Beeper as a Weapon

Funny. The thread that I initiated was quickly hijacked by OT or by at least inappropriate and tasteless comments and entries. Now, even my own postings are being censored and deleted... Quo vadis? At the same time the cover-up seems to continue wildly.

Meanwhile the Cryptomuseum updated their analysis on the pager and walkie-talkie attacks, which I recommend:

Pager

www.cryptomuseum.com www.cryptomuseum.com

The most interesting and mysterious trace now is related to Theresa Wu.

See also the updated AR924 page:

AR-924

www.cryptomuseum.com www.cryptomuseum.com
 
yahya said:
Funny. The thread that I initiated was quickly hijacked by OT or by at least inappropriate and tasteless comments and entries. Now, even my own postings are being censored and deleted... Quo vadis? At the same time the cover-up seems to continue wildly.

Meanwhile the Cryptomuseum updated their analysis on the pager and walkie-talkie attacks, which I recommend:

Pager

www.cryptomuseum.com www.cryptomuseum.com

The most interesting and mysterious trace now is related to Theresa Wu.

See also the updated AR924 page:

AR-924

www.cryptomuseum.com www.cryptomuseum.com
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Moderators have to do their job to keep this very useful means of communication running, even if they sometimes agree with what they censor.

It often happens to me that I see some of my opinions moderate, but I assure you that the system is still quite democratic. Yesterday I had to remove a drawing because someone complained. It doesn't matter, I have many more.;)
 
Justo Miranda said:
Where are the huge anti-aircraft defenses of Sui-Ho Dam and the Majon-Ni Bridge (1952), where are the SAMs of the Ho Chi Minh Trail (1967), Yom Kippur (1973) and the Beqaa Valley (1982-1984)???... This war is very rare.:oops:
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Please, here is beepers only, don't go OT again.
For other aspects of the war feel free to start either dedicated topics or a single general topic for the war.

Thanks
 
If they were turned off at the time they could not receive the activation signal.
 
Antonio said:
Please, here is beepers only, don't go OT again.
For other aspects of the war feel free to start either dedicated topics or a single general topic for the war.

Thanks
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Can we include the other exploding comms devices here, like the radios?



BlackBat242 said:
If they were turned off at the time they could not receive the activation signal.
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I'm not sure that's true. It's not clear that the explosive detonators were wired into the main device power or directly part of the batteries.
 
Scott Kenny said:
It's not clear that the explosive detonators were wired into the main device power or directly part of the batteries.
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Something that needs to be kept in mind is that Mossad tampered with literally thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies, even with the best electronics design and top notch manufacturing methods you will always get a few duds.
 
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NMaude said:
Something that needs to be kept in mind is that Mossad tampered with literally thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies, even with the best electronics, design, top notch manufacturing methods you will always get a few duds.
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Granted, and with ~5000 pagers alone I'd expect ~50 duds at least.

Has anyone said how many walkie-talkies went boom?
 
The AR-924 has a soft power switch button just like smartphones. It means that the main board was basically always powered, and the on-board clock was always running. These pagers either had a hidden feature embedded in the software that turned the detonator on upon the reception of a certain coded signal over the pager's receiver circuitry, or the pagers were fitted with an independent low power radio receiver connected to the detonator that was always listening for triggering signal. That is more likely given the reports that even the unboxed pagers also exploded on September, 17th.
 
Simultaneously, in Lebanon, Hezbollah began conducting a major investigation to purge Israeli spies among them, questioning hundreds of members after the pager detonations, three sources in Lebanon told Reuters.
Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, a senior Hezbollah official, was leading the investigation, a Hezbollah source said. The probe was progressing rapidly, the source said, before an Israeli raid killed him a day after Nasrallah's assassination. Another raid earlier last week had targeted other senior Hezbollah commanders, some of who were involved in the inquiry.
Kaouk had summoned for questioning Hezbollah officials involved in logistics and others "who participated, mediated and received offers on pagers and walkie-talkies," the source said.
Ali al-Amin, the editor-in-chief for Janoubia, a news site based that focuses on the Shi'ite community and Hezbollah said reports indicated that Hezbollah detained hundreds of people for questioning after the pagers saga.
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Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middl...israeli-plot-kill-him-sources-say-2024-10-02/
 
yahya said:
These pagers either had a hidden feature embedded in the software that turned the detonator on upon the reception of a certain coded signal over the pager's receiver circuitry, or the pagers were fitted with an independent low power radio receiver connected to the detonator that was always listening for triggering signal. That is more likely given the reports that even the unboxed pagers also exploded on September, 17th.
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Could it be that both design options were used for redundancy purposes?

yahya said:

Mystery Profile Linked to Hungarian Firm Implicated in Exploding Pagers

Bellingcat has identified a suspicious profile for a manager at the Hungarian firm under scrutiny over its link to the exploding pagers in Lebanon.
www.bellingcat.com www.bellingcat.com
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This mystery person is almost certainly a Mossad agent.
 
NMaude said:
Could it be that both design options were used for redundancy purposes?
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I would fully expect that they were.

That said, the more complicated you make the detonator, the more likely it fails to go boom.

Plus, the legendary comment about how
1) If you want the ordnance to absolutely always go boom when in receipt of a valid command signal, we can do that.
2) If you want the ordnance to absolutely never go boom when not in receipt of a valid command signal, we can do that, too.
But if you want both, we need to talk.

Option 1 has a high accidental detonation rate.
Option 2 has a high dud rate.


yahya said:
Ca. 450 [walkie-talkies] according to the Cryptomuseum analysis.
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So I'd expect at least 5 of those to fail to go boom. 50 failing to go boom would be way too high. 1% dud rate is expected, 10% is way too high.
 
Scott Kenny said:
That said, the more complicated you make the detonator, the more likely it fails to go boom.

Plus, the legendary comment about how
1) If you want the ordnance to absolutely always go boom when in receipt of a valid command signal, we can do that.
2) If you want the ordnance to absolutely never go boom when not in receipt of a valid command signal, we can do that, too.
But if you want both, we need to talk.

Option 1 has a high accidental detonation rate.
Option 2 has a high dud rate.
Click to expand...

Well apparently Mossad had had this operation in the works for 15 years so I have no doubt they took the time (And money) to perfect these detonators.
 
NMaude said:
Could it be that both design options were used for redundancy purposes?
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Considering that Hezbollah conducted its own investigation between ca. 18 and 22 September, the short answer is 'yes.'
That investigation is summarized here: https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/beeper-as-a-weapon.44356/post-712507
Now, we know that the main investigator was the late Nabil Yahya Qaouk, who was a senior Hezbollah official. He established the culprits within his organization's ranks and apparently learned how the attack was technically done. Undoubtedly, his men analyzed the chemical residue in the remains of the exploded pagers (it's speculated that they found PETN), and X-rayed and tore down the pagers that were intact. It's not surprising that the investigation made Qaouk a target. He was eventually killed in an air raid on Beirut on 28 September. Note that only a day earlier, ie. on 27 September, Hezbollah's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was killed in Beirut in a bombed building.
We do not know if the results of the investigation were buried along with Qaouk in the rubble of the bombed building, or if a copy of the report had been transferred eg. to Iran.
If the reports circulating on the web are true, there was even a third circuit embedded in the pagers, which provided the low power bt localization (like the Apple AirTag). It could have been just a small chip powered from the pager's battery, and connected to a small bt antenna. We discussed the matter in https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/beeper-as-a-weapon.44356/post-712075. Whether that circuit was also weaponized remains unattested as for now since neither Hezbollah nor Iran shared any detailed images of the AR-924 pagers or their remains.
 
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Quaouk very ultra-quick death (the day after he finished his inquiry) speaks volume of how far Israel has infiltrated Hezbollah (and Hamas, and even Iran)

It's not surprising that the investigation made Qaouk a target. He was eventually killed in an air raid on Beirut on 28 September. Note that only a day earlier, ie. on 27 September, Hezbollah's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was killed in Beirut in a bombed building.
We do not know if the results of the investigation were buried along with Qaouk in the rubble of the bombed building, or if a copy of the report had been transferred eg. to Iran.
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Reuters reports that:

Israel's recent mass pager attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon turned the spotlight on its secretive Unit 8200, the Israel Defense Forces' specialist cyber warfare and intelligence unit, which Western security sources said was involved in planning the operation.
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Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middl...rael-how-might-israel-strike-back-2024-10-04/

Well, the involvement of the SIGINT Ha-Yehida shmone matayim was suspected from the very moment the pagers detonated on 17 September.
 
GK Dundas said:
All in all the more I reflect on this. It may well be the most brilliant asymmetric strike in modern warfare.
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In terms of technology and lethality -- no doubt.
In terms of technology and no direct lethality nothing matches the intel coup of the 20th century dubbed Rubicon, which is elaborated here:

Rubicon

www.cryptomuseum.com www.cryptomuseum.com
 
Let us also not forget the CIA / NSA / FBI operation (with vital intelligence provided by the French Direction de la surveillance du territoire via the 'Farewell Affair') that, among other grave misfortunes for the Soviets, spectacularly blew up an gas pipeline in a way that made a rather dire impression on the Kremlin!
 
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Swiss press revealed the Swiss connection related to a Ms. Ellenberg of Zurich, most likely an alias, who founded Ellenberg Trading in Hong Kong, which was used to transfer 1.4M CHF to another shell company. The cover-up is becoming even broader.

Source:
www.20min.ch

Name von Schweizerin taucht im Fall der Pager-Explosionen auf

Im Libanon explodierten Pager und Walkie-Talkies. Nun taucht der Name einer Schweizerin auf, deren Existenz jedoch angezweifelt wird.
www.20min.ch www.20min.ch
 
New WaPo piece on the op brings new claims.


And here is a resume. I think that most technical details mentioned are nothing more than a psyop.


Bottom line

There were instances when the pagers exploded on 17 September without any buttons being pressed. And no other source had revealed that the pagers supported encrypted messages meaning that a cryptographic key had to be loaded into the pagers to decrypt such messages.

The trackers inside rigged Icom radios also seem to be a hoax. If these radios were acquired in ca. 2015, the bt trackers were not universally used in that time. Since Hezbollah fighters operate mostly in rural areas, such bt trackers would be useless there.

Plain text VHF comms via Icom radios can be easily monitored and DFed. Unit 8200 did it for decades.
 
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yahya said:
New WaPo piece on the op brings new claims.


And here is a resume. I think that most technical details mentioned are nothing more than a psyop.


Bottom line

There were instances when the pagers exploded on 17 September without any buttons being pressed. And no other source had revealed that the pagers supported encrypted messages meaning that a cryptographic key had to be loaded into the pagers to decrypt such messages.

The trackers inside rigged Icom radios also seem to be a hoax. If these radios were acquired in ca. 2015, the bt trackers were not universally used in that time. Since Hezbollah fighters operate mostly in rural areas, such bt trackers would be useless there.

Plain text VHF comms via Icom radios can be easily monitored and DFed. Unit 8200 did it for decades.
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At least on my part, the bluetooth connectivity was strictly for the pagers. Largely so that whoever was datamining would be able to get the phone ID of the user and anyone else around, then you'd get the "hey, this phone doesn't have a beeper contact yet, who's this?"
 
Hezbollah had no reason to suspect foul play when, in 2023, it began receiving solicitations to purchase Apollo-branded AR924 pagers. These pagers, slightly bulky but known for their durability, were designed for use in rugged conditions, making them ideal for Hezbollah’s decentralized network of fighters. One of their key selling points was an oversized battery capable of lasting months without needing to be charged—a crucial feature for operatives in remote areas.
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Source:
www.theyeshivaworld.com

MINDBLOWING: How The Mossad Pulled Off The Exploding Pagers Operation, Eavesdropped On Hezbollah For 9 Years

Israel’s Mossad crippled Hezbollah by remotely detonating thousands of booby-trapped pagers distributed among the terrorist group’s operatives in Lebanon and Syria. The September 17 attack, which has been described as one of the most ingenious acts of espionage in modern history, left as many as...
www.theyeshivaworld.com

The pagers—weighing around three ounces— each contained a "tiny amount of a powerful explosive," The Post reported, citing officials familiar with the operation. The explosive was "virtually undetectable" in a battery pack, even when the device was dissembled, according to the report.
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Source:
www.newsweek.com

Hezbollah pagers had security feature that made them more deadly: Report

The detonation of devices used by Hezbollah last month preceded a rise in Israeli air strikes and the start of a ground incursion.
www.newsweek.com www.newsweek.com

Bottom line

The official manufacturers of explosives add chemicals that allow their products to glow a distinct color during X-ray examinations, thus detection. Considering the study conducted by Cryptomuseum, the explosives were hidden inside the oversized LI-BT783 7.4V (dual 3.7V lithium cell) battery pack and were most likely free from the above mentioned chemicals. The battery had an on-board protection circuitry against overload or low voltage, which most likely contained the triggering mechanism.

LIBT783_batt1.jpg
 
This may be partially related:

www.theguardian.com

Iran general’s whereabouts in question after Israeli strikes on Hezbollah

Conflicting reports include house arrest of Esmail Ghaani, who was in Beirut at time of Hassan Nasrallah’s killing
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

The Qatari-backed outlet Middle East Eye claimed Ghaani had been put under house arrest and was being investigated over the failures that allowed Israel to penetrate the Hezbollah network so effectively.

Over the past two months, Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders and appears to have made a leap forward in the quality of its intelligence.
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Another Arabic outlet claimed Ghaani had suffered a heart attack during questioning.

Israeli sources said the reports, regardless of their veracity, showed the degree of stress inside the IRGC over the destruction of the Hezbollah leadership in Lebanon.
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