No Accountability 3 Years After History's Biggest Non-Nuclear Explosion | Hacker News Reader

No Accountability 3 Years After History's Biggest Non-Nuclear Explosion

new.thecradle.co

46 pointshammock19 comments

"history's biggest non-nuclear explosion"

"Sixth-largest accidental artificial non-nuclear explosion in human history" according to [1]; other explosions listed in [2].

Hardly the main point of the article of course, but seems odd they got this so wrong.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosion#Yield

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_artificial_non-nuclear...

The wiki article has this line:

> Group at the University of Sheffield estimated that the explosion was one of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions ever recorded

Presumably, they forgot the "ever recorded" part.

I don't now what exactly is intended with "recorded" in this context; the others seem "recorded" to me(?) I think it's more likely they read over or misinterpreted "one of the largest", or something like that.

Maybe a reference to climate alarmism?

You can arrive at any superlative (or first-ever) that you want, as long as you string up enough qualifiers in front of it.

I think they forgot the "one of" more.

Also forgot the artificial / man made bit. I guess the big bang would be the biggest non nuclear explosion in history?

> But despite the responsibility held by the country's army and judiciary, from the moment the blast happened until today, western-friendly officials and news outlets have placed the blame on Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, alleging that the group stored the dangerous materials in the port – which is controlled by the US-funded army.

I have never heard a western news outlet place blame on Hezbollah. The same corruption and government disfunction cited in this article is what I have heard from western news outlets.

I've never heard that either which makes me suspicious of the author.

It was a significant enough story to have weeks of meta narrative reports — so it was definitely "a thing".

(Our propaganda institutions will generally put some MIC-friendly narrative out there, more or less immediately after events like this.)

Here are some examples:

[1] https://en.radiofarda.com/a/why-are-fingers-pointed-at-hezbo...

[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2020-08-05/beirut-ex...

[3] https://www.voanews.com/a/hezbollah-rattled-by-port-blast-pr...

[4] https://www.tv7israelnews.com/the-beirut-explosion-is-there-...

[5] https://www.foxnews.com/world/beirut-blast-hezbollah-port-un...

I read through the history of the material that caused the blast a while back. I was struck by how people just obeying laws despite the obvious, extreme danger to the city. Judges, the executive, groups like the port operator and the cargo owner all ignored the obvious risk. For years. Until risk became fact.

Notably the customs officials repeatedly warned of the danger and the fact they were ignored just increases the culpability of the rest.

It’s a bleak reminder of the consequences of corruption.

Cicero broke the law to execute a number of citizens without trial when he discovered they were plotting a coup.

When challenged on this he said "Salus populi suprema lex esto":

"The safety of the people should be the supreme law"

There are more important things than safety. I'm not trying to excuse corruption here, but authoritarian leaders have used "public safety" to justify all manner of horrible acts. If protecting freedom, civil rights, and the rule of law means that some people die then that is an acceptable price to pay.

That's a fair comment.

The key is transparency, which was missing here.

"Safety" is one way to translate the Latin, but it could also be translated as "health", "welfare", or "salvation".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salus_populi_suprema_lex_esto

We make them run for president. … again.

Lebanon hasn’t had a functional government for years, who is supposed to be accountable exactly is the better question

There's a review of a recent, impassioned book on the explosion and its causes in the current New York Review of Books [1]. The reviewer [2] is an outstanding journalist who focuses on North Africa and the Middle East.

[1] https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/08/17/lebanons-chernob... Archived: https://archive.ph/r9FIj

[2] https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/ursula-lindsey/

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