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Thread: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    Those dodgy youtube videos managed to get our attention right off the initial event and on to the secondary event brilliantly.
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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    Quote Posted by Cosmored (here)
    Greetings Gwin Ru

    This is from your post.
    Quote The smoke mushroom observed in Beirut has nothing to do with what would have been caused by a conventional explosive.
    What to you think of the explanation for the smoke mushroom given at the 3:06 time mark of this video?

    BIGGEST EXPLOSIONS


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdHRX7iIAQs


    At first I was pretty sure the missile was real but now I'm kind of leaning toward the idea that it was photoshopped. I'm still not one hundred percent sure though.
    Hi Cosmored, not to tell you what to do, but had you paid some attention to the thread you would have noticed post # 82 as well as post # 93 which explained how real footages were "videoshoped".

    As for the video you posted, this is what I tried to explain in my posts # 97 and # 110 regarding "areas of high pressure (push = condensation = liquefied gas) and low pressure (vacuum = pull)" (starting at the 02:44 time stamp). In the Beirut explosion, the pressure wave generated a subspherical condensed water bubble/cloud which was preceded by the blast wave which in turn carried the blast sound right behind it.

    If it were the fertilizer that exploded, it would have needed to be detonated all at once as with controlled demolition type of technology in order to generate such a huge blast wave.

    This video at the 08:06 mark shows another example of that push-pull effect:

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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    Quote Hi Cosmored, not to tell you what to do, but had you paid some attention to the thread you would have noticed post # 82 as well as post # 93 which explained how real footages were "videoshoped".
    Yes, I saw that but things can be removed with photoshop too, can't they? That occurred to me but I have no technical background.

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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    From https://businessinsider.com/beirut-l...e-blast-2020-8, 4 hours ago:

    Police and protesters clashed in Lebanon amid fiery demonstrations criticizing the government for the Beirut explosion


    People clash with police during a protest against the political elites and the government after this week's deadly explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020.
    • Large crowds of protesters clashed with police during fiery demonstrations in Beirut, Lebanon, on Saturday amid mounting fury over the explosion that devastated the city earlier this week.
    • Activists called for action against alleged negligence from officials after the explosion that killed nearly 160 people.
    • Officials are investigating the blast that was fueled by thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate that had been improperly stored at the city's port for more than six years.
    Security forces fired tear gas and clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators Saturday in Beirut, and a group of protesters stormed the foreign ministry amid mounting fury over this week's explosion that devastated much of the city and killed nearly 160 people. Dozens were still missing and nearly 6,000 people injured.

    Activists who called for the protest set up symbolic nooses at Beirut's Martyrs' Square to hang politicians whose corruption and negligence they blame for Tuesday's blast.

    The explosion was fueled by thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate that had been improperly stored at the city's port for more than six years. Apparently set off by a fire, the blast was by far the biggest in Lebanon's troubled history and caused an estimated $10 billion to 15 billion in damage, according to Beirut's governor. It also damaged 6,200 buildings and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless.


    Women with brooms pass by a historic building damaged by Tuesday's explosion in the Gemmayzeh neighborhood, Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020.

    The disaster has taken popular anger to a new level in a country already reeling from an unprecedented economic and financial crisis and near bankruptcy.

    "Resignation or hang," read a banner held by protesters, who also planned to hold a symbolic funeral for the dead. Some nooses were also set up along the bridges outside the Port.

    Khodr Ghadir, 23, said the noose was for everyone who has been in power for the last 30 years. "What happened was a spark for people to return to the streets."

    A placard listed the names of the dead, printed over a photo of the blast's enormous pink mushroom cloud. "We are here for you," it read.

    In a televised speech Saturday evening, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the only solution was to hold early elections, which he planned to propose in a draft bill. He called on all political parties to put aside their disagreements and said he was prepared to stay in the post for two months to allow time for politicians to work on structural reforms.

    The offer is unlikely to soothe the escalating fury on the street.

    In central Beirut, some protesters threw stones at security forces who responded with heavy tear gas. Near parliament, protesters tried to jump over barriers that closed the road leading to the legislature. The protesters later set on fire a truck that was fortifying barriers on a road leading to parliament.


    People clash with police during a protest in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020.

    At least 142 people were hurt in the clashes, and 32 of them needed to be taken to the hospital, according to the Red Cross. Several protesters were seen being carried away with blood running down their faces. At one point, gunfire could be heard, but its source was not immediately clear.

    In the capital's hard-hit Achrafieh district, a group of protesters, including retired army officers, stormed the building of the foreign ministry, vowing to make it the headquarters for the "revolution."

    Documents that surfaced after the blast showed that officials had been repeatedly warned for years that the presence of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate at the port posed a grave danger, but no one acted to remove it. Officials have been blaming one another, and 19 people have been detained, including the port's chief, the head of Lebanon's customs department and his predecessor.

    "We will support Lebanon through all available means," Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the secretary-general of the 22-member Arab League told reporters after meeting President Michel Aoun on Saturday morning. Aboul Gheit said he would take part in a donors conference for Lebanon in France on Sunday and convey Lebanon's demands to the international community.

    Later on Saturday, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, arrived in Beirut for a brief visit. Turkey's vice president and the country's foreign minister met Aoun and said that Ankara was ready to help rebuild Beirut's port and evacuate some of the wounded to Turkey for treatment.

    At the site of the blast, workers continued searching for dozens of missing people. Bulldozers were also seen removing debris near a cluster of giant grain silos that were heavily damaged but still partly standing.

    International aid has been flowing to Lebanon for days, and several field hospitals have been set up around Beirut to help treat the wounded.

    President Donald Trump said Friday that he had spoken by telephone with Aoun and French President Emmanuel Macron, who paid a brief visit to Lebanon on Thursday. Trump noted that medical supplies, food and water were being sent from the United States, along with emergency responders, technicians, doctors and nurses.

    The ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilizers and explosives, originated from a cargo ship called MV Rhosus that had been traveling from the country of Georgia to Mozambique in 2013. It made an unscheduled detour to Beirut as the Russian shipowner was struggling with debts and hoped to earn some extra cash in Lebanon. Unable to pay port fees and reportedly leaking, the ship was impounded.

    In 2014, the material was moved from the ship and placed in a warehouse at the port where it stayed until the explosion.

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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    Beirut: Chaos strategy, tragedy and dangerous disinformation

    Vanessa Beeley
    Aug 7, 2020 at 2:21 PM



    I have been fairly quiet over the tragedy which has devastated neighbouring Beirut-Lebanon. Friends have been profoundly affected and psychologically wounded by this unbelievable apocalyptic event that happened so fast and tore through lives with an unprecedented fury. An explosion 1/4 the force of Hiroshima.


    I strongly refute the "Hzboll*h" ammunition store theory which has been circulated by some analysts. The port is almost entirely under control of Saad Hariri's Future Party. Hzboll*h have no access to the port. As Marwa Osman told me today
    "can you imagine the US allowing a ship full of weapons to dock in Beirut harbour, they would destroy it way before it reached this destination".
    Bottom line, Hzboll*h does not operate in the area of the blast, it does not store weapons in this area.

    Sharing or supporting this theory plays into the hands of the globalists by giving Israel its usual excuse of "self defence" and increasing the sectarian divides in Lebanon, turning public opinion against Hzboll*h.

    I will be interviewing Marwa after the Sayed Nasrallah's speech later today.

    All the videos circulating of supposed Israeli missiles are suspect. I, personally, do not believe that the Zionist entity would be so obvious as to use missiles when a simple intelligence operation would suffice to ignite the huge store of ammonium nitrate in the port.

    I do believe that Israel is behind the attack. Israeli leadership chatter before and after the event corroborate that belief. That is my gut feeling. There is no hard evidence to support this theory YET. I caution everyone against jumping to wild conclusions or sharing sensationalist theories like "tactical nukes" - to my knowledge there has been no sign of radiation poisoning among the victims and this kind of scaremongering is not useful or beneficial for the victims of the attack who are already dealing with extreme trauma, PTSD and residual terror. Please don't add to it during this very critical stage of recovery and investigation.


    Chris Busby is a respected and experienced scientist, specialising in the health effects of "internal ionising radiation". Busby has investigated numerous radiation scenarios including Falujah in Iraq and the suspected nuclear bomb in Yemen 2016 (I worked with him on that investigation which could not be concluded because of conditions inside Yemen). Please follow his Facebook page for sensible evaluation and analysis of the Beirut attack.

    Chris recently responded to information sent to him:
    "I was sent the following evidence of radiation from the Beirut explosion. There are also pictures of a missile. But who knows? Certainly if it involved a nuclear explosion the debris will be radioactive so we wont have to wait long to find out. Something detonated the ammonium nitrate, that's for sure. But a simple explosive would have done that."
    His evaluation of the explosion and the yellow clouds I photographed in western Damascus countryside shortly after the explosion:
    "The pictures show a red brown gas. That is Nitrogen dioxide, and other NOx gases. That is what happens when you heat ammonium nitrate. It is toxic and it nitrates anything it get at, including your lungs.That was the fingerprint for this explosion. After all, 2.7 kliotons is about 1/4 of the Hiroshima bomb, and the explosive power is roughly comparable to TNT. "
    "From the colour of the explosion plume I am guessing the Beirut explosion was Ammonium Nitrate. Not a nuke, no fireball. Probably Ammonium Nitrate fertiliser. That can do that sort of thing, also there were red fumes, nitrate fumes, in the cloud. Hard to see what else would make such a big bang."
    I do urge everyone to look up the Texas City disaster 1947 which was a very similar event.

    A colleague of Chris also commented:
    Elias Sacristan Haddad said - "Vanessa Beeley, my colleague Chris Busby is completely right. I have just made some estimates, this is the chemical equation for ammonium nitrate decomposition: NH4N03 --heat---> N2O + H2O Knowing that ammonium nitrate has a molecular weight of 80 g/mol if you heat 2,600 tons then a total energy of 678,972 KJoules will be generated which is equivalent to 2.8 kilotons. What we saw yesterday is equivalent to 25% the energy generated during the Hiroshima atomic bomb (15 ton) Once ammonium nitrate explodes you will have huge quantities of energy in terms of water vapor and nitrous oxide (this colorless and odorless gas can produce side-effects when inhaled such as nausea, vomiting and fatigue. Of course this gas is easily decomposed into Nitrogen and Oxygen. This is my comment from a Chemical Engineer perspective."
    What I am trying to say is that I have no interest in "anonymous intel sources" - I am only interested in hard fact and genuine scientific analysis and opinion from people I trust, like Marwa Osman.


    Macron visits Beirut immediately after the explosion, promises "new political pact".

    I will speculate on one point based upon what I have been told. I believe that Macron was despatched to ensure that the Lebanese government denies any foul play or Israeli intervention in the explosion. That is why Nasrallah's speech is so critical.

    People in Beirut are paying a dreadful price, politically and from a multitude of perspectives. Please let us try to support them in every way we can but without resorting to hyperbole and sensationalist claims before any official investigation.

    Thank you for your time.

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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    It was A. Nitrate, clearly; but WHY was it there 6 years?

    Was it potentially meant for something else at a different date?

    (If a missile was shot, the aim was horrific and it was very low yeild,, aka I highly doubt it)
    Last edited by TargeT; 9th August 2020 at 11:34.
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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    one wonders what agents are used for the Syrian barrel bombs - would Lebanon refrain from admitting it was used for those, so forced to adhere to the idea that the nitrate was just sitting there when possibly it had been exported piecemeal.

    Then the myth that there was a huge pile of nitrate sitting there could be exploited by others for their own ends.

    as Pepe Escobar says, the current Lebanese regime is new and not at fault here, but they are being taken down. Who wants them gone?
    Last edited by Baby Steps; 9th August 2020 at 15:14.
    we have subcontracted the business of healing people to Companies who profit from sickness.

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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    Who Profits from the Beirut Tragedy

    by Pepe Escobar
    August 08, 2020
    Republished from Asia Times by permission of author



    The narrative that the Beirut explosion was an exclusive consequence of negligence and corruption by the current Lebanese government is now set in stone, at least in the Atlanticist sphere.

    And yet, digging deeper, we find that negligence and corruption may have been fully exploited, via sabotage, to engineer it.

    Lebanon is prime John Le Carré territory. A multinational den of spies of all shades – House of Saud agents, Zionist operatives, “moderate rebel” weaponizers, Hezbollah intellectuals, debauched Arab “royalty,” self-glorified smugglers – in a context of full spectrum economic disaster afflicting a member of the Axis of Resistance, a perennial target of Israel alongside Syria and Iran.

    As if this were not volcanic enough, into the tragedy stepped President Trump to muddy the – already contaminated – Eastern Mediterranean waters. Briefed by “our great generals,” Trump on Tuesday said: “According to them – they would know better than I would – but they seem to think it was an attack.”

    Trump added, “it was a bomb of some kind.”

    Was this incandescent remark letting the cat out of the bag by revealing classified information? Or was the President launching another non sequitur?

    Trump eventually walked his comments back after the Pentagon declined to confirm his claim about what the “generals” had said and his defense secretary, Mark Esper, supported the accident explanation for the blast.

    It’s yet another graphic illustration of the war engulfing the Beltway. Trump: attack. Pentagon: accident. “I don’t think anybody can say right now,” Trump said on Wednesday. “I’ve heard it both ways.”

    Still, it’s worth noting a report by Iran’s Mehr News Agency that four US Navy reconnaissance planes were spotted near Beirut at the time of the blasts. Is US intel aware of what really happened all along the spectrum of possibilities?

    That ammonium nitrate
    Security at Beirut’s port – the nation’s prime economic hub – would have to be considered a top priority. But to adapt a line from Roman Polanski’s Chinatown: “Forget it, Jake. It’s Beirut.”

    Those by now iconic 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate arrived in Beirut in September 2013 on board the Rhosus, a ship under Moldovan flag sailing from Batumi in Georgia to Mozambique. Rhosus ended up being impounded by Beirut’s Port State Control.

    Subsequently the ship was de facto abandoned by its owner, shady businessman Igor Grechushkin, born in Russia and a resident of Cyprus, who suspiciously “lost interest” in his relatively precious cargo, not even trying to sell it, dumping style, to pay off his debts.

    Grechushkin never paid his crew, who barely survived for several months before being repatriated on humanitarian grounds. The Cypriot government confirmed there was no request to Interpol from Lebanon to arrest him. The whole op feels like a cover – with the real recipients of the ammonium nitrate possibly being “moderate rebels” in Syria who use it to make IEDs and equip suicide trucks, such as the one that demolished the Al Kindi hospital in Aleppo.

    The 2,750 tons – packed in 1-ton bags labeled “Nitroprill HD” – were transferred to the Hangar 12 warehouse by the quayside. What followed was an astonishing case of serial negligence.

    From 2014 to 2017 letters from customs officials – a series of them – as well as proposed options to get rid of the dangerous cargo, exporting it or otherwise selling it, were simply ignored. Every time they tried to get a legal decision to dispose of the cargo, they got no answer from the Lebanese judiciary.

    When Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab now proclaims, “Those responsible will pay the price,” context is absolutely essential.

    Neither the prime minister nor the president nor any of the cabinet ministers knew that the ammonium nitrate was stored in Hangar 12, former Iranian diplomat Amir Mousavi, the director of the Center for Strategic Studies and International Relations in Tehran, confirms. We’re talking about a massive IED, placed mid-city.

    The bureaucracy at Beirut’s port and the mafias who are actually in charge are closely linked to, among others, the al-Mostaqbal faction, which is led by former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, himself fully backed by the House of Saud.

    The immensely corrupt Hariri was removed from power in October 2019 amid serious protests. His cronies “disappeared” at least $20 billion from Lebanon’s treasury – which seriously aggravated the nation’s currency crisis.

    No wonder the current government – where we have Prime Minister Diab backed by Hezbollah – had not been informed about the ammonium nitrate.

    Ammonium nitrate is quite stable, making it one of the safest explosives used in mining. Fire normally won’t set it off. It becomes highly explosive only if contaminated – for instance by oil – or heated to a point where it undergoes chemical changes that produce a sort of impermeable cocoon around it in which oxygen can build up to a dangerous level where an ignition can cause an explosion.

    Why, after sleeping in Hangar 12 for seven years, did this pile suddenly feel an itch to explode?

    So far, the prime straight to the point explanation, by Middle East expert Elijah Magnier, points to the tragedy being “sparked” – literally – by a clueless blacksmith with a blowtorch operating quite close to the unsecured ammonium nitrate. Unsecured due, once again, to negligence and corruption – or as part of an intentional “mistake” anticipating the possibility of a future blast.

    This scenario, though, does not explain the initial “fireworks” explosion. And certainly does not explain what no one – at least in the West – is talking about: the deliberate fires set to an Iranian market in Ajam in the UAE, and also to a series of food/agricultural warehouses in Najaf, Iraq, immediately after the Beirut tragedy.

    Follow the money
    Lebanon – boasting assets and real estate worth trillions of dollars – is a juicy peach for global finance vultures. To grab these assets at rock bottom prices, in the middle of the New Great Depression, is simply irresistible. In parallel, the IMF vulture would embark on full shakedown mode and finally “forgive” some of Beirut’s debts as long as a harsh variation of “structural adjustment” is imposed.

    Who profits, in this case, are the geopolitical and geoeconomic interests of US, Saudi Arabia and France. It’s no accident that President Macron, a dutiful Rothschildservant, arrived in Beirut Thursday to pledge Paris neocolonial “support” and all but impose, like a Viceroy, a comprehensive set of “reforms”. A Monty Python-infused dialogue, complete with heavy French accent, might have followed along these lines: “We want to buy your port.” “It’s not for sale.” “Oh, what a pity, an accident just happened.”

    Already a month ago the IMF was “warning” that “implosion” in Lebanon was “accelerating.” Prime Minister Diab had to accept the proverbial “offer you can’t refuse” and thus “unlock billions of dollars in donor funds.” Or else. The non-stop run on the Lebanese currency, for over a year now, was just a – relatively polite – warning.

    This is happening amid a massive global asset grab characterized in the larger context by American GDP down by almost 40%, arrays of bankruptcies, a handful of billionaires amassing unbelievable profits and too-big-to-fail megabanks duly bailed out with a tsunami of free money.

    Dag Detter, a Swedish financier, and Nasser Saidi, a former Lebanese minister and central bank vice governor, suggest that the nation’s assets be placed in a national wealth fund. Juicy assets include Electricité du Liban (EDL), water utilities, airports, the MEA airline, telecom company OGERO, the Casino du Liban.

    EDL, for instance, is responsible for 30% of Beirut’s budget deficit.

    That’s not nearly enough for the IMF and Western mega banks. They want to gobble up the whole thing, plus a lot of real estate.

    “The economic value of public real estate can be worth at least as much as GDP and often several times the value of the operational part of any portfolio,” say Detter and Saidi.

    Who’s feeling the shockwaves?
    Once again, Israel is the proverbial elephant in a room now widely depicted by Western corporate media as “Lebanon’s Chernobyl.”

    A scenario like the Beirut catastrophe has been linked to Israeli plans since February 2016.

    Israel did admit that Hangar 12 was not a Hezbollah weapons storage unit. Yet, crucially, on the same day of the Beirut blast, and following a series of suspicious explosions in Iran and high tension in the Syria-Israeli border, Prime Minister Netanyahu tweeted , in the present tense: “We hit a cell and now we hit the dispatchers. We will do what is necessary in order to defend ourselves. I suggest to all of them, including Hezbollah, to consider this.”

    That ties in with the intent, openly proclaimed late last week, to bomb Lebanese infrastructure if Hezbollah harms Israeli Defense Forces soldiers or Israeli civilians.

    A headline – “Beirut Blast Shockwaves Will Be Felt by Hezbollah for a Long Time” – confirms that the only thing that matters for Tel Aviv is to profit from the tragedy to demonize Hezbollah, and by association, Iran. That ties in with the US Congress “Countering Hezbollah in Lebanon’s Military Act of 2019” {S.1886}, which all but orders Beirut to expel Hezbollah from Lebanon.

    And yet Israel has been strangely subdued.

    Muddying the waters even more, Saudi intel – which has access to Mossad, and demonizes Hezbollah way more than Israel – steps in. All the intel ops I talked to refuse to go on the record, considering the extreme sensitivity of the subject.

    Still, it must be stressed that a Saudi intel source whose stock in trade is frequent information exchanges with the Mossad, asserts that the original target was Hezbollah missiles stored in Beirut’s port. His story is that Prime Minister Netanyahu was about to take credit for the strike – following up on his tweet. But then the Mossad realized the op had turned horribly wrong and metastasized into a major catastrophe.

    The problem starts with the fact this was not a Hezbollah weapons depot – as even Israel admitted. When weapons depots are blown up, there’s a primary explosion followed by several smaller explosions, something that could last for days. That’s not what happened in Beirut. The initial explosion was followed by a massive second blast – almost certainly a major chemical explosion – and then there was silence.

    Thierry Meyssan, very close to Syrian intel, advances the possibility that the “attack” was carried out with an unknown weapon, a missile -– and not a nuclear bomb – tested in Syria in January 2020. (The test is shown in an attached video.) Neither Syria nor Iran ever made a reference to this unknown weapon, and I got no confirmation about its existence.


    (click on picture to watch clip)

    Assuming Beirut port was hit by an “unknown weapon,” President Trump may have told the truth: It was an “attack”. And that would explain why Netanyahu, contemplating the devastation in Beirut, decided that Israel would need to maintain a very low profile.

    Watch that camel in motion
    The Beirut explosion at first sight might be seen as a deadly blow against the Belt and Road Initiative, considering that China regards the connectivity between Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon as the cornerstone of the Southwest Asia Belt and Road corridor.

    Yet that may backfire – badly. China and Iran are already positioning themselves as the go-to investors post-blast, in sharp contrast with the IMF hit men, and as advised by Hezbollah Secretary-General Nasrallah only a few weeks ago.

    Syria and Iran are in the forefront of providing aid to Lebanon. Tehran is sending an emergency hospital, food packages, medicine and medical equipment. Syria opened its borders with Lebanon, dispatched medical teams and is receiving patients from Beirut’s hospitals.

    It’s always important to keep in mind that the “attack” (Trump) on Beirut’s port destroyed Lebanon’s main grain silo, apart from engineering the total destruction of the port – the nation’s key trade lifeline.

    That would fit into a strategy of starving Lebanon. On the same day Lebanon became to a great extent dependent on Syria for food – as it now carries only a month’s supply of wheat – the US attacked silos in Syria.

    Syria is a huge exporter of organic wheat. And that’s why the US routinely targets Syrian silos and burns its crops – attempting also to starve Syria and force Damascus, already under harsh sanctions, to spend badly needed funds to buy food.

    In stark contrast to the interests of the US/France/Saudi axis, Plan A for Lebanon would be to progressively drop out of the US-France stranglehold and head straight into Belt and Road as well as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Go East, the Eurasian way. The port and even a great deal of the devastated city, in the medium term, can be quickly and professionally rebuilt by Chinese investment. The Chinese are specialists in port construction and management.

    This avowedly optimistic scenario would imply a purge of the hyper-wealthy, corrupt weapons/drugs/real estate scoundrels of Lebanon’s plutocracy – which in any case scurry away to their tony Paris apartments at the first sign of trouble.

    Couple that with Hezbollah’s very successful social welfare system – which I saw for myself at work last year – having a shot at winning the confidence of the impoverished middle classes and thus becoming the core of the reconstruction.

    It will be a Sisyphean struggle. But compare this situation with the Empire of Chaos – which needs chaos everywhere, especially across Eurasia, to cover for the coming, Mad Max chaos inside the US.

    General Wesley Clark’s notorious 7 countries in 5 years once again come to mind – and Lebanon remains one of those 7 countries. The Lebanese lira may have collapsed; most Lebanese may be completely broke; and now Beirut is semi-devastated. That may be the straw breaking the camel’s back – releasing the camel to the freedom of finally retracing its steps back to Asia along the New Silk Roads.

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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    From https://aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/f...114123355.html, 3 hours ago

    Furious Lebanese plan new protests over Beirut blast

    Lebanese protesters say they will rally again after a night of demonstrations in which they stormed several ministries.


    One policeman was killed and the Red Cross said more than 170 people were injured.

    Lebanese protesters enraged by official negligence blamed for the enormous explosion in the capital Beirut have vowed to rally again after a night of demonstrations that saw protesters storm several ministries.

    "Prepare the gallows because our anger doesn't end in one day," warned one message circulating on social media in response to Tuesday's earthquake-strength explosion of thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate left in a port warehouse for seven years.

    People defied dozens of teargas canisters fired at them and hurled stones and firecrackers at riot police, some of whom were carried away to ambulances.

    One policeman was killed and the Red Cross said more than 170 people were injured.

    "The police fired at me. But that won't stop us from demonstrating until we change the government from top to bottom," Younis Flayti, 55, a retired army officer, said on Sunday.

    Nearby, mechanic Sabir Jamali sat beside a noose attached to a wooden frame in Martyrs' Square, intended as a symbolic warning to Lebanese leaders to resign or face hanging.

    "Every leader who oppresses us should be hanged," he said, adding he will protest again.

    Soldiers in vehicles mounted with machine guns were stationed beside the square.

    "I worked in Kuwait for 15 years in sanitation to save money and build a gift shop in Lebanon and it was destroyed by the explosion," said Maroun Shehadi.

    "Nothing will change until our leaders just leave."

    The calls for renewed protests came as French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris was to oversee a UN-backed virtual donors conference to raise aid for Lebanon, a country already mired in a painful economic crisis.

    In Beirut, the fury on the streets has further shaken the embattled government of Prime Minister Hassan Diab, which saw its first cabinet resignation when the information minister, Manal Abdel Samad, quit on Sunday.

    "After the enormous Beirut catastrophe, I announce my resignation from government," she said, apologising to citizens for having failed them.

    The revelation that Lebanese state officials had long tolerated a ticking time-bomb in the heart of the capital has served as shocking proof to many Lebanese of the rot at the core of the state apparatus.

    The death toll from the explosion stood at 158 people, with 60 still reported missing, and a staggering 6,000 wounded, many by flying glass as the shockwave tore through the city.

    The blast, whose mushroom cloud reminded many of an atomic bomb, left a 43-metre (141 foot) deep crater at Beirut's port, said a security official, citing French experts working in the disaster area.

    The country's worst peacetime disaster has reignited a protest movement against the reviled ruling elite that first flared last October but had faded amid economic hardship and the coronavirus pandemic.

    Embattled Prime Minister Diab said on Saturday he would propose early elections to break the impasse that is plunging Lebanon ever deeper into political and economic crisis.

    "We can't exit the country's structural crisis without holding early parliamentary elections," Diab said in a televised address, promising a draft bill on Monday.

    At least six lawmakers have also quit since the August 4 explosion.

    The head of Lebanon's Maronite church, Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai, joined the chorus of people pressing Diab's entire cabinet to step down over a blast he said could be "described as a crime against humanity".

    "The resignation of an MP or a minister is not enough ... the whole government should resign as it is unable to help the country recover," he said in his Sunday sermon.

    The protesters demand the wholesale removal of Lebanon's ruling class, which they see living in luxury while millions endure job losses, deepening poverty, power blackouts and mountains of garbage piling up in the streets.

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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    Here is an interesting new video I have not seen before from a different angle..

    Title: Video Shows Missile With Probable Tactical Nuke Warhead Detonating


    https://rense.com/

    .. Thoughts? ....

    Blessings Luke

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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    Last edited by ExomatrixTV; 9th August 2020 at 17:21.
    No need to follow anyone, only consider broadening (y)our horizon of possibilities ...

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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    This Report has many new footages NOT yet shared here:
    No need to follow anyone, only consider broadening (y)our horizon of possibilities ...

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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    More from Al Jazeera, updated an hour ago: (a running live report)
    Lebanon's environment minister and information minister both quit gov't as anger grows

    Damianos Kattar's resignation comes shortly after similar move by information minister in wake of Beirut port explosion.
    • International leaders joined a virtual donor conference led by France and the United Nations. In opening remarks, French President Emmanuel Macron urged world leaders to come together and help "Lebanon and its people".
    • Lebanon's information minister Manal Abdel Samad announced her resignation, saying Prime Minister Hassan Diab's government failed to live up to the aspirations of the Lebanese people. Shortly after, environment minister Damianos Kattar also resigned from his post.
    • At least 728 people have been wounded in clashes with authorities as thousands of protesters hit the streets of central Beirut as riot police fire tear gas at those trying to break through a barrier to the parliament building. One police officer was also reported killed.
    • At least 158 people were killed in the explosion and more than 6,000 others injured, but numbers are expected to rise as search and rescue operations continue for missing people.

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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    Quote Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
    More from Al Jazeera, updated an hour ago: (a running live report)
    Lebanon's environment minister and information minister both quit gov't as anger grows

    Damianos Kattar's resignation comes shortly after similar move by information minister in wake of Beirut port explosion.
    • International leaders joined a virtual donor conference led by France and the United Nations. In opening remarks, French President Emmanuel Macron urged world leaders to come together and help "Lebanon and its people".
    • Lebanon's information minister Manal Abdel Samad announced her resignation, saying Prime Minister Hassan Diab's government failed to live up to the aspirations of the Lebanese people. Shortly after, environment minister Damianos Kattar also resigned from his post.
    • At least 728 people have been wounded in clashes with authorities as thousands of protesters hit the streets of central Beirut as riot police fire tear gas at those trying to break through a barrier to the parliament building. One police officer was also reported killed.
    • At least 158 people were killed in the explosion and more than 6,000 others injured, but numbers are expected to rise as search and rescue operations continue for missing people.

    Very interesting political outcomes from a massive explosion with a dubious origin/controversial cause.

    Cui bono?

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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    Quote Posted by The Moss Trooper (here)
    Very interesting political outcomes from a massive explosion with a dubious origin/controversial cause.

    Cui bono?
    Well, there's an incompetent government, surrounded by a now trashed city in a country that was already experiencing serious hardship, and 4 million traumatized people (including all the government ministers). No-one wins here.


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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    Quote Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
    Quote Posted by The Moss Trooper (here)
    Very interesting political outcomes from a massive explosion with a dubious origin/controversial cause.

    Cui bono?
    Well, there's an incompetent government, surrounded by a now trashed city in a country that was already experiencing serious hardship, and 4 million traumatized people (including all the government ministers). No-one wins here.


    Really?

    What, nobody....... Nobody at all?

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  31. Link to Post #137
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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    Quote Posted by The Moss Trooper (here)
    Quote Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
    Quote Posted by The Moss Trooper (here)
    Very interesting political outcomes from a massive explosion with a dubious origin/controversial cause.

    Cui bono?
    Well, there's an incompetent government, surrounded by a now trashed city in a country that was already experiencing serious hardship, and 4 million traumatized people (including all the government ministers). No-one wins here.

    Really?

    What, nobody....... Nobody at all?
    Sometimes, there just aren't any conspiracies. Just incompetence. And immense human suffering.

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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    It's only just beginning to sink in, to me, how big that Grain Store was. It looked small in the early videos I saw, which means it was much further away than I thought it was.

    Those so called exploding fireworks I saw in the early videos now seem more massive too.
    ..................................................my first language is TYPO..............................................

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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    From the London Daily Mail, just updated:
    'We are at war with our government': Protesters clash with police and the army in Beirut as an officer is killed and at least 60 demonstrators are wounded amid calls to overthrow Lebanon’s government after devastating explosion
    • Violent clashes between protestors and security forces have led to several fires in buildings and on streets.
    • Troops fire on Beirut protesters as streets brim with violence.
    • Five thousands people marched on central Beirut as they vented their fury at Lebanon's political class.
    • Demonstrators threw stones and build mock gallows as they blamed the government for Tuesday's blast.
    • Nearby, veterans stormed foreign ministry calling for 'revolution' but were later forced out by the army.
    (Continued here: a long, detailed article with a large number of dramatic photos and videos, far too many to embed in this post)
    Last edited by Bill Ryan; 9th August 2020 at 18:21.

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    Default Re: Beirut: Many dead after huge explosion in Lebanese capital

    Interesting video comparing the explosions in Beirut 2020 and Syria 2019.

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/P13Yz4J7xBqG/

    Without drawing any inferences or conclusions, I have to say they do look very similar.

    Watch until the end of the video and according to Trump, it would seem his generals also also think it was a bomb of some sort, not an industrial accident.
    Last edited by happyuk; 9th August 2020 at 19:54.

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