I am enthralled w #ghostsofbeirut, but a tinge of PTSD.
I was in Beirut in 1982. Alexander Hotel (Bob Simon's room). It had a nice outdoor cafe (used to be indoors til a bomb). Watched the IDF missile shooting down a Syrian jet, Syrian troops evacuate, Arafat & crew sail off. 1/
#Beirut 2/ Silly me. I bought a postcard & went to a post office to buy a stamp. Everyone howled. No service in yrs.
Went to Bashir Gemayal's office to talk with an aide about the president-to-be's PR in DC.
Not to be: the office & Gemayal were blown to smithereens 2 wks later.
#GhostsofBeirut @issacharoff 3/
PTSD? I still have rolls of film, developed but not viewed. Mental pic of the entrance to huge PLO cave/armory & a Saiqa soldier sitting as a guard, his skeleton in full uniform.
A mortar (no warhead) as a paperweight. Shrapnel was everywhere.
4/ #GhostsofBeirut @issacharoff
For yrs, I've investigated MughniyehS and Soleimani. Imad's legacy can be seen in his son, Jihad. Jihad was "adopted" by Nasrallah, Soleimani, and Supreme Leader Khamenei.
4/ Jihad Mughniyeh - with such godfathers, Jihad rose in the Hizbullah organization. He was chosen to lead a Hizb-Iranian unit to recon the Syrian side of the Golan to set up launch area to attack Israel. An Israeli plane took him out and his unit in 2015.
5/ How embedded was Imad Mugh w the Iranians? Wasn't he in Arafat's Force 17 guards? Yes, but the arch-terrorist was up to his neck w IRGC & Khamenei himself.
1. A pic of his receiving gift (Koran?) from SLeader.
2. In 2006 Leb War, Mugh, Nasrallah & Soleimani shared command.
6/ Imad Mughniyeh sat bw Qassem Soleimani & Hizb's Hassan Nasrallah. They were briefing the son of Islamic Iran's founder Khomeini about how they defeated the Zionists in 2006 war.
2 y.a, I discovered Khamenei published Soleimani's manifesto, where he wrote of 33 days of the war.
7/ Qassem Soleimani’s final interview shed light on Iran’s war on Israel from #Beirut & his love for Mugh.
He and Mughniyeh shared foxholes hiding from Israeli drones. His praise of Mugh was almost a hymnic.
Analysts need to focus more on his manifesto.
jpost.com/middle-east/ir…
#beirutghosts correctly said there were not lots of pics of Imad Mughniyeh. This is an enlargement with his son, Jihad, on the Supreme Leader poster.
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