Blowing Up
Thousands of pagers exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday in what appears to have been a coordinated attack by Israel against members of the Hezbollah militia.
The unprecedented attack reportedly killed 12 people—including a young girl—and injured at least 3,000. Videos and photos posted to social media showed the aftermath: busted bellies and bloodied groins. As you might expect, injuries to the eyes and hands also appear to be common. Mojtaba Amani, Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, reportedly lost an eye and had the other wounded in the attack.
Critical malfunction. Despite initial speculation that Israel had caused the pagers to blow by simply sending a signal that overheated the device’s lithium batteries—the sort of thing that could be used to target any similar device—the explosive force of the detonations suggested something else was involved. Lithium batteries can burn intensely when damaged or overheated, but they don’t explode.
Instead, it appears that Israeli Mossad agents somehow tampered with the pagers to insert a small amount of explosives. American officials speaking anonymously told The New York Times that “explosive material, as little as one to two ounces, was implanted next to the battery in each pager,” along with a switch that could be activated remotely.
The pagers had been bought from Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese company, but had been manufactured in Hungary by a company called BAC Consulting, Reuters reports. The tampering that turned the devices into miniature bombs appears to have occurred at the manufacturing level, and BAC Consulting doesn’t appear to be a run-of-the-mill tech firm, to say the least: According to Reuters, the company’s “registered activities are wide ranging, from computer game publishing to IT consulting to crude oil extraction.” That sure sounds like a front to me.
The cycle of violence continues. In a statement after the attack, Hezbollah vowed a “reckoning” for Israel in response to the attack. Miri Eisin, a fellow at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, which is based in Israeli, told the Times that the attack was “an amazing tactical event” that seems to lack a clear strategic goal.
Turning personal communication devices into mini, automated suicide bombers and then setting them off in public spaces with little regard for the collateral damage seems more like terrorism than anything that could be construed as self-defense.
Going down? In other news, the Federal Reserve is expected to announce a cut to its baseline interest rate on Wednesday—but the big question is how much of a cut the central bank will make.
The Federal Reserve hiked interest rates 11 times between March 2022 and July 2023 in an attempt to combat inflation. As a result, the baseline rate climbed from near 0 to over 5 percent, and the bank’s
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