Justice for Robert Stethem

Robert Dean Stethem joined the United States Navy in 1981 and became a diver. In June 1985, he and several colleagues were flying back from an assignment in Greece on TWA Flight 847 when the plane was hijacked by Iranian-sponsored Lebanese terrorists. After the terrorists found out Stethem was an American serviceman, they beat him for hours before shooting him and dumping his body onto the tarmac at Beirut International Airport.

The man responsible for Stethem's murder was a Lebanese Shia named Imad Mughniyeh. Mughniyeh was the head of the terrorist group that came to be known as Hezbollah and worked closely with Iranian intelligence. He is believed to have helped orchestrate the April 1983 suicide car bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut and the October 1983 attack on the American and French peacekeeping forces in Lebanon. He initiated many of the tactics now used by al Qaeda and other jihadist organizations, such as suicide vehicle attacks and simultaneous spectacular operations. In concert with his Iranian sponsors, Mughniyeh had the blood of hundreds of Americans on his hands and is the main reason Hezbollah is second only to al Qaeda in terms of number of Americans killed in terror attacks.

On Wednesday of this past week, justice was finally done for Robert Stethem and the other victims of Mughniyeh.