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September 19, 2024 - 7:00am
The suspected Israeli attack on Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah using explosive pagers and walkie-talkies is a spectacular flex, but one that would have been much harder to achieve 50 years ago.
The details of how Israeli intelligence supposedly achieved the operation are still not fully known. It’s not clear whether Mossad set up a dummy company to sell the pagers to Hezbollah, or intercepted consignments of pagers in transit to add the explosives using software capable of responding to a remote command. It may have done both, but it doesn’t really matter. What is more interesting is that the operation took advantage of deep, long and often loosely coupled global supply chains. No doubt more supply chain attacks will follow.
In their eternal quest to “unlock value”, financial markets have forced the large, vertically integrated industrial giants that dominated postwar economies to divest and outsource, creating instead relationships of discrete horizontally-integrated suppliers. (At least outside Korea, which retains its horizontally-integrated chaebol, such as LG and Samsung.)
As a consequence, there are now more entities in a supply chain in many more locations. Inevitably, this creates problems with oversight and accountability, as the Crowdstrike outage in July demonstrated. The bickering and finger-pointing between Microsoft and third-party company Crowdstrike highlighted how hard it is to make one company take responsibility.
US Congress has also conducted inquiries into the high-profile SolarWinds attack in 2020 that planted malicious software in the supply chain. A suspected Russian attack, it led to serious data breaches in the US Federal Government’s systems. Once a supplier is crippled — as blood lab Synnovis was this year — there is very little the upstream customer can do.
But many of our other technology supply chains have become more vulnerable too. The shift of manufacturing to China, or China-dominated economies such as Vietnam, and the obsessive desire to connect devices to a network both make the risks exponentially worse. The British deep state has been active in recognising the threat. Despite leaving the EU, the UK has obliged the rest of Europe to adopt much stricter UK-written security guidelines for domestic internet-connected devices such as doorbell cameras or routers.
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SubscribeWhat of the argument that Mossad has opened a Pandora’s Box? Aside from the significant risks of collateral damage implied by this type of warfare, does it not open the door for all kinds of non-conventional attacks, the counter to which will make everyone’s lives less free and poopier?
I disagree, the box was opened a long time ago – the article points to other less well known attacks. That this attack, targeted against terrorists with a very high combatant to civilian injury ratio, has been so visible globally, just serves to wake people up the a threat they have been blissfully ignorant of for many years.
I don’t think the terrorists have been waiting for doors to be opened for them!
Would you consider 9/11 or the Oct 7 massacre ‘conventional’? Terrorism deliberately aimed at civilians is surely unconventional. Disabling your military opponents is conventional and methods include not only violence but also damage to communications, logistics, military morale and political will.
I agree on those broad definitions, but detonating bombs in the midst of civilian areas, even if ‘targeted’ to combattants, for me crosses the line into terrorism.
You have an unusual definition of terrorism! Taken your way it wold mean the end of any bombs under any circumstances, which might be a very worthy aim but unlikely to happen.
Yes,it’s an ongoing thing now. Live with it. No,die with it.
I tend to agree with the Pandora’s Box aspect.
An implicit understanding among players to the effect of ‘just don’t let’s go there ‘ doesn’t fill me with confidence.
An incredibly sophisticated action against terrorists who hide among the general,population. On the other hand a sophisticated course of action for terrorists against those they want to terrorise. But, imagine being afraid of technology, like something as straight forward as a phone. What might that lead to? Back to basics?
Tom tom drums and smoke signals?
Notes on paper and a network of trusted couriers. Even better short spoken and remembered messages not written down at all. Then The Yahoos agents can enjoy torturing people to make them talk.
Well, we could, of course make attacks like this a little less likely by enforcing the breaches of current interrnational law that this attack represents.
For example, I believe that there are already conventions against weapons that are primarily designed to maim rather than kill combatants and also laws against the use of booby traps in civilian areas.
Part of the problem is that we have refused to enforce existing international law against Israel for so long that it has become a veritable laboratory for the evaluation of new forms of warfare.
Another part of the problem is that the US has (arguably) breached the same laws by sending cluster munitions to Ukraine.
In the aftermath of the two world wars, the western powers built an edifice of legal theory that recognised the power we now had to destroy ourselves and sought to constrain it. It was never perfect and it certainly wasn’t universally enforced but it was a start. For the last 20 years the leadership of the same western powers haven’t even pretended that those laws constrain them and they have ceded any claim to the moral high ground that they might once have had.
Regime change operations,Illegal invasionsTorture and redition without due processWithdrawal from the geneva conventions through the invention of enemy combatant status.Drone strikesThe use of unconventional and illegal weaponsAnd the failure to support the ICJ in its investigation of the highest criime of all – genocide.
It is monumentally stupid and spectacularly dangerous.
“there are already conventions against weapons that are primarily designed to maim rather than kill” – oh the humanity!
There are no conventions against weapons designed to maim.
Most antipersonnel mines are designed to maim.
It occupies 2 or more enemy combatants on the battlefield and creates long term problems with support of injured and disabled.
You are right that antipersonnel mines have historically been designed to maim rather than kill. That is a big reason why the Ottawa convention bans them.
You are right that the Ottawa convention bans all such mines, whether they are designed to maim or kill, and there are no conventions against weapons designed to maim rather than kill. And some countries, like the United States and Israel, have not entered into the Ottawa convention.
Still, the civilized world has moved against this type of “warfare”. Even the United States recently decided to follow the Ottawa convention everywhere but in Korea, and to try soon to do so even there, joining all other NATO countries (and 164 countries in total) in signing the ban.
Israel is a notable exception. As with these exploding pagers and walkie talkies, Israel insists that it must use what other countries call barbaric to defend itself. It may have had an argument back when its existence was threatened by the armies of Arab countries. It can’t make that argument now.
The terrorism that Hamas, Hezbollah and other Palestinian groups have practiced against Israel have been horrific. That is no excuse for Israel to respond with terror and horror of its own.
See category three under the scope of application of the Amended Protocol II to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons 2001:
div > p:nth-of-type(2) > a”>Amended-Protocol-II-to-the-Convention-on-Certain-Conventional-Weapon.pdf (un-arm.org)
Perhaps we should also forcibly stop terrorists snd their paymasters.
Right, but if Mossad’s methods qualify as terrorism, that means stopping Israel and the US.
This was a brilliantly planned attack that directly targeted pagers and other devices specifically distributed by terrorists to other terrorists.
There is also the sheer hilarity of anti Semitic, racist cowards, who freely target “enemy” civilians and hide among civilians themselves, getting their comeuppance in a way that would make them fear their own shadows.
And, further on the plus side, it seems a few of them might not have much use for the 72 virgins any more.
Peniside? Gonadcide? Whichever way, Hezbolah made a balls up!
There is also the “sheer hilarity” of these devices exploding in marketplaces and other public sites because these anti-Semitic, racist cowards move freely among civilian non-combatants. Or, is the assumption that only Israeli civilians are non-combatants, not Lebanese?
Yes, it’s a pity the Israelis couldn’t figure out a weapon that only targets combatants and completely excludes the pure, innocent civilians around them, who largely support, vote for and provide sanctuary to Hezbollah and Hamas.
Maybe something like the thousands of combatant only rockets fired by at Israel, that miraculously only hit IDF soldiers, or the guns carried by Hamas’ militants on the 7th that automatically avoided firing on anyone not in uniform?
The anti-Israeli elements in the media have been bleating non-stop about wanton disregard for civilian casualties as if every electronic device in the country had been programmed to explode like a Claymore but the evidence doesn’t seem to support that rhetoric.
There’s a video (looks like a security cam) taken in a fruit market that’s getting a lot of airplay. Three people within 3 or 4 feet of the target and after the pager popped they all ran off without so much as a “Hey, are you OK buddy?” All except the guy with the pager of course. He wasn’t going anywhere. The video is a little grainy but it didn’t look like any fruit was damaged either.
This operation has to win some sort of award for avoiding collateral damage and civilian casualties.
The Iranian ambassador was a civilian casualty. As was the 9-year-old girl Fatima. And how do you know that the guy in the fruit market was an enemy combatant? Hezbollah is a political party and social organization as well as a military force. A pager is not a military weapon, but a civilian device.
The Iranian ambassador a civilian? Are you mad? He was important enough in Hezbollah to have been issued a Hezbollah pager. Any device used for terrorist activity is a weapon.
Of course the Iranian ambassador is a civilian. As I said, Hezbollah is a political power with great influence in Lebanon. That some of the pagers, perhaps most, went to noncombatants makes sense.
What utter nonsense! The political wings of Hezbollah and Hamas are no different except that they present different faces for different ends. Both are terrorist organisations and their politics are simple – kill or subdue anyone you regard as an enemy or political opponent. They may be particularly obsessed by hatred of Jews, but there are plenty of Palestinian opponents, gays, etc who have been viciously and often publicly slaughtered.
Hezbollah is a political party and social organization
Hilarious. Just trying to do good in the world.
Anything can be a military weapon. We blew dams in WW2 in Germany that flooded the Ruhr Valley destroying German industry but also drowning thousands of civilians.
We’re those two children terrorists. Or maybe future terrorists. Or the future Mothers of terrorists.
No, but I haven’t seen you criticising Hamas or Hezbollah for deliberately targeting civilians of all ages. At least the Israelis attempt to target terrorists, while terrorists prefer to target civilians.
….and if the terrorists aren’t targeting Israeli civilians, they’re hiding behind their own civilians.
Doctors have pagers. Long distance hikers on trails in USA use walkie talkies. They say for when there’s no signal but I suspect it’s to evade Googlespy,the all seeing eye. I thought of getting something like that as now our line of communication is narrowed down to one phone. Not everybody with a pager or a walkie talkies is HAMAS. Or is everybody Hamas. I am Spartacus. I am Charlie Hebdo. I am Hamas.
Don’t be so silly! It was only Hezbollah’s pagers etc that were rigged. These were not random attacks as used by Hamas and Hezbollah.
Full marks for probably the most silly comment i’ve seen. You’ve knocked off Talia.
It’s all about the children….unless it’s the other way round, and it’s young girls going to a concert in Manchester, then we are supposed to light candles and not look back in anger.
Probably the silliest comment here Jane. However I’ll share an old I think Christian truism “ those who live by the sword frequently die by the sword” The sword that came for these Hamas operatives was expertly wielded and very sharp.
Mossad booby trapped a phone in the 90s to kill a Hamas leader, but that was just one item, not the hundreds they’ve booby trapped here.
Author perceptively uses this to further enhance our awareness of other risks. V welcome. Maybe also makes some better appreciate why we moved away from Huawei. A good number never quite understood it yet it seemed obvious the security assessment couldn’t be fully shared
I worked for big company which decided to implement Huawei hardware on its network.
Decision was both technical (Nokia and Ericsson were well behind on technology curve) and financial (it was circa £500 mln cheaper).
Security assessment was made and it was not great re Huawei.
So some of the money saved was supposed to be used to provide mitigation for security risks.
Many of us argued that it was not going to work but were told to shut up or else.
Another example of Western leaders selling down their country to dictatorships so they can claim multimillion bonuses for savings.
A weapon specifically targeting only the terrorists. Perhaps it is a good point to consider that the Pandora’s box was when terrorism was normalized and western governments started subsidizing Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, etc.
“A hostile actor could cause gridlock by imposing a 15 mph maximum speed cap during rush hour via malicious software.”
20 mph seems to work pretty well!
It would still be 5 mph faster than the average on parts of the M3 and M25 in the morning rush hour.
One of Israel’s key exports is security-related technology.
Is this an advertisement?
I should say so. I’m on Amazon right now.
Nothing is new here, even explosive component, apart from the scale of the attack.
Well done Israel.
Few examples I can recall from my working days used similar approach.
In one case USA government intercepted Cisco devices on a way to various customers and installed backdoors.
Cisco CEO was so furious that he went public with it complaining that USA government wants to kill American company.
In another case, someone (probably China) installed their own backdoors on Cisco gear and advertised it cheaply.
Even USA government contractors fell for it and installed these devices on various military networks.
Greed of Western leaders is powerful weapon for enemies of the West.
In another case I worked on, some genius decided to install Chinese made fibre SFPs on secure airgapped network.
That was approved by that company security under pressure from finance department.
There were no data leaks detected but devices caused 100 fold rise in switches errors.
I can’t believe how many of my fellow country people are evil,murderous and bloodthirsty. And go to church.
For fighting against terrorists? That doesn’t make one evil, murderous or bloodthirsty. What would it mean if one did nothing?
Proverbs xxiv.17.
This use of explosives in nonmilitary devices seems barbaric terrorism to me. It pales in the light of the October 7 barbarism, but that doesn’t make it legitimate. Israel’s killing and maiming outside of military settings should stop. Terror and assassination is wrong no matter who does it.
But they are Gods Chosen People,they can do no wrong. Their progenitor Jacob/Israel was a liar,a thief,an elder abuser,a cheat,a betrayer,a spiv. God likes to confound our expectations.
Some confusion there. If you believe Jacob was a liar, a thief, etc, then presumably you accept the Bible as fact (unless you’re just indiscriminately accusing people as it suits you), If you believe what you’ve read then it follows that you must believe the Jews are Gods chosen people.
These pagers were just as much military devices as any other military form of communication.
I know there are some reports of children being killed, which is unfortunate, but all the other casualties are undoubtedly involved with Hezbollah. As Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation, the attack seems entirely legitimate to me.
Being involved with Hezbollah does not make a person a legitimate military target.
You’d need to define “involved”. If you support Hezbollah in any way then you are a supporter of terrorism and that makes you a target.
So anyone who voted for a Hezbollah candidate in a Lebanese election can be targeted and killed by Israel as an enemy combatant?
Maybe I should have put that better. As I said “involved” in this context needs defining. Obviously not voters. But i’m pretty sure you know what’s meant in these comments. However, voting for a terrorist organisation does put you on the wrong side and I don’t think that needs defining.
Anybody who has a pager supplied by Hezbollah so they can receive secret messages from them is a legitimate target. The term “enemy combatant” is a bit of a grey one when one is talking about a terrorist organisation.
If you need one of Hezbollah’s pagers so you can get messages directly from them then you are sufficiently “involved” with them to be a legitimate target.
So the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon is a legitimate target? That seems a stretch. He’s not a Hezbollah combatant.
It’s important we call out this kind of thing. No one should be planting bombs in pagers, walkie talkies, cell phones or laptop computers that go out to thousands of people. That is too much to do with terror and too little to do with military tactics and strategy.
Even targeting specific people for assassination has gotten out of control. The car bombing by Ukraine that killed Russian Daria Dugina was terrorism. No question about that.
From this side of the Atlantic I gotta say…The Israelis are great allies! Totally cool. Very dangerous when they want to be.
Just when it becomes clear that the enemies that surround them are simply too frightened to actually confront them the Israelis do something so completely nightmarish that when this is over Hamas isn’t going to have a single friend left in the Arab world; the Palestinians will curse the name Sinwar.
P.S. I still have hopes for you Brits! You’re damned good allies, too. Brexit demonstrated that!
It’s not Russians or Chinese who are planting explosive bugs in all our connected household devices,it’s the CIA,those bad actors seeking World Government. Ok,so not our ovens and our Alexa’s – yet. Films were being made on this theme 40 years ago. It’s not like we haven’t been warned.
I’ve run out of tin foil, can I borrow your hat?
It seems clear now that the Mossad set up a dummy corporation called BAC that took a license about a year ago from the Taiwanese company Gold Apollo that has long made these pagers. The Mossad then had the pagers manufactured, adding a dab of explosives, a detonator, and special software to them. How the Mossad got Hezbollah to order the pagers from BAC is not known. Maybe the price offered was too good to pass up.
So I don’t see any connection to supply chains. These pagers were made specially in a factory somewhere for BAC and then sold by BAC. They weren’t intercepted and modified along the way. The Hungarian offices of BAC were dummy offices that hid the manufacturing, but it’s clear that this was not a supply chain attack but a false flag operation.
What fun it must have been, depositing Hezbollah’s check in the Mossad account!
‘Were what convinced the UK to join the US in removing Huawei equipment from its infrastructure by 2027.’ Wrong. The U.K. will and has sold out to anyone that wants to buy our, land, utilities, IP, national security. Will subsidise foreign profits above British futures. The likes of BT would replace Cisco, VMware, Juniper in a moment with Huawei to save a few quid, couldn’t care less about the Chinese. No, the U.K. was ‘convinced’ only by the NSA who would share even fewer secrets with GCHQ if we didn’t. Almost every other country protects its interests and its people. Only the U.K. sells us out to Palantir, Google and the Chinese.