Posted on 09/19/2024 5:39:34 AM PDT by Uncle Miltie
report Thursday alleged that a Hungarian firm that apparently supplied pagers used by Hezbollah was secretly set up by Israeli spies as part of a widescale operation that appeared to culminate this week when the devices exploded, killing several and maiming thousands of Hezbollah operatives and others in Lebanon and Syria.
The New York Times claimed that rather than merely managing to tamper with the devices at some stage of their production or distribution, Israel actually “manufactured them as part of an elaborate ruse.”
The report was the latest to seemingly pull the covers back on what is widely believed to have been a secret Israeli operation that burst into the open Tuesday as thousands of devices blew up in Hezbollah strongholds.
Then on Wednesday, hundreds of walkie-talkies used by the group exploded as well, sowing fresh fears across Lebanon and underlining how much remains unknown about the apparent plot.
Citing three unnamed intelligence officers with knowledge of the operation, The New York Times reported that BAC Consulting was part of a front set up by figures in Israeli intelligence.
Two other shell companies were also created to help mask the link between BAC and the Israelis, according to the report.
The company was listed in Hungary as a limited liability company in May 2022, though a website for BAC Consulting was officially registered almost two years earlier, in October 2020, according to internet domain records.
As of April 2021, the company website offered political and business consulting, with the firm changing addresses and expanding its offerings at least three times by 2024, archival research by The Times of Israel showed.
Lebanese first responders carry a man who was wounded after his handheld pager exploded in an attack blamed on Israel targeting Hezbollah, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, September 17, 2024. (AP Photo)
According to the New York Times, the company supplied other firms with pagers as well, though only the ones transferred to Hezbollah were fitted with batteries that contained explosive materiel known as PETN.
The devices first began to reach Lebanon in 2022, according to the newspaper, with production ramping up as Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah denounced the use of cellphones due to concerns they could be tracked by Israel.
An image grab from Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV taken on February 16, 2024, shows the head of the Lebanese terror group Hassan Nasrallah delivering a televised speech. (Al-Manar/AFP)
“The phone in your hands, in your wife’s hands, and in your children’s hands is the agent… Bury it. Put it in an iron box and lock it,” Nasrallah told supporters in February, the New York Times report noted, and it added: “Israeli intelligence officials saw an opportunity.”
As Hezbollah increasingly relied on the explosive-laced devices, Israeli intelligence officers saw them as “buttons” that could be pressed at any time, setting off the explosions that rocked Lebanon Tuesday, according to the Times.
The pagers that exploded in Lebanon carried the logo of a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo, which said BAC was authorized to use its branding. However it said “the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC.”
BAC’s listed CEO, Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, told NBC news that the firm, which took its website down Wednesday, had nothing to do with manufacturing the (devices).
“I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong,” she told the US network Wednesday.
A Hungarian government spokesman also said the pagers had never been in Hungary and that BAC Consultants merely acted as an intermediary.
“Authorities have confirmed that the company in question is a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary. It has one manager registered at its declared address, and the referenced devices have never been in Hungary,” Zoltán Kovács posted Wednesday on X. He did not say where the pagers were manufactured.
Bulgaria, meanwhile, said it would investigate a third company linked to the sale of the pagers. The DANS state security agency said in a statement that it was working with the interior ministry to probe the role of a company registered in Bulgaria, without naming it.
Bulgarian media reports alleged that a Sofia-based company called Norta Global Ltd had facilitated the sale of the pagers. Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the link to Norta, and company officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A lawyer that registered the company at an apartment block in Sofia did not respond to Reuters questions.
Israel has declined to comment on either the pager or the walkie-talkie explosions.
Lebanese authorities said 12 people were killed and nearly 3,000 injured by the pager blasts, which seemingly targeted Hezbollah but also left many who happened to be in their vicinity wounded. At least 20 people were killed and hundreds more injured in Wednesday’s exploding walkie-talkies, which appeared to have contained larger explosives.
Images of the exploded walkie-talkies showed labels bearing the name of Japanese radio communications and telephone company ICOM 6208.T ...
The company, which says it manufactures all of its radios in Japan, said Thursday the model was manufactured and shipped to the Middle East from 2004 to 2014, but had not been shipped by the company since then. It said batteries for the devices were also no longer being manufactured.
The handheld radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time as the pagers, a security source said.
The Osaka-based firm said its radio products were all manufactured by a single subsidiary in Wakayama, using only its own parts, with no overseas production.
The company has previously warned about counterfeit versions of its devices circulating in the market, especially discontinued models.
“A hologram seal to distinguish counterfeit products was not attached, so it is not possible to confirm whether the product shipped from our company,” it said, referring to the devices that exploded Wednesday.
It promised to offer more information as it investigated.
Hezbollah has blamed Israel for the explosions, vowing revenge. Nasrallah was slated to deliver a statement later Thursday. Anonymous US officials have told foreign media outlets that Israeli agencies were behind the assault.
The twin waves of explosions heightened fears that Israel and Hezbollah could be nearing all-out war, after nearly a year of limited cross-border skirmishes that have forced civilians to flee northern Israel and southern Lebanon.
Israeli leaders have issued a series of warnings in recent weeks that they might increase operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, saying they must be able to restore security and allow residents to return to their homes near the border.
Israel began moving more troops to its border with Lebanon on Wednesday as a precautionary measure, according to an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson.
Speaking to troops on Wednesday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was “at the start of a new phase in the war — it requires courage, determination and perseverance.”
He made no mention of the exploding devices but praised the work of Israel’s army and security agencies, saying “the results are very impressive.”
During a visit to the Northern Command on Wednesday, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi warned cryptically that Israel has more it can do against Hezbollah.
“We have many capabilities that we have not yet employed,” he said. “We have seen some of these [capabilities in use]. It seems to me that we are well prepared and we are preparing these plans going forward.”
Israel will trick Hezbollah with goats with razors up their vaginas!
So now the condemnation flies when it’s the jihadists who are getting what they dish out.
There’s never been that much sympathy when the jihadists blew up non-muslims.
Now the muslims know what they rest of us live with. Hope they enjoy the payback.
BTTT
“Israel actually “manufactured them as part of an elaborate ruse.””
“Seems like intercepting a shipment would be much easier.”
All fine points aside, you cannot argue with SUCCESS! Over 3000 wounded, 500+ blind, 40+ killed. Even better, the filthy murder monkey cannot brag about their war wounds. “Ahmed, did you go blind from an exploding shelll?” answered by “No, I was on the toilet readingnatext when my pager exploded.”
I saw the foundation of a wooden house that ham ass torched on October 7th, literally roasting alive the elderly couple inside.
I met a 16 year old hitchhiker of that community whose house is closest to the wall. He survived by being at the Nova Music Festival, and running away from it. That killing field was literally safer than his house.
This sh*t is real. I walked the Nova Music Festival site myself. The pavement is scorched from burned out vehicles. The impromptu memorial to the 365 dead and 47 hostages takes 6 minutes to walk around, with each victim's memorial being the size of a grave. I just bawled.
Here is a picture of a few of the the 1,600 cars destroyed by ham ass. I saw this. It is much worse than this picture.
Every car is riddled with bullet holes. Many are torn open like tin cans by RPGs.
ham ass has sewn the wind and is reaping the whirlwind.
GOOD!
How awful when one of them, uh, inserts his, er, ...”thing”, in the goat and hears a “click” and knows that if he pulls out, er, or when his excitement “ends”, he’s done.
I say, let give Israel all the time they need to destroy these animals.
It has already occurred to them.
They could ship them with, um, vagimines.
I saw this ambulance this week.
Targeting ambulances is a War Crime ham ass committed.
Reports are that the terrorists then held an impromptu party next to the smoldering ruins and dead innocent civilians.
I don’t have the picture but there’s a meme going around that shows a Motorola phone but the M looks more like bat wings and it’s labeled Martyrola .
Goats pre-infected with syphilis.
I do. Videos of some of the instances clearly show explosive detonations. These are not battery discharges. There is not enough energy in pager batteries to do that.
The story is that Israeli agents bought up large stocks of obsolete pagers and radios, modified them with explosive charges, and sold them to Hezbollah at cut-rate prices through a devious chain of intermediaries.
I have good confidence (70%) that this story is an accurate outline of what happened.
However, this nasty trick was done, it can only work once. Why have the Israelis failed to move the war into Lebanon while Hezbollah communications are temporarily disrupted?
Hezbollah claims to have 100,000 fighters available. Losing 3,000 people as injured casualties is not a decisive victory. Most of them will be back, if they are given enough time.
If you strike a hornets' nest, you have to kill them all before they strike back.
Odd, the NYT can pull the covers back on this but not on cocainegate, assassination attempt 1 or 2, fake hate crimes, Joe Bidens health, who’s coming over the border, voter fraud, covid origin, or anything else for that matter.
Savages. Kill them all.
Every last one.
L
Yup, where have we heard THAT before?
Yes!
It’s sad very sad but interesting how long it has remained stuck in the same evil rut
They said yesterday...
Today, they're thinking about something safer, like bullets and hand grenades...
“magical incantations”
https://asiatimes.com/2022/03/china-in-a-microwave-weapon-great-leap-forward/
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jun/02/microwave-weapons-havana-syndrome-experts
These are just publicly known programs.
Black programs are decades ahead of this.
‘I’m Smart!’
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