"Macron promises help; Beirut residents vent fury at leaders" by Bassem Mroueand Sarah El Deeb Associated Press, August 6, 2020
BEIRUT — Residents of Beirut vented their fury at Lebanon’s leaders Thursday during a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, blaming them for the deadly explosion that ravaged the capital. Shouting “Revolution!” they crowded around the visiting leader who promised to press the politicians for reform, but while investigators focus on port officials, many Lebanese put the blame squarely on the political elite and the corruption and mismanagement that even before the disaster had pushed the country to the brink of economic collapse.
This just gave the effort a big shove, huh?
The Cabinet was previously warned by a security agency that explosive chemicals stored at the port was dangerous, Lebanon’s customs chief told the Associated Press — a report that could raise questions of high-level neglect.
That stockpile of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate set off the massive blast, apparently when touched off by a fire at the port. The chemical had been left sitting in a warehouse ever since it was confiscated from an impounded cargo ship in 2013.
They just left it sitting around, huh?
The explosion, powerful enough to be felt in Cyprus across the Eastern Mediterranean, killed more than 130 people, wounded thousands and blasted buildings for miles around. Two days later, some 300,000 people — more than 12 percent of Beirut’s population — can’t return to their homes, officials estimate. Damaged hospitals are still struggling to deal with the woundedp, amid fears of a spike in coronavirus infections. Dozens are still missing. Officials have estimated losses at $10 billion to $15 billion.
Furthermore, the disaster struck at a time when people’s savings have melted away, and unemployment and poverty have mounted in the financial crisis. Few have capacity to rebuild homes and businesses, and the government is scraping for dollars.
What a coincidence.
After talks with Lebanese leaders, Macron — whose country once was Lebanon’s colonial ruler — announced France will organize a conference in the next few days with European, American, Middle Eastern, and other donors to raise money for food, medicine, housing, and other urgent aid, but he warned Lebanon’s political elite that he wouldn’t give “blank checks to a system that no longer has the trust of its people.” He called on them to create a “new political order.”
And THERE YOU GO!
I'll bet Hezbollah will have to go, huh?
After visiting the devastated port, Macron walked through one of the worst-hit neighborhoods, Gemmayzeh, down a street lined with wrecked buildings.
On the narrow street, a crowd gathered around him and shouted their anger, chanting, “Revolution!” and “The people want to bring down the regime!” — slogans used at mass protests last year.
They didn't wait very long to activate their assets, did they?
Notably, none of Lebanon’s top politicians have toured residential areas damaged by the blast, though President Michel Aoun and others did visit the port. Hours after Macron left Gemmayzeh, Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najm tried to visit, only to be driven out by protesters.
By Thursday evening, after Macron left Lebanon, dozens of protesters held an angry rally in central Beirut, on the roads leading to the government building and the parliament — pelting security forces with stones, setting tires on fire, and shouting against the political elite. The security forces pushed them back, eventually firing a few rounds of tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Heading back to France, is he?
Emergency aid was starting to come in, with European, Arab, and Asian countries sending doctors, medical supplies, or field hospitals. The United Nations said Thursday it was releasing $9 million from its emergency fund for Lebanon.
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As a point of fact, Syria was driven out after the horrific Hariri bombing in 2005 -- which was then followed by Israeli aggression against Lebanon (I discount the false-flag border abduction since it stinks of Gleiwitz).
Related:
Lebanon: Cue the anti-government protestors (with lots of media coverage) as Macron calls for “reform” -
That's from Penny, and how about that picture?
Masks down and no distancing, huh?
Also see:
Who Blew Up Beirut?
We know who (explore the links at Darkmoon), the question now is how:
Infrared video reveals details of 'Israeli' missile hitting Beirut on 4 August 2020
Is it faked?
Beirut explosion video has been doctored? ...www.reuters.com
SOURCE
The infrared video has already been removed, but it keeps popping up in other places.
I thought it looked photoshopped from the start, and the fact that the above photo is supplied by Duff of Veteran's Today calls it into question.
That doesn't let Israel off the hook, it just adds to the layers of disinformation we have to sift through.
"There is a lot of stuff so important it HAS TO be kept on top. READ IT ALL if you have not seen it.
WELL WELL, LOOKIE HERE.
HEY HEY, LOOK AT THAT! THE ACTUAL FIRE BALL IS IN FRONT OF THE OTHER "FIREWORKS" EVENT. Did not happen at the same spot.
Someone had a real camera with a high frame rate set up that captured this in HD. With more frames to look at, the truth becomes clear.
This next picture is not the most important one anymore, it is the second most important.....
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It sure looks nuclear, and the blast wave would seem to indicate such; however, things like radiation levels and other destruction would seem to mitigate against it.
Could this be the answer?
Israel destroys East Beirut with a new weapon
The article by Thierry Meyssan (famous for his analysis of the Pentagon on 9/11) claims that "a missile with a tactical nuclear component in its warhead caused a smoke mushroom characteristic of nuclear weapons, and that it is obviously not an atomic bomb in the strategic sense with the international media being used to cover up the crime and lend credence to the idea of the accidental explosion of a fertilizer stockpile.
He also says, "as is often the case, false culprits are named, and the international media machine repeats this lie over and over again in the absence of any investigation. Lebanese political parties immediately reached an agreement not to say anything in order not to demoralize their population."
On that last point, I agree completely. No government can claim an attack by the enemy, for they would be out of power in a heartbeat (with the exception to the rule being America on 9/11) for failing to protect the people.
So was it nuclear?
"Survivors mark 75th anniversary of world’s 1st atomic attack" by Mari Yamaguchi Associated Press, August 6, 2020
Saki Morioki, 5, watched paper lanterns floating along the Motoyasu River in front of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, also known as the Atomic Bomb Dome, on Thursday in Hiroshima, Japan. The official public lantern event was cancelled due to the coronavirus, but a small group of city residents released some lanterns (Eugene Hoshiko/Associated Press/Associated Press)
HIROSHIMA, Japan — Survivors of the world’s first atomic bombing gathered in diminished numbers near an iconic, blasted dome Thursday to mark the attack’s 75th anniversary, many of them urging the world, and their own government, to do more to ban nuclear weapons.
An upsurge of coronavirus cases in Japan meant a much smaller than normal turnout, but amid cries of Japanese government hypocrisy, survivors, their relatives, and officials marked the 8:15 a.m. blast anniversary with a minute of silence.
The United States dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroying the city and killing 140,000 people. It dropped a second bomb three days later on Nagasaki, killing another 70,000. Japan surrendered Aug. 15, ending World War II and its nearly half-century of aggression in Asia, but the decades since have seen the weapons stockpiling of the Cold War and a nuclear standoff among nations that continues to this day.
Even though Tokyo renounces its own possession, production, or hosting of nuclear weapons, Japan is a top US ally, hosts 50,000 American troops, and is protected by the US nuclear umbrella.
The print copy fizzled out but the web version kept mushrooming:
This complicates the push to get Tokyo to sign the treaty adopted in 2017, especially as it steps up its military role amid North Korea’s continuing pursuit of a stronger nuclear program.
Amid the solemn remembrances at Hiroshima’s peace park, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was confronted Thursday by six members of survivors’ groups over the treaty.
“Could you please respond to our request to sign the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty?” Tomoyuki Mimaki, a member of a major survivors’ group, Hidankyo, implored Abe. “The milestone 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing is a chance” to change course.
Abe insisted on Japan’s policy not to sign the treaty, vaguely citing a “different approach,” though he added that the government shares the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons.
“Abe’s actions don’t seem to match his words,” said Manabu Iwasa, 47, who came to the park to pray for his father, a bombing survivor who died at age 87 in March. “Japan apparently sides with the United States, but it should make more efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons. It’s frustrating, but there is not much we individuals can do.”
I would just like to say that I am against eliminating nuclear weapons as long as Israel possesses them, and their disarmament would have to be verified and monitored by an outside agency with complete independence.
Abe, in his speech at the ceremony, said a nuclear-free world cannot be achieved overnight and it has to start with dialogue.
“Japan’s position is to serve as a bridge between different sides and patiently promote their dialogue and actions to achieve a world without nuclear weapons,” Abe said.
Earlier, Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui urged world leaders to more seriously commit to nuclear disarmament, pointing out Japan’s failures.
“I ask the Japanese government to heed the appeal of the [bombing survivors] to sign, ratify and become a party to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons,” Matsui said in his peace declaration. “As the only nation to suffer a nuclear attack, Japan must persuade the global public to unite with the spirit of Hiroshima.”
Thursday’s peace ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was scaled down because of the coronavirus pandemic. The fewer than 1,000 attendees were one-tenth of those attending in past years.
Some survivors and their relatives prayed at the park’s cenotaph before the ceremony. The registry of the atomic bombing victims is stored at the cenotaph, whose inscription reads, “Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the mistake.”
”The only way to totally eliminate nuclear risk is to totally eliminate nuclear weapons,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a video message from New York for the occasion. Guterres’s expected visit to Hiroshima had to be cancelled because of the coronavirus.
He only wants an opportunity to “rebuild our world for the better.”
“Seventy-five years is far too long not to have learned that the possession of nuclear weapons diminishes, rather than reinforces, security,” he said. “Today, a world without nuclear weapons seems to be slipping further from our grasp.”
An aging group of survivors, known as hibakusha, feel a growing urgency to tell their stories, in hopes of reaching a younger generation.
Many peace events, including their talks, leading up to the anniversary were canceled because of the coronavirus, but some survivors have teamed with students or pacifist groups to speak at online events, sometimes connecting with international audiences.
The bombing’s survivors lamented the slow progress of nuclear disarmament and expressed anger over what they said was the Japanese government’s reluctance to help and listen to those who suffered. They want world leaders, especially those from nuclear-weapons states, to visit Hiroshima and see the reality of the atomic bombing.
Pope Francis sent a message to organizers of the anniversary commemoration, recalling that he had prayed at the Hiroshima peace memorial during his 2019 visit to Japan and met with bombing survivors.
He repeated what he said Nov. 24 at the peace memorial: “The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possessing of nuclear weapons is immoral.”
The Holy See was among the first countries to sign and ratify the UN nuclear prohibition treaty.
Keiko Ogura, 84, who survived the atomic bombing at age 8, said she wants non-nuclear states to pressure Japan into signing the treaty.
“Many survivors are offended by the prime minister of this country because he does not sign the nuclear weapons prohibition treaty,” she said.
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Related:
Also see:
Related:
Remembering This Day In History: Were The Atomic Bombings Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki A War Crime And A Crime Against Humanity? (Absolutely!)
That is a must-read from the Northerntruthseeker.
Death From the Sky: Hiroshima and Normalised Atrocities
That is another dissident voice regarding Truman's war crimes.
That is a must-read from the Northerntruthseeker.
Death From the Sky: Hiroshima and Normalised Atrocities
That is another dissident voice regarding Truman's war crimes.
Also see:
Nuke the nuclear weapons budget
The Globe op-ed is by Jerome Friedman, the Institute Professor and professor of physics, emeritus, at MIT who was awarded the 1990 Nobel Prize in physics, and Sheldon Glashow, who is the Metcalf Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Boston University and was awarded the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics.
I agree the money could be better spent, that's for sure, and maybe the physicists can explain how those three WTC towers dropped into their own own footprints due to jet fuel fires -- in contravention to the known laws of physics.
Like Beirut, we still don't know what kind of explosions they were or what material was used.
We know what it led to, though.
Related:
"In 1998, terrorist bombs at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 224 people, including 12 Americans."
Done by the same crew we were told did 9/11.
"In 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Johnson broad powers in dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on US forces."
Somehow the American people have forgotten that massive lie that led us into war.
Another regime change effort:
The Globe op-ed is by Jerome Friedman, the Institute Professor and professor of physics, emeritus, at MIT who was awarded the 1990 Nobel Prize in physics, and Sheldon Glashow, who is the Metcalf Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Boston University and was awarded the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics.
I agree the money could be better spent, that's for sure, and maybe the physicists can explain how those three WTC towers dropped into their own own footprints due to jet fuel fires -- in contravention to the known laws of physics.
Like Beirut, we still don't know what kind of explosions they were or what material was used.
We know what it led to, though.
Related:
"In 1998, terrorist bombs at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 224 people, including 12 Americans."
Done by the same crew we were told did 9/11.
"In 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, giving President Johnson broad powers in dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on US forces."
Somehow the American people have forgotten that massive lie that led us into war.
Another regime change effort:
"Two dozen democracy advocates in Hong Kong were charged Thursday with taking part in an annual vigil honoring the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, the latest sign of the aggressive clampdown on dissent in the semiautonomous Chinese territory. The June 4 Tiananmen vigil has been held for decades but was banned for the first time this year because of the coronavirus outbreak....."
When war breaks out, the Chinese will be caught in a pincer from the North and South.
The 21st-century Cold War is about to get red hot (Trump has even gone into the bunker)!
UPDATE:
IF Law Exists Daniel Andrews and Victoria Police MUST Face Charges
I was in tears by the end of the video due to the passion.
