Beirut

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Rita

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Just been watching the videos from Beirut - that explosion looks awful, so many people hurt and injured. The number of people killed keeps rising. I was at work when I first heard about it and presumed it was a military attack of some kind, didn’t realise how big it was until I got home and watched it on my iPad.
Really sad for everyone there, sure hope other countries can reach them with support and aid
Rita
 

farouk

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Sad; I remember in the mid 70s when Lebanon had its civil war with seeming cease-fires constantly being broken.
 
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Rita

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Hi Farouk,
Yes, I remember that as well. There is something about this explosion that hits harder for some reason , which doesn’t really make any sense because war is just as devasting. Maybe it’s ‘ seeing ‘ one explosion and then witnessing the aftershock that did so much damage. Same feeling I got when watching the Twin towers fall
Rita
 

farouk

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Hi Farouk,
Yes, I remember that as well. There is something about this explosion that hits harder for some reason , which doesn’t really make any sense because war is just as devasting. Maybe it’s ‘ seeing ‘ one explosion and then witnessing the aftershock that did so much damage. Same feeling I got when watching the Twin towers fall
Rita
@Rita Interesting; the explosion which killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was also huge.

Part of the issue is the strategic location of Lebanon; in fact, what is now Lebanon used to be referred to as Syria, as indeed was Palestine.
 
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farouk

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This is an excerpt from Spy Games (2001), with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, based loosely on the CIA's attempt to blow up Sheikh Fadlallah in Beirut in 1985. The story is told by Bob Woodward in his book 'Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA'.


I reckon it can be said that, once the genie is out of the bottle, so to speak, these kinds of events can all to easily become part of the political culture.

(Let's indeed hope the latest bomb in Beirut was an accident...)
 
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farouk

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Here is a quote from Bob Woodward's account of the CIA's ruthless exercise of lethal meddling in the Middle East; the references are to former CIA head William Casey and former long-serving Saudi Ambassador in Washington, DC, Prince Bandar bin Sultan:

(This quote is completely unedited: )
.......

'The Saudis came up with an Englishman who had served in the British Special Air Services, the elite commando special operations forces. This man traveled extensively around the Middle East, and went in and out of Lebanon from another Arab state. He would be an ideal leader of a sophisticated operation. The CIA, of course, could have nothing to do with "elimination." The Saudis, if asked would back a CIA denial concerning involvement or knowledge. Liaison with foreign intelligence services was one CIA activity out of the reach of congressional oversight; Casey had flatly refused to tell the committees about this sensitive work. And in this case, the CIA as an institution did not know. Nothing was written down, there were no records. The Saudi $3 million deposited in the Geneva account was "laundered" through transfers among other bank accounts, making sure it could not be traced.
The Englishman established operational compartments to carry out separate parts of the assassination plan; none had any communication with any other except through him. Several men were hired to procure a large quantity of explosives; another man was hired to find a car; money was paid to informants to make sure they knew where Fadlallah would be at a certain time; another group was hired to design an after-action deception so that the Saudis and the CIA would not be connected; the Lebanese intelligence service hired the men to carry out the operation.
On March 8, 1985, a car packed with explosives was driven into a Beirut suburb about fifty yards from Fadlallah's high-rise residence. The car exploded, killing eighty and wounding two hundred, leaving devastation, fires and collapsed buildings. Anyone who had happened to be in the immediate neighborhood was killed, hurt or terrorized, but Fadlallah escaped without injury. His followers strung a huge "MADE IN USA" banner in front of a building that had been blown out.'
.......

Source:
Bob Woodward, Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987, New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, Tokyo: Simon and Schuster, p. 397.

(The Hollywood movie Spy Game (2001), with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, is partly based on the US attempt to kill Sheikh Fadlallah.)
 

Enoch111

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Just been watching the videos from Beirut - that explosion looks awful, so many people hurt and injured. The number of people killed keeps rising...
There was a very simple solution for resolving the bloodshed in Syria which has been going on for decades. Probably countless millions have died for nothing. The Assads should have been executed as war criminals. Or pinpoint targeted with a missile to be obliterated.
 

historyb

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Just been watching the videos from Beirut - that explosion looks awful, so many people hurt and injured. The number of people killed keeps rising. I was at work when I first heard about it and presumed it was a military attack of some kind, didn’t realise how big it was until I got home and watched it on my iPad.
Really sad for everyone there, sure hope other countries can reach them with support and aid
Rita

Lord have mercy!
 
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farouk

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There was a very simple solution for resolving the bloodshed in Syria which has been going on for decades. Probably countless millions have died for nothing. The Assads should have been executed as war criminals. Or pinpoint targeted with a missile to be obliterated.
On whose behalf would you supposedly go and kill a lot of ppl in government in Syria?
 

Heart2Soul

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Just been watching the videos from Beirut - that explosion looks awful, so many people hurt and injured. The number of people killed keeps rising. I was at work when I first heard about it and presumed it was a military attack of some kind, didn’t realise how big it was until I got home and watched it on my iPad.
Really sad for everyone there, sure hope other countries can reach them with support and aid
Rita
Very sad indeed....I haven't been watching any news so I didn't hear about it. Prayers for Beirut.
 
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Rita

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Why does a post about a tragic event have to become a thread about political issues- if and when they state that this was a bomb attack, then have your debates. I posted the OP out of concern for everyone affected by yesterday’s events.
Ordinary people going about their daily lives, then without warning you witness tragedy unfold. I couldn’t care less about previous wars, or what should have, could have happened in the past. My heart is with the people injured, and those who have lost loved ones - it’s called compassion, something some on here appear to need a dose of..........

Rita
 
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Rita

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This is an excerpt from Spy Games (2001), with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, based loosely on the CIA's attempt to blow up Sheikh Fadlallah in Beirut in 1985. The story is told by Bob Woodward in his book 'Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA'.


I reckon it can be said that, once the genie is out of the bottle, so to speak, these kinds of events can all to easily become part of the political culture.

(Let's indeed hope the latest bomb in Beirut was an accident...)
They believe it was a fire in a factory that set of the explosion, no mention of a bomb as yet.
Rita
 
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farouk

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Why does a post about a tragic event have to become a thread about political issues- if and when they state that this was a bomb attack, then have your debates. I posted the OP out of concern for everyone affected by yesterday’s events.
Ordinary people going about their daily lives, then without warning you witness tragedy unfold. I couldn’t care less about previous wars, or what should have, could have happened in the past. My heart is with the people injured, and those who have lost loved ones - it’s called compassion, something some on here appear to need a dose of..........

Rita
@Rita Sorry; I shouldn't have gone off at a tagent, albeit for context.

We trust that humanitarian efforts will speedily help those who are injured.
 
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Rita

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It’s okay Farouk, not really having a massive dig at anyone , it just frustrates me when so many things get turned into a political discussion. In the moment my concerns were with the present event in Beirut - just that - perhaps I should have put it in the prayer forum xx
Rita
 
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farouk

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It’s okay Farouk, not really having a massive dig at anyone , it just frustrates me when so many things get turned into a political discussion. In the moment my concerns were with the present event in Beirut - just that - perhaps I should have put it in the prayer forum xx
Rita
@Rita It's good indeed to be sensitive to the suffering of people who meet with sudden tragedy.

I expect more facts will emerge on the news, as the hours go by.
 
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Enoch111

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On whose behalf would you supposedly go and kill a lot of ppl in government in Syria?
Not a lot of people. On behalf of the suffering people of Syria, just one or two men would need to be executed. Assad himself and whoever is next in line. Once the head of the snake is cut off, the rest of the body dies. This is called a *surgical strike* for a good reason. When the tumor is removed, the patient can heal.
 
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Rita

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@farouk,
They are saying this morning that the explanation was caused by tonnes of ammonium nitrate being stored in a warehouse at the port. It was taken off a ship in 2014 and placed in storage. It shouldn’t have been there, and someone will be held to account over why it was there and why it was not secured in safe storage. They believe that welding was taking place nearby.
Rita
 
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