Someone blew up 5000 pagers.

[Moab]

I wonder how long they sat on this capability until the perfect day? These are old pagers!


https://youtube.com/shorts/qrLcU-pFEYM?si=UB_Bp1H-yYy23KqP

[Moab]

Mark from Serbu Arms. (A fairly well known gun maker.) Had some interesting hypothesis. 


https://youtu.be/kASWorhoqpo?si=IOudoielDIC8m9eT

[DarkAxel]

Mark from Serbu Arms. (A fairly well known gun maker.) Had some interesting hypothesis.


https://youtu.be/kASWorhoqpo?si=IOudoielDIC8m9eT

Reuploaded

[NT2C]

Because YouTube is gonna YouTube. 

[eugenenine]

news i see says they planted explosives in from the factory. I was trying to think of how else they could make them explode, overcharging a lithium ion battery was the only other way I could think of but the devices would be in peoples homes plugged into chargers

[12_Gauge_Chimp]

Like I said in the other thread, remind me to never piss off the Israelis.

[NT2C]

My sources are saying two different things but I think both could be correct.  One source says the pager company licensed their name to a company in Hungary.  Speculation is that it was an Israeli-operated front.  Source number two says the shipment was intercepted in Jordan and tampered with there. 

Here's why I think both are correct:

The operation in Hungary was for the pagers, which would need a lot of work, too much to be done on a one or two-day intercept.

The intercept in Jordan was to swap battery packs on the radios that blew in the second phase.  I saw pictures of several of the radios afterward and in every case, damage to the radio was minimal but the battery was destroyed.

[MacWa77ace]

Like I said in the other thread, remind me to never piss off the Israelis.

I wonder how long they sat on this capability until the perfect day? These are old pagers!

That bomb in Iran was there for months and they didn't even have a target, it was just a known VIP guesthouse.

[Moab]

The Mossad has been blowing up phones for decades. Home phones. Payphones. And pagers.

And NT2C is right the amount of tech to do this would take a while. Chances are they intercepted them between the manufacturer and users. Changed the tech and planted the explosives. 

But image the intelligence network to have 5000 names and recipients of the pagers who are your enemy?! That's deep. 

It's also a one time thing. Because your not gonna get away with it again. So genius to do 5000 of them at once. Crazy.

Imagine where you keep your page too? Front pocket? Right next to you're femural artery. Soft tissue. Way easier than a cellphone on your ear. And trying to blast someone's skull. 

Whoever did it was genius. And very very patient.

[Moab]

Now it's two ways.


https://youtu.be/Sdng8IMmU-o?si=i9vkbTt0OpsYay48

[Moab]

https://youtube.com/shorts/XUGO4PvgEyY?si=MwqHJ0hv9AFyuVre

[majorhavoc]

If I were Hezbollah, I'd be afraid to pick up a plastic spoon at this point.

[EBuff75]

If I were Hezbollah, I'd be afraid to pick up a plastic spoon at this point.

"It's just a spoon."
"Yeah, but it could be a plastic explosive spoon!"

[NT2C]

And NT2C is right the amount of tech to do this would take a while. Chances are they intercepted them between the manufacturer and users. Changed the tech and planted the explosives.

As I said, the pager brand name was licensed to a company in Hungary that was likely an Israeli front.  That company contracted with the bad guys to supply the pagers.  More than likely the front company already had a large quantity of the pagers previously made and packaged, just waiting to be shipped.

With the radios, they were supposedly intercepted in Jordan.  Looking at photos of what was left of the radios I see Icom business radios with very little damage but the battery blown off.  That makes me think the batteries were swapped during the intercept with a supply of batteries already on hand with explosives embedded.  That would have been a fast way to rig them during a 24-hour or less intercept.

[12_Gauge_Chimp]

I'm now imagining a Hezbollah member warily using a microwave oven right now.

Like they're hiding behind their couch with a long stick to press the 'start' button.

[EBuff75]

Something occurred to me in the midst of all this.  Assuming that Hezbollah works in cells and not everyone knows each other, this is also an opportunity for Israel to do some additional infiltration due to the chaos and disruption of existing communication networks.

Essentially a more practiced / trained version of, "I can't contact my commander after my pager blew up. *shows minor injury to hand* I just moved to the area and I don't know anyone else.  Oh, and uh 'Death to Israel' and all that jazz.  Can I hang out with you guys now?"

[Moab]

I don't think it costs that much to train a dog to sniff out explosives. But aren't dogs dirty or something in their faith?

Seems like someone dropped the ball. If you've accepted 5000 pagers and who knows how many Icoms full of explosives.

[NT2C]

I don't think it costs that much to train a dog to sniff out explosives. But aren't dogs dirty or something in their faith?

Seems like someone dropped the ball. If you've accepted 5000 pagers and who knows how many Icoms full of explosives.

Sure, you could train a dog for that, but let's think about the environment the dog would have to work in and the wide variety of explosives the dog would need to identify.  The way the latter is done in the US is with multiple dogs, each trained on a particular subset of explosives classifications. They also tend to work in mostly "sterile" environments (eg: areas where explosives or explosives reside normally would not be found) so that any scent stands out.  Contrast that with a working dog or dogs trying to sniff out explosives in an environment where those are going to be semi-common, and the residue might be commonly found on the handler or associates of the handler.  That's a much harder task for dogs if it can be done at all.

[Moab]

I don't think it costs that much to train a dog to sniff out explosives. But aren't dogs dirty or something in their faith?

Seems like someone dropped the ball. If you've accepted 5000 pagers and who knows how many Icoms full of explosives.

Sure, you could train a dog for that, but let's think about the environment the dog would have to work in and the wide variety of explosives the dog would need to identify.  The way the latter is done in the US is with multiple dogs, each trained on a particular subset of explosives classifications. They also tend to work in mostly "sterile" environments (eg: areas where explosives or explosives reside normally would not be found) so that any scent stands out.  Contrast that with a working dog or dogs trying to sniff out explosives in an environment where those are going to be semi-common, and the residue might be commonly found on the handler or associates of the handler.  That's a much harder task for dogs if it can be done at all.

I didn't so much mean that. As I meant, even if they could, doesn't their religion preclude the use of dogs? I'm sure Mossad has dogs to do anything. I've never heard of a terrorist org using them. And even if they couldn't train them. I assume there are plenty of countries around the world where they could get them.

Just seems like a major security lapse. Mossad or any other intelligence org would be capable of inspecting devices for explosives or other tampering issues. For sure. It just seems amateurish for a terrorist org as well funded as Hezbollah to fall so short, that 5000 of their pagers could be outfitted with explosives. Not to mention Massad probably knows exactly who each user is. And every msg that's come across those pagers. 

Major fail. But also a majorly impressive operation on the part of whoever did this. It's not people have never been killed by an exploding electronic device going back many decades. Even a pimp has a burner phone. Lol  He's not using whatever known communication device he bought at the mall.

[DarkAxel]

And NT2C is right the amount of tech to do this would take a while. Chances are they intercepted them between the manufacturer and users. Changed the tech and planted the explosives.

As I said, the pager brand name was licensed to a company in Hungary that was likely an Israeli front.  That company contracted with the bad guys to supply the pagers.  More than likely the front company already had a large quantity of the pagers previously made and packaged, just waiting to be shipped.

With the radios, they were supposedly intercepted in Jordan.  Looking at photos of what was left of the radios I see Icom business radios with very little damage but the battery blown off.  That makes me think the batteries were swapped during the intercept with a supply of batteries already on hand with explosives embedded.  That would have been a fast way to rig them during a 24-hour or less intercept.

The ICOM radios probably came from AliBaba or something, because the company stopped making them over a decade ago. They (ICOM) say that the radios on the market now are all mostly counterfeit. The Lebanon comms agency said " The IC-V82 radios were not supplied by a recognized agent, were not officially licensed and had not been vetted by the security services". Very dumb.

As for the pagers, this is getting more interesting. BAC Consulting, the owner of the license from Gold Apollo, was incorporated in 2022, and only has one shareholder listed in the paperwork: a Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono. Her LinkedIn profile lists affiliations with organizations that haven't heard of her or only met in passing. NBC got ahold of her and she's claiming to be nothing more than a broker. There's no records of the company moving any kind of inventory or receiving deliveries. Hungary is denying BAC Consulting has ANY manufacturing capability. Definitely feels like a front company to me.