Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

FBI probe: Chemicals that caused Beirut blast only a fifth of original shipment
Times of Israel ^ | 30 July 2021,

Posted on 07/31/2021 6:44:20 PM PDT by BenLurkin

Investigation doesn’t give reason for discrepancy or share where rest of ammonium nitrate may have gone — adding to suspicions that much of it went missing before port explosion

Many officials in Beirut say privately that much of the shipment was stolen, Reuters said, adding that another theory heard is that not all of the cargo detonated.

The 2013 shipment was being transferred from Georgia to Mozambique on a Russian-leased cargo ship when the captain says he was instructed to make an unscheduled stop in Beirut, Reuters said, adding that the shipment never ended up leaving from there and the cargo docked at the Lebanese port.

According to an unsourced assessment publicized on Israel’s Channel 13 news last August, Hezbollah may have planned to use the ammonium nitrate stockpile against Israel in a “Third Lebanon War,” Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah has denied that his group stored any weapons or explosives at Beirut’s port.

Ammonium nitrate is used in the manufacture of explosives and is also an ingredient in making fertilizer. It has been blamed for massive industrial accidents in the past, and was also a main ingredient in a bomb that destroyed a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. In 2019 reports in Israel claimed that the Mossad had tipped off European intelligence agencies about Hezbollah storing caches of ammonium nitrate for use in bombs in London, Cyprus and elsewhere.

(Excerpt) Read more at timesofisrael.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: beirut; blast
Is that possible, that 522 tons (and not more) this?


1 posted on 07/31/2021 6:44:20 PM PDT by BenLurkin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

If it came from the FBI it’s a lie.

L


2 posted on 07/31/2021 6:46:27 PM PDT by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


3 posted on 07/31/2021 6:46:55 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lurker

I was going to say the same thing. They are as reliable and believable as the CDC.


4 posted on 07/31/2021 6:47:26 PM PDT by frogjerk (I will not do business with fascists)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

WTF is the FIB doing in Lebanon?

How do we know that the fert. was not the property of the FIB?


5 posted on 07/31/2021 6:49:24 PM PDT by Paladin2 (Critical Marx Theory is The SOLUTION....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


6 posted on 07/31/2021 6:50:14 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Collated time of arrival vs distance from analysis of social media video footage, with the best estimate (0.50 kt TNT) and reasonable upper limit (1.12 kt TNT) curves determined from regression analysis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosion#Yield

7 posted on 07/31/2021 6:53:30 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

I wonder if an EOD expert could explain if that browning color signifies the presence of anything important.


8 posted on 07/31/2021 7:10:36 PM PDT by Bookshelf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lurker

Why is the FBI investigating an explosing in Lebanon?


9 posted on 07/31/2021 7:14:30 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

Was this an intentional or accidental explosion, and does it matter? Either way, it is what they do.


10 posted on 07/31/2021 7:38:12 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie (A world in which dogs write poetry is more believable than the world as seen through the Media)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

“ Why is the FBI investigating an explosing in Lebanon?”

They’re gathering untraceable explosives for their next “insurrection”

L


11 posted on 07/31/2021 7:38:13 PM PDT by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: BenLurkin

When this whole thing had just happened, I read a timeline of the ship. It stopped in Beirut because it was a POS, and was barely able to move. They brought it into port to get it fixed, and the “maritime safety agency” impounded it for being a HUGE POS, and unsafe. Told them they could leave when the following list of items were fixed. The company that owned/ran the ship was running on a shoestring budget, and just plain old didn’t have to money to fix it. So, the cargo was offloaded into the warehouse, and the ship was sent to scrap.


12 posted on 07/31/2021 7:43:55 PM PDT by FrankRizzo890
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lurker
They’re gathering untraceable explosives for their next “insurrection”

Or providing a plausible untraceable source for the explosives used in the next false flag.

13 posted on 07/31/2021 8:31:17 PM PDT by null and void ("Fact Checkers" Didn't Exist Until The Truth Started Getting Out)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Bookshelf; BenLurkin
"I wonder if an EOD expert could explain if that browning color signifies the presence of anything important."

~~~~~~~~~~

Not, specifically, an "EOD expert" -- but this physical chemist attributes the brownish-orange-reddish colored smoke to oxides of nitrogen from decomposition (deflagration + detonation) of ammonium nitrate.

("Orange" smoke is a classic signature of an ammonium nitrate explosion.)

In April of 1947 -- from my classroom in Webster, Texas -- I personally witnessed the orange mushroom cloud from the massive explosion of ammonium nitrate aboard the SS Grandcamp in Texas City, Texas. (It reminded me of the orange fumes in the top of bottle of concentrated nitric acid...)

Even then, I told my classmates that it was a chemical (not petroleum) explosion -- but the smoke soon turned black as the adjacent petrochem plants and "tank farms" ignited. The same thing happened in OKC: most [later] photos show black smoke from the burning vehicles in the parking lot across the street from the Murrah Building. (See my FRProfile re OKC...) The same "orange-to-black" smoke color shift occurred in Beirut as the surrounding area began to burn.

BTW, the gray-white smoke in Beirut was from the fire (including fireworks) in the northern warehouse -- before the ammonium nitrate explosion in the southern warehouse.

TXnMA

14 posted on 07/31/2021 9:55:00 PM PDT by TXnMA (The Democrat Party has a single-element strategy: CHEATING... Reinstate Public Executions!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: FrankRizzo890; BenLurkin; Bookshelf; All
" So, the cargo was offloaded into the warehouse, and the ship was sent to scrap."

Not exactly. The ship was not "sent to scrap" -- it was moored alongside the breakwater, almost immediately across from the destroyed grain-loading docks -- and was sunk by the blast wave.

I did a lot of analysis re the Beirut explosion -- almost none of which is yet posted on FR. In my series below, in frame 1, you can see the "AN Ship" -- moored across the channel from the dock area where the explosion occurred. Somewhere in my files, I have an OHI of the ship after the explosion -- visible underwater at that same site -- capsized onto its starboard side...

(NOTE: The image file is HTTP [not HTTPS], Some browsers may be unable to view it...)

(In the "after" OHI (Frame #8) the sunken "AN Ship" is not visible thru the wave reflections.)

(Obviously, there is a LOT MORE info in that image sequence...)

TXnMA

15 posted on 07/31/2021 10:54:59 PM PDT by TXnMA (The Democrat Party has a single-element strategy: CHEATING... Reinstate Public Executions!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: TXnMA
...in frame 1 [frame "0" (Zero)], you can see the "AN Ship"...
16 posted on 07/31/2021 11:19:51 PM PDT by TXnMA (The Democrat Party has a single-element strategy: CHEATING... Reinstate Public Executions!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: TXnMA

I concur with you, but would defer to any chemist as my training is only US military explosives from the engineers and not formal education.

Also, my training is a couple of decades old. However, I do remember that the text book said that Orange was the color of AN explosives. And if memory serves, something about how the color change from orange could be used to indicate other components. But again, would defer to an actual chemist.


17 posted on 08/01/2021 10:31:31 AM PDT by taxcontrol (You are entitled to your opinion, no matter how wrong it is.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson