"This is Hezbollah's 9/11 and it's DEVASTATING" | Redacted with Natali and Clayton Morris

Summary

The transcript discusses a major attack involving the explosion of pagers held by Hezbollah officials, believed to be carried out by Israel’s Unit 8200 in retaliation for an earlier Hezbollah attack on Israeli forces. The operation was highly sophisticated, leading to significant casualties and raising concerns about the global security of electronic devices with lithium batteries. Edward Snowden and others expressed concern about the broader implications of this technology. The conversation also touches on the potential geopolitical fallout, including military responses and the use of advanced missiles by Hezbollah and the Houthis against Israel.

Takeaways

• 💥 Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah are escalating, with a massive attack across Lebanon involving the explosion of pagers held by Hezbollah officials.
• 🛠 The operation appears to be highly sophisticated, likely conducted by Israel's Unit 8200, a cyber and electronic warfare division.
• 🚑 Thousands of people were injured, and at least 9 were killed in the attacks, with more casualties expected as reports come in.
• 📡 The attack targeted Hezbollah's command and control infrastructure, as the affected individuals were mid to high-level officials, not front-line fighters.
• 🔌 Israel used a technology hack to detonate lithium batteries inside pagers, raising concerns about the vulnerability of electronic devices worldwide.
• 😨 The global implications are severe, as this method could potentially be applied to any device with a lithium battery, posing risks beyond this conflict.
• ⚖️ Edward Snowden criticized the attack, suggesting it was reckless and comparing it to terrorism, as it indiscriminately impacted civilians.
• 🕹 The attack highlights Israel’s ability to penetrate supply chains to plant explosives in pagers, a method it has used in the past with other devices like cell phones.
• 🔄 Hezbollah is expected to retaliate, likely targeting Israeli military and intelligence operatives, which could further escalate the situation.
• 💣 The conflict is likely to spread, with other actors like the Houthis also becoming involved, as evidenced by their recent missile attacks on Israel.

Q & A

What triggered the recent conflict between Israel and Hezbollah?

The recent conflict was triggered when Israel carried out an attack against a senior Hezbollah official in Beirut. Hezbollah responded by attacking Israel's Unit 8200, a top-secret signals intelligence and electronic warfare unit.

What was the nature of the recent attack across Lebanon?

The recent attack involved the detonation of pagers carried by Hezbollah officials, resulting in thousands of injuries and several deaths. This was a highly sophisticated operation believed to have been carried out by Israel's Unit 8200.

How was the attack on the pagers carried out?

The attack on the pagers was likely executed through a sophisticated hack. Instead of using traditional explosives, it is believed that the lithium batteries in the pagers were manipulated to explode.

Why is this attack considered a significant escalation?

This attack is considered a significant escalation because it demonstrates a new level of technological sophistication and indicates that Israel can target individuals globally. It also exposes the vulnerability of electronic devices with lithium batteries.

What concerns did this attack raise about global security?

The attack raised concerns about the potential for similar hacks on other electronic devices worldwide. If pagers can be remotely detonated, other devices like smartphones could also be compromised, posing a threat to global security.

What was Edward Snowden's reaction to the pager attacks?

Edward Snowden suggested that the explosions were likely caused by implanted explosives rather than a simple hack of the batteries. He expressed concern over the indiscriminate nature of the attack, labeling it as potentially indistinguishable from terrorism.

What potential global consequences might Israel face due to this attack?

Israel could face global condemnation and increased scrutiny of its actions. The attack may prompt other countries to reevaluate their supply chains for electronics and heighten security measures, particularly concerning Israeli-made devices.

How might Hezbollah respond to this attack?

Hezbollah is expected to respond in a proportional manner, which could involve targeting Israeli intelligence operatives or military personnel. This response is anticipated to escalate tensions further.

What role did Israel's Unit 8200 play in the conflict?

Israel's Unit 8200, a signals intelligence and electronic warfare unit, is believed to have carried out the attack on the pagers. The unit specializes in cyber operations, making it capable of executing sophisticated hacks such as this one.

What implications does this attack have for the use of electronics with lithium batteries?

The attack suggests that any device with a lithium battery could potentially be compromised if the technology to hack and manipulate these batteries becomes more widespread. This raises security concerns for the global use of electronics.

Outlines

00:00

🔥 Hezbollah-Israel Conflict Intensifies with Pager Explosions

A sophisticated attack across Lebanon, involving pagers exploding in the hands of Hezbollah officials and others, has left thousands injured and at least eight dead. This attack is believed to be the work of Israel's Unit 8200, retaliating for Hezbollah’s previous attack on Israel’s top secret cyber unit. The attack has targeted senior Hezbollah officials, leading to questions about the pagers’ security. The technology involved suggests Israel could now exploit lithium batteries in devices to cause harm, raising global concerns about electronic security.

05:02

⚠️ Global Consequences of Israel’s Attacks

Edward Snowden reacted to the global scale of the attacks, noting that pagers exploded not only in Lebanon but also in cities like London. He suggested that these attacks might involve implanted explosives rather than hacked batteries, given the severity of the injuries. This development raises questions about how Israel managed to plant explosive devices in the supply chain of these pagers. Experts believe this will force global supply chains, especially in electronics, to re-examine their security.

10:03

💣 Hezbollah's Imminent Response and Rising Global Tensions

The attack on Hezbollah's pagers has escalated the conflict, with expectations that Hezbollah will retaliate by targeting 1,500 Israeli operatives. The global community may rally against Israel, as the scale and indiscriminate nature of the attack are viewed as acts of terrorism. With over 2,750 people injured and 9 dead in Lebanon, this escalation could have severe consequences for Israel's relations with the world.

🚀 Hypersonic Missile Fired at Tel Aviv: New Threats Emerge

Over the weekend, the Houthis fired a hypersonic missile at Tel Aviv, which Israel failed to shoot down, raising concerns about its defense systems. This missile, likely supplied by Iran, signals a new phase in the conflict. With similar technology possibly in the hands of Hezbollah, Israel could face continued hypersonic missile threats in the future. The missile strike represents a significant escalation, showcasing the increasing complexity and danger of the Middle Eastern conflict.

Keywords

💡Hezbollah

Hezbollah is a Lebanese political and militant group, classified by many countries as a terrorist organization. In the video, Hezbollah is portrayed as being involved in a proxy war with Israel. The discussion focuses on Israel's attack on Hezbollah officials and the broader conflict in the region.

💡Unit 8200

Unit 8200 is Israel's signal intelligence and electronic warfare unit. It is central to the video’s narrative, as Israel's response to a Hezbollah attack is attributed to this unit. The unit reportedly carried out a sophisticated attack on Hezbollah operatives, using technology to detonate pagers.

💡Pagers

Pagers are a central technological tool discussed in the video. Hezbollah operatives reportedly used these pagers, which were targeted by Israel's Unit 8200. The video describes how these devices were hacked or tampered with, leading to deadly explosions.

💡Lithium battery hack

The video suggests that Israel employed a highly advanced hacking technique to cause the lithium batteries in Hezbollah officials' pagers to explode. This technological exploit raises concerns about the potential global risks of similar hacks being applied to other devices.

💡Proxy war

A proxy war refers to a conflict where two opposing countries or groups support combatants that serve their interests, instead of directly engaging. In this case, the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel is referred to as a proxy war, with both groups engaging in sophisticated technological and military attacks.

💡Hamas

Hamas is another militant organization mentioned in the video, specifically in relation to Israel’s history of assassinating its leaders by planting explosives in phones. The video draws parallels between Israel’s past actions against Hamas and its current conflict with Hezbollah.

💡Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden, a whistleblower known for exposing NSA surveillance programs, is referenced in the video. Snowden tweeted about the attacks on Hezbollah, suggesting that the explosions were caused by implanted explosives rather than a hack, raising concerns about the broader implications of such technologies.

💡Hypersonic missile

Hypersonic missiles are mentioned as part of an attack carried out by the Houthis, a group aligned with Iran, on Tel Aviv. These missiles travel at speeds greater than five times the speed of sound, and the video highlights Israel's failure to intercept the missile, raising concerns about its defense capabilities.

💡Houthi

The Houthis are a Yemeni group aligned with Iran, mentioned in the video for their involvement in launching a hypersonic missile at Tel Aviv. This event is part of a broader escalation in the Middle East, and the Houthis' use of advanced missile technology is highlighted as a significant threat.

💡Supply chain infiltration

Supply chain infiltration refers to the tampering of products during their manufacturing or distribution. In the video, Israel’s ability to hack pagers on a large scale suggests they may have infiltrated the supply chain, raising concerns about the security of electronic devices globally.

Highlights

Massive attack in Lebanon with pagers exploding in the hands of Hezbollah officials and fighters.

At least eight people killed and thousands injured in the attack.

Israel's Unit 8200 is suspected to be behind the attack, following a retaliation for a Hezbollah strike on Israel.

Hezbollah had swapped out their pagers, possibly due to concerns about compromise.

The attack appears to be more sophisticated, exploiting lithium batteries in pagers to cause explosions.

The attack has global implications, raising concerns about the security of devices with lithium batteries.

Edward Snowden commented that the attack is indistinguishable from terrorism, with devices exploding worldwide.

There is speculation that explosives were implanted in the pagers during production or along the supply chain.

Israel exposed its capabilities by conducting this large-scale attack, which may have lasting global consequences.

The attack has resulted in increased tensions and a likely Hezbollah retaliation targeting Israeli intelligence.

Hezbollah is expected to respond proportionally, possibly escalating the conflict.

2750 people were wounded as a result of the pager explosions across Lebanon.

Houthi forces fired a hypersonic missile at Tel Aviv, which Israel was unable to intercept.

The missile may signal further escalation, with Hezbollah potentially possessing similar hypersonic capabilities.

The attack has raised global concerns about Israel's tactics and their broader implications for international security.

Transcripts

well if the Middle East isn't already

descending into chaos today is every

evidence that it's about to even get

worse with a massive attack across

Lebanon with pagers exploding in the

hands of Hezbollah officials Fighters

even ambassadors um and we're trying to

piece all of this together right now how

is this pulled off a massively

sophisticated operation with thousands

of people being injured at least eight

killed uh as of right now that we know

about how did this happen um and what is

going on in the Middle East with Israel

and Lebanon this is a Tinder Box we

wanted to ask former un weapons

inspector Scott Ritter for his

assessment on all of this and who's been

watching this very very closely Scott

first just your reaction to this

developing

story okay well what did Hezbollah think

was going to happen I mean we're we're

in a situation where Hezbollah and

Israel are in a war we could call it a

proxy war we call it a hybrid War

whatever you want to call it it's a

conflict um

Israel uh carried out an attack uh

earlier this summer against a senior

Hezbollah official in Beirut Hezbollah

responded by attacking unit 8200

Israel's top secret uh signal

intelligence unit electronic warfare

unit cyber unit according to news

reports they may have killed the

commander of this unit and killed up to

26 others wounded over 70 others um this

attack against the pagers of these

Hezbollah officials is an attack carried

out by unit 8200 that's the unit that

does this um what did Hezbollah think

was going to happen you attacked unit

8200 you think 8200 is just going to sit

there and let nothing happen um they

have responded in a dramatic way in a

decisive way we don't know who you know

I think the reports are 1500 uh casually

so far maybe the number will will

increase um these are you know probably

senior command and control people

mid-level command and control people who

carries a pager not a fighter at the

front uh the people that carry pagers

are people that you know need to be uh

contacted need to respond um Logistics

people Communications people Command

Staff um this is devastating for for

hezb but what did they think was going

to happen um but that's not even the

question we

the audience should be asking ourselves

how did this happen I'm not talking

about you know the way that Israel

pulled this off in terms of you know

infiltrating these pagers these pagers

apparently were just recently swapped

out by Hezbollah um right who who who

who was the purchasing agent I mean the

first thing I would ask as was buy

better pagers know your sources but they

you know we know historically 8200 has

used high explosive planted in cell

phones to assassinate people in 1996 one

of the more dramatic examples of this

was when a Hamas bomber known as the

engineer um you know they got a phone

into his hands he answered the phone

confirmed he was the guy they blew his

head off uh Hamas in attacking on

October 7th overran uh an Israeli

intelligence base where they where they

you know oversaw the technical

penetration and the human penetration

they got the list of the uh Hamas people

who were Israeli operatives they were

executed in the streets by Hamas but

they also found out how Israel was

listening to the communications how

Israel had inserted cell phones into

Hamas leadership they swapped out their

cell phones um this may have led to H

Hezbollah swapping out its pagers

realizing the potential of compromise um

you know but now the the pager type you

know I think it was a Motorola pager

everybody's talking about does that mean

that Israel was able to put high

explosive in each one of these the

answer appears to be no uh this appears

to have been a much more sophisticated

attack meaning that Israel has singled

out this kind of pager um in a way to

exploit it uh by getting the lithium

battery to blow up um you know some sort

of hack uh if this is the case that

means Israel can kill anybody anytime

anywhere in the world not just Israel

but the United States any nation that

figures out this hack can now make the

lithium battery in this device blow up

as I'm on the phone

um this is the kind of stuff that um

should send shivers down everybody's

spine because uh it's not just about

1,500 Hezbollah operatives that were hit

this is about every single human on the

face of the Earth that uses uh

electronics that have a a lithium

battery because if you can hack a

Motorola pager into blowing up you can

certainly hack an Apple iPhone or

anything that means none of us are

safe what Edward Snowden just tweeted

coming in just moments ago because these

these these pagers went off in London it

wasn't just Lebanon they were they were

attacked all over the world Edward

Snowden tweeted just a moments ago what

Israel has just done is via any method

Reckless they blew up countless numbers

of people who were driving meaning cars

out of control shopping with your

children or in the stroller standing

behind him in the checkout line Etc

indistinguishable from terrorism um he

says as information comes in about the

exploding beepers in Lebanon it seems

now more likely than not to be imp uh

implanted explosives not a hack why too

many consistent very serious injuries if

it were overheated batteries explod and

you'd expect many more small fires and

misfires

so and sources I've spoken to this

morning have said that must could have

been in in the works for a long time to

get get these types of specific pagers

in the hands of these individuals with

explosives built in

so that doesn't make me feel any better

but what makes me feel a little bit

better to be honest because guess guess

to know that they can't launch a lithium

ion battery attack at the at a whim you

know we go back to the the old Israeli

practice now we're seeing again that's

how they assassinated the engineer they

put explosives in his cell phone um

that's how they've assassinated people

over the ages to get a device in the

hands uh but this shows

something far more sophisticated this

isn't about inserting an individual

device where you need it this is about

infecting the entire supply chain this

means that in order to do this Israel uh

was either at the source of production

or somewhere in between because normally

speaking um when you ship things out

there's there's going to be some sort of

of control how do you how do you gain

access to all of these pagers uh in a

way that allows you to implant explosive

in them and then have them disseminated

on the market

um this is you know this is a very

serious thing and here and the other

thing I'll say is that um for Israel to

to do this attack it's um it's exposing

the capability

um it's going to mean that everywhere

around the world Supply chains related

to Electronics in the Middle East or

around the world are going to have to be

reverse engineered um Israel probably

won't be able to pull this off again in

terms of this scale so this was a

political decision by Israel to uh to

expose this capability they um and it's

a very crude one and if they were

blowing up in London I mean as you said

this is so early I don't know what the

hell's going on but if they're blowing

up in London um you know this is a

terrorist attack against the United

Kingdom um I can only pray that one blew

up in theed United States I hope that

whoever it happened to doesn't wasn't

affected by this but then the United

States has to start treating Israel as

what it is a terrorist organization you

know the irony here is that Israel wants

us attack against Hezbollah that it cont

considers to be a terrorist organization

using the tactics of terrorism U this is

a this is a a a flagrant crime um it's

indiscriminate nature and we'll see if

Israel will ever be held to account

earlier you said what did Hezbollah

think was going to happen after it it

struck this uh this group uh 82 well

what does Israel think is going to

happen now that it has launched this

attack and and hit thousands of

individuals in in Hezbollah what will

the response look

like well the response needs to be not

just with Hezbollah but as you said this

was an indiscriminate attack against uh

non- hesah targets um what did Israel

think was going to happen in its

response to October 7th do you think

that the Israeli leadership sat there

and said uh by going into Gaza the way

we're doing we're going to trigger a

massive International um condemnation

that turns World opinion against us that

uh enables the hoodie to carry out a

blockade of our Southern ports that

destroys our relationship with the world

that weakens us militarily no that's not

the Israelis don't think strategically

like this this attack this this this

this pager attack is going to have

Global consequences that are going to um

come back and haunt Israel down the road

this was a a feel-good moment for Israel

um but I can guarantee you within a week

within a month um Israel won't be

feeling good first of all hezb is going

to respond militarily there will be an

escalation uh that is designed to bring

about pain and suffering on Israel the

equivalent of that which Israel has

delivered on Hezbollah um Israel killed

a senior hezb leader in West Beirut hezb

responded by attacking unit 8200 Israel

responded by blowing up the pages of

1,500 Hezbollah officials Hezbollah will

spawn by hitting Israel in a um

proportional manner proportionality

means that

1,500 uh Israeli um intelligence

operatives military people are going to

have to put at risk it it has to be a

response of this nature meanwhile the

world is going to Rally against Israel

even further Israel will be further down

into the abyss of its own construction

by the time this is all said and done uh

the numbers right now

2750

people uh wounded as a result of these

pager explosions across

Lebanon um and nine

killed um

so this number keeps going up keeps

going up number keeps going yeah uh I'll

get you out of here on this Scott which

is we over the weekend we saw the houth

houthis fire a Hypersonic

missile at Tel Aviv they could not shoot

this down they didn't shoot it down they

were incapable of shooting it down the

Jerusalem press comes out and says that

it wasn't Hypersonic of course it BS the

question then well then why didn't you

shoot it down if it's not Hypersonic but

I think all evidence to the contrary

that it was a Hypersonic missile fired

at Israel uh what do you make of the

houthi side of this and the hyp Sonic

missiles fired into Tel Aviv well the

hoodie announced that they had acquired

Hypersonic capability a while ago they

had um they had done a series of

tests static tests and uh other tests

associated with a Hypersonic

missile which they then declared to be

operational um I think this is that

missile um it was fired one Israel

didn't shoot it down now Israel can play

semantic games for its own domestic

consumption but the bottom line is the

HTI hit Israel with a missile possessing

technical characteristics which make it

impervious to Israel's air defense

system um I don't believe that the

hoodie um built one missile I think they

have a dozens scores maybe hundreds of

missiles waiting um this was a signal to

Israel because its technology is not

unique to the hoodie in fact I believe

that the hoodie missile probably is a

reflective of technology that the hoodi

acquired via Iran the same kind of

technology that was prided to Hezbollah

um Hypersonic uh solid rocket fuel

missiles with Precision guidance

capabilities that um defeat the Israeli

air defense system the hoodie sent a

signal on behalf of Iran and Hezbollah

that um should this conflict continue

and should it escalate that these are

the missiles that will be hitting Israel

in the future and Israel has no defense

against

them well just when you think the news

cycle couldn't get any crazier here we

go Scott R thanks as always for joining

us we appreciate your insights and

Analysis thanks Scott thanks for having

me