I answer all of these the same way, if you lost one member of your family would you let it go? No you wouldn't, no one would. We lost 241 members of our family that day not to mention the 32 killed before and after. When I say we I mean all of us, not just Marine, Navy, Army or Air Force but every person in this country. These men proved worthy of being a family member by taking up arms without question to protect all of us. Only a family member would risk it all for someone.
Now let's get to the point of just what justice is for me. Iran paid and helped plan the attack, Hezbollah provided the suicide bomber. These we know for sure are guilty of murder. Yes I said murder not an act of war, when people are killed by a group that is not recognized by the nation that it claims to protect it can only be murder. Since then Hezbollah and their backers have used terror to take control of Lebanese people.
Now I have to look at the evidence that I found 22 years ago, a message warning of the attack. It was sent from the comm shack to CINCLANT (Commander in Chief Atlantic Fleet), the message said between 10-22 and 10-24 and around 2200 on the 22nd the marines were put on alert. This makes me believe that at least someone took the warning serious, most likely on the local command level. Around 0200 on the 23rd the alert was rescinded, by whom? This is one of the questions we must have answered. If this was ordered at a local level of command then I would assume that the local commanders would be at fault. If the alert was ordered to be rescinded by Washington D.C. then I have to assume that there is more to this than meets the eye.
Recently I learned that a classified version of the first Beirut Investigation exists, if it contains what the public version does why is it still classified. It has been rumored that Israel knew the make, model, color and lic. plate number of the vehicle to be used in the bombing and decided not to give us anymore information than a probable attack between the 22nd and 23rd. Why? Because we removed Arafat from Lebanon and out of their grasp.
Weighing all this evidence is it possible to say that we don't have to bother looking at it all again? Or is it possible that these pieces of evidence are nothing more than circumstancing?
Everynight I see the faces of those I carried off the pile of rubble, they are dead but their eyes beg for justice. I have ignored their cries for 22 years now I have to fight this fight, it is my burden and our responsibility to see them at peace.
Some ask me why this concerns them? This is a disturbing question, it concerns all of us who have been protected by one of these men who died on October 23rd 1983. This also includes the 52 French Soldiers killed that day, it applies to the Italians who sent aid to help us remove our fallen and the British who aided in reinforcing our lines. The terrorists didn't just target Americans, they targeted everyone on the MNF ( Multi-National Force), now all of us should be demanding for justice.
The media, ahh yes the media. I have asked many large outlets for assistance in this matter only one has responded. Joe Galloway said he would be out of the country but would ask Knight-Ridder to look into this. I was appreciative but am still doing all I can do without their help. I have learned a lot in the last 3 months, there are very few people you can count on, of those divide by 2 and that is the number who will do more than talk about it. My wife, my brothers from Beirut, a few good souls on myspace and a few more from other assorted online communities. I was let down by this lack of caring for this cause but I was not shocked.
Be prepared to see this all over the internet, if a site has a forum we will post and announce our petition, if we can get any air time we will be all over it. But I know of a few sites that trashed the link to the petition as trolling, we posted it with evidence, never at any time did we bait anyone so I figure these sites deserve a mention here and I will one a week until they get the message.
www.politicalcrossfire.com/
This is the forum that decided that a petition had no place on a political forum in a section called House and Senate. Twice they locked our thread and removed the link. This is a conservative board mostly and guess what? So am I.
Well I guess what I am asking you to do is sign our petition, call your congressman, write letters and pass this around to all your friends. The best help is talking about it, when you are at work bring it up, bring it up whenever you can speak to a group of people who will listen. If you are a veteran talk to patients at the VA and even the staff. If you want to start your own paper petition please do, then when you have all the signatures you can get contact me and I will send you my mailing address so we can incorporate these into the online petition. The more signatures we have the less we can be ignored.
Original Petition
Secondary Petition for those who have a hard time loading the first
My Page
My wife's page
Remember it is our duty to remember.
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