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A MARINE, PISTOL DRAWN, STOPS 3 ISRAELI TANKS
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By Richard Halloran, Special To the New York Times
Feb. 3, 1983
A MARINE, PISTOL DRAWN, STOPS 3 ISRAELI TANKS
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February 3, 1983, Section A, Page 1Buy Reprints
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A United States Marine Corps captain drew and loaded his pistol, then climbed aboard an Israeli tank near the Lebanese University Library in Beirut and ordered an Israeli lieutenant colonel to remove his three tanks, the Defense Department reported today.
It said the lead tank in the Israeli formation stopped a foot in front of the captain, Charles B. Johnson of Company L, at his checkpoint in Beirut at 9 A.M. today. Captain Johnson told the Israelis that they would pass only ''over my dead body.''
The confrontation, the sixth incident between United States and Israeli forces in recent weeks, prompted Deputy Secretary of State Kenneth W. Dam to summon the Israeli charge d'affaires here, Benjamin Netanyahu, to lodge a protest.
The State Department spokesman, Alan D. Romberg, said, ''These recurring challenges by the Israeli forces are unacceptable.'' He said Mr. Dam had expressed to Mr. Netanyahu ''the gravity with which we view'' the incident.
The Israeli Embassy here rejected the allegation in a statement this afternoon. The embassy denied that ''there was any attempt to cross the American lines or to challenge the Marines.'' It said ''there was no such attempt.''
The Israeli statement said the three tanks were patrolling in an area that had been agreed upon by the Israeli forces and the Marines after an ambush last Sunday in which an Israeli soldier was killed. It said: ''After completion of the patrol, a U.S. Marine officer approached the Israeli unit and claimed that it should not be in this area. The Israeli commander explained that he was operating in the territory previously agreed upon and left.''
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In a statement this evening, the embassy said the Marine captain had told the Israeli tank commander that he was not familiar with details of the agreement on a demarcation line. The embassy asserted that the Marine officer had failed to follow communications procedures intended to prevent misunderstandings and that the Marines had failed to take part in joint reconnaissance to set demarcation lines between American and Israeli areas of operations.
On Capitol Hill, Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger told the House Armed Services Committee that Captain Johnson, who is from Rock Island, Ill., would be commended for his ''courageous action'' when confronting the ''threatening moves'' by the Israeli tanks.
In an apparently unrelated incident, the Defense Department said a mortar round exploded about 50 yards from a Marine tent south of the Beirut airport. Military officers said they did not know who had fired the round. No casualties were reported.
In another incident, three French soldiers in the peacekeeping force were wounded by unknown assailants who fired on them while they were jogging. Mr. Romberg said the incident ''concerns us and underscores the importance of a withdrawal of all foreign forces as soon as possible.''
Mr. Weinberger and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were reluctant to commit the Marines to Lebanon because they did not want to risk clashes between United States military forces and Arab or Israeli forces in Lebanon or to get bogged down in a long stay.
The Marines went to Lebanon initially for 16 days in June, then returned after the massacre in the Beirut refugee camps in September. The Administration hoped to pull the Marines out by the end of 1982 but was unable to do so because other foreign troops had not left.
According to the Pentagon account, the confrontation began when the three British-built Centurion tanks moved north on a path toward the Marine company headquarters. They were about 300 yards from the Marine position when Captain Johnson stepped out to halt them.
''The lead Israeli tank stopped within a foot of him,'' the account said. Captain Johnson asked to speak to the senior Israeli, who dismounted after five minutes. Neither the Pentagon nor the Israeli Embassy made public the name of that officer, a lieutenant colonel reported to have been involved in two earlier incidents.
Captain Johnson told the Israeli officer that he had orders not to permit the tanks to pass. The Israeli said that he intended to proceed through the Marine position to a railroad track and that he also wanted to speak to a Marine general.
When Captain Johnson repeated his orders, the Israeli said he would pass through anyway and mounted his tank. ''At this point,'' the Pentagon statement said, ''the company commander drew and loaded his weapon and stated that the tanks would have to go over him to pass.''
Mr. Weinberger, in relating the incident on Capitol Hill, said Captain Johnson ''climbed on the lead tank and said if they were coming through they would have to go over his dead body.''
The Pentagon said the lead Israeli Defense Force tank turned west, as if to go around Captain Johnson, and moved forward several yards. The other two tanks also began to move forward.
''The Marine company commander then mounted the first I.D.F. tank with his weapon drawn and told the senior Israeli officer to stop his tanks,'' the Pentagon statement said. ''The I.D.F. lieutenant colonel, after speaking on the radio, stopped his tanks. At approximately 9:50 A.M., all of the Israeli tanks departed southward to the old Sidon Road.''
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