Documentary series “Amber 12” about “Al-Mayadeen”

After August 4 (August), the date of the bomb attack in the port of Beirut, which left more than 200 martyrs and thousands of wounded and hundreds of buildings and business interests damaged, to this day, chaos continues to reign in the transmission of narratives of what happened, and who is responsible for storing tons of “saltpeter”. Ammonium »in amber No. 12 for more than six years. Over the past period, local, Arab and Western media platforms have struggled to follow the tracks of the bloody bombing, with some even turning their screen into a court by pointing arrows at specific political or administrative parties related to the port. After that, we faced a different wave, with clear objectives and milestones, that used political investment against a political group, specifically “Hezbollah”, holding it responsible for the bombing and possession of the material within the mentioned pavilion. In addition to this media action, the judicial and political apparatus was reluctant to resolve the record of the attack, or at least to inform the Lebanese about the truth about what happened on August 4. Thus, we are faced with a vicious circle, in which the truth is lost, and dominated by chaos in the information, accusations and possible narratives of what happened in the port.

Faced with this reality, we witnessed numerous documents and reports related to the bombing of the port. However, the series “Amber 12” (developed and investigated by: Shiraz Hayek – Director: Muhammad Safa – Executive Producer: Discreet), whose first episode was screened the day before yesterday, in Al-Mayadeen, entitled The “charge of death” tries , through three parts, reorganize and order the information in the mind of the spectator, adopt transparency and take the necessary distance from the opinions to present the event from all its angles, in the language of the guests, giving priority to the information truthful obtained from its direct sources. The first episode, which began with the moment of the explosion, dealt with the trajectory of the ship “Roussos”, which was loaded with more than 2,700 tons of “ammonium nitrate”, which ignited on its course started in 2013, from Georgia , Istanbul, Beirut, and the problems it faced in the abandonment of its owner, and since its crew, who remained detained in Beirut, was later released, after the ship was stopped and prevented from completing the navigation due to lack of technical conditions at. The ship’s voyage, narrated by its captain, Boris Prokchev, will list the rest of its problems with the specialists and those involved in this file: the representative of the Ministry of Finance in the “Interim Committee of Management and Investment of the Port of Beirut” Talal Fadel, colleague Hassan Aliq, along with Defense Minister Yaqoub Al-Sarraf, Judge Hatem Madi and the CEO. State Security Service “Tony Saliba, Minister of Public Works and Transport”, Youssef Fenianos, economist Kamal Hamdan, lawyer Bushra al-Khalil, and the head of the Higher Customs Council Nizar Khalil (2014-2017). The last part of the episode is dedicated to dealing with the history of the port, from its inception until the Lebanese state took over the reins in the 1990s during the era of the Rafik Hariri government. The historical narration was carried out by Christine Babikian, researcher in the history of the port, referring to the agreements of the Ottoman and French Mandate, which led to the formation of what is known as the “temporary committee for the management and investment of the port from Beirut “. An introduction was essential, in preparation for the second part, entitled “Mysteries and secrets.” The latter sheds light on the structure of the port, with security agencies and ministries guarding, trying to find out who is responsible for the bombing. Certainly extremely difficult, with each party blaming the other. Despite the loss that this chaos can leave, the curators of the documentary were willing to present diverse opinions, without adopting or guiding them, especially since the authorities responsible for the port are branching out from agencies in the Lebanese state, and their competencies and Technical and safety tasks differ. This is what the series producer, Shiraz Hayek, confirms to us, who completed this work with the rest of the team in just forty days between the preparation of the investigation and the technical implementation, and cited her eagerness in this field, to present the information with a scientific methodology, without accusation or fragmentation, in an attempt to reach the novel. The complete bombing of the port, with the presentation of documents, videos and photos released for the first time, including images of Pavilion No. 12 before the explosion, showing the incorrect way of packaging the ammonium bags, and the climatic conditions that contributed to the increase in the percentage of “nitrogen” inside, to more than 33%, that is, its transformation. In an explosive. Here, the documentary is situated in the scientific analysis of these materials, with the chemical expert, Fouad Bazzi, and refers to the disclosure of these materials in 2015, showing that they are explosive, and the loss that occurred after them, to try to get rid of them and hand them over to the army that rejected the order, and the big question after that is the lack of action by the interested party to report and manipulate these explosive materials in the port.
In the last episode (storm and destruction), a return to the time of the bombing, and the decision to weld room 12, by the maintenance team, with exclusive photos of its thrown doors, a review of the breach that occurred in the room and its treatment, and the implementation of the decision to close the doors at that time, without this process being affected. The welding that caused the port explosion. In this section also, a review of the political trajectory that marked the period after the bombing, either internally or externally, specifically the French movement, with the journalist Georges Malbrunot, who specializes in the Lebanese file and who was among the delegation that accompanied French President Emmanuel Macron on his last two visits to Beirut. This section also presents summaries of the investigations carried out by French, American and even Chilean security organizations, which concluded that the attack was the result of “accidental human error”, excluding the account of the participation of “Israel” in the attempt. Here we come to the political reversal that took place soon after the Hezbollah bombing and impeachment. Here, Hayek points out that the therapist was very interested in showing the technical and logical response, in the mouth of specialists to refute this accusation, since it is not possible, for example, to store weapons in a wet sea area, just as it is impossible to move in the port area, which does not correspond to the nature of the security area that governs the operation. Store weapons. In the end, “Amber 12” tries to present information, even if it is complex and technical, in a fluid way to the viewer (using graphics to explain), and to distance itself from the statements of the guests, on the basis that “everyone is responsible” and everyone they are charged until proven otherwise, while waiting for the rest of the facts to be clarified. The judicial investigation will show this in this area.

* The second episode of “Amber 12”: Next Sunday at 9:00 pm on “Al-Mayadeen”.
* The third and last episode, “Storm and destruction”: Sunday, December 20 at 9:00 p.m.

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