The Israeli government did not tamper with the Hezbollah devices that exploded, defense and intelligence officials say. It manufactured them as part of an elaborate ruse.

The Israeli government did not tamper with the Hezbollah devices that exploded, defense and intelligence officials say. It manufactured them as part of an elaborate ruse.

In Lebanon, as Israel picked off senior Hezbollah commandos with targeted assassinations, their leader came to a conclusion: If Israel was going high-tech, Hezbollah would go low. It was clear, a distressed Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, said, that Israel was using cellphone networks to pinpoint the locations of his operatives.

. . .

Israeli intelligence officials saw an opportunity.

Even before Mr. Nasrallah decided to expand pager usage, Israel had put into motion a plan to establish a shell company that would pose as an international pager producer.

By all appearances, B.A.C. Consulting was a Hungary-based company that was under contract to produce the devices on behalf of a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. In fact, it was part of an Israeli front, according to three intelligence officers briefed on the operation. They said at least two other shell companies were created as well to mask the real identities of the people creating the pagers: Israeli intelligence officers.

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  • @[email protected]English
    -15•3 months ago

    Ideally you don’t take their word, you send journalists and international investigators to the scene to verify.

    What you definitely do not do however is take Hezbollah’s word.

    • AwesomeLowlanderEnglish
      13•3 months ago

      The same journalists and international investigators that Israel has been blatantly murdering left and right?

    • Maeve
      13•3 months ago

      They kill journalists and investigators too.

    • @givesomefucksEnglish
      12•3 months ago

      Ideally you don’t take their word, you send journalists and international investigators to the scene to verify.

      Which has happened and they have shown that obviously if someone blows up while walking down the street, the explosion doesn’t magically know not to injure anyone else

      • @chakan2English
        -11•3 months ago

        Weird…you’d think you’d have a problem when the other side does it and takes out only non combatants in a crowd.

        • @AWistfulNihilistEnglish
          5•3 months ago

          You know, I bet they have a problem with both! Shooting a rocket at a market is comparable to putting explosives on a possible combatant and detonating it while they are in a market. Let alone 3,000x that latter scenario.

          Like I don’t care for terroristic acts on civilians no matter where they come from. I’m unironically ok with them mass targeting the rocket sites, though!

          • @[email protected]English
            2•3 months ago

            There are videos of Hezbollahbros blowing up in a market and people standing right next to them not getting hurt at all. These are a lot different from say a Hezbollah rocket with a large warhead that can kill a dozen kids