by dogtanian » Wed Aug 05, 2020 6:58 pm
I'd be inclined not to rule-out Hizbu Allah involvement just yet. The detonation looks like an accident, but the circumstances leading to the Ammonium Nitrate arriving in Beirut are more murky.
FOB Consignment from Batumi (lovely city, nice cablecar lookout, nice bread, lovely wine, but full of Russians) to Mozambique in 2013. Moldovan flagged vessel with plan to transit through Suez Canal. Consignor is some Russian playboy who likes motorbikes. Apparent "technical problems" on way, and cargo appears to have been "seized' which is unusual.
Since Russians are involved, I suspect that Beirut may have actually have been an intended intermediary destination. Mozambique is also a port frequented by Russian cargo (small arms). Having a fake destination would probably make it slightly more difficult [by perhaps an iota] for foreign intelligence agencies to track and flag for sanctions breach.
Now, Lebanese politics is constitutional arranged in a permanent configuration whereby three sects who hate each other must all agree in order for any decision to be actioned. The President must always be a Maronite Christian, the Speaker of the Parliament must always be Shiite, and the Prime Minister must always be a Sunni. If you've ever heard the term 'Mexican Standoff', a 'Lebanese stand-off' is at least 50% more fucked, due to the extra party.
Likely that the shiites wanted the cargo to stay in Lebanon (possibly because they were the original intended consignee) and the sunnis and christians wanted the cargo to the gtfo of Lebanon. Given the political pattern, no decision could ever be made. So the cargo just sits in the warehouse for seven years, until it oxidizes a bit, and accumulates enough contaminants to make it nice and explosive. Detonation was supposed to be due to a small fire (welder) that couldn't be contained. And there you have it. Bang!
A lot of tin-foil-hats are screaming Mossad. But that doesn't make sense. If they felt the need to take action, it would have been a few years back. Plus, no matter what anyone tells you, they're not into the business of needlessly killing innocent dockworkers and assorted other civilians.
"Truth is cool; but unattainable..."