I do, it as in Africa i think

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, September 17, 2024 - 09:07 pm: Edit

There are several opinions on how an administration should be organized.

Lincoln famously invited political opponents to his administration, some with mixed results. There was a Very good book about it titled “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kerns Goodwin.

Truman had several Republicans in his Cabinet. There are others, but if I name them, I suspect Web Mom will blow out several whole banks of circuit breakers. Not sure how the reptiles would react.

Another approach is to select politically reliable individuals whose loyalty is to the party, not the government or a constitution or even a monarchy.

Government administration based on political reliability has a very bad reputation. Italy under il Duce was particularly bad.

It seems political reliability is not a guide to “competence”.

For a modern day example, one need look no further than the current Labour government under Keir Starmer in United Kingdom.

Elected with a “Majority” of just 20% of the actual voters in the last election. (Worse than Americas electoral winner take all system), Labour scored big with the infamous “first past the post” method. Labor controls over 400 MP seats, with the tories and Nigel Farages reform parties far behind.

Depending on the source, it seems that there has been one misstep after another by the governing party in the U.K.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 12:02 am: Edit

Another version of the story is that Hezbollah ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan. They wanted a secret Communication system that Israel could not track or eavesdrop. Hezbollah was convinced Israel

Israel intercepted the shipment and added 20 grams of PTEN explosives to each pager. Waiting until the pagers had been distributed, a signal at 3:30 pm detonated all of the pagers. This resulted in thousands of Hezbollah members and a few civilians injured. Some lost fingers or a hand. Others had the pager explode in their pocket or on their belts.

This theory is currently thought to be the correct one.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 03:57 am: Edit

Latest report indicates that of the 3000 Hezbollah members wounded by exploding pagers, 500 were permanently blinded.

By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 07:45 am: Edit

Reports on BBC this morning indicate that the pagers may have been knockoff versions of the Taiwanese pager manufactured in Hungary.

Could Israel have set up a front company to do this?

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 08:29 am: Edit

You can easily monitor pagers. What you can't do is track them because they are wholly passive.

I read the story and Hezbollah is saying lots of children and women were killed.

1) An overheating battery shouldn't "detonate." Deflagrate eventually, yes, but not go off like a bomb. My guess there is some explosive in the mix.

2) How are non combatants being injured by these pagers issued to combatants?

3) Blinded tells me they are "text pagers" rather than voice pagers. You send a message to "Tom Terrorist" and when he holds it up to read it, the pager explodes.

Pretty brilliant. Next a shipment of AK's will explode and we will hear from Hezbollah that dozens of orphan infants died.

As a side note has anyone seen "The Spy" with Sasha Baron Cohen about the Israeli spy in Syria who managed to get himself promoted to a high level defense official in the SYRIAN government. My favorite is where he got palm trees planted "for shade" at all the hidden bunkers in the Golan Heights.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 09:18 am: Edit

An interesting new wrinkle in the Trump golf course incident: the Secret Service was apparently not informed of his unscheduled decision to go golfing until sometime that morning... by which time the gunman was i{already} parked in the bushes (he was there by 02:00 local), waiting.

Either he was going on a gut feeling that Trump would be golfing there that day (and perhaps has previously parked his butt in the shrubbery at other Trump courses fruitlessly), or someone inside Trump's close inner circle -- closer than the Secret Service -- let it be known.

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 09:32 am: Edit

about the Israeli spy in Syria who managed to get himself promoted to a high level defense official in the SYRIAN government.

The actual story showed up on "Mysteries of the Abandoned" several years ago.....
He visited the C&C Center and had soldiers take pictures of him (with the terrain in the background)...

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 11:15 am: Edit

Ukraine has hit a russian ammunition storage facility in the Tver region. According to OSINT, the facility is capable of storing up to 30,000 tons of ammunition. How much was stored there at the time of the attack, and how much the Ukrainians destroyed, is unknown. They certainly got *something*, as there is some spectacular footage of explosions. This is not the first time Ukraine has attacked russian ammunition stores on russian territory, there was a bold helicopter attack against one such located just over the border earlier in the war.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 02:47 pm: Edit

Now I'm reading that the explosion triggered a magnitude 2.8 earthquake?! I'm skeptical, although I suppose a big enough bang might trigger seismic instruments if they were sensitive enough. According to reports, "hundreds" of S-300, S-400, and North Korean ballistic missiles were destroyed.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 03:13 pm: Edit

It's not so much that it triggered an earthquake, as that it was picked up on earthquake monitors (this is not unusual for large explosions).

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 03:27 pm: Edit

Terry, you may recall that a network of seismic sensors are one of the ways to monitor compliance to the nuclear test ban treaty.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 03:49 pm: Edit

Strip mines that use explosives to break up rock always let USGS know when they plan to do so.

There was also the chemical plant in Nevada that had the fire and explosion of the ammonium perchlorate during the time when the Shuttles were grounded. Methinks that one rated around a four on the Richter scale.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 05:08 pm: Edit

Having seen a satellite photo of the facility I have don't believe mere drones caused the event
“The arsenal in Toropets allows us to shelter reserves of missiles and ammunition from external influences and ensure their safety and fire and explosion safety,” Bulgakov said at the time."

I see two possible explanations: firstly it may have been full to overflowing with deliveries from North Korea. Ammo was easy to hit with drones because it was EVERYWHERE outside the bunkers.
Unlikely but possible.

Second, Ukraine used weapons that could penetrate bunkers. IOW Stormshadow/scalp that got warheads just for this type of attacks.

I suppose the later is the most likely. Indeed maybe they wished to send a message to the current US administration.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 05:45 pm: Edit

More on Lebanon pagers…
The Golden Apollo pagers were made under license in Hungary.
Some of the pagers were in Syria, Iraq, and Iran, in possession of terrorists affiliated with Hezbollah. This increases the casualties from the 3000 in Lebanon to nearly 5000.
Some western countries condemned Israel for escalating the conflict.
On Wednesday hundreds or thousands of hand held two way radios exploded.
The Hungarian company is a phantom, registered to a mail drop with no actual office anyone can locate. A Hungarian woman said to be the manager that told reporters she was just the intermediary. Her bio lists university, previous employers, and a charity she works with, none of which have ever heard of her.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 06:39 pm: Edit

North Korean Ammunition is characterized by its age.

Certain types of explosives do not age well. Initially, it may be handled, yes. But the older some compounds get, the more dangerous it becomes.

So much so, that a number of warships experienced a number of “incidents “ that caused serious damage.

Along with spontaneous combustion of coal bunkers (which at least in the case of the U.S.S. Maine , 1898, Havana Harbor Cuba. May of contributed to the detonation of the ships forward magazine.

(During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, naval architects used to place coal bunkers to supplement a ships armor, on the theory that explosive shells couldn’t consistently ignite the coal, and that the coal would moderate the impact of shells.)

Several other ships were lost to “mysterious” detonations of their magazines, France, Germany, England and Japan all had ships destroyed, most often in harbor.

It might turn out that some of the Korean Ammunition that Carl talked about earlier, might have contributed to the explosions.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 06:51 pm: Edit

Apparently , a second wave of some 400 additional electronic devices have detonated in Gaza. It appears to be a different set of devices than pagers, including reports of walkie-talkies (hand held two way radios.)

No word yet on numbers of casualties.

If this is israel’s chosen method of crippling Hamas leadership, they have chosen a particularly effective method.

Surviving hamas terrorist cells will nave to forgo the use of modern communications devices, laptops, tablets, cell phones etc,

There was an episode of TOS with the Gorns that keyed in to Spocks tricorder and successfully detonated it.

Life imitating Art.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 07:08 pm: Edit

What's left; semaphores? Smoke signals? "The beacons of Beruit are lit"?

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 07:54 pm: Edit

Tin cans and a string

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 08:56 pm: Edit

It was said that they tracked known couriers, one of which led the way toOsama bin Laden.

Terrorists then embraced telecommunications thinking the security features would ensure safe and secure communications.

Can anyone think of a more flamboyant or ostentatious display to discredit the use of telecommunications devices by terrorist organizations?

The choices ultimately boil down to two:

One, continue as is, accept the risk and the occasional loss of operatives, or,

Two, adopt classic cell of three structure, and only meet in discrete times and places each member knows the other two members of the cell, and the contact one level higher in the structure. Then, as each member recruits three more people to form a new cell, they in-turn become the contact for that cell.

Repeat as needed.

If I were a betting man, I wager the choice will be #1. Islamic terrorists have never shown any concern about loss of human lives, and I suspect it will not change.

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 09:42 pm: Edit

Always someone who wants to be in charge...
Someone who always thinks, it can't happen to me...

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 10:59 pm: Edit

Read the Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein.

Wonderful account of how a cellular structure could work for a terrorist/ revolutionary group.

I ASSUME that just about any encryption Hamas/ Hezbollah/ ISIS/ Syria/ Iranians would be cracked in short order by the US and/ or Israelis.

IIRC it's pure math, lots of fast computer time and some clever tricks (like cribs, etc). Cryptominicon does it justice.

By Carl-Magnus Carlsson (Hardcore) on Wednesday, September 18, 2024 - 11:21 pm: Edit

The Israeli Times reports that Israeli defence minister Gallant, PM Netanyahu, IDF chief Halevi talks ominously about "chagning the security situation" in the north:

““The center of gravity is moving north. We are diverting forces, resources, and energy toward the north,” Gallant told Israeli Air Force personnel at the Ramat David Airbase in remarks published by his office.””

-

"“I believe that we are at the onset of a new phase in this war, and we need to adapt,” Gallant added. “We will need consistency over time, this war requires great courage, determination, and perseverance.””

-

The defense minister — who has been widely reported to be facing dismissal by Netanyahu — said Israel’s war goals in the north are “clear and simple: to return the residents of the towns in the north to their homes safely.”

“We have not forgotten the hostages and we have not forgotten our tasks in the south. This is our duty and we are performing it at the same time,” Gallant added.
"“

How are they to accomplish their goal against Hezbollah with it's arsenal of over 100.000 rockets?
I can see only an invasion of southern Lebanon. Despite maybe triggering the pagers to explode too early they still have a golden opportunity now.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Thursday, September 19, 2024 - 12:09 am: Edit

WRT the russian ammo dump explosion, the official reports from russian MOD are that debris from a drone started a fire which later triggered the explosion. (IMO probably a lie, since this is an excuse the russian MOD has used before. IIUC Ukraine is claiming it was damaged by a drone, not Storm Shadow.)

Apparently the fire was visible from space (source: NASA) and the explosion registered 3.2 richter, consistent with 200-240 tons of explosive detonating. So, almost a quarter-kiloton bavovna.

The facility was constructed in 2015, and supposed to be equipped to store munitions safely. However, it is well-known that corruption and incompetence in russia is very bad, so it may be that the munitions were stored improperly, the storage facilities were not up to specifications, or both.

Edited to add: satellite images show ammunition stored outside the bunkers all over the facility for years prior to the strike. So, incompetence and a "she'll be right, mate" attitude.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, September 19, 2024 - 12:38 am: Edit

I think Israel will be invading Lebanon within a week.

Thursday we should see the explosion of Hezbollah coffee pots made in Poland by a company no one can find.

Friday we should see the explosion of Hezbollah kouskous cookers made in an Iceland by a company no one can find.

Saturday we should see the explosion of Hezbollah ball point pens made in Sri Lanka by a company no one can find.