re: 4K Ultra Slow Motion Footage of Beirut Blast

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But aside from that, who else would the weapons be going to aside from terrorists? 

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Just tell me the groups. Any weapons shipments would have to go through Syrian government territory or Israeli territory. It is such an idiotic suggestion, because you are acting like these groups don't have names, or we don't know where they are. The groups themselves want this information out there, and regularly release press statements, confirm and deny casualties, or announce the beginning of operations. If you are so sure, just tell me the groups. The major groups are either Iranian-supplied, Turkish-supplied or US-supplied. Which group is this going to?

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It's illicit arms trade

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It probably isn't. Ukraine's only small arms plant has been out of commission since 2014, and the rest of their defense industry mostly deals with aerospace or electrical systems. Its a nonsense suggestion that this is an arms deal from Ukraine if you know anything about the area.

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So if this was an ammo cache, who else would these weapons be going to, but terrorists?

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This is the circular logic of an insane person.

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guess you can deny that the resignation and dissolution of their government has anything to do with this

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It is cumulative, and given that you have absolutely no idea about the region, the structure of the Lebanese government, the debt crisis of earlier this year, or the various Lebanese border situations, it is going to take far too long to explain why the resignation of the PM isn't as meaningful as you are making it out to be. It was trending in this direction since the financial crisis spiraled out of control. You want to ascribe a very odd narrative because you have no familiarity or interest in the region, and want to align disparate situations with some grand narrative that doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

The idea that this is an arms deal is very stupid, and I'd encourage you to learn about the region to understand why.

Let's take another look at that lens flare. This is what I was talking about in the OP, this first grab was taken in the frames just prior to the explosion. You can see a beam coming in from the upper left. I don't know though, it could still be some camera artefact of some sort. Could very well still be a lens flare for all I know, but as I said in the OP, it looked to my eyes like it showed up before the detonation.



And then we come to this frame which looks like the one someone dropped in early in the thread. Looks like lens flare. But note that the "beam" or whatever it is is still in the same spot. Same angle.



Here's another as the explosion builds. Lens flare still there.



Now we see the lens flare still here even though we can no longer see the fireball.



And finally we can see it when the entire area is becoming engulfed in smoke. Except now it's brighter.



Pretty incredible.

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. God bless anyone who survived within a half mile of that blast.

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Agreed. No matter what was behind the blast it was a terrible tragedy.

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I do not believe this is a fireworks factory.

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did you watch the whole video? there was a ton of, what look to be fire works, going off during the first few minutes of it burning prior to the explosion. So was it a fireworks factory? looked like it. Did they cause the big boom, probably not.

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So was it a fireworks factory? looked like it.

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Yes I watched the video. It's my thread after all.

And no, I don't think it's a fireworks factory. Did you watch the video I just linked of an actual fireworks factory explosion? They look nothing alike.

In the Beirut video there were no projectile type firework explosions like one would expect to see if a fireworks factory went up. They were all just singular points of light.

I've seen two options to explain this. Fireworks factory (official story), and weapons cache. It looks far more like what I would expect to see if a weapons cache went up in flames.

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Man, I'm not listening to your shite. I have been pleasant with you throughout this thread and you continue to act like an a-hole in every post you make.

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Me calling something stupid isn't me being an a-hole. It is a very stupid claim to make in the absence of concrete evidence. I'm only able to proportion belief based on the evidence at hand, and you've offered none but your own insistence, despite issues I've raised with your notion.

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So the idea that there is a black market weapons smuggling operation in a port in fricking Beirut, Lebanon is stupid, eh?

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Yes, as I saw nothing in your video which counteracts the claims in the Beirut explosion.

Just think for yourself for a second. Why would anyone send weapons through a sea route for weapons, as the M.O. of arms dealers since the 90's has been to use planes originating from Belgium, Ukraine, or South Africa? Ships are extremely slow, and a direct ship from Odessa to Beirut would have to pass the Bosporus, where they would be subject to Turkish inspection if they took an interest, and then to Beirut. Secondly, if you were to ship weapons, you would want to choose a port which has more freedom of access, as Beirut is limited in terms of its options. The Syrian government and Israeli governments control border around Lebanon, and both would be antagonistic to weapons sales originating from Lebanon, to a degree that it would invite actual reprisals, as such a situation would be equivalent to a declaration of war to the Israelis, and almost certainly with the Syrians. That they share no border or access to another terror group other than Hezbollah makes it unlikely that such a cache, if it existed, would be meant for any entity other than Hezbollah. Hezbollah could be a likely entity for such a shipment, except for the fact that the port itself, like much of Lebanon, has divided loyalties, and that Hezbollah doesn't want to expose itself to scrutiny in this particular fashion, as they have worked hard to build a Shia-Christian alliance in Lebanon. Hezbollah would much rather be the middle-man in arms deals, as they exhibited by their work in South America. Not only that, the reason that Hezbollah and Iran committed so many resources to Syria was that the land connection between the two is much easier to maintain than a sea connection. Overland routes and air routes are the methods of choice for most gunrunning operations.

Regardless, the notion that Beirut is the epicenter of a smuggling operation is extremely unlikely, as there are too many factions, too little access to buyers and quite a bit of intelligence scrutiny. The notion beggars belief, without concrete evidence.

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That beam of light, is what we call...the Sun

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Yes. As I said, it is likely still a lens flare. I'm assuming the sun is just out of the frame in the upper left and what I was seeing was a trick of light.

I only added the extra photos because the very first reply post in this thread claimed that it was flare from the initial explosion and that there was nothing in the frame before the initial blast. This was incorrect. That's all I was saying.

It was a neat trick of light that I was seeing. It looked like there was a flash before the flash. Likely still a lens flare though. I have maintained that throughout the thread. Said as much in the OP even.

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Seems to me you want to push your idea on people and wont take a step back and listen to counter arguments.

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What counter arguments? The only "arguments" anyone is making is to simply deny that it was a weapons cache, because apparently they don't snuggle weapons in that part of the world. No, I don't buy that explanation.

If this was an above board operation, why are they finding tunnels under the blast site?

YouTube

Are they smuggling the fireworks out under ground?