Tipsheet

Former CIA Director's Take on Israel’s Pager Explosion Operation Isn't Going Over Well

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  September 24, 2024 11:00 AM

Former CIA Director Leon Panetta called the mass detonation of Hezbollah pagers and walkie talkies a “form of terrorism.”

“The ability to be able to place an explosive in technology that is very prevalent these days and turn it into a war of terror. This is something new,” Panetta told CBS.

“This has gone right into the supply chain. When you have terror going into the supply chain, it makes people ask the question, ‘What the hell is next?’ This is a tactic that has repercussions, and we really don’t know what those repercussions are going to be,” he continued. 

Israel was reportedly behind the attack, with the plan years in the making.

By all appearances, B.A.C. Consulting was a Hungary-based company that was under contract to produce the devices on behalf of a Taiwanese company, Gold Apollo. In fact, it was part of an Israeli front, according to three intelligence officers briefed on the operation. They said at least two other shell companies were created as well to mask the real identities of the people creating the pagers: Israeli intelligence officers.

B.A.C. did take on ordinary clients, for which it produced a range of ordinary pagers. But the only client that really mattered was Hezbollah, and its pagers were far from ordinary. Produced separately, they contained batteries laced with the explosive PETN, according to the three intelligence officers.

The pagers began shipping to Lebanon in the summer of 2022 in small numbers, but production was quickly ramped up after Mr. Nasrallah denounced cellphones.

Some of Mr. Nasrallah’s fears were spurred by reports from allies that Israel had acquired new means to hack into phones, activating microphones and cameras remotely to spy on their owners. According to three intelligence officials, Israel had invested millions in developing the technology, and word spread among Hezbollah and its allies that no cellphone communication — even encrypted messaging apps — was safe anymore. […]

Over the summer, shipments of the pagers to Lebanon increased, with thousands arriving in the country and being distributed among Hezbollah officers and their allies, according to two American intelligence officials.

To Hezbollah, they were a defensive measure, but in Israel, intelligence officers referred to the pagers as “buttons” that could be pushed when the time seemed ripe. (The New York Times)

Panetta called on nations to "have a serious discussion about whether or not this is an area that everybody has to focus on, because if they don’t try to deal with it now, mark my words, it is the battlefield of the future.”

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The comments from Panetta, who signed the letter from ex-intel officials calling Hunter Biden's laptop "Russian disinformation," were widely criticized. 

National Review's Andy McCarthy said "it is difficult to quantify how idiotic such allegations are," pointing out the 'Grim Beeper' operation was "narrowly targeted, discriminate, and proportional."

"To state the obvious, its targets were the operatives of a terrorist organization, which (a) has murdered hundreds of Americans and (b) has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization under federal law for 30 years," he added.