U.S. Arranges for Area Hospital Care in Mideast Disaster
The Pentagon, relying upon doctor-to-doctor talks, has quietly reached agreement with three countries in or near the Middle East to provide hospital care for Americans in the event of terrorist attacks.
The agreements with Israel, Jordan and Tunisia are a direct outgrowth of the 1983 terrorist bombing of a Marine barracks in Lebanon, in which 241 U.S. servicemen were killed.
Although no lives were lost in the course of the ensuing medical evacuations, the Pentagon was roundly criticized at the time for flying wounded Marines to Europe rather than to nearby Israel.
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