A Twitter thread offers some interesting perspectives on the exploding pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon.
A few thoughts on Operation Grim Beeper.
1) This is one of the most astonishing intelligence operations in history. It is a reworking of the story of the Trojan Horse for the digital age, and it deserves to become nearly as legendary as its iconic predecessor. If we are not utterly astounded, it is because we have seen too many James Bond and Black Mirror movies for our own good.
In real life, operations like this just don’t happen. It is at least four operations in one.
First, the Israelis thoroughly mapped Hezbollah’s supply chain.
Second, they invented a special explosive charge small enough to be inserted inside a handheld device, sophisticated enough to be remotely activated, big enough to do real harm, and yet not so prominent physically or electronically to call attention to itself.
Third, the Israelis turned themselves into a big enough link in Hezbollah’s procurement network to take physical control of the devices and rig them.
Fourth, they activated the charges simultaneously and across a very wide geographic area.
If any one of these sub-operations had been botched, the operation as a whole would have fizzled. Who else in the world could pull off such an imaginative, technically sophisticated and audacious plot?
2) It is the first mass targeted killing in history. Every one of the thousands of persons killed or maimed was selected individually, yet they were hit at the same moment. The great genius of the operation is that the Israelis relied on Hezbollah itself to select their targets for them. I can’t think of another case like this where the attackers just sat back and let the enemy perform a key part of their work for them. If we map the attacked men we map Hezbollah’s org chart, including the blinded Iranian ambassador to Lebanon who is an IRGC officer.
There's more at the link. Recommended reading.
To make matters worse for Hezbollah and Iran, the Daily Mail revealed that Israel set up an entire supply chain for the devices.
The Israeli secret service didn't just tamper with the deadly Hezbollah pagers -- they made them from scratch, having set up a complex web of shell companies across Europe, it was claimed today.
Initially it was suspected that Mossad had managed to intercept and plant tiny bombs in a shipment of the pagers headed for the Iranian-backed terror group in Lebanon after thousands of people were injured and dozens killed.
But now it appears that the Israelis set up front companies across Europe to manufacture the pagers themselves, embedding small amounts of PETN explosive inside, ready to be detonated by a coded message.
Israel has neither confirmed nor denied any role in the explosions, but 12 current and former defence and intelligence officials told the New York Times that the Israelis were behind it, describing the operation as 'complex and long'.
Following the series of explosions, Lebanese civilians have been living in terror as they fear that the 'technological war' could be a precursor to a full-scale conflict.
. . .
According to the New York Times, one of the Mossad shell companies was B.A.C. Consulting in Budapest, Hungary, set up to produce the devices on behalf of a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo.
Gold Apollo's chair, Hsu Ching-kuang, told journalists Wednesday the firm has had a licensing agreement with BAC for the past three years.
'According to the cooperation agreement, we authorize BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC,' Gold Apollo said in a statement.
At least two other shell companies, one in Sofia headed by a Norwegian businessman were created as well to mask the real identities of the people creating the pagers: Israeli intelligence officers.
It is not known how involved in or aware of the ultimate plan were the legitimate business people running the companies, such as British-educated physicist Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, who has denied any knowledge of the plot.
B.A.C. did take on ordinary clients, for which it produced a range of ordinary pagers. But for Mossad the only client that really mattered was Hezbollah, and its pagers were far from ordinary.
Again, more at the link.
This entire operation was, in intelligence terms, a work of genius. It's going to be studied as a prime example of tradecraft, deception and sabotage for literally generations to come, by intelligence services all over the world. I had some training and experience in that field during my military service (very little, compared to active intelligence agents, but enough to be able to support certain operations), and from that limited background, I can only shake my head in awe at the scope and professionalism of this scheme. Perhaps best of all from Israel's perspective, Iran - which financially supports Hezbollah - would have paid for these devices . . . so Israel made Iran pay for the weapons used to disrupt its own ally's operations! Talk about sheer chutzpah!
Peter
48 comments:
That is a lot of coordinating effort to get this done. And apparently all those involved kept their work a secret.
I am surprised that no governments have charged any of these beeper manufacturers with the building of these devices and transporting them across international lines. Unless I missed it in the story. It seems like there would be a law against that. I won't argue the recepients of these beepers didn't have it coming. Now Hezbollah know what it feels like to be targeted for simply being who their born nationality is.
So if I were an Iranian senior official, I'd be asking myself...where did we procure our electronic devices? Is it possible there are other "shell companies" run by the Israelis that could be selling similarly tampered with equipment and could any of it be lurking in Iran?
Part of the genius of this operation is the residual fear it's going to cause throughout the terrorist supporting world. Is it safe to use our devices? What other devices might be compromised.
Unless they have complete confidence in the integrity of their supply chain, this is going to cause chaos and disarray across the landscape of terrorist supporting countries.
Mossad should drop a hint that they own pacemaker manufacturers, just for the lulz. Make them sweat.
targeted for simply being who their born nationality is.
Not true. They were targeted specifically for being part of the Hezbollah terrorist network, sufficietly connected to be given a communication device.
Nationality had nothing to do with it. Except to the extent that nationality may have driven the beeper carrier to enlist in the terrorist cause.
This truly puts Mossad on a level above any other such agency or group. Shame is they can only do this once. But the ongoing fear and suspicion of
technology will hamstring Hezbollah et. all for years.
Send not to know for whom the beeper booms; it booms for thee
Now I desperately want someone to make Don't Fear The Beeper by Blue Oiveyster Cult.
Was the coded text message "72 Virgins"? Asking for a friend ...
Phil B
To my knowledge, this was the most precise attack on an enemy force that I have ever read about...very little collateral damage, and they targeted devices that the bad guys wear on their bodies. An oz. of PETN could break a pelvis, paralyze someone, or empty their guts out on the floor in a flash...and to do it simultaneously to almost 3,000 bad guys?!! Pure genius, if a bit Rube Goldberg.
Was this worth the effort? A master stroke of intelligence yes - but most of the people hit were injured. How many will never fight again? Is it enough of a decapitation strike that Israel can benefit from it. Time will tell.
Some years ago, the Israelis set up an elaborate resort in Sudan, on the Red Sea, as part of a scheme to smuggle Jews to safety from that country. They set up a whole resort, and IIRC, actually had guests and staff, organizing diving excursions ... and it was all a front.
Am I the only one who finds it disturbing that governments can turn wireless devices into weapons? In the good old days we just worried about being spied on.
Yes, the plan is pure genius. I'm much more impressed by the execution. No one saw this coming, so somehow Mossad kept the whole boat water tight during the entire operation. By way of comparison, the U.S. has a government that's like a sieve.
All good aside from that crime against humanity by booby trapping common and small objects. Both the US and Israel signed an international agreement not to do that.
We will never get a declaration of Israeli content in products, but maybe we can get declarations of 'No Israeli content' like RBST in milk. If you lived in a neighborhood next to a liberal college, would you like to know if Israeli ingredients were used in your food stuffs or Israeli electronic parts in phones and pagers and . . . ?
The more I read about this operation the happier it makes me. Talk about giving your enemy enough rope to hang themselves - this time, they PAID for the rope.
"All good aside from that crime against humanity by booby trapping common and small objects. Both the US and Israel signed an international agreement not to do that.
We will never get a declaration of Israeli content in products, but maybe we can get declarations of 'No Israeli content' like RBST in milk. If you lived in a neighborhood next to a liberal college, would you like to know if Israeli ingredients were used in your food stuffs or Israeli electronic parts in phones and pagers and . . . ?"
Please quote the agreement. Otherwise, you are telling a lie.
One more good reason not to upgrade my phone anytime soon..
Israel has done this in the past with cell phones on an individual basis. They also modified their system to avoid countermeasures over time.
Jonathan
You think this move by the Israelis is genius. Who in their right mind would have anything to do with the those of the promised land after this. You would have to be insane to take any kind of product from Israel. They exploded pagers and walkie talkies what's next, poisons injected into their food products? I have to say I'm very disappointed in your idea of genius.
Those who are expressing horror about this attack and saying that it's a war crime are thinking that Israel shipped these pagers to stores in Lebanon and then blew up whoever purchased them. You are thinking about the Soviet booby trapping of toys in Afghanistan where they left them around for kids to randomly pick up
Don't think of these as civilian devices, these have far more in common with government issued secure sell phones issued to military officers. They were not purchased by the individuals, they were issued to them as an Officer (or similar) of Hezbollah. As such, the only people who would be carrying them are terrorists. They wouldn't be borrowed by/loaned to civilians any more than government cell phones would be.
Also remember, there was a cease fire in place up until last October when these people started firing thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians.
Legitimate military target enemy fighters and collateral damage includes some civilians.
Terrorists target civilians and collateral damage includes some military targets
This attack is the most targeted at enemy fighters in history, and yes, letting the terrorists distribute the attack mechanism to their most trusted people is priceless.
David Lang
A masterpiece of applied plastic surgery :)
> One more good reason not to upgrade my phone anytime soon.
This sort of attack could not happen in the west, not because our supply chains are pure, but because any devices sold/delivered in the west would be detected by someone going through routine security (airports, performance venues, government buildings, etc)
Every year, every advancement in technology, every political cycle draws us inevitably down a road that we can never return from. If in your head you take any 10 year period in the last 100 years and think about how much it slid in that direction, it becomes very clear that we have put ourselves in a technology trap. We have become addicted to every little tidbit offered to us.
https://disarmament.unoda.org/ccw-amended-protocol-ii/
CCW Amended Protocol II
The Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices as amended on 3 May 1996 (Amended Protocol II)
Amended Protocol II strengthened existing rules on the use of mines, booby traps and other devices....
...Prohibits the use of booby-traps & other devices in the form of apparently harmless portable objects such as children’s toys, specifically designed to contain explosive material.....
The Protocol contains rules which regulate, but do not ban the use of landmines, booby-traps and other explosive devices
...applies to non-international armed conflicts as well as conflicts between States, which means that its rules not only apply to States, but also to parties in a conflict other than States....
"...would you like to know if Israeli ingredients were used in your food stuffs or Israeli electronic parts in phones and pagers and . . . ?"
Why? I'm not an asshole terrorist so I'm pretty sure the Israeli's have no beef with me.
A middle eastern news report said 600 of the Hezbollah fighters had been 'explosively castrated'....
That is likely to discourage new converts.
Exile1981
Perfect target designation. Yep. That 10 year old girl, and those other 20k plus injured people were all top Hezbollah commanders. And the little kids who tried to stop the beeping, and the Drs who used pagers too. The first responders using inexpensive radios, etc. All Hezbollah commanders and soldiers. That apple store was a front for Hezbollah. The one thing we can thank Israel for about this is that now, new electronic devices will be made to be disassembled, or transparent, so people will trust them not to have explosives.
It's unbelievable that people are defending, or even praising, this monstrous "operation".
^what he said.
I can recognize the skill involved in this, but it was also stupid, and wicked. Some in these comments are acting like the radios, iPhones, solar systems, and pagers somehow had biometrics on them to detect and ensure that only a Hezbollah soldier or officer could be holding them before they detonated. Right.
Booby trapping innocuous objects had been a war crime for decades. If I arrange for the guy who wants me dead to buy a rigged phone, and then call it a month later, and it explodes but his kid was holding it, I don't get to pretend it was self defense. Even if my enemy (who wants me dead) was holding it, I get prison time. Pleading self-defense, and that I made sure *he* bought it, doesn't help. It's not permanently glued to him, so anyone could potentially pick it up. A starving kid could steal it to sell for food. But I don't care because I'm America's bestest ally, and the dispensationalists worship me instead of Jesus Christ.
Whoops. Meant 2k plus. Stupid thumbs. And the girl was 8, not 10. The second goof was my memory. Regardless, this attack was not acceptable, or justifiable. Tactics like this, blowing up pagers, radios, phones, and solar systems while people are standing in line at a grocery store, or in a playground, etc, etc, are for supervillains like SPECTRE. You can justify any amount of evil with an appeal to brutal practicality and "results uber alles". And if you're an atheist, that's fine, you can lie to yourself about morality being subjective. But if you claim to believe in the King of Kings, Jesus the Christ, you don't get the same luxury, and you'll end up in the same place as that ruthlessly practical atheist.
This wasn't sinking boats of invaders, or stopping people from crossing a border. This was planting bombs on people and not giving a damn where they were or who they were near when the bombs exploded. That is naked evil.
> Who in their right mind would have anything to do with the those of the promised land after this
@Jack These pagers were not purchased from Israel, they were purchased from Europe
@PM did Israel sign on to the anti-mine/anti-boobytrap agreement? They have planted explosives to kill people before. Many countries have not signed on to that agreement.
And again, I'll say that selling terrorists command-and-control equipment with explosives in it is not the same thing as what the anti-landmine agreement was designed to eliminate.
@anonyomous
> Where's your source for "only Hezbollah people bought these pagers"
They were purchased directly from the factory by Hezbollah, they were not just shipped to the country for sale to the public.
you talk about an iphone exploding as it was purchased from a store. Iphones weren't rigged as part of this, evidence please.
> Perfect target designation....
There is always going to be collateral damage, nobody has said there wouldn't be any in this case, the terms have been 'near perfect' . you claims of 20k injured is much higher than I've heard before, the most I've heard claimed by the terrorists was 4-5k and they tend to inflate their claims.
But per the international laws of war, if a force hides among civilians, any civilian deaths are their fault, not the fault of the enemy force targeting them. In spite of this, Israel has kept civilian collateral damage lower than any other nation involved in urban combat by a very large margin.
David Lang
Also, a lot of reports I'm seeing are referring to the pagers as "encrypted pagers", again, not a thing sold to the general public, and something that the terrorists would tightly control who has access to them.
There is a movie about that on either Amazon or Netflix.
Source for "they were purchased directly from the factory by Hezbollah"? Because that wouldn't make this better, and doesn't change the radios or solar systems exploding, but it's an interesting claim I've not seen anyone else make. Still doesn't make it acceptable, and doesn't prevent bystanders from dying. Also, the international law of war you cite references *valid targets* like ammo depot's, barracks, etc, being constructed in and around civilians.
Nowhere does it say "if you sell an enemy an explosive necklace, and he doesn't know about it, and he goes back to his hometown to shop, and you detonate the necklace, killing a dozen children and women in the checkout line behind him, it's totes his fault guyz. Like duh."
No.
It's one thing to fire missiles at an anti-aircraft emplacement that Hamas or Hezbollah put in a schoolyard. It's another to ensure that explosive devices are seeded throughout nonmilitary targets like shopping malls, grocery stores and funeral parlors.
"Standing next to a bad guy in line at the store" does not make you an acceptable target, and does not transfer liability/guilt for detonating his phone/pager/radio (and killing civilians shopping to feed their families) from you, the terrorist bomber, to him, the guy picking up groceries in a civilian grocery store.
Valid targets like AA emplacements that are placed in schoolyards *don't go shopping*. People can see them, and know their kids are going to a school that might get targeted. "A human being that Israel has decided to kill" is not an AA emplacement. He can go shopping, to the movies, etc. And no one will have any idea that he might be blown up at any moment.
Stop twisting the laws of war to protect your guilty conscience.
Encrypted pagers? WTF even is that? They're pagers. They don't require encryption. And it's a been thoroughly established that at least some of the dead were medical professionals, who used the pagers for perfectly benign purposes.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/what-kind-booby-traps-has-israel-used-lebanon
The Hezbollah pagers weren't let into the general public, but the safe and effective vaccine was let into the general public. Who do YOU trust?
An Israeli (messianic) Jew I know who lives in Jerusalem put it succinctly "...pagercaust is smartboy ops pretending to be national strategy."
They harmed innocents, and made Hezbollah look like the wronged party, and Israel look like terrorists, to everyone who doesn't directly imbibe Israeli propaganda like it's a lifesaving blood transfusion. Bunch of smartboi gammas too high on their own self-estimated genius to anticipate and realize how stupid this plan actually was.
Oh sod off, Anon. We don't see you bemoaning evil when rockets are lobbed blindly into Israel and hit say... a soccer field killing 12 children.
Nobody buys your church lady act. You only have an issue with killings when Jews do it, not when they're on the receiving end. So worried about others' souls, see to your own, first.
“IDF Confirms Death Of Senior Hezbollah Leader Ibrahim Aqil”
https://www.oann.com/newsroom/idf-confirms-death-of-senior-hezbollah-leader-ibrahim-aqil/
“The Israeli military announced that they have taken out Ibrahim Aqil, the leader of the Islamist terrorist group Hezbollah, who was held responsible for the 1983 attack on U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, which resulted in the deaths of 220 Marines, 18 Navy sailors, and three Army soldiers.”
“Israeli F-35 planes fired several missiles at a building where high-ranking Palestinian and Hezbollah terrorists were meeting. Reportedly at least 15 were killed, amongst them Hezbollah’s number 2, Ibrahim Aqil. They decided to meet as pagers were dangerous. Exactly as Israel hoped and the boom. Well done! Kudos.”
Israel is cutting the head off of Hezbollah. This is War ! War is hell !
Also note that Israel’s continued usage of the F-35 with its larger fuel capacity and more efficient engine that can go further and loiter a while.
“Report: Hezbollah Had an 'October 7-Like' Attack in the Works Before It Was Blown to Smithereens”
https://redstate.com/terichristoph/2024/09/20/report-hezbollah-had-an-october-7-like-attack-in-the-works-before-it-was-blown-to-smithereens-n2179576
"Reports have since emerged that Hezbollah was planning an "October 7-like" attack on Israel codenamed "Conquer the Galilee." October 7, 2023, was, of course, the day that Hamas terrorists from Gaza conducted a merciless assault on Israel, resulting in the barbarous murders of thousands of Israelis and the kidnappings of hundreds more — many of whom are still being held hostage nearly a year later. "
There is no way that Israel is going to allow that to happen again.
Give it time, laziness and desire for convenience will lull them back to sleep.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man—
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began:
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
You have a massive amount of faith in the Kabuki theater that is security. I've flown across the country with knives in carry-on luggage, and went through multiple metal detectors with a large chunk of steel on my belt. Normally the only thing they ever get worked up about are the pair of power banks I keep with me for charging my phone or tablet when travelling
Glad you can read minds. Correct me if I'm wrong, no one in these comments was defending Hamas or Hezbollah's right to rocket attack Israeli children, were they? Sod off with your deliberately dishonest whataboutism and accusations of hypocrisy that can only be made honestly if you're a freaking telepath. Clown.
If you and your "collateral damage is cool when Israel does it" friends were instead "collateral damage is cool when Hamas/Hezbollah does it" people, I'd be telling you that you're damning yourselves by believing that, instead. But that's not what you believe. You believe the first one, so I'm telling you you're damning yourselves for believing that. Clear enough, chucklehead?
Drone attacks used by the US including especially Obama, killed bystanders including children.
And that was, and is, an evil we'll pay for, along with the tens of millions of unborn infants we allowed, nay encouraged, the slaughter of. Carthage was a scrub when it comes to child sacrifice, compared to us. And there is always a reckoning. God have mercy on we who had none.
pagers have been two-way for a couple of decades, and encrypted pagers are a thing (just search for them and you will find them rather easily)
Many sites have specified that Hezbollah ordered the batch of pagers and handed them out to their members. If you think they have been sold to the general public, show the innocent purchasers of them that you think have been hurt. All you have been able to do is find a small number hurt by collateral damage.
The difference between real military forces and terrorists is that real military forces target enemy combatants, and there are some number of civilian casualties that are caught in the crossfire (especially when the enemy combatants make it a practice to use their civilians as human shields)
Terrorists target civilians and may accidentally catch some enemy combatants in their attack.
The Russian attack on Ukraine is a military attack, they are attacking Ukraine military forces, there is a lot of collateral damage, but if Russia wanted to kill civilians there would have.almost exterminated the civilians by now. Hezbollah has been launching rockets into cities, and not even cities that have military bases, with weapons that are so inaccurate that they cannot be used to target military bases or formations (and Hezbollah is almost military compared to Hamas)
you seem to think that it's possible to target terrorists without any collateral damage. It's not.
David Lang
We’ve all seen the videos of the Hezb̶o̶l̶l̶ah guy blowing up in the store with no harm to anyone near him, so you can quit lying about bystanders being hurt in any significant numbers.
Of course, “Operation Grim Beeper” is not the official name—there has not even been official acknowledgement of responsibility. It’s a great name in English, but the pun doesn’t translate to other languages. My personal favorite name is “Operation Scrambled Eggs”.
Firing a rocket or missile at a Hamas weapons cache, or a technical with a machine gun mounted on it, and some civilians getting hurt unintentionally, is one thing. If you can't tell the difference between that, and literally ensuring that Hamas/Hezbollah members are walking around innocent civilians with bombs strapped to themselves...you're special. But I know you know there's a difference, you're just deliberately pretending there isn't, because it's inconvenient to your point. Excellent sophistry. Evil, but excellent.
If Israel had arranged for these targets to be gathered in a frickin convention center or something, and bombed that convention center, and some civilians got hurt, that would suck. But it would be war. Pagers, radios and other innocuous objects being planted on people and triggered to explode only when someone (anyone) manipulates them to stop the noise...is not that.
And I didn't say innocent purchasers of them had been hurt. I asked for proof of the claim that Hezbollah, and only Hezbollah, had ordered the pagers (and now radios and possibly other devices) directly from the manufacturer, and therefore it was guaranteed impossible that anyone not a Hezbollah soldier or commander could have acquired one. But nice goalpost move attempt, anyway.
Even if it were true that Hezbollah alone directly ordered the exploding devices from the manufacturer, it's irrelevant. Planting bombs on people who you know are going to be walking around innocents is, again, not the same as firing a missile at a valid target that happens to be regrettably near civilians.
People, there are too many idiots chiming in trying to portray Israel's actions as a war crime. They are not, by any substantive legal definition of such actions. As for morally criminal, again, Hezbollah itself designated the targets for Israel. The fact that some (very few) innocent people were injured or killed is indeed tragic, but there were far fewer such victims than if indiscriminate air strikes had targeted the Hezbollah members carrying those devices.
This was not and is not a war crime. Discussion over.
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