... 1979 (30 years ago today), in Islamabad, a "five-hour siege" that "began as an organised student protest" turned into a mob attack that resulted in the death of one Marine at the U.S. embassy in Pakistan, which was burned to the ground. The BBC attributed the attack to a radio broadcast in which Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini contended that "Americans were behind the occupation of Islam's holiest site, the Great Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia" -- a broadcast that the U.S. State Department said contained "'irresponsible, outright, knowing lies.'" The Washington Post's 2004 retrospective on the attack is here.(Prior November 21 posts are here and here.)
