
New facts about the leadup to the Beirut explosion - bookofjoe
https://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/a-hidden-tycoon-african-explosives-and-a-loan-from-a-notorious-bank-questionable-connections-surround-beirut-explosion-shipment
======
BLKNSLVR
So, in a post-911 world, it's not even possible to categorically determine the
owner of an international cargo ship due to the fact that mazes of opaque
offshore (shell) company ownership is still not just possible and easy, but
effectively "the norm".

No invasion or bombing of any country is going to affect the facilitation of
terrorist funding anywhere near the action of restricting trade for companies
that have these byzantine ownership structures that shield the actual owners
and profiteers from identification. Anything other than shutting this
farcical, gaping, cargo-ship sized hole in "international business" is, purely
and simply, only theatrical effort against terrorism. It's actually worse than
that because it's appearing to do something; claiming that efforts are being
made, whilst it continues unabated.

~~~
ivan1783
This comment is hilarious - you are aware that there is no "post 911 world" in
90% of the world, right? Its just a blip in a history book. Pretty sure any
regulation which was put in place in America after 911 has nothing to do with
any of the countries which are involved in this story.

~~~
lmilcin
Yeah... that's very good point. From my point of view as Polish citizen 911 is
a problem that US developed for itself through their actions in the Middle
East.

I don't want to sound insensitive, 3 thousand people is of course a tragedy,
but on a scale of entire Earth I think it is preposterous for US citizens to
get obsessed after this one when more kids are dying to malaria every single
day or for multitude of other problems.

Looking from my point of view, it is that US rallies for some causes where it
seems to suit US interests. There are so many countries that need help but in
recent years whether a country gets US presence seems largely dependent on
whether there is oil there and US is all too happy to turn their face away if
the government of the oil-rich country is collaborating with US. This is a
sore to many eyes and I just can't help to remember it whenever I hear of US
trying to seem to be beneficiary in something.

This unfortunately adds fire to the trouble in the Middle East. If you are
islamic radical it is extremely easy to recruit people by showing them
factual, real, undeniable misbehavior of US. This lack of moral grounding is
exactly the reason why actions by US do not bring expected effects. Local
population treats US forces with resentment not because they are fundamentally
anti-US but because they see US as a corrupt replacement for their current
corrupt government.

A larger lesson is that you want somebody teach virtuous behavior you need to
be able to show the virtue yourself or you are not going to achieve very much
in terms of results.

\---

Also, my experience about downvotes is this kind of comment even if genuinely
to show what's an example of sentiment outside of US, will typically get a lot
of upvotes during US night time and then gets suddenly killed when US wakes
up.

Just an interesting thing I noticed which, for me, validates the whole point
that US doesn't like to acknowledge resentment it gets from most of the world
and that US problems aren't actually the same as world problems regardless of
how US would like to portray it.

~~~
hoorayimhelping
> _I don 't want to sound insensitive, 3 thousand people is of course a
> tragedy, but on a scale of entire Earth I think it is preposterous for US
> citizens to get obsessed after this one when more kids are dying to malaria
> every single day or for multitude of other problems._

> _will typically get a lot of upvotes during US night time and then gets
> suddenly killed when US wakes up._

I don't know about the downvotes, but you're presenting a false equivalency
that doesn't make any sense and is kind of insulting to me as an American.
Specifically about Malaria, which a US president has created a program to
address [https://www.usaid.gov/global-health/health-
areas/malaria](https://www.usaid.gov/global-health/health-areas/malaria).
America sends billions of dollars worth of aid and supplies around the world
every year. But to hear Europeans talk about it, the only thing America does
is cause problems for them with our imperialism.

Sometimes I wish America would just listen to Europe and let them fend for
themselves. Let their navies handle global piracy and securing global shipping
lanes for their interests. Let their armies deal with Russian and Chinese
saber rattling and the effect that will have on trade. Sometimes I wish I
could go back and tell the government to let European militaries spend their
own money to launch and maintain GPS systems that the entire western world has
been given and using for the past 40 years, paid for by American taxpayers.

> _A larger lesson is that you want somebody teach virtuous behavior you need
> to be able to show the virtue yourself or you are not going to achieve very
> much in terms of results._

Very ironic, since you're doing the same thing to America / Americans. What
part of you and your society is so virtuous that you feel the need to give
America a lesson on how to be virtuous?

~~~
havetocharge
US has lost its high moral standing in the world in the same way that Google
lost its standing with the technologists on HN. But those on the inside tend
to be oblivious to these facts.

~~~
mcguire
What countries have high moral standing in the world?

------
rob74
The usual sorry tale of rickety ships, dubious owners, shady ports of registry
(I didn't even know Moldova had a harbour for seagoing ships, but turns out
that they have, since 2006, after a territorial exchange with Ukraine:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Giurgiule%C8%99ti](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Giurgiule%C8%99ti)),
crews stranded aboard for months because the owner doesn't care etc. Be that
as it may, the blame for storing 2750 tons of a dangerous chemical in a
warehouse without proper safety measures in a port located at the heart of
Beirut for six years still rests firmly with the Lebanese authorities...

~~~
MattGaiser
> the blame for storing 2750 tons of a dangerous chemical in a warehouse
> without proper safety measures in a port located at the heart of Beirut for
> six years still rests firmly with the Lebanese authorities...

The problem is, which ones?

~~~
LatteLazy
From wikipedia:

By order of the judge, the cargo was brought ashore in 2014 and placed in
Warehouse 12 at the port,[32] where it remained for the next six
years.[16][17][23][33] The MV Rhosus sank in the harbour in February 2018.[34]

Customs officials had sent letters to judges requesting a resolution to the
issue of the confiscated cargo, proposing that the ammonium nitrate be either
exported, given to the army, or sold to the private Lebanese Explosives
Company.[b][17] Letters had been sent on 27 June and 5 December 2014, 6 May
2015, 20 May and 13 October 2016, and 27 October 2017.[17][36] One of the
letters sent in 2016 noted that judges had not replied to previous requests,
and "pleaded":[17]

In view of the serious danger of keeping these goods in the hangar in
unsuitable climatic conditions, we reaffirm our request to please request the
marine agency to re-export these goods immediately to preserve the safety of
the port and those working in it, or to look into agreeing to sell this amount
...

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosion)

So the customs office did their jobs.

------
nottorp
I don't understand why so much effort is spent on who initially owned the ship
or the ammonium nitrate.

No matter what they were guilty of, it's the Lebanese government that
confiscated 3000 tons of explosive material and stored it in conditions that
lead to the explosion. It was _their_ ammonium nitrate when it blew up and
their responsibility.

All this "who owned that ship" stuff smells of finger pointing to hide the
real guilty parties.

~~~
cdubzzz
Are you suggesting that no one should investigate how this became the
government’s problem in the first place? That is absurd.

~~~
nottorp
Yes I am. It became the property of the Lebanese government in 2014 and it
blew up in 2020. Any attempts to blame the explosion on the original
transporter are pure propaganda.

>There had been suggestions that it was meant for Beirut, to be used by Sunni
militants or Hezbollah, and the final destination of Mozambique was a cover.

Aha. So? Good job confiscating it then. Lousy (or criminal) job not getting
rid of it after.

Besides, did those "suggestions" only surface after the explosion by any
chance?

~~~
s1artibartfast
I think it is fair to look at all possible root causes to identify all
contributing causes.

It would be great if the solution they implement is to fix the broken
bureaucracy _and_ prevent the trafficking of high explosives.

------
thinkloop
Summary:

\- Grechushkin (Russian) was transporting ammonium nitrate from Georgia to
Mozambique

\- Grechushkin Ordered a last minute stop in Beirut to pick up additional
cargo in the form of trucks, but the plan was abandoned when the first loaded
truck almost broke the deck

\- Lebanese officials then detained the ship for safety reasons

\- Grechushkin declared bankruptcy and disappeared and the ship was impounded

\- The ammonium nitrate was moved to a warehouse at the port and the ship
eventually sank behind a breakwater, where its wreckage remains

\- 4 years of complicated secrecy, corruption, shell companies, and “flags of
convenience” involving Cypriot shipping magnate Manoli, the Portuguese illicit
arms trafficking Vieira family, the Mozambique ruling elite, and Ukranian
middle-man company Savaro, stymied solutions

\- Lebanon then tried to offload the material to several organization
including the Lebanese army and a local explosives manufacturer but they
refused

\- Lebanon then tried to return the cargo to Georgia but did not for unknown
reasons

\- On July 20, 2020, two weeks prior to the explosion, Lebanese security
services warned the president that there were serious flaws with the storage
of the ammonium nitrate

Then disaster.

~~~
iso8859-1
To me, the biggest revelation is that Grechushkin wasn't the owner. If you
lease a vessel, it should be seaworthy. Manoli was the owner, how could he
provide a broken ship? So the attention on Grechushkin is exaggerated.

~~~
Uberphallus
Because his own (other) company certified it seaworthy. It's almost as if you
can create companies according to the corner you want to cut.

------
_underfl0w_
Tangential to the primary issue, but TFA mentions the crew being detained on
the ship for 10 months after docking, which is absolutely mind-blowing. I
assume they weren't completely oblivious to the contents of their cargo.
Imagine not only sailing, but then trying to sleep for _ten extra months_
aboard a ship carrying thousands of pounds of explosive fertilizer. Insane.

~~~
Shivetya
hell we just did it with crews of many cruise ships in the US and likely
elsewhere[0] the numbers being over 100,000 in total. Most were stranded in US
ports because of arduous restrictions by the CDC and the home countries of the
crewmen.

So yeah, it might not be an explosive but being trapped on ships with a
potential to be sick isn't exactly fun. Sadly a lot of this has to do with out
of sight out of mind, these crews are not generally seen by people even though
when out on a cruise you physically see them each day.

[0][https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-
cruises/ar...](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-
cruises/article242565281.html)

~~~
throw_away
This sounds like the worst game of "would you rather?" ever. Explosive cargo
ship abandoned by the world or plague cruise ship abandoned by the world.

------
nelaboras
The big story for me is in the last paragraphs: this wasn't the full shipment
exploding:

> According to three European intelligence sources investigating the blast,
> who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity, the amount still
> stored in the warehouse by August may have been smaller than the initial
> 2,750 tons. They said the size of the explosion was equivalent to as little
> as 700 to 1,000 tons of ammonium nitrate.

That means to me someone, somewhere is building bombs.

~~~
yetihehe
1000 tons of CLEAN ammonium in good shape. It's rather hard to explode all
mass of pure ammonium or even ANFO in mines, it's routine to find unexploded
pellets all over the place. It's even harder to explode whole mass of ammonium
which sat for several years in humid conditions (ammonium nitrate is VERY
higroscopic).

~~~
rob74
I was wondering about that too, especially since when investigating the state
of the cargo they found out that already in 2015 "most of the one-ton bags
containing the ammonium nitrate — approximately 1,900 — were ripped and had
their contents spilling out". So some of it may have surely been stolen over
the years, but not 1500-2000 tons...

~~~
yetihehe
Yeah, consider logistics of stealing 1000 tons of something. If it's not
organized big truck removal, you are looking at ferrying max 200-300kg at a
time with small car, loading one ton of fertilizer with shovel will also take
more than a hour during which thieves can be nabbed. After two years in humid
environment you can't use shovel anymore, you have to use pickaxe to split it
apart into large chunks (and explosion risk is relatively high for such
operation). That's why no company was interested, it was not easily useful for
anyone.

------
Balgair
Aside: These issues with shady ownership and responsibility are going to
continue to be quite the issue. In the US, the current administration just
relaxed rules for liquid-natural-gas transport on rail. Specifically, the LNG
cars can now go 50mph+ in heavily populated areas, with no limit on the number
of LNG cars [0]. When an issue occurs and someone dies, I suspect there will
be a similarly long chain of shell companies for these LNG cars.

[0] [https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/bomb-
tra...](https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/bomb-
trains-1046481/)

~~~
paul_f
Liquid natural gas is not flammable and a tanker of LNG cannot explode unless
hit with a missile. (correction, sorry, somebody could blow one up)

~~~
Balgair
That's just plain false:

[https://ww2.energy.ca.gov/lng/faq.html#900](https://ww2.energy.ca.gov/lng/faq.html#900)

Yes, it needs an oxidizer. 5-15% LNG vapor to air is sufficient. Like in the
case of a rail car being ruptured and leaking LNG.

------
nimbius
anecdotal evidence here, but I grew up on a farm. I know exactly what ammonium
nitrate is. Here in America the ATF does almost everything it can to keep you
from storing or purchasing any more than a sack at a time unless you can prove
youve got the soy or corn to feed with it.

a quick Wiki shows Agriculture in Lebanon is the third most productive sector
in the country after the tertiary and industrial sectors. It contributes 3.6%
to GDP and employs around 4% of the active working population.

Is it feasible for a subset of 216,000 people to steal this chemical rampantly
over five years? absolutely. it never goes bad, and you can trade it with
neighboring farmers almost like a barter system for things like seed, dung and
tractor parts. Should you ever store it? absolutely not, but im willing to
venture Lebanese farmers arent millionires and dont really care.

if just 300 people strated looting this chemical theyd only need 20 pounds a
piece. theres 3000 tonnes right there.

TL;DR: i do not think this is being used to make explosives.

~~~
MagnumOpus
> if just 300 people strated looting this chemical theyd only need 20 pounds a
> piece. theres 3000 tonnes right there

That's 3 tonnes... (And as the saying goes, what's the difference between 3
tonnes and 3000 tonnes? About 3000 tonnes.)

~~~
perl4ever
How many working days are there in five years?

------
gorbypark
I read last week about unconfirmed reports that the fire was caused by workers
welding a door. It would be tragically ironic if a report that highlighted
security concerns about a missing door is what caused the explosions.

 _In a July 20, 2020, report to the president and prime minister — just two
weeks prior to the explosion — Lebanese security services warned that there
were serious security flaws at the facility that left the ammonium nitrate
open to theft._

 _One door of the unguarded warehouse was missing, while there was also a hole
in the southern wall, the report said._

~~~
Uberphallus
Ammonium nitrate is notoriously hard to detonate, I would rule it out but I
think any evidence of such chains of events, or otherwise, has been vaporized.

~~~
datameta
Apparently there was a secondary cache of fireworks stored next to the
ammonium nitrate. Probably placed there under the assumption that if there's
already an astronomic amount of explosive material they might as well store it
in one place. Which completely overlooks the fact that the fireworks made a
perfect primer for the detonation as ammonium nitrate is actually somewhat
difficult to set off on its own. That's why we often see large amounts of it
going off somewhere making the news every few years - it's misleadingly safe
to store. Similarly, diesel won't catch a spark but I'm not going to advocate
storing fireworks in a storehouse of the stuff.

------
throwaway0a5e
There's only so many arms manufactuers and shipping companies and supporting
businesses who are willing to work the bottom of the barrel market. The first
world is always on their back because they're the people who do things "wrong"
enough (they and their customers would say "right") to meet the price points
of the third world. This is like the shipping equivalent of the local bottom
dollar machinery moving service that has cash discounts and is always getting
hassled by the DOT for clapped out trucks and questionable load permits.

Until the whole world is rich enough to not have to cut corners this kind of
stuff (the shipping story, the chain of events leading to the explosion in
downtown Beirut is exceptional which is why they're so pissed off about it) is
normal.

------
dmch-1
This is pretty much Murphy's Law in action. Murky business dealings, poor
governance and mismanagement is a norm in big parts of the world. Then from
time to time things go wrong, and that is just statistics.

------
sschueller
Improper storage sadly happens here too:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyBdAT_yCFQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyBdAT_yCFQ)

------
BXLE_1-1-BitIs1
Once a government authority seizes cargo, the authority takes on the entire
responsibility,incompetence notwithstanding. Should have scuttled it offshore.

------
phkahler
That's an awfully long article about a ship that sank some years ago. While
interesting, it has very little to do with the explosion or its cause.

~~~
rebuilder
Sure, but it has to do with something potentially much more interesting.
Sometimes, things that remain hidden become public due to sheer bad luck, like
seems to have happened here.

------
gerdesj
Savaro Ltd:

[https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05841913/filing-h...](https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/05841913/filing-
history)

Is that the sort of outfit that you would order nearly 3000 tons of stuff
from? They were registered as dormant. The level of corruption all the way
through this chain of events is quite something.

~~~
xerosis
Look how many companies are registered at the same address!

[https://suite.endole.co.uk/explorer/postcode/e2-8dn](https://suite.endole.co.uk/explorer/postcode/e2-8dn)

~~~
Proziam
This is perfectly normal. I don't want my home address out in public so I use
a registered agent service to act as the address for filings like these.

The same is true for both the US and UK (both places where I have founded
companies.)

~~~
gerdesj
I run a UK company. I absolutely want my identity known as far as is possible.

Please don't confuse security with obscurity.

------
vkou
> The new revelations show how, at almost every stage, the Rhosus’ deadly
> shipment was connected to actors who used opaque offshore structures and lax
> government oversight to work in the shadows.

This is an apt description of the international shipping industry as a whole.
Flags of convenience, shells upon shells upon shells, where nobody knows who
they work for, or who should be sued, fraudulent certification, all enabled by
port authorities who are hesitant to seize incompliant ships.

------
liminal
It seems like richer countries could start refusing docking privileges to
ships that fly flags of convenience. This would at least curtail some of the
nefariousness.

------
TheBillyMania
We in the US should thank our lucky stars that massive and endemic corruption
which is rampant overseas is not present here in the United States. I have
long since lost the idea that the rest of the world will ever modernize and
institute the rule of law.

~~~
milkytron
I can't tell if this is sarcastic or not, but I think corruption has taken its
toll on the United States. Maybe not to the same extent as other countries,
but there is certainly room for improvement.

------
kebman
The homemade bomb used by ABB to murder eight people at the Norwegian
government building on 22 July 2011 was made by common fertilizer components;
so called ANFO, which is ammonium nitrate mixed with fuel:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANFO](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANFO)

~~~
08-15
And Timothy McVeigh used ammonium nitrate with nitromethane to blow up a
federal building in Oklahoma city.

What's your point? That terrorists use shitty explosives if they can't get the
good stuff like Semtex?

Meanwhile, much larger amounts of ammonium nitrate are used as fertilizer.
Makes me wonder why the Lebanese authorities didn't sell the stuff as
fertilizer to get rid of it.

~~~
kebman
My point was merely to inform.

------
techwarrior
Just a small excerpt of human nature. So much underhanded crap going on in
this world to enrich a few individuals while billions struggle on trying to
make an honest living.

------
badhabit
it's the weapon factory that should be responsible for the explosion because
they made the KNO3

~~~
stallmanite
So if I manufacture boulders and some dumbass stores one at the top of a steep
incline it’s my fault if that boulder rolls into town and crushes people? That
doesn’t make sense to me.

------
baq
looks like an opportunity for an SV unicorn startup to revolutionize shipping.

------
wyoh
> the Shia militant group Hezbollah

AH yes, the Hezbollah, just a militant group, not a bunch of terrorists.

------
Seasonwreckage
>the causes of the disaster appear to be tied to bureaucratic ineptitude."

I'd say it's a trend from the top leadership. Unfortunately, despite this
fact, they are going to try to pin it on someone.

------
bouncycastle
Perhaps the journalists could have avoided a lot of the loaded terminology
such as "actors", "opaque", "mysterious, "shadows", and many related
adjectives.

I want just the facts please.

~~~
bouncycastle
More information about the use of loaded terms.
[https://bobyewchuk.wordpress.com/2019/05/21/loaded-
words/](https://bobyewchuk.wordpress.com/2019/05/21/loaded-words/)

------
aaron695
Meh,

It's only because the government wanted to steal/use/sell/recover $ this
happened.

It's just common fertiliser. Used everywhere. Transported everywhere.

If they really didn't want it they could have dumped it at sea and got some
carbon credits.

Rickety ship's are a story, but nothing to do with Beirut.

~~~
rebuilder
Rickety ships being used to ship explosive precursors by people trying their
best to hide their involvement in that activity, to people implicated in
illegal arms trading, seems like a pretty important story.

~~~
aaron695
If you are saying 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate was being transported for
military or militant use, that to me is pretty crazy but interesting.

But you'd need to say it rather than imply something Qanon style. What is
going on?

My theory. It's a ricky ship transporting ammonium nitrate for use farming or
mining. To differentiate you'd have to see if this counterfeit ammonium
nitrate really does cost more to be mining grade or it's just in the name and
is for farming.

How would illegal arms play out in an alternate theory?

~~~
rebuilder
Well, the article says pretty much right at the start:

"The ultimate customer for the ammonium nitrate on the ship, a Mozambican
explosives factory, is part of a network of companies previously investigated
for weapons trafficking and allegedly supplying explosives used by
terrorists.The factory never tried to claim the abandoned material."

