[ad_1]
Beirut is suffocating … It is not a metaphor if it is said that “the cause is one”, the welding operations that were responsible for the spark of the port explosion more than a month ago, again provoked, according to allegations of eyewitnesses , a huge fire in the Beirut Port Free Zone, which caused suffocation. The capital covered its sky with toxic black smoke and black ashes fell on the houses of its people.
It is the second fire in the port in less than two days. The first was with the knowledge of the Lebanese army, according to a statement issued by it, where “debris, wood remains, tires and waste” were burned, all resulting from the explosion, in the midst of previous preparations in coordination with the civil defense teams. and rescue, and the fire was quickly controlled at that time.
However, the burning operations enraged Lebanese public opinion, which raised doubts about the safety of the “crime scene” and the evidence that the burial burials might contain, especially since to date it has not been presented to the Lebanese public the final result of the investigation.
In conclusion, this case can be taught in universities and judicial and security institutes:
Worst crime scene management since August 4
The weakest protection for the safety of people, personnel and the military
The judiciary, the police and the military less responsible
The ugliest political, administrative and judicial administration of the emergency crisis
The greatest chaos when dealing with calamity
….– Omar Nashabe Omar Nashabe (@ONashabe) September 10, 2020
Manipulate a crime scene?
The constant ambiguity of the results of the investigations, which led the Lebanese to adopt the theory of “evidence in flames” as soon as the second fire broke out, which was revealed through the hashtag “crime scene” that heads the list of words most used on Twitter in Lebanon, and through which the Lebanese considered that these fires were invented. Hide the evidence that could incriminate those responsible for the explosion in the port and reveal the circumstances of the explosive materials that caused it, and what was subsequently found during the rescue and search operations.
20 containers of dangerous chemicals, announced by a member of the French inspection team during a press release 6 days after the explosion (10 August). More than 70 containers of hazardous materials also revealed that the Lebanese army had found them in the port of Beirut in the vicinity of the explosion site during the period between August 14 and 22, and the last one found was a quantity of ammonium nitrate, weighing approximately 4.35 tonnes, at the customs “port of reserve”. Outside the harbor boundaries near entrance 9.
All these materials are unknown to their owner, and the Lebanese judiciary has not determined any responsibility despite the extreme danger they represent. This cannot be ignored when looking at the new fire, according to military expert Nizar Abdel Qader, who believes that what happened “is not innocent, and must be linked.” With the materials found in the port recently, so there are attempts to open doors that complicate the basic investigation of the first crime, and this fire is part of it, and I cannot be convinced that in light of this place guarded by security and under the gaze of the whole world, it is possible from one minute to another to produce a fire of this magnitude and spread. Up to this point, it required all of Lebanon’s land and air capabilities to extinguish it, without it being artificial or at least perceptible. ”
Today’s fire revealed to Abdul Qadir the magnitude of the chaos that reigned in the port after the explosion: “Despite all the materials found, today’s fire proved that the entire port is a time bomb and flammable materials.”
This chaos is exploited by all those who have an interest in complicating the investigation and misleading it, creating complications and enlarging the investigation task, due to the lack of access to the real criminals and officials. “
According to Abdel Qader, “a responsible committee of the Ministry of Works, Justice, Defense and Interior at the highest level should have been formed to manage the port, lift and extract all suspicious materials, inspect all hangars and their material content and the possibility of their ignition or explosion and remove them from the port, and avoid any sabotage or coincidence that excludes them “.
It is noteworthy that, after the outbreak of the fire, Lebanese President Michel Aoun requested the formation of a committee headed by the Minister of Works in the interim government, including representatives of the security services and the port company, to establish a new organization for work in the port and guaranteeing public safety in it.
Solder again
According to what was revealed to the Al-Hurra website, one of the eyewitnesses who was near the site of the fire of the PCC warehouse in the free zone, shortly before the outbreak of the fire, the warehouses witnessed the cutting and melting of the large iron pillars that were scattered at the site as a result of the explosion as part of the debris removal operations. And soon, the fire spread among the scattered goods very quickly. Food oils, groceries, rubber tires, clothing and paintings, all of them ignited very quickly and spread in a few minutes, as if the whole place was flammable, according to the eyewitness, who confirms that the security forces were present near the workplace that was present and knew it.
This information is confirmed by the public relations official of the Beirut Fire Brigade, First Lieutenant Ali Najm, who explained in his interview to the Al-Hurra website that “the fire site is full of flammable oily materials, plastics and food, as observed by the members of the regiment ”, probably according to what the regiment received from the stories that welding operations caused the fire, highlighting that only the official investigation determines the real causes.
Najm confirmed that “the fire brigade had no prior knowledge of any welding operations at the site and never coordinated with it. On the contrary, it received the news as did the citizens, and quickly rushed in with its modest abilities to try to control the fire, which spread in a U-shape and on this basis the extinction was started with the help of all parts and devices. The fire was quickly removed from the tanks of the oil company “Total”, which was brought during the period of gas exploration in Lebanon, and it would have been dangerous to ignite it. ”
It should be noted that the welding operations were the most likely hypothesis to be the cause of the fire that caused the port explosion on August 4, according to the leak of the ongoing investigations, which is confirmed by any official statement before the total absence of transparency in the disclosure of research findings to public opinion. .
According to the strategic and military expert, Brigadier General Samir El-Khadem, during his interview with the Al-Hurra website, formulated 3 hypotheses that are more likely to cause and motivate this fire. The first is that carelessness and poor storage, especially after the explosion, in addition to the welding work, caused the outbreak of this fire, and the same data led to its spread in this way before it was monitored by the supervisory authorities. of the port administration.
Regarding the second hypothesis, it is hypothesized that the fire was conceived by the owners of these warehouses and the materials in them, in order to avoid the costs involved in storing them in the port on the one hand, and on the other hand Obtain compensation from insurance companies that would not compensate for the damage caused by the explosion. Unlike the damage caused by fire.
Investigative journalist Riad Kobeissi, who follows the port’s file, also referred to this hypothesis, as he reported on his Facebook page from one of his sources in the port that the customs service was asking the owners of these goods that burned in the free zone to sign papers that lift the responsibility of Lebanese customs towards all losses and damages caused by the explosion, “and therefore it seems that someone decided to burn them.”
Regarding the third hypothesis, Brigadier General Samir al-Khadim refers to the theory of burning “the crime scene to hide evidence and materials that could have helped reveal details about those responsible for the port explosion, and although the site is very far from the site of the explosion, and it is unlikely that it contains tangible evidence that needs to be erased, “Except that we are in Lebanon and anything is possible.”
Come on #Lebanon To erase the evidence from the crime scene … to assign Hezbollah to the dirty era and the achievements continue to flood the country with filth fire and submission to Iran … pic.twitter.com/CHd7zL1F29
– Samah Ayass (@Samahayass) September 10, 2020
A university professor specializing in forensic science, Omar Nashaba, objects to the theory that the site is far from the scene of the explosion, claiming that it is only 700 meters away. “And if we got an accurate scientific result, the crime scene circle should have been calculated based on the momentum caused by the explosion, and since the explosion was of this magnitude, we saw projectiles falling further from where the fire occurred today. , because 700 meters are not far and they should have been located inside the crime scene ”.
“From the first night of the explosion it was assumed that the wide circle of the explosion would be defined and that it would be completely closed to everyone except the researchers, after which maps would be drawn before and after the explosion, in order to detect any manipulation of the assets after the explosion, so the place had to be photographed and the entry and exit process managed. It put in place a system of prior permits, monitoring and inspecting everyone inside and outside, their purposes and during their I work inside, and if this was what was happening, we would not have witnessed the fire today and this is a high level of irresponsibility.
The benefit of this, according to Nashaba, is that some assets useful for research can be brought in, all of which must be subject to extensive monitoring and study and kept closed until the research is complete. As the investigation or criminal investigation can reach information on specific materials or tangible evidence at any time that contributes to determining responsibilities and convicting those responsible, which requires a second and third survey whenever the search for specific materials is required, and this is no longer possible at the scene of the fire.
Nashaba believes that “everything that is happening and all the assumptions say that we live in total chaos and in the total absence of the slightest sense of responsibility. There is a failure of the highest levels and of all parties, security, administrative and judicial in the Lebanese state, in the midst of a blatant evasion of responsibilities and their defiance of each other, while the Lebanese receive in Every day a new shock, and live again in fear of a second explosion or a new disaster “, wondering : “What sense of humanity or responsibility allows the curators of the scene of the explosion to make a fire two days ago, which, like the fire today, returned the smoke scenes that rose to the minds of the people of the city and their children? “
[ad_2]
