Massive blast in Beirut

Man of Honour
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Now that access is as easy as grunting "WiFi Password?" at someone, I would suggest there's been an extremely downward trend in the overall level intelligence of what we see posted generally on the web (especially on SM).

' Hey Siri, what happened in Beirut ? '

' A Beetroot is a vegetable '

' Nice, thx '
 
Man of Honour
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I'm pretty sure that Israel, or whoever you want to suspect, would have the ability to covertly attack a non military port without the use of an easily tracked missile launch or drones.

A small remote detonated bomb would have been enough to trigger the explosion on what was not exactly a top secret storage of volatile materials.

Why complicate things with missiles etc if there is an easier and anonymous way to do it ?

It was an accident, but CT need to make something out of it so it's either missiles or aliens.

Assumption that if Israel was involved they had any intention of being covert or that the explosion was the intended outcome.

When it comes to destroying hostile weapon supplies Israel tends to be quite brazen - they'd probably use a missile and stick the onboard camera footage online. There is a small chance here, if there was any Israeli involvement, that the intended target was Iranian ammunition in transit and the explosion was an unintended consequence - but usually their intel is good enough something like that would have been picked up on before the operation went ahead.

I'm not at all claiming Israel was involved or behind this - but I think it would be a little naive to absolutely rule out any involvement - it won't be the first time they've carried out interdiction activity in this manner and had significant intel gathering actively going on over Beirut in the 24-48 hours before the explosion (likely monitoring certain political ongoings).
 
Soldato
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I seriously doubt Israel would actively seek such a catastrophic event that will almost certainly destabilise a country on its border. You'd have to really want to start a refugee crises in the middle of a pandemic to do that. They don't and they didn't, and it's pretty clear it's just a bad accident that should have been avoided had people done the most basic of proper risk assessments and material handling plans.
 
Man of Honour
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I seriously doubt Israel would actively seek such a catastrophic event that will almost certainly destabilise a country on its border. You'd have to really want to start a refugee crises in the middle of a pandemic to do that. They don't and they didn't, and it's pretty clear it's just a bad accident that should have been avoided had people done the most basic of proper risk assessments and material handling plans.

It is unlikely but don't underestimate what Israel would do if they had advanced intel that Hezbollah or other Iran linked agencies credibly intended to use that chemical stockpile or other weapons against them and would likely destroy it in place rather than risk losing track of it - potentially intending to send a message to governments or other entities in the region to not to facilitate that kind of thing in future.
 
Soldato
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What's
It is unlikely but don't underestimate what Israel would do if they had advanced intel that Hezbollah or other Iran linked agencies credibly intended to use that chemical stockpile or other weapons against them and would likely destroy it in place rather than risk losing track of it - potentially intending to send a message to governments or other entities in the region to not to facilitate that kind of thing in future.

I think it would take a lot to lose track of nearly 3000 tonnes of something. They'll have had people on the ground keeping an eye on it if they were genuinely concerned. USA relies on satellites, Israel relies on humans (I'm sure both use all methods, but overall).
 
Permabanned
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and yet we give them an equal vote. As an ideology I do think all people should be treated equally, but we're surely hitting a point where some kind of screening or filtering or weighting should be given to voting based on ability to demonstrate sound reasoning of some kind. Otherwise this swelling tumor of [insert moderator approved collective noun of your choice] will start pulling us evermore towards the disfunctional and dystopian abyss they seem to think is already being created for us. Once they reach critcial mass of influence they will perpetuate their own nightmare scenario, and then say "hah we were right along". It's madness.

totally off topic and couldn’t be more irrelevant. The remaniacing threads in the speakers corner. Off with the Marxist left wing minority attitudes.
 
Soldato
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totally off topic and couldn’t be more irrelevant. The remaniacing threads in the speakers corner. Off with the Marxist left wing minority attitudes.
I think you might need to look up what Marxism is as it's not what you seem to think it is. But do carry on, it's fascinating.
 
Soldato
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/x2iutcqf1g/beirut-blast

Nice article this about how the explosives arrived in Beirut.

I read a similar article elsewhere a litany of incompetence, indifference, blindness to anything other than blatant self interest and a healthy dose of plain ol' corruption. And I don't suppose much will change the protests probably won't go anywhere and those at the top will just carry on as as if nothing had happened.
 
Caporegime
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I read a similar article elsewhere a litany of incompetence, indifference, blindness to anything other than blatant self interest and a healthy dose of plain ol' corruption. And I don't suppose much will change the protests probably won't go anywhere and those at the top will just carry on as as if nothing had happened.

Good thing that the UK is heading in the same direction then... this isn't just a lesson for the people of Lebanon.
 
Man of Honour
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It's not at all. As I've already posted I store similar materials. The legal requirements here are incredibly exacting and heavily enforced.

I think you are taking what he said in too much the literal case when it was a wider commentary on society.
 
Man of Honour
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Just seen another video - can't link to it here due to content - not sure if it is the same people on the roof nearby as filmed the close up view posted earlier in the thread - but showed people going back to that spot that video was filmed from moments before the big explosion :(
 
Soldato
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It's probably a dumb question, but feasibly could one have survived if they were situated just behind the grain silo?

It's been mentioned previously somewhere in here but "yes but no but maybe" - whilst you'd survive things like shrapnel etc in the initial blast, most think that the overpressure wave would still be very likely to kill you. However in the real world miracles still happen and explosions aren't mathematically perfect so there's always a small chance that the overpressure wave wrapping around the silos might be turbulent enough that you could survive in a low/normal pressure pocket.
 
Soldato
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It's been mentioned previously somewhere in here but "yes but no but maybe" - whilst you'd survive things like shrapnel etc in the initial blast, most think that the overpressure wave would still be very likely to kill you. However in the real world miracles still happen and explosions aren't mathematically perfect so there's always a small chance that the overpressure wave wrapping around the silos might be turbulent enough that you could survive in a low/normal pressure pocket.
The overpressure wave is deadly nearby but pressure soon dissipates in an open environment. The blast/shrapnel wave is more deadly. In the Beirut instance I believe the overpressure would be deadly out to 1000ft but when you get to 6000ft away it probably wouldn't.
 
Caporegime
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lololololololol.....waaa waaa waaa 'that's not what i said'......waaa waaa waaa discuss re: per say......waaa waaa waaa i don't make mistakes.....waaa waaa waaa don't you conflate me......here we go :D


It’s great isn’t it? Always the same people, always the same waaaa, always good for a giggle :D
 
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