Governments • CTC International Group

Beirut Explosion: Accident or Israeli Intervention?

The massive blast that rocked Beirut earlier this week is being billed as a tragic accident that left hundreds dead and thousands wounded. The explosion also severely damaged the country’s infrastructure and left many residents without power in the sweltering Beirut summer heat. But former intelligence officers intimately familiar with the region caution that Israel, concerned about the explosive stockpile and the impotent Lebanese government, may have ignited the ammonium nitrate to deny terrorist group Hezbollah access to the chemicals. Ammonium Nitrate Explosion Beirut was devastated on 5 August, after 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored [...]

Impact of Closing China/US Consulates

Does it really matter that the Chinese Consulate in Houston and the US Consulate in Chengdu closed? It looked like a scene from a spy thriller: Chinese diplomats frantically burning documents in the courtyard of the Houston Consulate hours before they were being evicted from the building. Five days later, in Chengdu, the American flag outside the US Consulate was lowered and Chinese soldiers protected officials wearing hazmat suits as they entered the building. The tit-for-tat closures of the consulates comes as tensions between the US and China reach new highs. While the closures may seem [...]