[tryp4vps]

I don't think I said anything about Trump's administration helping Lebanon officials to hide the truth. If this is how you interpreted it, apologies.  What I did say is that the role of the US through the FBI could lead to withholding information from the media, or present a version about certain aspects of the investigation that would end up with people like you and me and the public not getting a 100% version of the truth.  Like how it had happened with Kashoggi investigation....

Oh I might have misunderstood your actual meaning. Thank you for help clarify this.

My understanding was if it is not 100% version of the truth, then it means hiding the truth, though.

But what you mentioned about the Kashoggi investigation makes sense and it does worry me too.

[deanhills]

My understanding was if it is not 100% version of the truth, then it means hiding the truth, though.  

Actually I agree with you here.  In Kashoggi's case for me there was a deliberate withholding of information.  I still wonder how Governments get to control media in that way.  As it took my breath away.  The one day we were getting regular news casts and I was waiting with baited breath for the outcome of the investigation.  And then all of a sudden Kashoggi disappeared from the news - like completely and noticeable so.

Also, most reporters usually do a complete research of the subject - like Kashoggi.  From the beginning there was no info from media reports about his life in the US.  Focus was only on Turkey and Saudi Arabia.  Kashoggi was a US resident with a residence in Washington DC.  His family was living there.  Yet, not a whisper of this in the media reports.  Obviously something must be up with media not allowed to report on his life in Washington DC.  So how does that happen?

Wonder whether it is far fetched to say that all Governments are liars.  And the media is not far behind in this any longer.  

Any way, back to Lebanon - seems as though Canada is also interested in helping with the investigation, but would have certain conditions - which it doesn't mention (not for public consumption).  However, then it says it wants the investigation to be transparent and open.  Like if you can't mention the conditions openly, and withholds it from the press, how transparent is the investigation going to be in the end?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-...-1.5701765

Canadian Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne said after meeting Aoun that Ottawa was ready to assist under conditions that would be defined. He did not elaborate.

"The Lebanese people expect that if Canada participates in this investigation it is because it is going to be credible, transparent and get to the bottom of things to get justice," he said in televised remarks.

The Lebanese presidency on Thursday quoted Aoun as telling French magazine Paris Match that 25 people "directly or indirectly involved with the port" had so far been detained under the investigation. The probe would be transparent and hold to account "all those negligent without exception," he said.

Maybe the results of the investigation are going to be as chaotic as what it looks like now.

[tryp4vps]

Actually I agree with you here.  In Kashoggi's case for me there was a deliberate withholding of information.  I still wonder how Governments get to control media in that way....

Glad to know that we are actually on the same page.

I think that you are right saying that something was wrong Kashoggi suddenly disappeared from all the news media. But I would then wonder if we should immediately jump into a conclusion that it must be the government, the Trump administration, disallowed to report this news.

Especially most media are now not controlled by the U.S. government. Most of the U.S media are actually anti-Trump, you know, perhaps except for the Fox news etc.

[LightDestory]

When it happen I was speechless, at first I throught about a fake news with some nice FXs because it was unbelievable such explosion in a habit zone.
I saw few videos regarding the explosion... it was a huge mess, it was so painful to just watch it. I hope for the lives of all the people there.

It seems like that the explosion was caused due to a bad storage of ammonium nitrate... well if you stock such dangerous thing you need experts to tell you how do it properly!

[deanhills]

When it happen I was speechless, at first I throught about a fake news with some nice FXs because it was unbelievable such explosion in a habit zone.
I saw few videos regarding the explosion... it was a huge mess, it was so painful to just watch it. I hope for the lives of all the people there.

It seems like that the explosion was caused due to a bad storage of ammonium nitrate... well if you stock such dangerous thing you need experts to tell you how do it properly!

Agreed. And what really took my breath away was that confiscated explosive armaments were allegedly stored in the same silo as the ammonium nitrate. It kind of boggles the mind but is also an indication of how chaotic things are "mis"managed in Lebanon. I both feel very sorry for the Lebanese, I admire and like them very much - I love their cuisine and I love their passion for and sense of community and caring for one another. But wow, on the Government front things suck really very badly to the point of a tragic joke. Once one starts reading on their politics one could possibly develop a better understanding for how very complicated everything is in Lebanon with so many factions at loggerheads with one another, and how difficult it is to create a Government that makes every one happy. That in its own right is a miracle - to create a democratic Government. But looks as though it hasn't been working well for many years, so much so that greed and corruption have become institutionalized in the Government. Irony is that the same corrupt political players are still there reaping benefits and they are the only ones trained and experienced to be voted into a new Government.

[LightDestory]

Agreed.  And what really took my breath away was that confiscated explosive armaments were allegedly stored in the same silo as the ammonium nitrate. It kind of boggles the mind but is also an indication of how chaotic things are "mis"managed in Lebanon.  I both feel very sorry for the Lebanese, I admire and like them very much - I love their cuisine and I love their passion for and sense of community and caring for one another.  But wow, on the Government front things suck really very badly to the point of a tragic joke.  Once one starts reading on their politics one could possibly develop a better understanding for how very complicated everything is in Lebanon with so many factions at loggerheads with one another, and how difficult it is to create a Government that makes every one happy.  That in its own right is a miracle - to create a democratic Government.  But looks as though it hasn't been working well for many years, so much so that greed and corruption have become institutionalized in the Government. Irony is that the same corrupt political players are still there reaping benefits and they are the only ones trained and experienced to be voted into a new Government.

I am sure that the Lebanon's political status can be listed as a cause. Some newspaper said that the explosion was cause by a bad management of the stock of nitrate. Ammonium nitrate is well know for its explosive problem, they magazine's owner didn't just care about WHAT he was stocking and HOW handle it.

Confiscated or legit stocks... the government doesn't havy resposability because it assigned the job to stock it to a "professional", but this one didn't take the right safety precautions

[deanhills]

I am sure that the Lebanon's political status can be listed as a cause. Some newspaper said that the explosion was cause by a bad management of the stock of nitrate. Ammonium nitrate is well know for its explosive problem, they magazine's owner didn't just care about WHAT he was stocking and HOW handle it.

Confiscated or legit stocks... the government doesn't havy resposability because it assigned the job to stock it to a "professional", but this one didn't take the right safety precautions

@LightDestory if you check some of the explanations above, particularly the earlier posts in this discussion by @ikk157, ammonium nitrate can't explode on its own.  It won't even explode if you just added a match to it.  It exploded because of alleged confiscated high explosive material (some thought it was fire crackers - but it just sounded that way) that had also been confiscated during a customs decision, and were stockpiled close to the ammonium nitrate.  It was the persistent and very high heat of the explosive material that exploded and caught fire that finally was responsible for the huge explosion of the ammonium nitrate.

Major General Abbas Ibrahim, of Lebanon's General Security Directorate, said the massive blast that shook Beirut's port area on Tuesday was caused by confiscated “high explosive materials.”

It would be "naive to describe such an explosion as due to fireworks," Ibrahim told Lebanese TV.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/middleeast/live-...e3263c09ac

And yes, I agree it was the bad administration of customs through the Government that indirectly was responsible for the explosion, as customs reportedly wrote countless warning memos over seven years (the period the ammonium nitrate was stored) to the Government about the danger of the ammonium nitrate stockpile that could basically cause Beirut to be raised to the ground.  The last Memo was received by the Lebanese Prime Minister in July.  He failed to act on it.  This was his reason for resigning.  So yes a very corrupt Government - in fact successive Governments - so much so the corruption and lack of service to the community have become institutionalized.  It's going to take a major miracle to put together a new Government that doesn't have elements of those officials used to using the Government for themselves present.

Any way, there is of course an investigation ongoing as to the cause of the explosion.  The above is what armaments specialists all over the world theorized.  I.e. not fire crackers but stockpiled explosive material (possibly ammunition) that caught fire and caused the ammonium nitrate to explode.  Currently officials of the Lebanese emergency interim Cabinet with representatives of the French Defence Department and the FBI and possibly also Canadian Defence Dept (their participation is still under negotiation) are involved in the investigation.  This is done as some people believe that the explosion was deliberately set with input from Iran. I doubt that is how it happened and so do the majority of the public.  The public blames the Government as the major cause for the explosion.

[deanhills]

I just checked up again on whether there was more news on the Labanon port explosion, and found this excellent article by the New York Times right down to providing lots of entertainment as well. Wow!  They even tried to replicate the blast and sequence of events electronically and sequence of events from eye witness reports.  Their detailed report of the depth and level of corruption in the port and who the main players are with moving goods is an eye opener, but I'd have thought that this could not be 100% accurate yet.  Surely this is still under investigation?
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020...osion.html

I picked up on the following comments in the discussion of the article pointing to Hezbollah being in effect "in charge" of the Port through all of the corrupt wheelings and dealings in Lebanon Port and Government.  Guess only the New York Times would be able to get away with pointing a finger at Hezbollah.  Any one in Lebanon could be assassinated for saying this.

Surely an assessment of culpability for the blast should be based on responsibility for the conditions in which the port operated.  It's been clear for some time, and this article simply confirms it, that Hezbollah and its allies basically control the port.  This makes Hezbollah responsible for the failure to secure or remove the explosives, and thus culpable for the explosion and the resulting loss of life and property damage .  

Of course, anyone in Lebanon who suggests this obvious conclusion risks the same fate as befell former prime minister Hariri, whose death by a Hezbollah explosion was also recently confirmed by an international tribunal.

@Grouch Actually, no. More and more people of all confessions are speaking out against Hezbollah. On the other hand, do you think the newspaper of record will mention that one plausible hypothesis for the spark of the blast is an Israeli drone strike? Moreover, what everybody is celebrating as great reporting is often just culled from Arabic sources.

Excellent article! But I would like to add one more flabbergasting information: the Lebanese government has ISSUED TWO PERMITS TO IMPORT EXPLOSIVES, the first in October 2014, the second in October 2017, for the benefit of the Lebanese explosives Company.  These permits were issued by the Council of Ministers in plenary session,  so all the ministers were present! And these permits were only issued after the  Lebanese Army had inspected the 15 warehouses of the said company to make sure they were empty and safe!!! BTW, the Lebanese Explosives company had requested a permit to import 200 tons of AN monthly in May 2014, so in 14 months the quantity stored in hangar 12 would have been completely removed! Say around February 2016....The Nobel prize of inefficiency should be awarded to  our politicians!ALL OF THEM WITHOUT EXCEPTION!

[ikk157]

I just checked up again on whether there was more news on the Labanon port explosion, and found this excellent article by the New York Times right down to providing lots of entertainment as well. Wow!  They even tried to replicate the blast and sequence of events electronically and sequence of events from eye witness reports.  Their detailed report of the depth and level of corruption in the port and who the main players are with moving goods is an eye opener, but I'd have thought that this could not be 100% accurate yet.  Surely this is still under investigation?
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020...osion.html

I picked up on the following comments in the discussion of the article pointing to Hezbollah being in effect "in charge" of the Port through all of the corrupt wheelings and dealings in Lebanon Port and Government.  Guess only the New York Times would be able to get away with pointing a finger at Hezbollah.  Any one in Lebanon could be assassinated for saying this.

Oh wow the article you’ve linked us to is just amazing. It’s insanely informative and the way they visualized a reconstruction of the incident using real captured videos of the incident combined with their own animation is very impressive! I certainly enjoyed reading through the article and going through the reconstructions, you can tell they’ve put in a lot of effort into it.

Also, they mention that the same exact warehouse had all sorts of combustible material, which proves that it wasn’t the ammonium nitrate combusting by itself (that’s scientifically impossible). And the fact that literally all the material required to create a bomb was in the same warehouse, improperly stored, with the full knowledge of some many officials, just screams SUSPICIOUS!

And wow the pictures of inside the warehouse (which I’ve never seen before) in the article clearly show the horrible storage conditions and the terrible state of the bags of ammonium nitrate literally spilling their content. It’s no wonder how a fire could’ve easily started in those terrible storage conditions. It’s been said that the fire was started by sparks caused from a door repair on the warehouse, which makes a lot of sense.

[Arkiven4]

Oh wow the article you’ve linked us to is just amazing. It’s insanely informative and the way they visualized a reconstruction of the incident using real captured videos of the incident combined with their own animation is very impressive! I certainly enjoyed reading through the article and going through the reconstructions, you can tell they’ve put in a lot of effort into it.

Also, they mention that the same exact warehouse had all sorts of combustible material, which proves that it wasn’t the ammonium nitrate combusting by itself (that’s scientifically impossible). And the fact that literally all the material required to create a bomb was in the same warehouse, improperly stored, with the full knowledge of some many officials, just screams SUSPICIOUS!

And wow the pictures of inside the warehouse (which I’ve never seen before) in the article clearly show the horrible storage conditions and the terrible state of the bags of ammonium nitrate literally spilling their content. It’s no wonder how a fire could’ve easily started in those terrible storage conditions. It’s been said that the fire was started by sparks caused from a door repair on the warehouse, which makes a lot of sense.

Yeah i Agree with you , the Shared Article is very Interactive and informative, with cool animation, 3d model , and the real video is reviewed frame per frame and not forget about little detail.

And About "mysterious explosion in lebanon" , yeah it is mysterious, many conspiracy lover said this tragedy is connected with US Plan, or connected it with Iran, and etc. there are many interesting conspiracy theories to read , but it's just conspiracy theories whose the truth is cannot be confirmed