Death of terrorist

Death of terrorist a reminder of brave Richmond pilot
Staff, news service reports

In 1985, John Testrake showed the world remarkable calm as a hostage Even at the point of a terrorist's gun, the TWA pilot maintained his composure while being interviewed from the cockpit of his hijacked jetliner at the Beirut airport. The Missourian died of cancer in 1996.Somewhere, John Testrake is smiling.

Imad Mughniyeh, the suspected mastermind of terror attacks around Lebanon in the 1980s, was killed Tuesday in a car bomb in Syria. He was behind the suicide attacks on the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Marine barracks that killed hundreds of Americans in Lebanon, as well as attacks against Jewish targets in Argentina in the ‘90s.

He also was credited with planning the 1985 hijacking of a TWA jetliner, which resulted in the murder of a U.S. Navy diver who was aboard.

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 Robert Dean Stethem, 23, whom the hijackers beat, shot, and dumped on the Beruit airport tarmac. The United States indicted Mughniyeh for his role in the hijacking, and he was put on FBI’s most wanted list with a $25 million bounty for information leading to his capture.

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 and its Iranian backers blamed Israel for the killing. Israel denied involvement. Hezbollah did not say how or where Mughniyeh was killed. Iranian state television called the slaying “state terrorism by the Zionist regime.”

Source and story by Kansas City Star
http://www.kansascity.com/news/world/story/487945.html