Israel Matzav

'Moderate' Rohani's defense minister behind Beirut Marine barracks bombing

What a surprise.... Adam Kredo reports that new 'moderate' Iranian President Hassan Rohani has appointed as his defense minister a general who was behind the 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut that murdered 241 American soldiers.

Rowhani, who some described as a “moderate” following his election in June, has selected General Hussein Dehqan as his defense minister, according to retired Israeli Brigadier General Shimon Shapiro. Shapiro was a top intelligence official in the Israeli Defense Forces and remains a leading authority on Hezbollah who recently penned a report on Dehqan for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA).

Dehqan has “spent his entire military career” in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and served as the military group’s commander in Tehran until 1982, according to Shapiro.

Dehqan spent many years in Lebanon helping to build the terror group Hezbollah and was later appointed as the IRGC’s top official in that country.

Dehqan received an order to launch a terror assault on the Beirut-based Multinational Force while serving as commander of the IRGC forces in Lebanon in 1983, according to Shapiro’s report.

“Instructions for the attack on the Multinational Forces were issued from Tehran to the Iranian ambassador to Damascus, who passed them on to the Revolutionary Guards forces in Lebanon and their Lebanese Shiite allies,” the report states.

“According to the U.S. Marine commander, the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) intercepted on September 26, 1983 the Iranian orders to strike,” according to the report. “It is difficult to imagine that such a high-level directive to the Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon would be transmitted without the knowledge of their commander, Hussein Dehqan.”

On October 25, 1983, about a month after the order was issued, “a Shiite suicide bomber detonated a truck at the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 Marines [and sailors and soldiers]; simultaneously, another Shiite suicide bomber blew up the French paratroopers’ barracks in Beirut, killing 84 soldiers,” Shapiro recounts in his report.

Dehqan is not the only appointment that belies Rohani's 'moderacy.'

Read the whole thing. 

Labels: Beirut, Hassan Rohani, Hezbullah, Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Lebanon, United States marines

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:37 PM