There is glitter all over in the messaging world this morning. We would start with the Supermoon, the much ballyhooed display obscured here by the remains of the tropical storms. They scudded disconsolately northwest across the West Wing of the building. We tried to see it but there was nothing except a gentle mist in the darkness. Which is why we had time to check the police scanner to see what else might be going on in the night.

We are not being alarmist about this local stuff, it is just the header the desk people put on the report before hitting the “send key.” MALICIOUS WOUNDING BY MOB is what they called it, making it the 25th report of the then-new Sunday morning, It was over in Arlington Mill’s Columbia gardens apartments, just south of the Lubber Run Park at the end of the block.

It sounds more dramatic than it was, marking the intersection of “early” and “late” events since the bars still had a few minutes of legal operations.

The Arlington cops had responded to a “trouble unknown” call which was upgraded to “mob malicious wounding” when they found a male victim inside his vehicle at the corner stop sign. He stated that when he honked his horn about something three young men exited a white truck and assaulted him. He sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries before the guys piled back in the car and split, but he had no description of them. Police assure us laconically that the investigation is ongoing.

Ours is as well. We mentioned the local automobiles that have been running up thousands of dollars in unpaid moving violations. Due to information flow, only the license plates are identified, not the drivers. It is part of how things work, or don’t work since they are not directly connected. We had a family member serving on a local jury that found a man guilty of a homicide not because he was seen to have committed it, but his phone was a couple feet away. So, there are all-new ways our activities are stitched together into actionable items. Like the electrifying news from Lebanon yesterday.

We were alerted early and were startled by the magnitude of the story. We were already wound a little tight by the Ukraine thing, still wrapped in a tight ball with electrons flying about with talk of rockets and possible mass destruction. That messaging had caused Russia to lean on Iran to cool their jets about the proxy wars they have been inciting down around the beleaguered Israelis, who are beleaguering the Gazans who are supported by the Hezbollah fighters with rockets provided by Iran over the Israeli concert goers were murdered by the Hamas folks at the urging of the Iranians.

So, this week the Israelis have completed decisive action in Gaza and moved on to the situation in Lebanon.

Around the time the small mob was driving around Arlington Mills, the Israelis had completed a deep strike into a Hezbollah tunnel complex near Beirut. It was dramatic for the nature of the attack on a deep and hardened facility, but also the nature of the target, which apparently included the data files that support operations across the region. Two days later the results of that event may have been part of the next one.

Apparently the Hezbollah supply chain was infiltrated some months ago. We mentioned the phone thing, since it is apart of the story. Apparently the ubiquitous devices can not only be used for locational information useful in litigation but for direct targeting. Hezbollah decided to change their command-and-control network from phones to something less traceable. The older tech pagers were selected as a cheaper and less vulnerable means of communication across the terror network.

The Israelis had an idea about how to work that, based apparently on deep penetration of the Hezbollah leadership. They managed to insert a small amount of high explosive material called “pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN)” into the pagers next to the battery. They were then distributed to be carried normally in a front trouser pocket. Just below the waist of the individual carrying it. In front.

So this is personal in terms of targeting. The NY Times claims the devices were then programmed to ‘beep’ for several seconds before being triggered remotely. Hundreds were reported blinded by the attack since they had picked up the phones and were looking at them when they went off.

That happened at 3:30 p.m. Monday in Lebanon when the Arlington police were still looking for our mob who may have been talking on their phones. In Beirut, communications were more effective.

Approximately 4,000 were injured in the attack with 500 listed in critical condition and at least 11 killed. We saw one before Management turned the flatscreen over to mid-1970s music. Of those killed, one was a child and 10 were Hezbollah operatives.

Horrors like that had been a constant but more remote possibility much of our lives. But now is just the lead to the daily story. We tried to stay away from it yesterday as the sensational news spewed out about the apparent Israeli attack on the Hezbollah leadership in Lebanon and Syria.

So, that is Hump Day in the Middle East. The Israeli strike is remarkable in scope and complexity and puts a real crimp in the Hezbollah ability to respond, not to mention the Iranain desire to strike back directly as was demonstrated in the direct rocket attack only a few weeks ago.

So, more to come. We are keeping our phones on the table around the corner, out of direct line of sight and not in our pockets until we figure out a way to do things discretely. The shouting is getting distracting, you know?

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com