:lebanon: Questions Swirl around the Cargo that Destroyed Beirut

[Victoria33]

Shipowner Linked to Hezbollah's Bank: Questions Swirl around the Cargo that Destroyed Beirut - DER SPIEGEL

Shipowner Linked to Hezbollah’s Bank?Questions Swirl around the Cargo that Destroyed Beirut​

The explosion in Lebanon leads back to an abandoned ship in Beirut that had arrived in the city carrying 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate. Reporting by DER SPIEGEL and OCCRP has determined that the ship’s owner has connections to Hezbollah’s bank.

By Maximilian Popp, Christoph Reuter und Fritz Schaap

21.08.2020,

In September 2013, eight Ukrainians and a Russian departed Georgia on a beat-up freighter, apparently heading for Mozambique. Their ship was already in bad shape before it even left the Black Sea port of Batumi. Called the Rhosus, the vessel was leaking, its alarm system was faulty and so was its rescue equipment.

…

But joint reporting conducted by DER SPIEGEL and the journalism network called the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has now raised doubts about that narrative. The reporting has found that it was not Russian national Grechushkin who owned the Rhosus , but rather the Cypriot businessman Charalambos Manoli, who maintained a relationship with the bank used by Hezbollah in Lebanon. And a considerable amount of the ammonium nitrate stored in the port of Beirut appears to have gone missing before the explosion in August.

The owner was not the Russian we were told about in early reports but as said above, a man from Cyprus using the same bank as Hezbollah and though, it was a huge explosion, it sounds like a whole lot of this ammonium nitrate (AN) is potentially missing (see articles). OCCRP is to be noted, emboldened above, they investigated this with Der Spiegel.

A Hidden Tycoon, African Explosives, and a Loan from a Notorious Bank: Questionable Connections Surround Beirut Explosion Shipment - OCCRP

So, irregularities, questions on all of this.

 

[Pattylt]

The big question is will the truth behind this explosion ever be told? Their government is already refusing outside investigation and are so corrupt no one would ever believe them. Hezbollah is, of course, denying any involvement even though this new information implicates them. The report seems to have a good paper trail of money exchanges from Iran through Hezbollah operatives. They’ll just try to blame Israel…it’s what they always do!

The international community needs to insist on an open investigation but they’ll have to bypass the Lebanese government in order to do so. There needs to be pressure from multiple fronts for it to happen. Otherwise, we’ll always be in the dark and it will be written off as an unfortunate accident.