If you think you know everything you need to know about the Aug 2020 blast that destroyed half of Beirut - a blast that Human Rights Watch in a recent report calls "one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history" - here are some things that might change your mind
Thread 1/
Did you know that an Oct 2020 FBI report concluded only 552 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded on 4 Aug 2020, a FIFTH of 2,754 tonnes that arrived on a Russian-leased cargo ship in 2013 that was widely assumed from Day One to be the cause of the blast? 2/ reuters.com/world/middle-e…
Did you know all those bags of "NITROPRILL HD" seen in the photos of the Beirut warehouse were NOT blasting agents? The HD means "high density" which is the way NH4NO3 is prilled for FERTILIZER! "Experts" like Jeffrey Lewis @ArmsControlWonk were wrong to suggest otherwise. 3/
Did you know chemists STILL don't know why ammonium nitrate - which is NOT classified as an "explosive" - occasionally explodes although they have been studying AN's explosive properties for centuries? 4/ sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Did you know that for the last century the fairly universal opinion based on many small-scale tests as well as 1947 Texas City disaster was that detonation of AN by application of heat was IMPOSSIBLE w/o confinement AND added combustible or contaminating material? 5/
Did you know that, according to this fairly universal opinion, a fire in a warehouse w/black smoke billowing out its windows for 15 minutes or a supposed "fireworks explosion" that happened 30 seconds before does not qualify as "confinement" & thus would NOT detonate NH4NO3? 6/
Did you know that 1991 IChemE paper found "Despite the serious hazard posed by AN in a fire, there is NO recorded instance of fire induced explosion for pure ammonium nitrate. Large fire trials on multi-tonne quantities have produced the same result"? 7/ icheme.org/media/12120/xi…
Did you know this same 1991 IChemE paper also found
that "ammonium nitrate fertilisers (not necessarily explosive grade prills) will be very insensitive requiring a strong source of initiation (e.g. an adjacent condensed phase detonation) to pose a detonation threat"? 8/
Did you know official US Army FM 3-34.214 "Explosives and Demolitions" (July 2007) states "Ammonium nitrate is the least sensitive of military explosives. For successful detonation, it requires a booster charge" of, e.g., Composition C4 or TNT? 9/ info.publicintelligence.net/USArmy-Explosi…
Did you know “AN expert” Vyto Babrauskas has gone agst this fairly universal opinion to argue that it was "a large uncontrolled fire [that] raged in the port of Beirut, heated up stored ammonium nitrate and caused the blast" on 4 Aug 2020? 10/
Did you know Dr Babrauskas based this revisionist opinion on his 2015 historical analysis of 58 incidents (1920-2014) involving AN storage or transport facilities (excluding incidents involving ANFO or involvement of explosives other than AN)? 11/ sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Did you know that Dr Babrauskas concluded “uncontrollable fire” in presence of stored AN explained 100% of the 17 AN explosions so the odd thing becomes why the other 41 uncontrollable fires (70% of total) did NOT cause explosion, a question he does not seem interested in? 12/
Did you know that for Dr Babrauskas “uncontrollable fire” is the necessary & sufficient cause for AN detonation, sufficient b/c “contamination” & “confinement” don’t matter as fire's “fuel” contaminates & a pool of molten AN or a large AN pile due to its weight "may" confine? 13/
Did you know that to "prove" his non-falsifiable "theory", Dr Babrauskas resorts to identifying historical precedents of AN explosions that he says were caused by "uncontrollable fire"? Thus to critique his "theory" requires historical analysis of EACH of his 17 "precedents" 14/
Did you know that if we simply focus on the FOUR "precedents" of exploding AN warehouses (19% of 21 AN warehouse fires 1920-2014) we start to find anomalies right away? Newspapers say AN did NOT explode in 1966? Only 5-10 tons exploded in 1973 leaving 14,000 tons UNTOUCHED?! 15/
Did you know that Dr Babrauskas believes 2013 West Fertilizer explosion is sufficient precedent for his 2020 Beirut theory, a mini-version of Beirut explosion involving reported 40-60 tons of AN stored in a warehouse that he feels perfectly fits "uncontrollable fire" theory? 16/
Did you know that "official" 2013 West Fertilizer report shows a lot of parallels to "official" 2020 Beirut story? But if to DISPROVE "official" West Fertilizer explanation cannot DISPROVE "official" Beirut explanation, how can proving 2013 prove 2020? 17/ csb.gov/west-fertilize…
Did you know that if, for the sake of argument, we accept that the FBI's 552 tonnes or the "official" 2754 tonnes of NITROPRILL HD did explode in that warehouse in the port of Beirut on 4 Aug 2020, the "official" story of the Beirut explosion still has some MAJOR problems? 18/
Did you know that based on 2015 survey "high density fertilizer grade ammonium nitrate" (FGAN) - like NITROPRILL HD - has a TNT equivalency ranging from as low as 3% to as high as 15%? So how big an explosion would we expect from 552 or 2754 tonnes? 19/ researchgate.net/publication/29…
Did you know "explosive experts" compare the "size" of explosions by calculating how many pounds, tons, etc. of TNT it would take to produce the same explosive yield? They do this by multiplying the mass of the explosive by the explosive's TNT equivalent (aka RE factor). 20/
Did you know that when "explosive experts" say blast was 10 tons TNT equivalent they are referring to US ton (2000 lb)? Did you know that most Americans don't know that almost everywhere else in the world, when someone says "ton" or "tonne" they mean "metric ton" (~2200 lb)? 21/
Did you know that, after converting tonnes to US tons & multiplying by TNT equivalent (min 3%, max 15%), we calculate the FBI explosive yield of 18-91 tons TNT & "official" explosive yield of 91-455 tons TNT? "One of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history"? Hmm. 22/
Did you know on 4 Aug 2020 there were quite a few "experts" who believed the explosive yield was similarly on the order of "a few hundred tons", beginning with a "back of the envelope calculation" of ~240 tons tweeted by @GeorgeWHerbert that was popularized by @NarangVipin? 23/
Did you know on 4 Aug 2020 "nuclear expert" Jeffrey Lewis @ArmsControlWonk solidified "a few hundred tons" idea by assuming "NITROPRILL HD" was Nitropril knock-off & using TNT equivalency from Nitropril Fact Sheet of 20% (for bags) to find upper limit of 550 tons? 24/
Did you know the "a few hundred tons" idea was reported approvingly by Axios (upper left), Washington Post (upper right), NPR (lower left) & Reuters (lower right). 25/
Did you know that, on 4 Aug 2020 & days after, the most popular idea was an explosive yield of 3 kilotons TNT equivalent, likely based more often than not on "rookie mistake" of unthinkingly assuming TNT equivalency for AN of 100%, thus 2750 tonnes AN would be ~3000 tons TNT? 26/
Did you know British "nuclear expert" Chris Busby told Sputnik News 2750 tonnes AN "roughly equal to the power of 2.7 kt of TNT" & since Hiroshima ONLY 10-12 kt(?) the Beirut blast was 1/4 as big as Hiroshima & in THIRD PLACE among "explosions that have rocked a city"? 27/
Did you know, based on the standard view that Hiroshima blast was actually 15 kt, the idea that this "rookie mistake" 3 kt Beirut blast was actually 1/5 of Hiroshima but now in THIRD PLACE in "World's Top 5 Most Powerful Explosions"(!) started taking off on Twitter? 28/
Did you know major news sources like the Sun, U.S. Sun, Daily Mail & Sean Hannity start repeating the #FifthOfHiroshima line but NEVER sourced and NEVER actually stating the Beirut explosion was 3 kt TNT equivalent? 29/
Did you know another popular intermediate approach was to calculate the 2020 Beirut explosive yield using TNT equivalent of 0.42 reported by Wikipedia who got that number from that US Army FM 3-34.214 that said successful AN detonation requires a booster charge of C4 or TNT? 30/
Did you know that's what @nytimes did (using uncited US Army source) although they assumed 2750 "tonnes" was the same as 2750 "tons" to come up with 1,155 tons TNT for 2020 Beirut explosive yield? Other "experts" did the same basic calculation to estimate about 1 kt blast. 31/
Did you know that on 7 Aug 2020, three days after the blast, Wikipedia lowered its listing for AN's TNT equivalence from 0.42 to 0.34 based on SAME 2015 survey that showed "high density fertilizer grade ammonium nitrate" (FGAN) has TNT equivalency ranging from 0.03 to 0.15? 32/
Did you know the intermediate idea got major support 5 Aug 2020 when Evening Standard reported Sheffield U paper calculated yield of 1000-1500 tonnes TNT [1100-1650 US tons] - 1/10 of Hiroshima & consistent w/2750 tonnes AN - based on video analysis of fireball & shock wave? 33/
Did you know that while "experts" diverged wildly on how big a blast destroyed half of Beirut, once the PM announced 2750 tonnes AN had been stored in the warehouse where the explosion took place, these "experts" unanimously had NO DOUBT that those 2750 tonnes were the cause? 34/
Did you know these "experts" were even more strongly united by their absolute faith there was NO PHYSICAL WAY nuclear devices played any role in 2020 Beirut blast? Within hours, "fact-checkers" citing these "experts" ruled the nuclear idea FAKE NEWS! 35/ twitter.com/i/events/12907…
Did you know that, if you read the previous tweet in this thread, you are likely now suffering cognitive dissonance from the very suggestion that the nuclear idea may NOT be fake news? This just shows how effective #MSM & "so-called alternative media" #SCAM are at their jobs! 36/
Did you know while multitudes of people on social media remarked how Beirut was the closest the world had seen to what had happened in Hiroshima & Nagasaki, exceedingly few suggested Beirut had actually been nuked? There certainly was no public concern about radioactivity. 37/
Did you know while #MSM and #SCAM were busy promoting a "Middle East Hiroshima" narrative, they simultaneously unleashed their "fact-checkers" & associated "trolls" to make sure NO SANE PERSON took the Hiroshima analogy so far as to INSANELY suggest Beirut was ACTUALLY nuked? 38/
Did you know former ESPN reporter Chris Palmer @ChrisPalmerNBA was hit by a "troll" attack when after seeing a video of the "mushroom cloud" tweeted "There is no question that was an atomic bomb" & still gets trolled over it although he deleted the tweets almost right away? 39/
Did you know Tyler Durden's offense at @zerohedge
was simply his titillating choice of title "Did A Nuke Just Go Off in Beirut?” b/c body of article says "The cause of the massive explosion is as yet unknown"? He promptly changed the offensive title & deleted offensive tweet! 40/
Did you know that like @ChrisPalmerNBA after seeing this video of the Beirut explosion on 4 Aug 2020 I immediately thought the city was nuked & tweeted my reaction, adding some details from my research on other likely nuclear events in a short thread? 41/
Did you know, based on my experience on tweeting abt #911Truth & other historical controversies, I knew in my gut Beirut was going to be a taboo topic? Seeing how all the #SCAM celebs I had been following completely ignore Beirut only confirmed it. 42/
Did you know the arguments that "experts" were using to browbeat people into thinking anybody who thought Beirut may have been nuked was a crazy "conspiracy theorist" were unfortunately playing on widespread ignorance of how nuclear weapons worked? 43/
Did you know the approach of "experts" like Jeffrey Lewis was to say you are STUPID for questioning him, the "expert"? "This isn't that complicated, people. There is a fire & a secondary explosion. There are literally NONE of the phenomena one sees with a nuclear explosion." 44/
Did you know that each of the “fact checkers” in a classic “appeal to authority” fallacy reported the opinions of a COUPLE of “experts” with whom they had either been in direct communication and/or found on Twitter to make a sweeping conclusion about ALL “experts"? 45/
Did you know that the bulk of "fact-checkers" criticism - focused on claims Beirut was nuclear BECAUSE of "mushroom cloud" - was a "strawman fallacy" b/c “mushroom cloud” does NOT prove that Beirut explosion was NOT a nuclear event, as I discuss in more detail at my website? 46/
Did you know BTW of all Beirut "mushroom cloud" photos, I'll bet you've never seen this one tweeted 4 Aug 2020 (left) that shows impressive height the Beirut cloud reached & is the only photo I've seen that even compares to a ground-level view of Hiroshima cloud (right)? Hmm. 47/
Did you know some "experts" also argued Beirut couldn't be nuclear b/c a nuke would have had a “blinding white flash” although Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein admitted this was NOT true for "underground" nuclear detonations? So it could have been an underground nuke? 48/
Did you know some "experts" & "fact-checkers" suggested Beirut couldn't have been nuclear b/c "a nuclear explosion would be a lot more powerful and the cameraman would be gone" even though Business Insider mentioned @NuclearAnthro's tweet on nuclear 20-ton Davy Crockett? 49/
Did you know, most problematic for those who might think Beirut had been nuked, several “fact-checkers” mentioned lack of reports of radiation that would have been quickly detected? As already noted, despite Hiroshima comparisons NO ONE seemed concerned about radioactivity. 50/
Did you know that, contrary to what "fact-checkers" assert, just as it's POSSIBLE that an "underground nuke" and/or "small nuke" could've been used in Beirut, it's also POSSIBLE that a "clean nuke" like kind developed in US in 1970s could've been used? But more on that later! 51/
Did you know that, with a firm "fact-checker" taboo on any more hypothesizing about #BeirutNuked, there seems to have been an orchestrated effort to promote the idea that the Beirut blast was instead “the greatest NON-NUCLEAR explosion ever"? 52/
Did you know that this effort to promote Beirut as the greatest NON-NUCLEAR explosion ever did NOT, as one might expect, begin with those pushing Beirut as a 3 kt TNT explosion, FIFTH of Hiroshima & THIRD only to Hiroshima & Nagasaki? 53/
Did you know that, rather curiously, the idea of Beirut as the greatest NON-NUCLEAR explosion was initiated by "experts" who didn't really seem to care WHAT the actual explosive yield was, beginning with Richard Rabbat, "Sr. Director of Product, Platform @Twitter"? 54/
Did you know that on 5 Aug 2020 Prof Andy Tyas whose Sheffield U team had concluded Beirut blast was 1-1.5 kt told Evening Standard “WHATEVER the precise charge size, this is UNQUESTIONABLY one of the largest NON-NUCLEAR explosions in history”? 55/
Did you know this idea of Beirut as one of largest NON-NUCLEAR explosions was not a one-off but actually repeated ad nauseam in the days, weeks & months following the blast at a time when majority of the “expert” community divided btwn "a few hundred tons" and 1 kiloton? 56/
Did you know that if you had gone to the Wikipedia article on "Largest artificial non-nuclear explosions" on 4 Aug 2020 you would have found that the Beirut explosion even at 1 kt would not even have cracked the Top 10? 57/ web.archive.org/web/2020080413…
Did you know, indeed, explosions like 4-kt Minor Scale test & 3-kt 1917 Halifax & 1947 Texas City explosions are so much greater that it makes the idea of claiming a 1-kt explosion as "ONE of greatest non-nuclear explosions" rather questionable? 58/
Did you know NOBODY seemed to care about TOTAL DISCONNECT in "expert" & media claims like Reuters claim 14 Aug 2020 that Beirut blast "could be one of the STRONGEST non-nuclear explosions ever recorded" while reporting "experts" have estimated blast as ONLY 200-300 tons? Huh? 59/
Did you know by Sep 2020 the claim that the Beirut blast was one of the greatest NON-NUCLEAR blasts in history was simply taken for granted, at least to judge from @Wikipedia & the Twittersphere? 60/
Did you know 5 Oct 2020 Sheffield U team in their final report completely redid their video analysis of 2020 Beirut blast & radically lowered the explosive yield from original 1-1.5 kilotonnes TNT down to "best estimate" of .5 kt TNT w/"reasonable upper limit" of 1.12 kt TNT? 61/
Did you know despite cutting "best estimate" by over half to .5 kt, Sheffield U announced "one of the biggest non-nuclear blasts in history" - much as Prof Tyas had declared on 5 Aug 2020 for a 1-1.5 kilotonne blast - a claim that was widely reported around the world? 62/
Did you know by the end of 2020 the idea that Beirut was the greatest NON-NUCLEAR explosion has become a TRUISM that no longer requires any citation & gets repeated every time the August 2020 Beirut explosion comes up? 63/
Did you know even when in July 2021 Reuters reported the FBI report claimed only 552 tonnes AN had actually exploded on 4 Aug 2020, the paper automatically & unquestioningly added "The blast was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded"? 64/ reuters.com/world/middle-e…
Did you know that if we use the FBI's 552 tonnes AN, convert tonnes to tons, and multiply by the TNT equivalence for "NITROPRILL HD" ranging 3-15% (as already discussed), we're down to a minimum explosive yield of an amazing 18 tons TNT equivalent & max yield of only 90 tons? 65/
Did you know that, although the "one of the largest NON-NUCLEAR blasts in history" idea had from DAY ONE been UNTENABLE & over time become even NONSENSICAL, over a score of blue-check news sources tweeted homage to that SPECIOUS truism on 1st anniversary of 2020 Beirut blast? 66/
Did you know what makes this "largest NON-NUCLEAR blast" TRUISM even more SPECIOUS is that the EXACT SAME truism had been used for 37 years(!) - indeed right up to August 2020 - to describe the October 1983 bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut? 67/
Did you know what makes the claim that 1983 Beirut Marine barracks blast was "the largest non-nuclear explosion ever" absolutely LUDICROUS was the official DoD Commission (aka Long Commission) report concluded the "gas-enhanced" truck bomb was ONLY 6-9 tons TNT equivalent?! 68/
Did you know if an explosion that was ONLY max 9 ton TNT equiv could in 1983 be declared "the largest non-nuclear explosion ever" and NEVER challenged for 37 years until unceremoniously USURPED & DISAPPEARED on 4 Aug 2020 that there is SOMETHING ROTTEN IN DENMARK? 69/
Did you know the LAST reference I found to the Oct 1983 US Marine barracks blast as "the largest non-nuclear explosion" was in Arab News on 29 Apr 2020 - a little over 3 months before the Aug 2020 Beirut blast? 70/
Did you know that what you have to understand about the phrase "the largest non-nuclear explosion ever" is that back in Dec 1983 it entered the lexicon completely POLITICIZED as part of the so-called WAR ON TERROR and it remains just as heavily politicized today? 71/
Did you know further "the largest non-nuclear explosion ever" is politicized in a way that makes it politically SACROSANCT so that NO ONE part of (what I call) the Military-Industrial-Media-Academic Complex #MIMAC would dare question it no matter how LUDICROUS it might be? 72/
Did you know back in 1983 DoD had REAL "explosive experts" (not the FBI shills!) who had been studying explosions like the Marine barracks blast for decades & could have easily made mincemeat of the "official" story? But if they were ever consulted there is no record of it. 73/
Did you know if REAL "experts" had been allowed to HONESTLY study 1983 Marine barracks blast I believe they would have HAD to conclude that, far from being "the largest NON-NUCLEAR explosion ever", it was ACTUALLY "the smallest NUCLEAR explosion ever" akin to 10-ton #SADM?! 74/
Did you know that if you find yourself UNABLE to even IMAGINE US Marine barracks in Beirut MIGHT HAVE BEEN nuked back in October 1983, it just means that you have been truly psyoped by #WarOnTerror propaganda? 75/
Did you know part of #WarOnTerror propaganda campaign is keeping you as ignorant as possible about nuclear weapons, a campaign that actually started at the beginning of the #ColdWar when they didn't want you to know about radioactivity? 76/ smithsonianmag.com/history/hirosh…
Did you know you can tell how effective this #WarOnTerror propaganda worked b/c on 4 Aug 2020 during orchestrated "Middle East Hiroshima" campaign, the propagandists could rely on the fact that people had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what the bombing of Hiroshima looked like? 77/
Did you know on 75th anniversary of Hiroshima, this tweet & video clip - that depicts pretty closely what the 15-kt Little Boy nuke would have looked like detonating 1850 ft ABOVE Hiroshima - went viral? The Beirut blast LOOKED NOTHING like Hiroshima! 78/
Did you know propagandists were also totally uninterested in this fabulous color footage of what a surface burst of an ACTUAL 500 tons of TNT (Operation Sailor Hat) looked like even though looked AMAZINGLY LIKE 2020 Beirut blast? Why? Not powerful enough? TNT is not NH4NO3? 79/
Did you know the key to PROVING both 1983 Beirut & 2020 Beirut blasts were NUCLEAR is through analysis of the SIZE of the CRATER that each blast left behind? "Explosives experts" have long acknowledged cratering analysis is the gold standard for calculating explosive yield. 80/
Did you know, e.g., the FEMA report on 1995 OKC bombing calculated the "official" explosive yield of 4,000 pounds TNT based NOT on structural damage to Murrah Bldg, but dimensions of the CRATER that it says is the way yield is "usually inferred"? 81/ solargard.com/wp-content/upl…
Did you know in aftermath of 2020 Beirut blast once the massive size of the crater was revealed in numerous photos, some #MSM sources like Star Tribune (left) & Wired (right) acknowledged experts typically determine power of blast using "the size of the telltale crater"? 82/
Did you know the most useful tool I discovered for determining explosive yield based on crater dimensions for craters like those left by 1983 & 2020 Beirut blasts is Figure 4.3 “Scaled crater depth versus HOB (DOB) for large explosions in desert alluvium and similar media”? 83/
Did you know I found Fig 4.3 in a heavily redacted U. S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station report Operation Sun Beam, Shots Little Feller I and II: Crater Size and Shape (March 1965) & I don't think the censors knew how informative it was? 84/
Did you know it would take TOO MANY TWEETS to explain how to use Fig 4.3 so I've summarized the procedure (applied to the 2020 Beirut blast) in a chapter "The Telltale Crater & Nuclear Smoking Gun" on my website? 85/ drbairdonline.com/nuked/the-tell…
Did you know although the 1983 Beirut blast that killed 241 US military personnel was hardly "the largest non-nuclear explosion" it was certainly the most powerful "terrorist" explosive device as of that date which you can tell by these horrific descriptions from survivors? 86/
Did you know besides the tremendous blast, other evidence suggesting US Marine barracks had been nuked were numerous reports of a "mushroom cloud" over Beirut & statements like "Some things simply vaporized", some bodies never recovered & others "burned beyond recognition"? 87/
Did you know that using Fig 4.3 & rest of 1983 Beirut blast analysis from my Sep 2020 thread, I concluded NO WAY a truck bomb could have blasted this 8' 8" deep crater? The best explanation was a shallowly buried 10-ton TNT equivalent mini-nuke. 88/
Did you know if you've been properly propagandized you didn't know 10-ton nukes even existed or nukes could be detonated underground? But smallest nuke in US arsenal WAS 10-ton Special Atomic Demolition Munition #SADM designed to be detonated underground - to blast craters! 89/
Did you know also that if you thought that you could tell if a bomb was a nuke because of the BRIGHT WHITE FLASH, then you obviously didn't know burying the nuke not very far underground meant - voila! - no flash? Compare surface 1.2 kt nuke (l) & 1.2 kt nuke buried 17 ft (r) 90/
Did you know, at some point in this thread, if you are a normal person, even if you who have been only minimally propagandized after US govt acknowledged "fallout" might be problem in 1954, you have already asked “If it’s nuke, where’s the radioactivity?” 91/
Did you know "experts" who raise the "radioactivity" question ANYTIME somebody says an explosion even APPEARS nuclear do not want you know about the long history of US efforts to develop "clean" nukes going back to the 1950s discussed in this thread? 92/
Did you know, long story short, Lawrence Livermore #LLNL announced among "Highlights of Laboratory achievements during 1979" “A three-year development program has culminated in a new kind of tactical nuclear explosive, the reduced-residual-radioactivity (RRR) weapon"? 93/
Did you know LLNL reported "The fallout & rainout resulting from the surface burst of an #RRR explosive can be more than an order of magnitude less than that produced by an all-fission explosive of the same yield” & "thermal collateral damage" reduced "about a factor of two"? 94/
Did you know that although LLNL's report focused on "surface bursts" several #MSM reports in late 1970s made it quite clear the "reduced residual radiation bomb" #RRR weapon was designed to replace the #SADM with all its many uses, detonated ON or UNDER the ground? 95/
Did you know Apr 1978 Washington Post reported "a BLAST BOMB...is planned to explode ON or UNDER the ground, throwing enormous amounts of debris" & quoted govt nuclear weapons expert "This is the original idea of a 'CLEAN BOMB'...designed to create a minimum amt of fallout"? 96/
Did you know May 1978 AP reported US nuclear scientists "still years away from producing a “clean” tactical nuclear bomb but...have gone a long way toward mastering the key process which would result in total combustion of nuclear materials in an explosion"? 97/
Did you know May 1978 NYTimes wrote “The BLAST BOMB would be detonated at ground level...Its tactical mission on the battlefield might be to DIG HUGE CRATERS, DEMOLISH BUILDINGS or bury mtn passes under debris” but “MINIMIZE RESIDUAL RADIATION”? 98/
Did you know July 1978 Joseph Albright reported some US officials wanted to replace all ADMs w/"a new weapon" - the “reduced residual radiation earth penetrator" - "now in the R&D stage...intended to be dropped from an airplane or launched from a medium-range missile"? 99/
Did you know, while #WarOnTerror propaganda campaign has disappeared knowledge of #RRR weapons, physicist Heinz Pommer has pieced together this modified Teller-Ulam model showing how a 3rd-generation RRR nuke could have been designed to emit only strong directed X-rays? 100/
Did you know, as I concluded in my Sep 2020 thread, that ALL the nuclear states who developed the "neutron bomb" - US, USSR, Israel, France, China -were fully capable of developing a 3rd-generation RRR weapon & furthermore that they all did? 101/
Did you know if a shallowly buried 10-ton RRR nuke can explain what destroyed US Marine barracks & killed 241 US military personnel in Beirut in Oct 1983, an RRR nuke - albeit MUCH bigger AND deeper - could also explain what destroyed port of Beirut & killed 215 in Aug 2020? 102/
Did you know the "nuclear smoking gun" of the 2020 Beirut explosion is the enormous crater it blasted? So how big was this crater? Already by 5 Aug 2020 the general consensus was established that, using satellite imagery, the crater diameter was in the 120-150 meter range. 103/
Did you know on 9 Aug 2020 #MSM outlets all around the world published Agence France-Presse (AFP) report of a “Lebanese security official” citing assessments by “French experts on the scene” that the Beirut port blast crater was 43 meters (141 feet) deep?! 104/
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In previous threads I have laid out the long history of Netanyahu's "Hamas is ISIS" & "battle of civilization agst barbarism" rhetoric that dominated Zionist hasbara in aftermath of 10/7. What still needs to be told is the story of those who chose to fight this hasbara.
Thread 1/
Late on 10/7, Israeli PM Netanyahu tweeted (in Hebrew) to the citizens of Israel "Hamas started a cruel and evil war...Hamas wants to murder us all. It is an enemy who murders children and mothers in their homes, in their beds..." 2/
On 10/9 Netanyahu addressed the citizens of Israel in Hebrew & English. In English he said "Hamas is ISIS. And just as the forces of civilization united to defeat ISIS, the forces of civilization must support Israel in defeating Hamas." 3/
Up until 10/7 Netanyahu's rhetoric dating back to the 1980s that "the battle agst terrorism was part of a MUCH LARGER STRUGGLE, one btwn the forces of civilization & the forces of barbarism" had been treated as hyperbole. Is it still hyperbole?
Thread 1/
To understand whether Netanyahu's post-10/7 rhetoric threatens WWIII or just revival of Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, a good start is to compare/contrast how identical rhetorical elements played out in 2014 "Gaza War" & are currently playing out in 2023 "Israel-Hamas War" 2/
A key rhetorical device employed in both Gaza wars was the meme "Hamas is ISIS, ISIS is Hamas", personally introduced & propagandized by Netanyahu in the last week of the six-week long 2014 Gaza War (8 July – 26 August 2014) 3/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Gaza…
No doubt if Netanyahu gave this "battle of civilization against barbarism" speech before joint session of Congress, he would break the record of 29 standing ovations he got in 2011! But what is it w/this WWII rhetoric? What happened to the "War on Terror"?
As Christopher Bollyn outlined in 2018, "the War on Terror is essentially an Israeli war strategy," first promoted on world stage by Netanyahu & Menachem Begin at Jerusalem Conference hosted by Netanyahu Institute in July 1979 web.archive.org/web/2018111208…
Netanyahu continued as the leading proponent of "the global War on Terror" through the 1980s & 1990s with books like "Terrorism" How The West Can Win" (1986) & "Fighting Terrorism" (1995)
Richard Medhurst & Paul Lookman have recently raised doubts 2020 #BeirutBlast was an ACCIDENT, observing how destruction of port of Beirut fit into a pattern along w/other recent events that can ALL be seen as part of a #USrael plan for Netanyahu’s “New Middle East”
Thread 1/
Both @richimedhurst & @PaulLookman suggest war in Ukraine, sanctions on Russia, blowing up Nord Stream pipelines, US occupation of & Israeli bombing of Syria, killing of Iranian nuclear deal all part of plan to give Israel oil & gas monopoly in Europe 2/
@richimedhurst @PaulLookman Both also see geopolitical motives behind the recent Gaza genocide/Nakba 2.0 as Israel needs to "extinguish the Palestinian issue once and for all" in order to provide the regional "stability" necessary for #USRAEL to carry out "New Middle East" agenda 3/ geopolitiekincontext.wordpress.com/2023/10/28/de-…
On 22 Jan 2004, "Joe Vialls" posted an article "Fortress Americas, Part 2" on his website in which he made the startling claim "the Zionists" were responsible for blowing up the US & French Marine barracks in Beirut on 23 Oct 1983. So WHO was this mysterious Joe Vialls?
Thread/
1
Joe Vialls more startlingly claimed "the Zionists" had NUKED the US & French Marines by detonating "two Dimona micro nukes" outside their barracks! But was he REALLY the impoverished, seriously ill Aussie working out of his home he portrayed himself as? 2/ web.archive.org/web/2005011510…
Vialls stated "The Zionists were furious when the multinational peace keeping force invaded their new training ground." So was "Joe Vialls" really the "extreme right wing" "anti-semitic" conspiracy theorist B'nai B'rith tried to paint him as? 3/
What could have caused this "cloud" at "surface zero" above the Nord Stream 1 explosion site in this photo taken at 19:12 (UTC+2) on 26 Sep 2022? Was it a "plume" from a 1-4 kiloton underwater nuke? A "fountain" from escaping methane? Could it have possibly been both?
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In the past year, two "citizen investigators" - Hans-Benjamin Braun @Ben68638515 (l) & Erik Andersson @Erkperk (r) - w/very different ideas on what caused the 2022 Nord Stream explosions, have done more than anyone to analyze the physical effects of these explosions 2/
@Ben68638515 @Erkperk Swiss physicist Hans-Benjamin Braun laid out his basic ideas in a 31 Dec 2022 paper "Nordstream - Anatomy of Dante's Explosion" that he immediately started circulating to other academics, journalists, politicians, governments, etc. 3/ drive.proton.me/urls/HYVJAJ3P5…