 58 French military personnel and six civilians killed,
alongside hundreds of others injured.
21 years later in 2004 Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) unveiled a
"monument" in "honor" of that terrorist attack.
This "memorial" column, installed in a section dubbed "Martyrs of the Islamic
World" in Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery, carried a very vivid message:
Iran's IRGC was behind the 1983 blast targeting the peacekeeping force in
Beirut.
34 years have passed since that attack and today the IRGC has been designated
a terrorist organization by the US Treasury Department. Such a measure
deserves praise, yet is long overdue.
On October 23 of that year a suicide bomber drove a water tanker into the US
Marines barracks and detonated around 1,000 kilograms of explosives (equal to
15,000 to 21,000 pounds of TNT), transferred with large trucks into buildings
where the Multi-National Forces in Lebanon were stationed.
The United Nations was involved in a broader peacekeeping mission to bring an
end to the Lebanese civil wars. The Islamic Jihad, an Iranian offspring
terrorist group, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Background
In line with its pillar policy of exporting terrorism and warmongering across
the Middle East, one of Iran's first objectives was to launch a central
command base for the IRGC and its local mercenaries in Lebanon. These elements
were initially dispersed in towns and villages of the Baalbek area in eastern
Lebanon near the border Jordan.
In 1980, coinciding with Tehran paving the grounds to ignite the Iran-Iraq
War, then Iranian regime leader Ayatollah Khomeini dispatched former IRGC
commander Mohsen Rezaee to Lebanon to blueprint possible terrorist attacks and
hostage taking measures in this country, considered Iran's "strategic depth."
On September 10, 2003, Iran's state-run Mashreq daily published a photo
imaging Rezaee, former IRGC logistics officer Mohsen Rafighdoust, former IRGC
foreign relations officer Mohammad Saleh al-Hosseini and Lebanese terrorist
Anis al-Naqqash, said to be behind the first assassination attempt targeting
former Iranian Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar in 1980.
With support provided by the IRGC and under the command of former defense
minister Hossein Dehghan, the Lebanese Hezbollah took over the Sheikh Abdullah
Base in early September 1983. This site was the main center of the Lebanese
Army in Bekaa Valley, and was later renamed Imam and transformed to become the
IRGC's main command center in Lebanon.
From this very site the IRGC controlled Hezbollah militia units and directed
the Beirut bombings alongside senior Hezbollah commanders, most specifically
the known terrorist Imad Mughniyah.
The orders for the Beirut bombings were first issued by the IRGC to Ali Akbar
Mohtashemipour, Iran's then ambassador to Syria. He then relayed the orders to
IRGC units stationed in Beirut under Dehghan's command.
The Islamic Jihad organization was in fact a special ops branch. Until its
final days in 1992 this entity was jointly commanded by the Lebanese Hezbollah
and IRGC.
Following the Beirut bombings France began aerial attacks in the Bekaa Valley
targeting IRGC-linked bases. The US responded to these terrorist attacks by
planning raids on the Sheikh Abdullah Base where the IRGC was training
Hezbollah militias.
On July 20th, 1987, Iran's Resalat daily wrote the Beirut bombings citing
Rafiqdoust, "… both the TNT and ideology behind the attacks that sent 400
American officers and soldiers to hell in the U.S. Marines command base in
Beirut came from Iran."
On August 14th, 2005, World Net Daily wrote in this regard: "…Two years ago, a
US federal court order identified the suicide bomber as Ismail Ascari, an
Iranian national."
Tehran expressing joy
There should be no feeling of positivity in response to terrorist attacks, no
matter where in the world. Terrorism is terrorism.
Yet the Iranian regime follows no such standards.
The state-run Rasekhoon website posted a piece literally praising the Beirut
double attack.
"…Two massive explosions, six minutes apart, levelled the US Marines command
center and the interventionist French forces command base … The heroic
reaction… against US and French bases in Beirut delivered a heavy blow to
Western powers and forced them to leave Lebanon in a humiliating manner."
The legal war
"A US federal judge has ordered Iran to pay more than $813 million in damages
and interest to the families of 241 US soldiers killed in the 1983 bombing of
a Marine barracks in Lebanon," according to Agence France-Presse.
"After this opinion, this court will have issued over $8.8 billion in
judgments against Iran as a result of the 1983 Beirut bombing," Judge Royce
Lamberth, presiding over this case, wrote in the ruling.
In late April of last year Iran's state-run Javan daily, said to be affiliated
to the IRGC, wrote:
"In 2003 relatives of the US Marines killed in Lebanon's terrorist bombings 30
years ago, successfully gained the opinion of a U.S. appeals court to receive
compensation from Iran. Four years later, in 2007, a U.S. federal court issued
an order demanding this payment be extracted from Iran's frozen assets."
In September 2013 a US federal court in New York presided by Judge Katherine
Forrest ruled in favor of the families of the Beirut bombings victims.
In July 2014 an appeals court in New York turned down a request filed by
Iran's Central Bank and ordered $1.75 billion in compensation from Tehran's
frozen assets be distributed amongst the victims' families. This ruling was
issued by a three-judge panel of the 2nd branch of New York's federal appeals
court.
That same year Iran's Central Bank filed for an appeal, arguing this ruling is
in violation of US' obligation according to accords signed back in 1955. With
their notion turned down, Iran's Central Bank referred the case to the US
Supreme Court.
On April 20th, 2016, America's highest court ordered $2 billion dollars from
Iran's blocked assets to be extracted and used to pay the families of the
Beirut bombings victims. Enjoying 6 votes in favor in the face of two against,
this order was adopted despite Iran's Central Bank request for an appeal.
The status quo
For more than thirty years the curtains have gradually fallen and the true
face of Iran's IRGC, as a source of support for terrorism, has become crystal
clear. Rest assured the footprints of this notorious entity will be found in
more crimes inside Iran, around the Middle East and across the globe.
This is further proof of the necessity of strong measures against the IRGC as
the epicenter of Iran's war machine.
Utter belligerence has been Tehran's offspring for four long decades. The time
has come to say enough is enough.
The victims of the 1983 Beirut double bombings, and literally the millions of
others who have perished due to Iran's policies, should know their blood was
not shed in vein.
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EsinIslam.Com
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