BRANDON J. WEICHERT | THE WEICHERT REPORT
The Daily Mail is reporting that an Italian explosives expert named Danilo Coppe of Italy, and dubbed “Mr. Dynamite,” has come forward to explain why he does not buy the official narrative surrounding the Beirut port explosion. His reasoning is identical to mine. This site has been the first to report that the official narrative surrounding the Beirut port explosion last week was not accurate; that something more was afoot.
While I am not an explosives expert, I do know some who are and I do have a passion– going back to childhood–for pyrotechnics. Thus, I know enough about explosives to know that different explosions emit different colored smoke plumes.
The primary impetus for this was the strange coloration of the smoke plume that the massive Beirut explosion created. It was very briefly after the initial explosion gray but quickly became a reddish-orange. This change in color is what prompted me to challenge the official claim that it was merely ammonium nitrate–fertilizer that can be weaponized–that caused the explosion.
I began investigating what could possibly be the cause of the larger, secondary blast. After speaking with two individuals I know to be explosives experts and conducting research on my own, I came upon the explosive octogen, otherwise known as HMX. This chemical, HMX, creates a smoke plume that is reddish-orange. It is also used by the military extensively.
To recap, HMX has ammonium nitrate as a precursor to its creation (which likely explains the initial gray colored smoke). It can be used in a variety of ways to enhance the lethality of explosive weapons. In the form of polymer-bonded explosives, HMX is used as a detonator in “implosion-type” nuclear weapons.
The second atomic bomb the United States dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945–dubbed “Fat Man”–was a nuclear weapon of this implosion-type. Iran, with an ambitious and long-term nuclear weapons program, made a big show of their commitment to indigenously surging their capacity to develop HMX in 2016.
Further, the “half-ton” of secretive Iranian military documents pertaining to their nuclear weapons program that Israeli intelligence brilliantly poached two years ago proved that Iran was obsessed with creating massive amounts of HMX. Beyond that, on a more basic level, HMX is used as a solid rocket propellant and in melt-castable explosives when mixed with the timeless explosive, TNT, which is known as “octols.”
That HMX is used as rocket propellant is what Italy’s premier explosives expert, “Mr. Dynamite,” has honed in on. He told Daily Mail that he thinks there were rockets stored in that facility in Beirut…which would explain the presence of HMX.
As I reported a few days ago here, since the week of July 28, Israeli and Hezbollah forces have engaged in a series of escalating hostile exchanges along Israel’s border with Lebanon (Hezbollah is a Shiite terror group based in Lebanon and backed by Iran). The leader of that group, Hassan Nasrallah, vowed vengeance upon the Israelis after one of his terrorists was killed by Israeli Defense Forces protecting Israel’s border. The presence of HMX at the Beirut port indicates that Hezbollah was readying for a massive attack upon Israel.
Israel and Hezbollah have fought two brutal wars against each other. The most recent being in 2006, which most experts agree that Israel lost to Hezbollah (simply because Israel did not achieve its strategic objectives in this fight). This began a revolution in military affairs in Israel and the Israelis pioneered what’s known as the art of “gray zone” warfare: fighting in the spectrum between peace and war. Hezbollah, a long-time proxy for Iran, has been spoiling for a third go-around with Israel–especially as the US-Israeli-Saudi alliance has been hitting Iran hard these past few years.
Interestingly, Forbes writer Paul Iddon reported on July 27 of this year that “Israel will have to contend with increasingly lethal Hezbollah missiles” should another conflict erupt between the two sides.
What’s more, Iran has been pumping their most updated missiles, explosives, and weapons–to say nothing of their battle-hardened Revolutionary Guards commandos–to beef up the forces of their proxies, in Syria, in Hezbollah in Lebanon, and among the Houthis fighting in Yemen.
That this suspected Hezbollah heavy weapons cache was at the port also makes sense. Iran has been shifting their resources around the region mostly via civilian shipping routes (which is why for the last two years, the United States Navy has increasingly interdicted against Iranian merchant vessels that were actually transporting weapons to be used against American, Israel, and allied Sunni Arab interests).
Here is the reporting of Paul Iddon:
The Israelis will undoubtedly try to eliminate this stockpile if another war breaks out. However, they may find this an immense challenge for numerous reasons.
On June 21, Hezbollah released a propaganda video in which it claimed it could hit several major Israeli cities with precision-guided missiles. The clip showed coordinates of Israeli targets with accompanying audio of the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, threatening Israel.
“Today, we can not only hit the city of Tel Aviv but also, if God wants and with his help, can hit very precise targets within Tel Aviv,” Nasrallah was heard saying in the video.
The Hezbollah leader’s claims are not merely hyperbolic. Since the last major Israel-Hezbollah clash, a 34-day conflict in the summer of 2006 known as the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah has built up a vast stockpile of projectiles that could afflict serious damage on Israel if not quickly neutralized.
For months, Israeli intelligence attempted to warn their Western counterparts of increasing threat posed to the world by Hezbollah’s rapidly evolving explosives and missile threat. Few in Western intelligence agencies acted on these warnings. The Precision Project by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy in June reported Iran’s proxies in Lebanon established entire production facilities in Lebanon. Hezbollah further dispersed their missile-production capacities across the Lebanese countryside.
And in typical fashion, Hezbollah opted to use Lebanese civilians as human shields to protect their missile production: these dangerous facilities were purposely constructed near largely populated villages and towns in Lebanon.
Evoking Iddon again:
Hezbollah’s missiles and rockets are also spread out across several towns and villages in south Lebanon. As a result, any prompt Israeli operation to destroy them will likely cause significant casualties among Lebanese civilians, which would lead to an international outcry against Israel.
The weapons in question are extremely advanced and lethal, for a purportedly simple terrorist group, like Hezbollah. This represents a dangerous escalation not only from Hezbollah, but from its pernicious state sponsor, Iran. While several Iranian military officers populate the ranks of Hezbollah, it is important to understand that the increasing complexity of these weapons indicate a potential for mishandling. Israel or the United States may have done nothing to the facility in Beirut to cause it to explode. The dangerous weapons there simply have been poorly stored or maintained.
That we don’t know–and that few in the Western press appear interested in discovering the truth–is the most galling part of this story. At the end of July, it was being reported that there are countless missile production and storage facilities laced throughout Lebanon; that Hezbollah could have as many as 100,000 precision-guided missiles (fueled by HMX) on hand (whereas they fired around 4,000 short range rockets into northern Israel in 2006). These advanced weapons could debilitate Israeli society. They pose a clear-and-present, existential danger to Israel as long as they remain in place.
People around the world are understandably saddened that nearly 200 people have been killed more than 4,000 wounded by the Beirut port explosion. The real horror is that the Lebanese regime has allowed for Hezbollah to operate unimpeded in their territory for decades and that this regime has permitted Hezbollah (and Iran) to use their own citizens in their own land as human shields. Should Israel need to strike these missile production facilities, it will undoubtedly cost civilian lives and the feckless international body–as represented by the wholly anti-Semitic United Nations–will denounce Israel for defending its own territory.
The truth must be exposed; the world must be made aware of that which Iran and Hezbollah are planning in the region–because it may very well initiate a costly war that not only destroys the existing order in the area but sucks the United States into yet another costly Middle East conflict. In fact, as I’ve previously asserted, it could become the flashpoint for another world war.
THE WEICHERT REPORT 