Exploding Pagers and Walkie Talkies In Lebanon?

[redrumloa]

Yesterday we were told that Hezbollah totally serious still uses pagers widely and they started exploding all at once, causing at least 1,000 casualties. Today we are told that the same thing was happening with walkie talkies exploding.

My first thought was the whole concept was ridiculous. Who uses PAGERS in 2024? Lebanon is a modern country with even EV cars and infrastructure. Pagers? My gut feeling was they were explosive devices disguised as pagers and a foreign actor such as Israel figured out the signal to ignite them all. Back in the day my pagers were either a single or double AA battery. They didn't use a lot of juice back then and should use less today. Why bother with lithium batteries? Even if they did, they must be extremely tiny and not enough to explode in a way to maim or kill 1k people? Today they are saying it happened again but with walkie talkies? In the age of dirt cheap cell phones are walkie talkies still in huge use? More likely than PAGERS, but still.

I'm not sure what to think. Yesterday I thought maybe the pagers were mini-bombs disguised as pagers and maybe incompetence caused mass premature detonation. Today it happening again with supposed walkie talkies, maybe it is a foreign actor "hacking". I still find it wild the concept a "hack" could cause these explosions of simple consumer devices. The US now sees it necessary to declare publicly no involvement.

That alone makes me think maybe the US was indeed involved.

Talk me off the ledge here with some facts and not MSM spin. Are there really poorly made PAGERS and walkie talkies out in the wild in huge numbers that are easily made to explode by a simple hack?

 

[Robert]

Yesterday we were told that Hezbollah totally serious still uses pagers widely and they started exploding all at once, causing at least 1,000 casualties. Today we are told that the same thing was happening with walkie talkies exploding.

My first thought was the whole concept was ridiculous. Who uses PAGERS in 2024? Lebanon is a modern country with even EV cars and infrastructure. Pagers? My gut feeling was they were explosive devices disguised as pagers and a foreign actor such as Israel figured out the signal to ignite them all. Back in the day my pagers were either a single or double AA battery. They didn't use a lot of juice back then and should use less today. Why bother with lithium batteries? Even if they did, they must be extremely tiny and not enough to explode in a way to maim or kill 1k people? Today they are saying it happened again but with walkie talkies? In the age of dirt cheap cell phones are walkie talkies still in huge use? More likely than PAGERS, but still.

I'm not sure what to think. Yesterday I thought maybe the pagers were mini-bombs disguised as pagers and maybe incompetence caused mass premature detonation. Today it happening again with supposed walkie talkies, maybe it is a foreign actor "hacking". I still find it wild the concept a "hack" could cause these explosions of simple consumer devices. The US now sees it necessary to declare publicly no involvement.

That alone makes me think maybe the US was indeed involved.

Talk me off the ledge here with some facts and not MSM spin. Are there really poorly made PAGERS and walkie talkies out in the wild in huge numbers that are easily made to explode by a simple hack?

Haven't had time to dig too deep but my initial understanding is that Hezbollah operatives were banned from using mobiles to communicate due to Israeli spying. They seemingly ordered a batch of several thousand pagers instead and distributed them to trusted operatives (including, it seems, the Iranian ambassador). Unbeknown to them, Israel managed to get hold of them, with some suggesting the company in Hungary(?) who built them under license was set up by Mossad. During manufacture, a few grams of high explosive was inserted.
Of course, I have no way of demonstrating any of this is true but, given Israel's previous track record, it doesn't seem at all far fetched to me. Are the US involved? Could be, they were involved in Stuxnet, for example, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that yet.

 

[redrumloa]

Haven't had time to dig too deep but my initial understanding is that Hezbollah operatives were banned from using mobiles to communicate due to Israeli spying. They seemingly ordered a batch of several thousand pagers instead and distributed them to trusted operatives (including, it seems, the Iranian ambassador). Unbeknown to them, Israel managed to get hold of them, with some suggesting the company in Hungary(?) who built them under license was set up by Mossad. During manufacture, a few grams of high explosive was inserted.
Of course, I have no way of demonstrating any of this is true but, given Israel's previous track record, it doesn't seem at all far fetched to me. Are the US involved? Could be, they were involved in Stuxnet, for example, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that yet.

Yeah I haven't deep dived yet either but this seems much more plausible than the story being told day one which was some variation of a "software hack that overheated the batteries, causing them to heat up and then explode". I did happen upon this Reuters article:

Who still uses pagers anyway?​

The TLDR is there's still a use in the healthcare industry, but outside that they imply only organized criminal users. They also state a number of at least 7 dead and 3,000 injured. On my drive in this morning I heard a blurb that the brand of devices was fake. The manufacturer of that brand said they didn't make them and some Hungarian company did. They did not clarify that if that meant they were counterfeit or just made under license. It was also implied that Israel inserted themselves in the process somehow to alter the devices (probably explosives).

This is all much more plausible, but still leaves a whole lot of questions unanswered. I still can't shake the feeling that Hezbollah had these made as weapons to be deployed in a terror attack at some point and Israel found out and detonated them before that attack could happen. I have no proof of that beyond my own speculation with little info.

If these were weapons for terror that Israel found out and preemptively detonated, I'd say all's fair in war.

If these were an off the shelf brand anyone could buy and Israel inserted themselves to put explosives in, that's straight up terrorism. (unlikely?)

If these were bought in bulk by Hezbollah for Hezbollah for legitimate communication for privacy concerns, I'd still say that's terrorism.

I wonder if we'll ever get the true unfiltered facts.

 

[Robert]

On my drive in this morning I heard a blurb that the brand of devices was fake. The manufacturer of that brand said they didn't make them and some Hungarian company did. They did not clarify that if that meant they were counterfeit or just made under license.

As I said above, "some suggesting the company in Hungary(?) who built them under license was set up by Mossad". That was the story going around yesterday, and the one I find most plausible (for now).

It was also implied that Israel inserted themselves in the process somehow to alter the devices (probably explosives).

Also mentioned above.

I still can't shake the feeling that Hezbollah had these made as weapons to be deployed in a terror attack at some point and Israel found out and detonated them before that attack could happen.

I doubt that. Seems much more likely Israel planted the explosives and were hoping to use them at a future date. Another rumour that was doing the rounds the other day was they were expecting a Hezbollah invasion and were to be set off when it started but they received intelligence that the whole scheme was about to be uncovered so cut their losses and detonated them early. That seems plausible to me. Especially in light of the walkie-talkie-boomie situation the following day.

If these were an off the shelf brand anyone could buy and Israel inserted themselves to put explosives in, that's straight up terrorism. (unlikely?)

If these were bought in bulk by Hezbollah for Hezbollah for legitimate communication for privacy concerns, I'd still say that's terrorism.

It's definitely terrorism. In fact, with the panic it seems to have caused amongst Hezbollah it's the textbook definition of terrorism. On the other hand, Hezbollah are committed to the complete elimination of Israel so "couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of lads," etc.

I wonder if we'll ever get the true unfiltered facts.

Almost certainly not.

 

[redrumloa]

As I said above, "some suggesting the company in Hungary(?) who built them under license was set up by Mossad". That was the story going around yesterday, and the one I find most plausible (for now).

Also mentioned above.

I wasn't arguing with you, just mentioning what I heard/read in comparison, some matching.

 

[redrumloa]

Supposedly the full story.

New Details Emerge On How Israel Got Booby-Trapped Pagers, Walkie Talkies Into Hezbollah’s Hands​