Most sensible explanation for Lebanese blast so far

From Yucki:

Comment:
LBCI: Preliminary information from security sources “speak of 2700 tons of seized ammonium in Beirut Port exploded in course of welding small opening to prevent theft.”

Earlier reports indicated the 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate were seized in 2013 aboard Moldovan ship heading to Africa. Stored in Beirut Port after seizure. Sparks from welding ignited fireworks, which then ignited the ammonium.
https://twitter.com/DavidADaoud/status/1290746369737728002
……
Official statement, saying there were 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate at Beirut Port

Al-Jadeed attributing statement to Lebanese PM
@Hassan_B_Diab
saying he won’t rest until person responsible for presence of “shipment of 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate for six yrs” in Beirut port “without precautionary procedures.”

https://twitter.com/DavidADaoud/status/1290759178760400908

——

People are getting sick breathing fumes.
……
Timour Azhari @timourazhari ·2h
#Breaking: Lebanon General Security chief says that 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate were in Beirut’s port on the way to Africa. They exploded. #BeirutBlast
……
Travel – State Dept @TravelGov
#Beirut #Lebanon: We are closely following reports of an explosion at or near the Port of Beirut on Aug 4. There are reports of toxic gases released in the explosion so all in the area should stay indoors and wear masks if available.

Monitor local news, follow the emergency instructions provided by local authorities, enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to receive important information, and follow us on social media. We urge U.S. citizens in the affected areas who are safe to contact loved ones
directly and/or update their status on social media. If in the affected area and you need emergency services,contact local authorities; police can be contacted at 112, civil defense at 125, and the Lebanese Red Cross at 140.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1290748867324116994.html?refreshed=yes

(Stay tuned for updates)

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

44 Replies to “Most sensible explanation for Lebanese blast so far”

  1. Lebanon – What is sectarianism and why is it a problem?

    ( the ) country has 18 recognized religious sects, including Alawite, Armenian Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Assyrian, Chaldean, Coptic, Druze, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Ismaili, Jewish, Roman Catholic, Maronite, Protestant, Sunni, Shia, Syriac Catholic and Syriac Orthodox.

    Lebanon’s laws require that most of them share power in government, making its political system one of the most complicated in the world.

    Parliament seats are divided among the sects and people can only vote for candidates from the sects running in their districts.

    • Published today, before…
      Lebanon Is Collapsing and Urgent Reform Is Desperately Needed

      Lebanon is unraveling. Last year’s massive public protests over the government’s failure to collect trash or provide other key services now seem like minor quibbles. The COVID-19 pandemic has all but wiped out already falling remittances from the Lebanese diaspora. With its economy in a tailspin, the government missed a payment on a $1.2 billion Eurobond in March and effectively defaulted…

      Where Lebanon goes from here is anyone’s guess. Under the grip of Hezbollah (and by extension, the Islamic Republic of Iran), beset with corruption and political dysfunction, saddled with staggering debt, and struggling amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, huge challenges lie ahead. A simple bailout is not the answer – even if one were feasible. An overhaul of the banks and the political system is needed. So is a crackdown on Hezbollah, its financial conduits and its smuggling operations. Anything less would be tantamount to terrorism finance and the perpetuation of one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history.…

      https://www.newsweek.com/lebanon-collapsing-urgent-reform-desperately-needed-opinion-1521834
      Whole article is good.

    • Good thing media discredit EVERYTHING he says. They can blow off his irresponsible anal emission.
      Enemies won’t, though. It appeals to the Mideast conspiracy mind. It’ll enable a criminally negligent govt to blame Israel, incite the honor-killers to frenzy.
      Terrible, terrible.

      • “But now there are conflicting reports including a report at Al-Hadeth that claims the massive explosion was a Hezbollah warehouse in Beirut for missiles from Iran.”

        Al Arabiya also stated the same shortly after the explosions occurred.

        Me: I’m having a very hard time buying the welder story. And why would all requests to remove the ammonium nitrate be refused? Maybe because there was more than ammonium nitrate in that warehouse.

        And the issue of the brown smoke is overlooked. What would cause smoke to be brown and dissipate quickly? Certainly not firecrackers or ammonium nitrate.

        • The ammonium nitrate was sitting there since 2013, nobody could be bothered to deal with it. Not my job, man…

          People don’t realize how dangerous this stuff is. Job-lots of it are parked in warehouses around London, just waiting for a terrorist cell to make it go boom!
          (I say London because I know Israeli intelligence has tipped them off. Could just as easily be Ottawa or Boston.)

          • So says the Hizballah-ruled government, known for massive corruption and lying. I’m not buying the story.

            Ammonium nitrate is used in Agriculture and by the Military. No way would they have left it there, doing nothing, for all those years. Seeing its usefulness, the story makes no sense.

            Notice they arrested Port staff, 16 low-level people, probably unrelated to that particular hangar.

            Meanwhile, the Port Authority and the Judiciary are both controlled by Hizballah Ministers and the Judges don’t seem to have given an order to remove the problem.

            Not certain about this:
            https://twitter.com/Morakeb_Ana2020/status/1291641430025408512

    • Netenyahu is referring to locations adjacent to Beirut Airport and not the Port area where this large blast occurred. It is a sloppy job by the gatewaypundit.com

  2. The Beirut explosion has amazing similarity to the 1917 Halifax and the 1947 Texas City tragedies. God bless us all

  3. ammoniam nitrate is an inert fertilizer , it will not explode unless mixed with an agent , sugar added it will explode , diesel fuel added then contained it will explode

  4. The accident report is plausible, the problem is that the Propaganda Media has lied so often a lot of people will be unwilling to accept anything that is said.

  5. If we take a detailed look at the footage leading up to the big blast, we can see grey smoke followed by a smaller explosion and a quickening of the combustion. Individual flashes and pops can be seen suggesting ammunition or detonators cooking off.
    If this were fireworks we would see various rockets and bursts shooting outwards from withing the smoke. Likewise if larger ordnance such as 50cal rounds, shells, mortars or RPGs were present we would see at least a few of them arcing out from the smoke as we saw in the Ukraine incident. So I suggest small arms or possibly a consignment of detonators for larger weapons such as rockets or missiles.
    Moving on the the main blast, if we isolate the initial explosion from the street level footage we can see an even shaped hemispherical fireball shape – almost circular with regular outline. This is not typical for a chemical explosion but is consistent with a bomb blast.
    The colour of the blast cloud is boiling red. This would rule out petroleum based explosives which would give a dark grey, dark brown or typically black blast cloud. On the other hand, most non petroleum-based explosives and also chemicals such as ammonium nitrate would typically give a grey or whitish blast cloud.
    The presence of ammunition cooking off before the main blast would discredit the reports claiming this to be ammonium nitrate or some other chemical explosion or indeed a welding accident
    A detailed frame by frame analysis of the footage just before the main blast shows two interesting things. Firstly, a white flash can be seen just prior indicating a detonator (such as would be needed for remote control blast). Secondly, the main blast initiates from a part of the warehouse that is not smoking or aflame but (in most angles) in front of or to the right of the existing fires.
    The bomb blasts I have seen (only in photos/video thankfully) that typically give this angry red colour are nuclear explosions.
    The exact location and the approximate size of the initial blast can be calculated by comparing freeze frame image from youtube footage with google maps/earth. Then using this information the blast strength can be estimated using an online resource called ‘Nukemap’. This gives us approx 1000 tons of TNT (4.184×1012 J)
    The Lebanese government have issued a statement to the effect that those responsible will be punished. This would indicate they believe this to be a deliberate act rather than a mishap.
    President Trump is on record stating the opinion of his Generals that this is a bomb of some sort.
    In 2018 Netenyahu gave a presentation indicating the presence of hezbollah armaments in Beruit. However the article by the Gateway Pundit is misleading because Netenyahu refers to sites adjacent to the airport, not the port/habour area.
    Nevertheless we can be almost certain that the Lebanese government had knowledge of the contents of the wharf/warehouse in question and one ‘theory’ is that the Lebanese government did this deliberately in order to create a disaster zone, triggering massive international relief and the release of associated funds. It is well known that the Lebanese economy is on its knees and with elections looming, so perhaps this is an act of desperation by the administration. The initial fire was designed to make this look more like an accident. Just a ‘theory’ folks and thanks for reading

    • Thank You. Many are my observations also. Ammonium nitrate is a white gas and we saw it at the end. And, by the way, media said the smoke was ‘red’ but in reality it started as reddish brown and quickly turned dark brown and dissipated quickly.

      If you listen carefully to the first frame just before the crackling fireworks although there was a dark grey smoke in the building, you will hear ‘booms’.

      Re the 2018 Netanyahu presentation, don’t you think Hezbollah would have moved their weapons from the airport area? They are certainly not going to leave them there if the Israelis know where they are. So, from airport to seaport, Hezbollah controls it all.

      • The plant Nazrullah mentioned plus petroleum processing facilities are STILL sitting in Haifa!
        Let’s hope they’re motivated to MOVE the most toxic stuff away from an urban hub with a population of 900,000.
        Beirut could be a sister city to Haifa, very similar port city. I was there at a very bad time, terrible, but even then it felt like kin.

  6. Tony Badran Aug 5, 2020

    One thing people don’t appreciate is that the chiefs in the cartel, almost to a man, are all warlords. This goes to my broader point re Lebanon not being a “state” in any western sense, even if it uses its nomenclature. “President,” “speaker,” “minister,” “deputy.” Lol words. 1/

    It’s just gangsters and warlords in suits. Or in the case of the biggest chief which runs the whole show: robes, turbans and IRGC-style couture. Nabih Berri is as much a “speaker” as Meyer Lansky was an “accountant.” It’s not real. Lebanon “the state” is a fictitious creature. 2/

    It’s just territory run by terrorists, gangsters, oligarchs, criminals and warlords. Any western policy that treats it as a real “state” with “institutions” — or better still, which seeks to *strengthen* these mythological “institutions” — is an exercise in actual lunacy. 3/3

    Likewise, to believe that warlords, gangsters, criminals, terrorists and oligarchs, who have never had any compunction to kill or send young men to die, somehow give a damn about 135 dead and 5000 injured, is also an exercise in lunacy. 4/

    And the talking heads who have shilled for this system and its “nuance” and “complexity” are the biggest charlatans of them all. 5/5

    “Lebanon is an American ally.” “It’s the last haven for ME Xtians.” “It’s the frontline for western civilization.” “Lebanon is worth saving.” People who peddle this to you are scamming you to your face. They see you as another mark in a long line of marks, going back centuries.

    https://twitter.com/AcrossTheBay

  7. David Daoud – His twitter is superb: https://twitter.com/DavidADaoud
    Garbage speculation: “Stop finding patterns in white noise or just outright making shit up.” Heads-of-state exploiting the tragedy, vomiting propaganda, complete with doctored videos.

    His editorial in {spit} Haaretz:
    In wake of Beirut blast, Lebanon is bound to implode

    …The incident occurred at a particularly politically sensitive time for Lebanon, fueling conspiracy theories that Hezbollah caused the explosion to intimidate its political opponents. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon, tasked with trying four Hezbollah members for the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri…

    Despite Hezbollah’s history of political violence, including Hariri’s murder, it’s highly unlikely it’s the culprit this time. The organization couldn’t expect to avoid responsibility for such an action with the spotlight so focused on their reaction to the special tribunal’s verdict. Moreover, Hezbollah would have little to gain – France has already reassured the group that the international community won’t act against it over the special tribunal’s decision – and much to lose by causing such widescale harm to Beirut’s civilians. 

    The group – either to redirect attention or fuel enmity against its foes – has also been eagerly fueling the rumor mill, with Al-Mayadeen and Al-Manar suggesting American or Israeli responsibility.… [Hezbollah’s mouthpiece hinted] Jerusalem or Washington were responsible. “Who else has an interest in bringing Lebanon to its knees now?…”

    Meanwhile, Israel’s recent behavior points toward a desire to deescalate with Hezbollah. On July 27, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi ordered IDF troops to chase off – but not kill – members of a Hezbollah cell that infiltrated Israel. The IDF has also refrained from releasing its video of that incident, whose occurrence the group denied, to avoid embarrassing Hezbollah or increasing the pressure on it to carry out a follow-up attack.…

    [2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, 1,375 times the amount used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.]

    The Lebanese public is already highly dissatisfied with their country’s political class. Coupling that with their inevitable anger over gross dereliction of duty by Lebanese authorities leading to Tuesday’s explosion, and the fact that promised restitution will likely not materialize, and the Lebanese street is bound to burst. 

    The Lebanese government seems to be anticipating that and, in typical fashion, they’re declaring a thinly-veiled state of martial law in Beirut – in an attempt to squelch their people rather than remedy Lebanon’s deep-seated structural problems which led to the disastrous explosion at Beirut’s seaport.

    https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-in-wake-of-beirut-blast-lebanon-is-bound-to-implode-1.9048099
    https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-in-wake-of-beirut-blast-lebanon-is-bound-to-implode-1.9048099

    • Interview, David Daoud and Brid. Gen. (res.) Giora Inbar:

      Beirut in Rubble After Blasts Cause Mass Death, Destruction