What Just Blew Up In Beirut?

bellingcat.com ^ | 8-4-2020 | Nick Waters

[PGalt]

Thanks for posting. Did it take out that fatazz Hassan Nasrallah?

[metmom]

Unbelievable......

I wonder how many people really died. It has to be far more than they are saying.

It looks like Ground Zero.

[metmom]

If the ammonium nitrate story turns out to be true, the utter incompetence of decision making in Beirut is only matched by the American people in electing BHO twice.

If we actually did elect him.

Because there's always vote fraud and illegals voting to be counted in.

[Jimmy The Snake]

How to create new beach front real estate

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

We have tactical nukes with lower yields than that explosion.

[babble-on]

Yes, videos do appear to show a fireworks factory on fire with the expected flashes, and then the very much larger KABOOM. Would detonations experts on FR have an opinion about whether a hit from a fireworks rocket would be enough to detonate the ammonium nitrate?

[ThunderSleeps]

The going rate for ammonium nitrate is apparently about $550 per ton. So that was about $1.5M in chemicals sitting there for 6+ years, incurring who knows what kind of costs for storage? Odd. Just one of many odd things about this.

[babble-on]

Lol, yes. Problem solved! I read an FR post years ago about “The Abdul Factor” which the Israeli army refers to as a sort of secret weapon they have in their fight for survival, it being the tendency of Arabs to mishandle explosives.

[bert]

Ok, how ‘bout the fireworks fire was started to provide a cover story for the actual detonation by high explosives planted in the Ammonium nitrate

[EEGator]

That’s quite possible.
Or, the fire was started to get people and first responders to the area, then boom.

[EEGator]

It’s no Tsar Bomba.

[mewzilla]

I think the fireworks story was used to explain the red cloud. The ammonium nitrate wouldn’t.

[bert]

I would suggest that the cargo was stored while a legal battle over the confiscation was in a long, complex, drawn out process

[silverleaf]

Poster “ Carlos Osweda” on twatter has published some very interesting analysis that this was a controlled event ( two separate explosions) that essentially took out missile warheads and rocket fuel, owned by Iran, under Hezbollah control. He also reminds that US and Israel are NOT the only state actors with the skills to carry out such an operation,

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https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1290877217694552066.html

[bert]

To my eyes, the smoke of the secondary and large cloud was brown and typical of nitrogen

[McGruff]

Should have stored that stuff in the Bekaa Valley along with Saddam’s WMDs.

[IndispensableDestiny]

When I was in the Defense Nuclear Agency, we used 5,000 tons of ammonium nitrate to simulate a low-level nuclear event - but that was far out in the desert

I was at Minor Scale and Minor Uncle. We had a blast.

[Red Badger]

[Buckeye McFrog]

If you had told me that was a tactical nuke I would not have argued with you.

[Manly Warrior]

Doesn’t need a detonator. AN will decompose with heat. As more mass decomposes( turns into gases which are volatile) it can increase decomposition until critical temp is reached, around 280 c for common AN.

Also, doesn’t need a fuel additive like petroleum to be an explosive. AN by itself is just a bit less “fast” an explosive than TNT.

So, a mass of AN, an uncontrolled fire, eventual decomp until critical temp of some portion is reached, then mass deflagration of the whole volume....