Forever, Franklin
Janet Lee Stevens was born in 1951 and died on April 17, 1983, at the age of 32, at the instant of the explosion which destroyed the American Embassy in Beirut.
Twenty minutes before the blast, Janet had arrived at the Embassy to meet with US A.I.D. official Bill McIntyre because she wanted to advocate for more aid to the Shia of South Lebanon and for the Palestinians at Shatila and Burj al Burajneh camps, stemming from Israel's 1982 invasion and the September 15-18 massacre.
As they sat at a table in the cafeteria, where she had planned to ask why the US government has never even lodged a protest following the Israeli invasion or the Massacre, a van stolen from the Embassy the previous June arrived and parked just in front of the Embassy, almost directly in front of the cafeteria.
It contained 2,000 pounds of explosives. It was detonated by remote control
and tons of concrete pancaked on top of Janet and Bill, killing 63 and
wounding 120.
Janet worked with Amnesty International until the time of her death.
She moved to Lebanon two years before her death from Tunisia and her passion was to become a successful investigative journalist. She worked in Lebanon at "Monday Morning" magazine and she left the magazine following the June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. She also worked during this periods as a free lance reporter and as an assistant to Japanese journalist "Arata", a reporter for "Asahi" magazine in Beirut. During this same period she wrote reports for the news agency "Al Quds Press" as well as European and American journals.
Janet was hired by "Al Kifah Al Arabi" magazine to write in depth reports a few days before she died. The magazine describes her as very faithful to the Arab cause and especially the Palestinian struggle as is clearly evidenced in her reports published in the German and American media. Janet became the inspiration for John Le Carre's lead character in the book and later movie, "The Little Drummer Girl."
Remains of Janet's body were found two days following the Embassy explosion, unidentified in the basement morgue of the American University of Beirut Hospital by the author. She was pregnant with our son, Clyde Chester Lamb III. Had he lived he would be 24 years old. Hopefully taking after his mother he would, no doubt, be a prince of a young man.
Dr. Franklin Lamb is Director of the Sabra Shatila Foundation. He is working with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign in Lebanon on drafting legislation which, after 62 years, would, if adopted by Lebanon's Cabinet and Parliament, grant the right to work and to own a home to Lebanon's Palestinian Refugees. One part of the PCRC legislative project is its online Petition which can be viewed and signed at: http://www.petitiononline.com/ssfpcrc/petition.html.
Janet Lee Stevens was born in 1951 and died on April 17, 1983, at the age of 32, at the instant of the explosion which destroyed the American Embassy in Beirut.
Twenty minutes before the blast, Janet had arrived at the Embassy to meet with US A.I.D. official Bill McIntyre because she wanted to advocate for more aid to the Shia of South Lebanon and for the Palestinians at Shatila and Burj al Burajneh camps, stemming from Israel's 1982 invasion and the September 15-18 massacre.
As they sat at a table in the cafeteria, where she had planned to ask why the US government has never even lodged a protest following the Israeli invasion or the Massacre, a van stolen from the Embassy the previous June arrived and parked just in front of the Embassy, almost directly in front of the cafeteria.
Janet worked with Amnesty International until the time of her death.
She moved to Lebanon two years before her death from Tunisia and her passion was to become a successful investigative journalist. She worked in Lebanon at "Monday Morning" magazine and she left the magazine following the June 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. She also worked during this periods as a free lance reporter and as an assistant to Japanese journalist "Arata", a reporter for "Asahi" magazine in Beirut. During this same period she wrote reports for the news agency "Al Quds Press" as well as European and American journals.
Janet was hired by "Al Kifah Al Arabi" magazine to write in depth reports a few days before she died. The magazine describes her as very faithful to the Arab cause and especially the Palestinian struggle as is clearly evidenced in her reports published in the German and American media. Janet became the inspiration for John Le Carre's lead character in the book and later movie, "The Little Drummer Girl."
Remains of Janet's body were found two days following the Embassy explosion, unidentified in the basement morgue of the American University of Beirut Hospital by the author. She was pregnant with our son, Clyde Chester Lamb III. Had he lived he would be 24 years old. Hopefully taking after his mother he would, no doubt, be a prince of a young man.
Dr. Franklin Lamb is Director of the Sabra Shatila Foundation. He is working with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign in Lebanon on drafting legislation which, after 62 years, would, if adopted by Lebanon's Cabinet and Parliament, grant the right to work and to own a home to Lebanon's Palestinian Refugees. One part of the PCRC legislative project is its online Petition which can be viewed and signed at: http://www.petitiononline.com/ssfpcrc/petition.html.
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