One year after three American security guards were murdered by Palestinian terrorists who bombed their diplomatic convoy in Gaza, families of the victims are speaking out for the first time in an exclusive WorldNetDaily interview. They blame the Palestinian Authority for failing to arrest the culprits, in spite of admitting they know who was responsible, and urge America to take swift action.
The three murdered Americans, John Branchizio, 37, of Texas, John Linde Jr., 30, of Missouri, and Mark Parsons, 31, of New Jersey, worked for a private security firm that was protecting U.S. diplomats when they traveled last October to meet with Palestinian candidates for Fullbright college scholarships. Their convoy was bombed at the Beit Hanoun junction in the Gaza Strip, killing the three and injuring a fourth guard.
Following the attack, PA Leader Yasser Arafat at first arrested three low-level members of the splinter organization Popular Front and held a quick trial that the U.S. called a sham, but he later caved into pressure and admitted the three may not have been involved in the attack. The perpetrators remain at large.
Last week, a senior Palestinian official publicly admitted for the first time he knows the identity of the killers.
Musa Arafat, the head of PA military intelligence and a cousin of Yasser Arafat, said, “The Palestinian security forces know who was behind the killing of three Americans in Gaza nearly a year ago, but cannot act against the factions while the fighting with Israel continues.”
“I don’t believe their excuses,” said Matthew Parsons, whose brother Mark was killed in the bombing. “How can the Palestinian Authority sit by and do nothing if they know who murdered my brother?”
|
|
Parsons said his family has been in touch with the State Department and an FBI agent assigned to the case, but thinks the U.S. should do more to pressure Arafat to give up the killers.
“America has been giving so much aide to the Palestinians for so many years. I don’t know why we can’t do more to find the killers and bring them to justice,” Parsons told WorldNetDaily.
Matthew said his brother was recruited to work for the U.S. government while in college at Penn State and that he always expressed a strong urge to help America in some way.
Denise Bizenberger, John Linde Jr.’s step sister, stressed the significance of this case to other American servicemen in the Middle East. “If the U.S. doesn’t follow up, these actions can happen again to other Americans in the area. This behavior can endanger other troops.”
|
|
Linde enlisted in the Marines before entering the private security arena. His mother, Fran, told WorldNetDaily that defending America was a family tradition – both John’s father and grandfather were Marines.
John switched to the private security sector, Fran said, because it paid more money. At the time, John’s wife was suffering from bone cancer, and he needed to cover the rising costs of hospitalization.
“I just miss him,” said Fran. “It’s a very sad situation.”
Ralph Branchizio, whose son was also killed, said he was shocked to learn of his child’s death. “We were extremely close. It was just a few days before his birthday, plus he was going to stop working two weeks later. I couldn’t believe this happened. Finding out who did this is not going to bring my son back, nothing will.”
|
|
John Branchizio’s brother, Chris, said America needs to find and eliminate the terrorists responsible. “America must show force here – that if you kill one of ours, you are going to pay a heavy, heavy price.”
Chris told WorldNetDaily his brother “loved Israel. He was baptized in the Jordan River while he was there, and was dating an Israeli girl.”
He said John, who started out as a Navy SEAL, “was such a great person. He always did the right thing. He was really into the military, was very patriotic…”
The Palestinian Authority’s startling admission comes three months after the U.S. said it believes Arafat made a political decision not to pursue the terrorists who bombed the convoy.
“There has been no satisfactory resolution of this case,” David Satterfield, the second-in-charge at the State Department’s Near East desk, told the U.S. Senate in July. “We can only conclude that there has been a political decision taken by the chairman to block further progress in this investigation,” Satterfield said, referring to Arafat.
A spokesman for the State Department told WorldNetDaily, “We continue to do everything in our power to come to a satisfactory resolution to this case.”
But some say State isn’t doing enough. The Zionist Organization of America has been urging the State Department to place advertisements in Palestinian newspapers that offer monetary rewards for information leading to the capture of those responsible.
The State Department offers such rewards on its website but has not advertised them among the Palestinians themselves, even though in other cases of overseas murders of Americans, ads are routinely places in local newspapers.
The ZOA is also urging the Bush administration to withdraw its opposition to the Koby Mandell Act, which would create a special office in the Justice Department to focus on capturing Palestinian murderers of 51 American citizens in Israel and the territories since 1993.
Mort Klein, President of the ZOA, said, “The administration said the PA has made a political decision not to capture the killers. The PA admits it knows who the killers are, but refuses to capture them. If the U.S. fails to take swift and decisive action against the PA, terrorists everywhere will conclude that they can murder Americans with impunity, and pro-terror regimes will conclude they can shelter killers of Americans without fear of serious consequence.”
