October 2008
25 Years Ago: The 1983 Beirut Bombing: Who Did It and How It Has Affected History
By CWO-4 Randy Gaddo, USMC (Ret)
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“They got the order … they met and adopted the operation against the Marines and the French barracks at the same time,” he said. He testified that one Iranian (the driver in the American attack) and one Shi’ite (presumably the driver in the French attack) were selected.
Mahmoud also gave testimony about the vehicles used in the attacks that is counter to what generally has been known in the past. Reports from the time of the attack described the truck used in the American attack as either a white or yellow Mercedes dump truck. However, Mahmoud provided different information.
“The cars [probably meant “trucks,” but came out as “cars” in the translations] were built and equipped in Biralabin [phonetically spelled],” he stated. “One red Dodge was painted exactly like the real Dodge that was providing water and other stuff to the Marines, and they moved it to the airport road where they put the hold on.” He said the fabricated truck was modified to carry explosives.
Mahmoud described a plan where the second truck would replace the real truck that routinely was seen by Marines in their positions around the Beirut International Airport. He said that the morning of 23 Oct. 1983, members of Hezbollah ambushed the real water delivery truck before it arrived at the barracks. Ismalal Ascari then drove the fake delivery truck to the Marine barracks.
The truck first drove by the barracks, then circled a large parking lot behind the barracks, increased speed, broke through barriers and detonated inside the barracks.
The force of the explosion was equal to 15,000 to 21,000 pounds of TNT, concluded FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms explosives experts who examined the site. Here, another new piece of information was revealed. Initially, speculation was that a form of explosive was wrapped around gas cylinders, creating the force that brought the four-story, reinforced concrete building down to 15 feet of rubble and stretched the reinforced concrete support columns like “rubber bands.”
However, experts testified that the explosive material was “bulk form” pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN. Danny A. Defenbaugh, the on-scene FBI forensic explosive investigator, testified as to his findings.
“We were able to, through the forensic residue analysis, identify the explosive material, and it was unconsumed particles of PETN.”
Defenbaugh said the PETN is a primary explosive manufactured commercially, primarily for military purposes as the explosive material in detonating cord. Detonating cord is a plastic and fiber cord that has the PETN in white powder form extruded into the cord.
The investigation revealed that in the case of the barracks, the PETN was not consumed, which, according to Defenbaugh, was consistent with findings in the 18 April 1983 bombing of the American Embassy in Beirut. This meant that the material had to come directly from a manufacturer.
Defenbaugh explained that when the commercially produced PETN is detonated, it is completely consumed in the explosion, as it is designed to do. The presence of unconsumed PETN at the Marine barracks explosion led to the finding that the PETN used in this case had not been the standard commercial form.
Instead, it had been the raw “bulk” form of PETN, which, in the Middle East, is produced by state-sponsored manufacturers for military purposes. Court records state that in 1983 PETN was not manufactured in Lebanon, but was in Iran.
This and other evidence in the 2003 trial proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Hezbollah and Iran were responsible for the bombing. In September 2007, the court awarded plaintiffs in the case $2.6 billion. However, getting the money won’t be easy.
“Getting the judgement in these cases is just 20 percent of the work,” said District of Columbia litigator Steven Perles, a successful lawyer who has won more than $6 billion in civil-suit judgements for victims of terrorism. For all his success, he has managed to collect only about 1 percent of the damages for his clients or himself, for that matter, as he takes most of the cases on a contingency basis. He recently told Newsweek that existing laws make it difficult to trace and seize frozen foreign assets in the United States.
The shroud of “sovereign immunity” shields most countries from lawsuits. However, a 1996 bill passed by Congress allowed civil suits against countries deemed state sponsors of terrorism. Perles used this law to seek compensation for families of Americans killed or wounded in terrorist attacks.
An amendment passed by the Senate in January 2008 allows lawyers to go after property of countries that sponsor terrorism even if Americans run the property and receive all the profit. A Web-exclusive Newsweek article by Dan Ephron pointed out that this is a significant shift according to analysts and legal scholars.
“The upshot is that billions in assets here in the United States could fall within the reach of terror victims who have been awarded judgments against countries like Iran and Libya,” Ephron wrote. The legislation has a long history and plenty of opponents. State Department officials say it will deny them a key bargaining chip in dealings with so-called rogue states, while the business community fears it will expose U.S. investors in the Middle East to reciprocal measures.
Legislation attached to the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signed by President George W. Bush on 28 Jan. brings victims of terrorism one step closer to victory.
“Yesterday was a great day; section 1083, based on the ‘Justice for Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act’ (S. 1944), became the law of the land,” said Lynn Smith Derbyshire.
“By including section 1083 in the Defense Authorization bill, Congress and the Bush administration took a definitive step toward ending terrorism and holding terrorists accountable for their heinous crimes,” said Derbyshire, speaking on behalf of the families of U.S. servicemen killed or injured in the Beirut bombing.
“The bells of justice now ring more loudly,” said Judith C. Young, whose son, Jeffrey, was killed in the 1983 bombing, and who has been an advocate for terrorist victims ever since. “State sponsors of terror now know they must pay for their actions. We have told them that the life-blood of the terrorist, the money that buys their weapons, gives them food and shelter and pays for their training and travel, will be harder to obtain.”
Those families, friends and fellow servicemembers know that the men who died in Beirut died as heroes, early combatants in the GWOT. Islamic extremists used the 1983 bombing as the first test of U.S. resolve against terrorism. The United States failed to heed that warning signal, as demonstrated on 11 Sept. 2001.
But the warnings were there. As far back as 1984, knowledgeable authorities confirmed that the Beirut bombing was a harbinger of what was to come. A DOD commission was convened on 7 Nov. of that year to conduct an independent inquiry into the bombing.
The Long Commission, named for its chairman, retired ADM Robert L. J. Long, concluded that the systematic, carefully orchestrated terrorism seen in the Middle East represents a new dimension of warfare.
“These international terrorists, unlike their traditional counterparts, are not seeking to make a random political statement or to commit the occasional act of intimidation on behalf of some ill-defined long-term vision of the future,” the report pointed out.
“For them, terrorism is an integrated part of a strategy in which there are well-defined political and military objectives. For a growing number of states, terrorism has become an alternative means of conducting state business, and the terrorists themselves are agents whose association the state can easily deny,” the commission report concluded.
While the struggle between terrorism and freedom rages on, victims of that battle fight back in their own way, savoring victories such as 1083 of the NDAA and pushing on for greater footholds.
“Get out your calendar and grab a red pen; mark the day in history—January 28, 2008—as the beginning of a new chapter in the war against terrorists,” Derbyshire declared.
Editor’s note: Retired CWO-4 Gaddo served as a staff sergeant in Beirut, Lebanon, with the 24th MAU in 1983. He had established a photo lab on the third deck of the Marine barracks that was destroyed by the terrorist truck bomb. He retired from the Marine Corps in 1996 and is director of Parks, Recreation and Library Services for Peachtree City, Ga.
