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https://asiatimes.com/2020/08/who-profits-from-the-beirut-blast/ https://asiatimes.com/2020/08/who-profits-from-the-beirut-bl... an alternative perspective whic

https://asiatimes.com/2020/08/who-profits-from-the-beirut-blast/ https://asiatimes.com/2020/08/who-profits-from-the-beirut-bl... an alternative perspective which has a level of detail and questions that has been missing from western media but is arguably from a hostile source

olivermarks 6y ago
non paywall link https://www.globalresearch.ca/who-profits-beirut-blast/5720678 https://www.globalresearch.ca/who-profits-beirut-blast/57206...
- the-pigeon 6y ago
  Doesn't really say anything useful. It is just bringing up that various hostile parties could have known about the ammonium nitrate being there and had motivation to blow it up. Which yeah duh. But having the motivation and the means to do something is not evidence that you did it. The actual evidence completely lines up with the original post. Not to say we shouldn't consider the conspiracy theories just that this one like the others isn't supported by the evidence.
jcranmer 6y ago
I downvoted you because the article you link is basically insane conspiratorializing, based on the non-paywall link in the sibling comment. It doesn't even keep the conspiracy theories straight: * It was a plot by Russia to give explosives to Syria in a roundabout way [but it sits in Beirut for years despite being nominally in the hands of the people who are supposed to be delivering it?] * Israel blew it up with a secret missile/bomb/weapon thinking it was a Hezbollah weapons cache and only realized their mistake after too much went up [because hyper-competent spy agency somehow decides that the best way to take out a large amount of explosive that dominates the list of largest non-nuclear explosions is to blow it up, or maybe they somehow did the intel figuring there was a large weapons cache but couldn't figure out what it was?] * It's a US-France-Saudi conspiracy to seize control of the Lebanese economy and destroy the Chinese Belt-and-Road Initiative [that last bit comes out of nowhere actually].
- olivermarks 6y ago
  Happy to be downvoted on HN! I agree there is much conjecture and projections in the article but it does provide various facts about the peculiar route the materials took to get to Beirut, lots of other questions about lack of bureaucratic oversight etc etc... I do feel there is a dangerous trend towards labelling investigative journalism as 'conspiracy theories' and 'insane'. Facts are always interesting, ideas about them often less so.
ufmace 6y ago
That article seems to be a weird mish-mash of 3-5 contradictory conspiracy theories. It rants a good long while about how various forces in various countries want to take control of Lebanon etc through various means. Okay maybe it's true that they would want to do that, but how are any of these forces responsible for the local authorities keeping thousands of tons of explosives in a port warehouse for years, and then deciding to store some fireworks in there too, and then having somebody try to weld on the door of that warehouse? I mean, I don't even say "conspiracy theory" in a hostile way. It's not impossible that one of those is actually true. But if we're supposed to be convinced of any of them, how about if they at least pick one and stick to it, and then maybe provide something more solid than wild speculation about how/why it would have happened in that particular way? A few vague tweets by the Israeli PM that could mean pretty much anything doesn't prove much, nor does a claim by a source based in a country hostile to the US to have seen multiple US reconnaissance planes of an unspecified type in the area at some unspecified time and location and means of detection.

olivermarks 6y ago

non paywall link https://www.globalresearch.ca/who-profits-beirut-blast/5720678 https://www.globalresearch.ca/who-profits-beirut-blast/57206...

the-pigeon 6y ago
Doesn't really say anything useful. It is just bringing up that various hostile parties could have known about the ammonium nitrate being there and had motivation to blow it up. Which yeah duh. But having the motivation and the means to do something is not evidence that you did it. The actual evidence completely lines up with the original post. Not to say we shouldn't consider the conspiracy theories just that this one like the others isn't supported by the evidence.

jcranmer 6y ago

I downvoted you because the article you link is basically insane conspiratorializing, based on the non-paywall link in the sibling comment. It doesn't even keep the conspiracy theories straight: * It was a plot by Russia to give explosives to Syria in a roundabout way [but it sits in Beirut for years despite being nominally in the hands of the people who are supposed to be delivering it?] * Israel blew it up with a secret missile/bomb/weapon thinking it was a Hezbollah weapons cache and only realized their mistake after too much went up [because hyper-competent spy agency somehow decides that the best way to take out a large amount of explosive that dominates the list of largest non-nuclear explosions is to blow it up, or maybe they somehow did the intel figuring there was a large weapons cache but couldn't figure out what it was?] * It's a US-France-Saudi conspiracy to seize control of the Lebanese economy and destroy the Chinese Belt-and-Road Initiative [that last bit comes out of nowhere actually].

olivermarks 6y ago
Happy to be downvoted on HN! I agree there is much conjecture and projections in the article but it does provide various facts about the peculiar route the materials took to get to Beirut, lots of other questions about lack of bureaucratic oversight etc etc... I do feel there is a dangerous trend towards labelling investigative journalism as 'conspiracy theories' and 'insane'. Facts are always interesting, ideas about them often less so.

ufmace 6y ago

That article seems to be a weird mish-mash of 3-5 contradictory conspiracy theories. It rants a good long while about how various forces in various countries want to take control of Lebanon etc through various means. Okay maybe it's true that they would want to do that, but how are any of these forces responsible for the local authorities keeping thousands of tons of explosives in a port warehouse for years, and then deciding to store some fireworks in there too, and then having somebody try to weld on the door of that warehouse? I mean, I don't even say "conspiracy theory" in a hostile way. It's not impossible that one of those is actually true. But if we're supposed to be convinced of any of them, how about if they at least pick one and stick to it, and then maybe provide something more solid than wild speculation about how/why it would have happened in that particular way? A few vague tweets by the Israeli PM that could mean pretty much anything doesn't prove much, nor does a claim by a source based in a country hostile to the US to have seen multiple US reconnaissance planes of an unspecified type in the area at some unspecified time and location and means of detection.