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Beirut Port Explosion

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Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#31

Post by nwsm »

bredren wrote: post #26

In the past this kind of material would be collected and analyzed by state intelligence services. Combined by allies and used to gain leverage for individual or combined strategic priorities. Something like, “Here is how negligent you were. Install this person in power or we leak this and your people revolt and you won’t be able to walk away.” More recently, it seems, some news organizations have begun assembling rep…

Similarly we've gone from the CIA/FBI being "big brother" to social media companies filling the role.

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#32

Post by maeln »

bkmrkr wrote: post #25
_aleph2c_ wrote: post #13

Here is an article about how the ammonium nitrate ended up there in the first place: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/05/beirut-blast-traci... Here is an article about the history of ammonium nitrate: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/08/deadly-hi... (comment edited)

https://www.jpost.com/international/is-hezbollahs-ammonium-n...

Nowhere it is said in the article that the Hezbollah is responsible for the presence of the ammonium nitrate. Yes they did use it in the past, like almost all terrorist organization/militia, but there is no evidence that they had anything to do with its storage in the port. The AlJazeera article explain very well how it came here.

Rumours of the responsibility of the Hezbollah, or Israel depending on which side of the fence you are, for the blast has been going on since day one, and there hasn't been any substantial proof.

Don't get me wrong, I have no sympathy for the Hezbollah, but lets be honest, the tragedy can be very well explain by the sheer level of incompetence and corruption of the Lebanese government (in which the Hezbollah also plays a big role).

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#34

Post by jacobush »

bkmrkr wrote: post #25
_aleph2c_ wrote: post #13

Here is an article about how the ammonium nitrate ended up there in the first place: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/05/beirut-blast-traci... Here is an article about the history of ammonium nitrate: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/08/deadly-hi... (comment edited)

https://www.jpost.com/international/is-hezbollahs-ammonium-n...

It seems that article only mentions the Beirut explosion in passing?

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#35

Post by thdrdt »

louwrentius wrote: post #19

This was amazing to watch. Highly recommended. I do start to wonder if any of such materials are stored like this in one of our ports, such as Rotterdam, The Netherlands. I can't imagine such a mess to exist there. But The Netherlands remembers the Firework explosion in Enschede, from 2000. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enschede_fireworks_disaster It's not nearly at the scale of Beirut, but it killed 23 people.

https://www.ad.nl/buitenland/moeten-wij-ons-in-nederland-zor... (Dutch)

The storage and production is highly regulated. Every suspicious event must be communicated with the "Nationaal Coördinator Terrorismebestrijding" (coordinator counterterrorism).

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#36

Post by danpalmer »

If you enjoy this, I'd recommend looking into the organisation Bellingcat.

They do investigative journalism using social media/crowd sourcing/leaked database, and many similar forensic techniques. They've done great analysis on the MH17 missile attack for example, which is documented in their podcast: https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/podcasts/2019/07/17/mh1...

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#37

Post by jandrese »

notrealpersonq wrote: post #23

Very well done video, however they avoided the controversial issues of the explosion. Everywhere in Lebanon, people reported seeing and hearing jets flying and even some videos show flying objects. They also never touched on what might have triggered the fire to begin with or whether there was a possibility of a weapons cache being hidden there.

I thought the cause of the fire was found? Wasn’t it sparks from workers welding on a security door to prevent someone from sneaking into the warehouse and setting off the giant bomb they had built?

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#39

Post by newsclues »

nwsm wrote: post #31
bredren wrote: post #26

In the past this kind of material would be collected and analyzed by state intelligence services. Combined by allies and used to gain leverage for individual or combined strategic priorities. Something like, “Here is how negligent you were. Install this person in power or we leak this and your people revolt and you won’t be able to walk away.” More recently, it seems, some news organizations have begun assembling rep…

Similarly we've gone from the CIA/FBI being "big brother" to social media companies filling the role.

Not sure if this is mildly better or severely worse

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#40

Post by nwsm »

notrealpersonq wrote: post #23

Very well done video, however they avoided the controversial issues of the explosion. Everywhere in Lebanon, people reported seeing and hearing jets flying and even some videos show flying objects. They also never touched on what might have triggered the fire to begin with or whether there was a possibility of a weapons cache being hidden there.

> They also never touched on what might have triggered the fire to begin with

I do wish they had touched on this. I'm not sure if the ignition source is known

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