9/27/1983

“On September 27 [1983], NSA [National Security Agency] sent an urgent warning message to the White House, the CIA stations in Beirut [Lebanon] and Damascus [Syria], and the Second Marine Radio Battalion SIGINT [signals intelligence] detachment in Lebanon, indicating that a terrorist attack might be mounted against the United States in the near future. But amazingly, neither the Pentagon nor the commander of the U.S. Marine contingent in Beirut, Colonel Timothy Geraghty, seems to have reacted to this warning, which may well have gotten lost in the maze of the U.S. military’s bureaucracy.” The marine barracks in Beirut were attacked on October 23, 1983, leaving 241 dead.

 – Matthew M. Aid, The Secret Sentry, Page 179