Most folks around these parts will recognize John Testrake's picture taken during the 17 day ordeal onboard TWA flight 847 back in 1985.
Capt. Testrake was the pilot of TWA Flight 847 from Athens, Greece, to Rome. The Richmond, Mo., resident became a national hero for his calm, smiling demeanor as he leaned out the cockpit window and talked to reporters while a Hezbollah guerrilla pointed a pistol at his head. Testrake retired in 1987 and died of cancer in 1996 after years of motivational speaking and flying for religious relief groups.The only casualty from the 17-day hostage ordeal was U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem, 23, whom the hijackers beat, shot, and dumped on the tarmac at the Beirut International Airport. To this day, three of the four hijackers remain at large.
Meet Imad Mughniyeh, one the most ruthless, brutal terrorists in the world, and generally regarded as the master mind behind the hijacking of TWA flight 847. He was a Shi'ite muslim and top leader of hezbollah, Iran's proxy army sheltered by Syria. Hezbollah is the sworn enemy of Israel. On Wednesday, Imad was killed in car bomb explosion.
Before al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, there was Imad Mughniyeh, a top Hezbollah leader willing to kill, kidnap and maim en masse. Mughniyeh, one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists, was linked by U.S. officials to training anti-U.S. militias in Iraq in 2006.Live by the bomb; die by the bomb. Mughniyeh’s actions left hundreds of dead on two continents.
*April 1983: A suicide bomber rams van packed with explosives into the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people, including 17 Americans.
*October 1983: Suicide attackers carry out near simultaneous truck bombings against barracks of French and U.S. peacekeeping forces in Beirut, killing 241 American Marines and 58 French paratroopers.
*March 1984: Lt. Col. William F. Buckley, CIA station chief in Beirut, was kidnapped and eventually killed in the beginning of a spate of kidnappings linked to Hezbollah.
*March 1992: A pickup truck packed with explosives smashes into the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing 29 people.
*July 1994: A van packed with explosives levels a seven-story Jewish center in Buenos Aires, killing 95 people. Argentina issues an arrest warrant for Mughniyeh in 1999.
Hezbollah blames Israel and has vowed revenge for imad's death, going so far as to give this murdering sociopath a hero's send off and a martyr's funeral (really). But wait. There's more. In an interview on Hizbullah's Al-Manar television, Mugniyah's mother said Thursday that she is "pleased" that all three of her sons gave their lives for the Jihad way, and "...regrets not having a fourth son to offer Jihad."
It's not one world, and this is the determined face of an enemy sworn to hate & kill for its own sake, even to sacrifice their children, in the name of their 'god'.
Update: Did this moron die in a 'work related accident'?
