Firm linked to exploding pagers in Lebanon traced to shabby, anonymous apartment block in Bulgaria
A FIRM linked to exploding pagers in Lebanon is registered to an anonymous, shabby apartment block in Bulgarian capital Sofia. Norta Global Ltd is among hundreds of foreign companies listed at a ground floor attorney’s office there. AFPNorta Global Ltd, the firm linked to exploding pagers in Lebanon, is registered to this shabby apartment block in Sofia, Bulgaria[/caption] X/RulaelhalabiA damaged device discarded on the ground[/caption] Israel hid the explosive PETN inside pagers and were detonated Tuesday One man’s bag exploded after a pager detonated while he was shopping Bulgarian security agency Dans entered the building yesterday as it said it will probe any links to the sale of pagers to Hezbollah. The devices exploded across Lebanon in coordinated attacks this week. Bulgarian media reported Norta Global took delivery of parts from Taiwan before manufacturing the pagers. But Bulga
A FIRM linked to exploding pagers in Lebanon is registered to an anonymous, shabby apartment block in Bulgarian capital Sofia.
Norta Global Ltd is among hundreds of foreign companies listed at a ground floor attorney’s office there.
Bulgarian security agency Dans entered the building yesterday as it said it will probe any links to the sale of pagers to Hezbollah.
The devices exploded across Lebanon in coordinated attacks this week.
Bulgarian media reported Norta Global took delivery of parts from Taiwan before manufacturing the pagers.
But Bulgarian officials declared today “no communication devices were imported, exported or manufactured in Bulgaria”.
The National Security State Agency said the company did not carry out transactions in Bulgaria.
Hungarian company BAC Consulting was also linked but said it was only an “intermediary” to a deal with a Taiwanese supplier.
Norta Global chief Rinson Jose has fled to the US.
A source said: “His colleagues have tried to reach him, but he’s on business in America and is not answering calls.”
At least 37 people were killed and over 3,000 injured in the pager and walkie-talkie blasts – as Mossad spies seek to take down the Iran-backed terror group.
The trail of sabotage has led across the world from Taipei to Budapest to Japan to Beirut.
Hezbollah ordered 5,000 beepers made by Taiwan-based Gold Apollo after the group was ordered to move away from cellphones by its leader.
Gold Apollo told media the specific order was manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT in Budapest.
Gold Apollo boss Hsu Ching-kuang said BAC asked to manufacture their own pagers with the company’s trademark and they were paid from a mystery Middle Eastern bank account, NPR reports.
Reports claim Israeli spies Mossad conducted the attack, but the spooks have not commented on whether it was them.
Mossad set up shell companies to build the devices themselves taking advantage of Hezbollah’s use of “monkey firms”.
The gadgets were officially manufactured by Hungarian company BAC Consulting, who denied allegations it had built them.
But the New York Times reported BAC is an Israeli shell company, one of at least three used by spies to mask their identity.
BAC took on ordinary clients for whom they produced ordinary pagers.
Pagers sent to Hezbollah, however, contained the explosive PETN.
The AR-924 pager is described as being “rugged” and contains a rechargeable lithium battery with 85 days of battery life.
Their longevity would be important in Lebanon which has suffered major power outages.
Former British military intelligence officer Philip Ingram told The Sun that Hezbollah has its own supply chains it relies on.
He said: “Hezbollah tend to use one or two individuals as businesses to import, export most of their stuff from.”
Ingram said those people would need to be highly trusted and would most likely be family members of high-ranking members.
“It looks as if that trusted supplier has been compromised.
“It will have had to been planned very carefully indeed. It will have required a large organisation or an organisation with a large reach, to be able to get into the supply chain of Hezbollah.”
Hezbollah and Iran vowed to seek revenge with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps promising “a crushing response from the axis of resistance”.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah hit out against Israel in a speech, saying the “enemy” had crossed “all limits, rules and red lines” in a “massacre”.
He dubbed it a “declaration of war”.
The Japanese manufacturer of the walkie-talkies used in Wednesday’s blasts said it was impossible they were used as they ceased making them a decade ago.
ICOM director Yoshiki Enomoto said: “There’s no way a bomb could have been integrated into one of our devices during manufacturing.
“The process is highly automated and fast-paced, so there’s no time for such things.
“If it’s genuine, we’ll have to trace its distribution to figure out how it ended up there.”
Israel launched spy movie pager plot to lure Hezbollah into war…& destroy them once and for all, ex-Mossad agent warns
BY James Halpin, Foreign News Reporter
ISRAEL’S pager plot could be inspired by a spy film and the country is goading Hezbollah into starting a war, an ex-Mossad agent says.
Nearly 3,000 people were injured on Tuesday and 12 were killed in the sabotage attack leaving Lebanon in chaos and hospitals full of bloodied and injured.
Avner Avraham claims Israel is directly challenging Hezbollah to start a war in retaliation, so it can then invade Lebanon and wipe them out.
Avraham says the chess move attack was Israel saying: “Don’t mess with us”.
He said: “The attack on Tuesday was so strong and wide if they [Hezbollah] do start a limited war, they will lose immediately.
“In the north, we have to start a limited war and we prefer that Hezbollah would make the first mistake.
“The response would be a huge damage to Lebanon, it would go 100 years back.”
But, the 28-year spy veteran says Hezbollah has been left weak with so many people injured and Lebanon plunged into chaos.
“Now they don’t have a different kind of communication system, all their hospitals are full with injured people, this is the best time to attack them.”
Avraham said he believed Israel needed to attack Lebanon and create a “dead zone” inside the country where nobody lived.
That buffer would provide safety for the Israelis living in the north of the country – tens of thousands of whom have been displaced since fighting began last year.
“To bring back the families to the north, you cannot bring them to the world without destroying and pushing all the Hezbollah from the border.”
Avraham also said it is possible that the attack could have been inspired by gadgets used in spy films, something he did as an agent.
“Sometimes we use examples ideas from James Bond films, we took ideas, I can tell you this for sure.
He said: “No one could write the script for Tuesday. This is the real example of thinking outside the box… All the world saw what happened Tuesday, this is the money time.
“If Mossad is doing something and wants to declare it, they will declare it… In all cases they just do it and disappear.
“That’s the whole idea, you don’t know who is responsible for this, you don’t have any idea.”
