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Featured A Powerful explosion rocks Beirut.

Yes, it can't be strictly 'nuclear' because the radioactivity would be off the scale. However, this is not a normal explosion, or the blast from an average warhead.
All the signature of depleted uranium
 
There maybe corruption case in this tragedy. How on earth Lebanon put tons of fertilizer on the warehouse on the strategic port where it is widely known as ingredient to make a bomb. The corruption case might be seen on whether the warehouse owner get some money to keep the fertilizer on its facility from the port authority who hold that Russian container ship.
 
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/wo...-s-devastating-explosion-20200806-p55iz1.html

How a 'floating bomb' cargo ship lit the fuse on Beirut's devastating explosion



The catalyst for the blast that decimated downtown Beirut first floated over the horizon more than six years ago. The rusting cargo ship delivered a ticking time bomb that exploded on Tuesday.

The Rhosus, a Russian-owned ship flying the Moldovan flag, was heading from Georgia to Mozambique in late 2013 but ended up docked in the Lebanese capital after apparent technical problems.

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The warehouse housing the ammonium nitrate stockpile has been replaced by a huge crater.CREDIT:PLANET LABS INC

Following a stand-off with local authorities, the vessel was allegedly abandoned by its owners amid allegations of outstanding debts and unpaid wages. Some crew were forced to remain on the ship.

The captain, Boris Prokoshev, was naturally unhappy about what was below decks: some 2750-tonnes of ammonium nitrate.

"We’ve been abandoned, living with no wage on a powder keg for the last 10 months," he said at the time. In a prescient description, Russian media dubbed the ship a "floating bomb".

Lebanese authorities ultimately seized the cargo and stored it in a building at Beirut's port known as warehouse 12, according to a legal newsletter written by Charbel Dagher and Christine Maksoud, two lawyers representing the crew.

"Owing to the risks associated with retaining the ammonium nitrate on board the vessel, the port authorities discharged the cargo onto the port’s warehouses," they wrote. "The vessel and cargo remain to date in port awaiting auctioning and/or proper disposal."

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Beirut's port sat next to the densely populated urban and financial suburbs.CREDIT:AP

Experts believe taking the material off the ship was the right decision - provided the stockpile was properly maintained and safely removed from the densely populated city as soon as possible.

It wasn't.

"It's like driving a car and swerving to avoid a cat but heading for a group of school children instead," says Major Chris Hunter, a counter-terrorist bomb disposal operator whose missions to Iraq inspired some scenes in the Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker.

"It's a really flawed logic. Of course, remove the material if it is a hazard on the ship. But you've then got to do something with it."

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Large bags of ammonium nitrate stacked in the warehouse in Beirut.

An undated photo shows large bags labelled "Nitroprill" stacked on top of each other inside a warehouse. Chemical giant Orica manufactures a product called Nitropril, with one 'l'. (The difference in spelling suggests the possibility the chemicals in the Beirut warehouse were a knock-off version.)

Distinctive features of the building in the stockpile photo, such as its windows and doors, closely match footage of the warehouse as it burnt on Tuesday.

For six years people of Beirut were blissfully unaware of the threat hidden in their own backyard.

Warnings about the risk of detonation were ignored. Then, just after 6pm on Tuesday, a combination of ignorance, incompetence and negligence appears to have triggered a major disaster.

Somehow, a fire started in the warehouse. The cause of the blaze is not known but it sparked a relatively small blast that sent a grey cloud of smoke into the air. Thirty-five seconds later, a much bigger explosion - believed to be caused by the ignition of the ammonium nitrate - sent a shockwave across the city.

Dozens were killed and more than 5000 injured. The homes of some 300,000 residents may be temporarily uninhabitable. The blast was so powerful that warehouse 12 is now a 140-metre wide crater. The force of the explosion even overturned a nearby cruise ship.

"You're looking at 2750-tonnes of ammonium nitrate. That's equivalent to about 1000-tonnes of TNT, so the destructive capability of something like that is huge," says Hunter. "I think it is the biggest explosion outside a military environment that I have certainly seen in my 30-year career."

One thousand tonnes of TNT is equivalent to one kilotonne. The nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, is thought to have been about 13 kilotonnes.

Ammonium nitrate is chiefly used as an agricultural fertiliser but can also be an ingredient to make explosives. About two tonnes of it were in the bomb which ripped apart Oklahoma City's Alfred P Murrah Federal Building during the 1995 terrorist attack.

It also triggered a 2001 explosion at a factory in the French city of Toulouse which killed 31 people, as well as devastating blasts in Waco, Texas, in 2013 and Tianjin, China, in 2015.

Documents released on Wednesday - the accuracy of which have not been challenged by the Lebanese government - show port officials fired off multiple warnings about the Beirut port stockpile. Most went unanswered.

In June 2014, the then director of customs Shafik Merhi sent a letter to an unnamed "Urgent Matters Judge" requesting a solution to the warehouse cargo.

Badri Daher, the current director of Lebanese Customs, told television network LBCI on Wednesday that up to half-a-dozen other letters were sent to government officials over the next three years. The letters asked for guidance about the material and raised concerns about its safety.

In 2016, one letter said: "In view of the serious danger of keeping these goods in the hangar in unsuitable climatic conditions, we reaffirm our request to please request the marine agency to re-export these goods immediately to preserve the safety of the port and those working in it."

Other options floated included selling it to the Lebanese Explosives Company or giving it to the army. Many of the letters lamented a lack of response to previous requests for help.

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The explosion wiped out the city's port, which is crucial for Lebanon's already shaken economy. CREDIT:GETTY

The Lebanese government has pledged a transparent investigation into who knew what and when. The cabinet on Wednesday ordered senior port officials into military-supervised house arrest.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun has said it was "unacceptable" for the ammonium nitrate to be stored without proper safety measures.

The Rhosus was reportedly owned by Igor Grechushkin, a Russian businessman who is now thought to be living in Cyprus.
 
All the signature of depleted uranium

Ezerdi2 post is pretty convincing. Somebody said there was a spike in radiation on the radmon.org site, but I couldn't find it.
Really strange. It fits into Israeli activity, but bothe Hizbullah and the Lebanese government say it was an accident.

I just don't buy th 'accident' line.
 
Mete Yarar, a former special forces member of the Turkish Armed Forces, thinks that the bombing in Lebanon was sabotage.
 
All the signature of depleted uranium

Depleted uranium is used for very high material strength. Especially when you want to achieve maximum penetration values for the projectile. I lean more towards that this was an attack used high velocity kinetic projectile for deep underground penetration. Something was stored in the lower levels of the port probably.
 
Yep, exactly. The problem is the usual -- just like Kennedy's assassination and of course, the more recent big one in 911 -- is that conspiracy theories are much more sexy and fun to create out of the blue and sensationalize amazing fiction out of them. An accident of incompetence is boring and not as interesting or deviously enthralling and entertaining as a deliberate act, even if it's a false narrative to support terrorism. The latter is much more fun to talk about and hence the crazy theories and doctored videos and missiles made out of birds are brought forth! :lol: At least the Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories were in fact interesting, but the best one was "controlled demolition" loooool. That one is my favorite of all time and I don't think it will ever be topped, not even by Israelis in Beirut.

Accidents happen, but accidents of this size is not a everyday common thing.

By the other side, this is not good for Israel.
The best for Israel is a Lebanon rich, independent and unarmed.
And the worst for Israel is a starving poor Lebanon (more dependent from Iran, more cheap to buy for Iran), Iran-dependent, and well-armed.

300 thousands homes destroyed, millions new homeless, it's a good recruiting campaign to Hezbollah. And the wheat silos destroyed, Iranian will come with wheat and they will be seen as gods by the people.

But Israel it's a country who live and get money of make mayhem in Middle East under USA orders, and this wouldn't be the first stupid thing they do, neither the last.
Israel is not a independent country (a Independent Israel will never do this), it's a stupid puppet vassal USA country.

And a USA general visit recently Israel to remember to their slaves to keep the pressure to Iran.
 
man people search for any small hint that could underline their wishes.. if even hezbi says it was an accident than its crystal clear because if it was not an accident they would cry like you havent seen anybody crying! decades after they would cry generations after they would cry! it would be the perfect excuse for their case for people joining in hundret thousands.. and they wont let this chance go..

so hezbis now cooperate with israel? they are such afraid they will bow down? what will come next are we gonna see pdf users with aluminium thin foil on their heads?
 
I think nobody can know still if it's was an accident or sabotage.
And if it was a Israel sabotage, the rest of non-shiite Lebanon will blame Hezbollah for their actions against Israel.
And Hezbollah will recruite new shiite cannon fodder thank to this anyway, even if they claim it was an accident.
 
Accidents happen, but accidents of this size is not a everyday common thing.

By the other side, this is not good for Israel.
The best for Israel is a Lebanon rich, independent and unarmed.
And the worst for Israel is a starving poor Lebanon (more dependent from Iran, more cheap to buy for Iran), Iran-dependent, and well-armed.

300 thousands homes destroyed, millions new homeless, it's a good recruiting campaign to Hezbollah. And the wheat silos destroyed, Iranian will come with wheat and they will be seen as gods by the people.

But Israel it's a country who live and get money of make mayhem in Middle East under USA orders, and this wouldn't be the first stupid thing they do, neither the last.
Israel is not a independent country (a Independent Israel will never do this), it's a stupid puppet vassal USA country.

And a USA general visit recently Israel to remember to their slaves to keep the pressure to Iran.
You're pathetic.

This explosion definitely stopped Hezbollah from responding to Israeli bombing, and it showed the Lebanese people how Lebanon will look in case of a war with Israel.

Israel is a genius when it comes to fighting our enemies.
 

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