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Beirut Port Explosion

forensic-architecture.org

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Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#41

Post by notrealpersonq »

jandrese wrote: post #37
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?

From what I remember, the welders did their job and left, then the fire started later.

Also, they never question why 2 tons of unclaimed ammonium nitrate was just sitting in the warehouse for 5-6 years. This stuff is expensive yet no one was trying to get it back.

They never touched those controversial parts of the explosion: -jets -was the fire intentional? -what was it doing there to begin with

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#42

Post by roywiggins »

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…

You'd probably be interested in the Bellingcat podcast about their investigation into MH17.

https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/podcasts/2019/07/17/mh1...

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#44

Post by pjc50 »

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…

OSINT is certainly a thing, but there's a parallel development in shamelessness and polarization so that accurate reporting of the real history of events makes much less difference. Are there that many people whose support of the police will be shaken by the NYT report, or is the support of the police a matter of political affiliation that leads them to dismiss it as "biased"?

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#45

Post by crankyoldcrank »

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 even remotely similar. First of all, the CIA is primarily concerned with foreign intelligence, so you mean to be concerned with the NSA and the FBI.

With a warrant, the FBI can get everything about you from your ISP, tap your phone lines, hell they can bug your house. Social media is nothing. It's the low hanging fruit.

With the NSA there's dragnet surveillance on internet backbones. There again, the kind of monitoring any social media company might be able to do simply pales in comparison to dragnet metadata analysis of all Internet traffic. If you're an actual target of the NSA good fucking luck.

Social media might be terrible and draconian but if you want to talk about big brother the real fun doesn't even start until you have State actors in your threat model.

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#46

Post by netsharc »

micropoet wrote: post #33

Just like the movies!

Like Deja Vu ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NPG1RNhrsM ), The Dark Knight's sonar ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRELLH86Edo ) or the series Devs.

I've always thought it'd be amazing to be able to view an event from different angles via crowd-sourced videos, and that it was very doable. From an information scientist point of view, I'm glad to see it's been done.

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#47

Post by ubrpwnzr »

kqvamxurcagg wrote: post #2

This is incredible and I can only imagine how much time this took to create. Definitely also worth taking a look at their previous investigations at https://forensic-architecture.org/ .

Everything about reporting this way is amazing, it’s an aspiring goal for on watchers of what data can provide. As you watch this you know that grant money is working hard here. Much respect for such a talented team bringing in complex engineering for all to consume.

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#48

Post by ubrpwnzr »

ubrpwnzr wrote: post #47
kqvamxurcagg wrote: post #2

This is incredible and I can only imagine how much time this took to create. Definitely also worth taking a look at their previous investigations at https://forensic-architecture.org/ .

Everything about reporting this way is amazing, it’s an aspiring goal for on watchers of what data can provide. As you watch this you know that grant money is working hard here. Much respect for such a talented team bringing in complex engineering for all to consume.

This raises the bar in so many ways, love it.

Re: Beirut Port Explosion

#49

Post by Freestyler_3 »

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.

Its forensic not speculative.
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