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Selective Memory: Iran's Role in the Marine Barracks Bombing
(NOW-Lebanon) Tony Badran - Last Thursday marked the 31st anniversary of Hizbullah's twin attack on the U.S. Marine barracks and the French paratroopers base in Beirut in 1983. The U.S. has placed the onus of the 1983 Marine barracks bombing on Imad Mughniyeh, even though it was an Iranian operation from top to bottom. Mughniyeh was a fervent disciple of Imam Khomeini. According to leading Hizbullah expert Shimon Shapira, in 1982-83, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard force in Lebanon, Hossein "Dehghan took Mughniyeh under his wing. He was his operator." Mughniyeh, often described as the "mastermind" of the attacks, in fact, was the tactical commander. The planning and financing of the operation was Iranian. U.S. National Security Agency intercepts of traffic between Tehran and Ali Akbar Mohtashami, the former Iranian ambassador to Syria, revealed how Hizbullah reported to Mohtashami, and acted on orders that came from the IRGC command and the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security. A month before the attack, Tehran was issuing directives to Mohtashami to have their assets in Lebanon "take spectacular action against the United States Marines." The writer is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.