Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hello, welcome to the season finale of season 5 of Swindled. You know what that means, right? That means that we will be taking some time off. But don't worry, if you are a valued listener on Patreon or Apple, there are plenty of bonus episodes coming your way to tide you over. Now is a great time to join, because we will also be opening the phone lines on Patreon in January. So if it's been your lifelong dream to hear your voice in the voicemail segment at the
This episode of Swindled may contain graphic descriptions or audio recordings of disturbing events which may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. Tuna,
Bryce Reed was at home on the evening of April 17, 2013 when he heard about the fire at the West Fertilizer Plant.
Bryce had been a paramedic in the small town of West Texas for 13 years. It was a quiet place. Rarely were there incidents of such alarming magnitude. So Bryce and his wife Brittany, a nurse, hopped into his truck and drove towards the plant. There was no telling what was in the smoke and fumes blanketing the nearby apartment building, nursing home, two schools, and numerous houses in the immediate area. Those people needed to evacuate. Time was of the essence. It was around 7.30 p.m.,
While Bryce Reed and his wife helped out where they could, other residents of West watched from afar, including Derek Hurt and his 12-year-old daughter Chloe. They'd parked a few blocks away and captured the burning building on video. The evening fire in front of a backdrop of the setting sun was quite a sight to behold. It was beautiful. It was mischievous, like it had something else waiting up its sleeve.
At 7.51 p.m., the West Fertilizer Plant exploded. I'm pretty sure it lifted the truck off the ground, Derek Kurt told the Today Show. It all happened so quick that things just kind of went black for a moment, he said.
Derek, who was uninjured, as was his daughter, also told Matt Lauer that there had been a double-digit number of people standing in front of his truck, watching the fire when the massive explosion occurred. However, after the blast, he said those people were, quote, nowhere to be seen. County dispatch advises their traffic is unreadable, and they're not able to get their response. Received. We're...
Paramedic Bryce Reed did not see the explosion, but he damn sure heard it. The blast was so powerful that seismographs and Amarillo detected it over 400 miles away.
I knew this was going to be a mass casualty event, Bryce later told the Dallas Morning News. He said he made his way back to the explosion site to assist in the search and rescue. It was there that he realized that many of his colleagues, his superiors, his brothers as he called them, had been on site attempting to extinguish the flames before it blew up. Their bodies were strewn around the 93-foot-wide by 12-foot-deep crater where the fertilizer plant used to be.
There was Cody Dragoon, Morris Bridges, Kevin Sanders. They were all volunteers. "That looks like Cyrus' truck over there," Bryce thought. Cyrus Reid was Bryce Reid's best friend. They weren't blood related, but they shared a name. They shared a bond. Bryce and Cyrus had become brothers over time, working together in the line of duty. A duty that Bryce Reid could not abandon in that devastating moment of realization, even though inside he was falling apart.
Bryce acted quickly. He told the Dallas Morning News that he assumed control of the radio. He helped organize the relief mission. He pulled bodies out of the rubble. That's what Cyrus would have expected him to do. The recovery effort continued throughout the night into the next morning. Bryce Reed finally retired from his post due to exhaustion. He returned to his neighborhood to find that his home had been completely destroyed.
Hi Brian, well the search continues in the rubble of what is left of the northern half of West Texas, this tiny community that is about 20 miles north of Waco, Texas. A fertilizer plant exploded last night after a brief fire at the plant. The explosion could be felt up to 70 miles away. There is a significant area around the fertilizer plant that has been destroyed.
Homes have been destroyed. There are homes flattened. Part of that community is gone. The West Fertilizer Plant explosion registered as a 2.1 magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale. More than 150 buildings in the vicinity were damaged. 50 to 60 houses closest to the blast were heavily battered, if not completely demolished. West Middle School and High School were also damaged beyond repair.
The two-story apartment complex down the street was in shambles, like a scene out of a war movie, and the nursing home had crumpled under the weight of a slab of the fertilizer plant's foundation, which had landed on its roof. Shattered windows, folded garage doors, and busted pipes were reported miles from the epicenter of the blast. In downtown West, trees were engulfed in flames, while local livestock ran wild through the streets, and family pets lay dead in backyards.
It was a quote nightmare scenario according to Texas Governor Rick Perry who declared the county a disaster area. This is Waco Police Sergeant Patrick Swanton on the ensuing search and rescue.
And there are homes leveled, there are businesses leveled, there is massive devastation in the downtown West area. I will tell you at this point, they are still in the search and rescue phase, and they are currently going from door to door, house to house, business to business, still looking for wounded and injured people. I will tell you at the beginning that this is a crime scene,
We are not indicating that it is a crime, but we don't know. What that means to us is that until we know that it was an industrial accident, we will work it as a crime scene. About 48 hours after the explosion, more than 200 injuries had been reported, ranging from small cuts to traumatic brain injuries. A triage had been set up at the West High football field, the only place in town with working electricity.
From there, victims were transported to various medical facilities in surrounding cities. Fifteen deaths had also been confirmed. One person in the nursing home, two at the apartments. Twelve emergency first responders, including Cyrus Reid. Bryce Reid did not cope well with the loss. The 31-year-old told the Dallas Morning News that ever since that day, it had felt like he was, quote, screaming underwater. He said he wasn't sure if he'd ever be okay.
"Who I was before April 17th has died," Bryce said. "I have to figure out who I am again." Bryce Reed also spoke openly and emotionally with the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press, and CNN. Bryce was one of the only first responders to meet with the media in the immediate aftermath. Most were still in mourning or shock or waiting on the results of the impending investigation.
Bryce was too, but again, this was his duty. If he didn't tell the world about the heroes that risked and lost their lives for the public safety, who would? There was not one person, there was not one person that got paid. The one person that was told is they all just went. And people went knowing that could blow. It's our job. When other people are running away, by nature our job is to run towards what people are running away from because we
We have to do what we have to do, and by nature that's what we do. Bryce Reed also put on a brave face at the public memorial for the first responders. He spoke poetically and humorously about his brother Cyrus Reed in a pre-recorded eulogy. I had the opportunity to tell you about my brother Cyrus and the amazing light he shined in the darkness of my life and the lives of countless others.
Often we hear in remembrance of the fallen regrets such as, "Well, he never got to," or "I wish I would have." Cy wasn't that kind of guy. Nor should anyone ever question mistakes or shortcomings that may reveal themselves in retrospect when looking back at Cyrus' life and their relationship. Cy lived for today. He lived as if tomorrow was not an option and held nothing back in his passion and fury for the life that he had. I would like you all to learn from my brother.
He risked and gave his life because there is no greater love than to lay down your life for a friend. I implore you to keep my brother's vigilance alive. Dare to love. Dare to be bold. Dare to put yourself out there. Love is the most precious gift God can give us. Love is greater than faith. Show your love and don't be afraid to feel. Don't be afraid to hurt, but even in the face of incredible adversity, I dare all of you to take my brother's example and love.
It was a sad state of affairs. Even President Obama stopped by West to let the town know it hadn't been forgotten, even if the collective nation's attention was tuned into Boston, where the Marathon bombing had occurred two days before the fertilizer plant exploded. Of course, far more people die in workplace accidents than terrorist attacks in America every year, but sensationalism always wins the ratings wars.
The only thing West Texas had left was each other, but that's just the way it's always been. They were strong people. They would dust off, rebuild, count their blessings, and thank the Lord for another day. The people of West Texas would persevere, but they would never forget those that were lost, and they would always wonder why.
As we sift through this by hand, by rake, by shovel, by heavy equipment, we're looking for anything that will take us back to where the fire started so we can figure out what caused the fire. And that can be any of the debris that you see behind me, that's behind you, any of that could lead to answers to help determine where the fire started, how the fire started, and the magnitude of the explosion that we're dealing with.
After weeks of investigating the fertilizer explosion, state and federal authorities could answer most of the what's, why's, and how's. They learned the fire started in what they called the seed room of the fertilizer building, which housed about 50 tons of ammonium nitrate.
Farmers use those nitrogen-rich ammonium nitrate pellets to facilitate crop growth. It is cheap and effective and, on its own, usually does not explode. Ammonium nitrate only becomes explosive when it is exposed to extreme heat, like the kind of extreme heat that occurs in a seed room on fire. As the room temperature increased, the ammonium nitrate became highly unstable.
When a chunk of burning wood from the collapsing roof fell on the wooden bins to house the chemical, about 30 tons of the ammonium nitrate detonated with the equivalent force of 20,000 pounds of TNT. It was catastrophic. It always is. Ammonium nitrate is usually stored in mass quantities at fertilizer plants and such. Accidents are rare, but when they do happen, things get ugly.
For instance, in 1995, 4800 pounds of ammonium nitrate and fuel served as the main ingredient in the Oklahoma City bombing. That's enough to fertilize 12.5 acres of farmland. Before that, in 1947, residents of Texas City, Texas thought the Russians had dropped an atomic bomb on them after 2300 tons of the chemical exploded in the port. 500 people died.
How the West's fertilizer plant exploded was no mystery, but investigators remain stumped about what ignited the initial fire that triggered it. There were three possibilities still being considered. According to investigators, it could have been a simple electrical fire. That happens sometimes in these old buildings, you know. Maybe a rodent chewed through the wire. Who knows?
The second possible cause was the rickety old battery powered golf cart that was stored in the seed room. Perhaps it short circuited and provided that initial spark. Unfortunately we'll never know because that golf cart and all the answers it contained were blasted to smithereens. The third possible cause of the fire was intentional arson. Investigators had no suspects, no motives and no clues but it could not be ruled out entirely.
Then, in May 2013, about a month after the disaster, investigators caught a break, or so they thought. An anonymous resident of West called the ATF with a tip. The man said his neighbor had been acting funny for a few weeks and recently claimed to have a pipe bomb in his possession.
In tonight's Texas headlines, authorities have arrested a paramedic who helped evacuate people on the night of the fertilizer plant explosion in West. Bryce Reed is charged with possessing bomb-making materials. It's not clear if the arrest is related to the explosion that killed 14 people last month. Bryce Reed had been rubbing people of West the wrong way lately. Every day it seemed like Bryce was on TV or in the newspaper making another false claim.
Bryce Reed's house was not gone. The back door was damaged. Some of the windows were blown out, but it certainly had not been destroyed as he had publicly claimed.
Bryce Reed also said he personally witnessed "dozens of dead bodies at the scene" even though only 15 people were found. Let's give him a pass on that one though. The scene was unimaginably chaotic and stressful. You can't expect someone to do arithmetic at a time like that. Not that it matters anyway. Bryce Reed made plenty more unfounded claims.
The Dallas Morning News discovered that his professional resume was riddled with blatant falsehoods and inconsistencies. Bryce also said he took an unconfirmed phone call from the Pope the day after the tragedy. He said he commanded the radio even though his voice was not present in the recordings, and he was listed as the point of contact for a t-shirt fundraiser that brought in more than $30,000, all of which remain unaccounted for.
But most surprising were the revelations about Bryce Reed's close friendship with Cyrus Reed. He convinced us that he and Cyrus were very close like brothers. Cyrus' sister Sarah told the Morning News, "But I want people to know that they are not brothers, and he is not part of our family." Sarah and her family had scoured Cyrus' phone records after his death and found no evidence of the friendship.
As a result, the Reed family distanced themselves from Bryce Reed. Sarah says she even asked the police to guard her dead brother's apartment because they were concerned Bryce Reed was stealing from it.
All this scrutiny did no favors for Bryce Reed's fragile state of mind. He defended himself in long-winded Facebook posts. He said he had never received one cent from the tragedy, and he shared that his marriage had fallen apart. The local media also discovered that Bryce had been fired from his paramedic job two days after the explosion for unknown reasons. His life was spiraling out of control.
A few days later, for whatever reason, Bryce Reed just off the cuff admitted to a neighbor that he had a pipe bomb.
When authorities responded to the tip, they found materials capable of making an explosive device roughly the size of a permanent marker. At 2:00 a.m. on May 10th, 2013, Bryce Reed was arrested for unlawful possession of a destructive device. However, investigators weren't quite ready to make that link.
A statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office read, At this time, authorities will not speculate whether the possession of the unregistered destructive device has any connection to the West Fertilizer Plant explosion, but a criminal investigation was launched that same day.
Reed's attorney says his client vigorously denies all the allegations against him, adding that he had no involvement whatsoever in the explosion at the West Texas fertilizer plant. But neighbors are concerned and shocked about the family man who lived among them. I think I said, where did you get a pipe bomb from? And he said, Cyrus.
And Cyrus is the firefighter who he claimed was his brother, but is actually just a friend. Right, Cyrus Reed. He said Cyrus had some sort of a federal license that he was allowed to have pyrotechnical equipment, you know, gunpowder, these sort of things. And Cyrus had given him this to hold. But why did he say he was holding a pipe bomb?
I don't know why he would approach me with that. I mean, you might have thought that was very strange. I was shocked and thought it was very strange. Now, the man thought to be a hero is behind bars, and a neighborhood wonders what it will learn next. What Bryce Reed learned next, after pleading guilty to two lesser counts on October 10, 2013, was that he would spend 21 months in prison.
Perhaps Bryce Reed was telling the truth this time. His alibi checked out. Bryce's estranged wife said that he left the house once on the night in question and returned ten minutes later with a hot pizza.
Therefore, Bryce Reed could not have started the fire. But according to the ATF, someone did. In 2016, three years after the explosion, the federal agency announced the final ruling as to the cause of the blaze. We are here today to announce the final ruling as to the cause of the fire. The fire has been ruled as incendiary. This means this fire was a criminal act.
This is one of ATF's largest fire investigations in terms of not only the money spent, but also the scope as well as the man hour spent on the investigation. To this day, not a single suspect has been named. Despite an extensive investigation that spanned more than 400 interviews and cost more than $2 million, and despite offering a reward of up to $50,000 for any information that leads to an arrest, the case remains unsolved.
However, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, which is an independent, non-regulatory federal agency that investigates the root causes of major chemical incidents, the arsonist that started the fire that led to the West Texas fertilizer plant explosion was just a small component of a disaster that was just waiting to happen.
It should never have occurred, the agency reported. It resulted from the failure of a company to take the necessary steps to avert a preventable fire and explosion and from the inability of federal, state, and local regulatory agencies to identify a serious hazard and correct it.
A lax regulatory environment and safety inspection failures shared responsibility in the tragedy, according to the Chemical Safety Board, whose investigation found that there were more than 1,300 facilities in the United States that stored ammonium nitrate just like West Fertilizer. Yet there were no federal laws mandating that those facilities be located away from residential areas, nor do those facilities even have to inform those residential areas that it stores the chemical at all.
That warehouse next door could literally be sitting on a bomb, and they are not legally obligated to let you know. That was the case of the West Fertilizer Plant. The volunteer fire department certainly wasn't aware of the contents of that building. Neither were the tenants of the apartments or the nursing home residents, or the students and teachers at the school next door.
The federal government had no idea that the ammonium nitrate was there either. The mom-and-pop operation that owned the fertilizer plant, Adair Grain, did not register with the Department of Homeland Security, as fertilizer facilities that hold more than 400 pounds of ammonium nitrate are required to do. Adair Grain sometimes stored as much as 270 tons at a time, 1,350 times the legally allowed amount.
Yet, as U.S. Rep. Benny Thompson from Mississippi stated, DHS did not even know the plant existed until it blew up. It blew up because there were no sprinklers at the facility. There were no shutoff valves, no fire alarms, no safety plan in place at all.
The only reason there was a security alarm was because the local meth heads kept breaking in and stealing anhydrous ammonia along with quote "a bag of Oreos, $10 in pennies, a pair of binoculars, and a purple digital camera." There was no risk management plan. There was no maintenance program. There wasn't even a fenced perimeter. All of these potential issues could have been caught with a simple inspection by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
After it exploded, journalists discovered that the last time the West Fertilizer Plant had been inspected was in 1985. Back then, OSHA cited the plant for improperly storing anhydrous ammonia, which is flammable. OSHA fined the fertilizer plant $30 US dollars for that violation.
The plant had never been inspected, OSHA officials said, because the facility was not on their national emphasis plan for inspections. Because Adair Grain was not a manufacturer, it was a distributor that had no record of a major accident, and the Environmental Protection Agency did not consider it a major risk. That non-major risk resulted in death, destruction, and more than $100 million in property damage.
But of course, the West Fertilizer Plant was only covered by $1 million in liability insurance, which was actually $1 million more than it was required to carry. According to the Dallas Morning News, Texas law allows fertilizer storage facilities to operate without any liability insurance at all, even when they store hazardous materials.
You would think that having a second town wiped off the map in less than a century thanks to ammonium nitrate would make Texas review its regulatory controls. But then-Governor Rick Perry told the Associated Press that there would be no major changes because, quote, "...through their elected officials, the people of Texas clearly send the message of their comfort with the amount of oversight."
The federal government, on the other hand, was not comfortable. The fatal blast in West Texas prompted the EPA, under President Obama, to make serious changes to regulations about how companies store dangerous chemicals and how they develop risk management plans. The new rules were set to take effect in June 2017, but then Donald Trump was elected.
and Trump's hand-picked EPA director, Scott Pruitt, rescinded most of the new safety regulations saying that they, quote, imposed unnecessary regulatory burdens on the chemical industry. He also squashed the new requirement that fertilizer plants make public information about the types of stored chemicals. Pruitt argued that releasing such information would benefit terrorists. Thank God someone is looking out for us.
By 2019, the city of West was mostly rebuilt, and approximately 100 lawsuits related to the explosion had been settled. A portion of the city's $10 million payout from Adair Green was used to build a Fallen Heroes Memorial Park for the 15 deceased victims. A few months after that dedication, while the fertilizer explosion was still ringing in West Texas' ears, a cache of ammonium nitrate erupted in the port of Beirut in Lebanon.
A country with little regulation, even less enforcement, and a good old boy network so vast that the wrangler jeans on the cowboys in Texas get a bit tighter just thinking about it. A country on the brink of collapse due to corruption, political gridlock, hyperinflation, and COVID-19 is devastated by a massive explosion in its capital city on this episode of Swindled.
Support for Swindled comes from SimpliSafe.
If you're like me, you're constantly thinking about the safety of the people and things you value most. After my neighbor was robbed at knife point, I knew I needed to secure my home with the best. My research led me to SimpliSafe.com.
I've trusted SimpliSafe to protect my home for five years now, and the level of security and customer care has been incredible. I sleep better every night knowing SimpliSafe's 24-7 monitoring agents are standing by to protect me if someone tries to break in and to send emergency help when I need it most.
I want you to have the same peace of mind that I and so many listeners experience every day, which is why I've partnered with SimpliSafe to offer listeners 20% off a system. Just visit simplisafe.com slash swindled. What I love most about SimpliSafe is that it just keeps getting better. With exclusive live guard protection, SimpliSafe agents can act within five seconds of receiving your alarm and can even see and speak to intruders inside your home, warning them that the police are on their way.
As a SimpliSafe user, it's no surprise that SimpliSafe has been named Best Home Security Systems by U.S. News & World Report for five years running and the Best Customer Service in Home Security by Newsweek.
Whilst we look at the delightful architecture of the homes of today...
It is fascinating to think of the age-old traditions of the country and the number of civilizations whose relics are piled onto a land which is no more than 150 miles long and 50 miles wide. A last look at Beirut, its beach washed by the bluest of oceans. A last look at the cedars on their slopes of snow. 300 sunny days.
300 moonlit nights. That is the legacy of the Leather. On September 27th, 2013, the MV Rose is set sail from Batumi, Georgia, carrying more than 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate.
The old, rundown Russian-owned cargo ship was hired by a Russian businessman to transport the goods to a mining explosives manufacturing company in Mozambique. But that delivery would never happen. After a brief stop in Turkey, where a mutiny over unpaid wages led to the replacement of most of the crew, the Rosas traveled to Greece and from there made an unscheduled stop at the port of Beirut in Lebanon.
The captain was ordered to take on additional freight in Beirut to solve the cash flow issues. Without it, the ship would not even be able to afford to pay the passage fee through the Suez Canal. Heavy machinery made up the bulk of the extra cargo. It was stacked on top of the cargo doors which buckled from the weight. The ship was too damaged to continue on its journey, according to the Port State Controls Inspection. The MV Rosas was docked at the port of Beirut indefinitely.
As were the crew. Five of the men on board were repatriated in short order thanks to the Ukrainian Council, but the remaining four were stuck on the docked ship for another 11 months. Port authorities did not allow the men to leave the vessel because none of them had the proper immigration paperwork. The crew was marooned on the Rosas with dwindling fuel, clean water, and food supplies.
They had no money, no phone service, no legal representation. They had no other choice but to sit there and wait. For help. For a compassionate release. For death. Whichever came first. All the while the ROSAS was racking up port fees like parking tickets with each passing afternoon. The crew owed more than $100,000 in unpaid bills.
Finally, the port authorities began demanding payment, and Igor Gurchuskin, the owner of the Rosas, had not been returning their calls. So the Beirut port authorities seized the ship and all of its cargo. The judge allowed the remaining crew to return home. The 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate were unloaded into warehouse 12 at the port, where it remained for the next six years. All but forgotten.
The MV Rosas had been abandoned too. It remained docked at the Beirut port for another four years until it reportedly sank in the harbor in February 2018. Fast forward to Tuesday, August 4th, 2020, shortly before 6 p.m.
A fire breaks out in warehouse 12 at the port of Beirut. Exactly where and how it started is still in dispute. The most common explanation is that a team of welders had been sealing a gap in the warehouse that day and one thing led to another. The whole place goes up in flames. Firefighters arrived on the scene within minutes. They reported back to the station, quote, There's something wrong here. There is a crazy sound and a huge fire. The platoon requested backup.
At 6:07pm local time, an explosion occurred in warehouse 12 that sent smoke and sparks into the air. About 35 seconds later, a second massive blast shook the entire city of Beirut. A huge condensation mushroom cloud filled the sky, followed by a reddish orange plume of smoke, a telltale sign that ammonium nitrate was involved.
It was one of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions ever recorded. The Jordan Seismological Observatory reported that it was equivalent to a 4.5 local magnitude earthquake. Entire neighborhoods near the port were flattened. Cars were overturned. Buildings were stripped down to their steel frames. Multiple ships that had been docked in the harbor capsized. Three hospitals in the area were destroyed.
As many as 300,000 people were displaced in an instant. There were more than 7,000 injuries. At least 218 people were dead, including five nurses, a two-year-old boy from Australia, one American, and a German foreign minister from the German embassy.
All ten first responders were killed as well, nine male firefighters and one female EMT. "When I got to near the hangar, there was no fire truck, no ambulance. It was as if they evaporated," Beirut's fire lieutenant told Al Jazeera. "The biggest piece of them we're finding is the size of a hand." Images depicting the enormity of the port explosion and its aftermath soon flooded news programs and social media.
Some of the more notable footage includes a video of the port fire live streamed on Facebook by renowned architect Jean-Marc Bonfield's moments before he was killed. There's also the photographer's footage of a bride's photo shoot that went viral. The camera pans down the woman's beautiful white dress before being interrupted by the deafening boom. It just took a second from hearing the explosion to being hit by it, the bride told the New York Times. The beautiful place that I was in, it turned into a ghost town.
In another video, a priest is seen ducking for cover as the blast disrupted a televised Catholic church service. Elsewhere, an old woman continued to play the piano in the ruins of her apartment.
Beirut, Lebanon awoke to scenes of utter devastation this morning after two colossal explosions devastated parts of this country's capital. They happened at a warehouse where nearly 3,000 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate were being stored apparently without any safety measures. At least 100 people were killed, some 4,000 injured, that according to the Red Cross. By the following morning, August 5th, 2020, the fire at the port of Beirut had been extinguished.
The injured were treated in makeshift hospital beds set up in the streets. The Lebanese government announced a day of mourning and declared a two-week state of emergency. Civilian volunteers from elsewhere in Beirut descended upon Ground Zero with outstretched helping hands, looking for survivors in the rubble, sweeping up the glass in the streets, tearing down the crumbling drywall, attempting to make the land they loved inhabitable once again. Lebanese politicians surveyed the damage and tried to make sense of it all.
Was it an industrial mishap or had they been attacked? President Michel Aoun wondered aloud. It could have been an accident due to negligence or foreign interference through a missile or a bomb. Obviously, there was still a lot to learn.
Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab declared the explosion at the port a "great national disaster." He promised that "all those responsible for this catastrophe will pay the price."
The first suspect that came to mind for many of the Lebanese was Israel. The two countries have been clashing for years. Online conspiracy theorists allege that the Israelis dropped a bomb on the port of Beirut because it stored an enormous weapons cache that belonged to Hezbollah, a terrorist organization with significant political power in Lebanon.
All parties involved denied the allegations, but those conspiracy flames were fanned by one of the world's largest producers of hot air. I just want to follow up before I ask the coronavirus question on Lebanon. You called this an attack.
Are you confident that this was an attack and not an accident? Well, it would seem like it based on the explosion. I've met with some of our great generals and they just seemed to feel that it was. This was not a some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event. This was a seems to be, according to them, they would know better than I would. But they seem to think it was a attack. It was a bomb of some kind. Yes.
No it wasn't. It was the 2700 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been unloaded from the MV Roses that spent the last six years spilling out of torn plastic bags in warehouse 12. But as we all know, ammonium nitrate does not simply spontaneously combust. There must have been something else inside of that warehouse that raised its temperature.
There are troubling new allegations tonight about that deadly port explosion in Beirut. Sources have told The Guardian newspaper that prior to the blast, dozens of bags of fireworks were being stored in the same warehouse as that stockpile of ammonium nitrate, which acts as an accelerant in a fire. Yeah, that'll do it. And by dozens of bags of fireworks, that reporter meant 15 tons of fireworks. There were also jugs of oil, hydrochloric acid, and kerosene stored there too.
Not to mention the 5 miles of explosives fused wrapped around the wooden spools. Warehouse 12 at the port of Beirut was the setting of a pyromaniac's wet dream. Accidents happen, the Lebanese people understood. But that warehouse of negligence did not fill itself with highly flammable materials and forget about them for the next 6 years. Someone somewhere was responsible for this gross mismanagement. So the Lebanese government launched an investigation to determine exactly who.
The Lebanese government announced that they would be investigating themselves. After all, they're the ones that controlled the port. Led by Prime Minister Hassan Diab, an investigative committee was formed to determine the explosion's source. As the first order of business, 16 Beirut port officials were placed under house arrest, and the general manager of the port and the former director of Lebanon's customs authority were arrested.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Lebanese people had seen it all before. A few lower-level political lackeys would take the fall, while those truly responsible would carry on their merry little ways. The people of Beirut demanded an international third-party investigation of the explosion. Their octogenarian president refused. President Michel Aoun called an independent probe a politicized, quote, waste of time.
Days later, it was revealed that the Lebanese government had been repeatedly warned about the dangerous amount of ammonium nitrate in its port over the years, but chose to do nothing about it.
On 18 different occasions, from 2014 to 2017, customs officials had sent letters to judges requesting a resolution to the issue of the confiscated cargo, proposing that the ammonium nitrate either be exported, given to the army, or sold. All 18 letters were ignored.
In December 2019, a state security report submitted to the judiciary, the presidency, and the intelligent and customs directorates again warned of the "real danger arising from these materials." One of the recommendations included in the report, written presumably by a well-meaning fellow, was to weld shut a hole in warehouse 12 to prevent the highly explosive material from being stolen. As we all know, someone would get around to that eventually.
Then, just six months before the explosion, a team reportedly inspected the ammonium nitrate at warehouse 12 and warned that if it were not moved, it would "blow up all of Beirut." Again, the government was alerted. Again, the government did nothing. These revelations inflamed the Lebanese people. It was so parred for the course.
Beirut had become unrecognizable in a matter of seconds. But according to the people who lived there, the disaster had been 30 years in the making. We, the first day of the bomb, we've been removing the corpse until 11:30 at night. This is apocalypse. I mean, this is a nightmare. These things you see only in movies.
I mean, who does this to its own people? Who does this to their own people? They don't even come and ask about us. They treat us like cockroaches, as if we don't exist.
If not all those young people are here to help everyone, what would have happened to us? This is a nightmare. This is a nightmare. I hope every politician in Lebanon and everyone, and we insist on they hang. And our anger will only stop. And our anger will only stop. And we can only live back again normally if we see those bastards in prison hang. And all of them, may they all rot in hell.
Support for Swindled comes from Rocket Money. Most Americans think they spend about $62 per month on subscriptions. That's very specific, but get this, the real number is closer to $300. That is literally thousands of dollars a year, half of which we've probably forgotten about.
I know I'm guilty, but thankfully, I started using Rocket Money. They found a bunch of subscriptions I'd forgotten all about and then helped me cancel the ones I didn't want anymore. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that finds and cancels your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so that you can grow your savings. With Rocket Money, I have full control over my subscriptions and a clear view of my expenses.
I can see all of my subscriptions in one place. And if I see something I don't want, Rocket Money can help me cancel it with a few taps. Rocket Money will even try to negotiate lower bills for you by up to 20%. All you have to do is submit a picture of your bill and Rocket Money takes care of the rest. They'll deal with customer service for you. It's a dream.
Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when using all of the app's features. Stop wasting money on things you don't use. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions by going to rocketmoney.com slash swindled. That's rocketmoney.com slash swindled. rocketmoney.com slash swindled.
Businesses are closing, unemployment is rising, inflation is soaring, and the local currency depreciated by at least 50%. And now, for the first time in its history, Lebanon is defaulting on paying its debt. $1.2 billion is due on Monday. The country is facing its worst economic crisis in decades. Prime Minister Hassan Diab, who took office in January after massive protests toppled the previous government,
told the nation his administration will work on restructuring the debt which has become too much for the country to bear. Our hard currency reserves are at a critical record low. As a result, the Republic of Lebanon is forced to default the coming March 9th obligation on the Euro bond. These funds must be channeled towards securing the basic necessities for the Lebanese people.
On March 9th, 2020, five months before the port explosion, the country of Lebanon defaulted on its debts for the first time in its history. For years, the country's central bank obtained dollars by offering impressively high interest rates. All the money that was loaned to the Lebanese central bank was used to purchase its own currency to artificially inflate its value. In essence, the entire Lebanese economy was a nationally regulated Ponzi scheme.
And like most Ponzi schemes, the central bank's practice proved unsustainable. And it came crashing down. $130 billion worth of deposits had disappeared. There was a run on the banks, but nothing was left. The average person was only allowed to withdraw $200 every month, which did not amount to much because the value of the Lebanese pound had plummeted. The cost of basic goods increased by more than 50% in less than two weeks.
Don't worry. The rich, powerful, and politically elite had withdrawn more than $30 billion of their wealth just in time. They knew it was coming. The World Bank had warned the Lebanese government in November 2019 that if they didn't act, half the country could soon be living in poverty. Sorry, their hands were tied.
Ever since the end of the civil war in 1990, the Lebanese government has been incapable of governing. The seats in parliament and other official government positions are constitutionally distributed equally between Christians and Muslims. This has resulted in political gridlock at its maximum in effectiveness.
Those of us in the West are kind of familiar. Everything becomes politics, climate change, public health crises, body autonomy, teaching accurate history. The Lebanese government in particular became more concerned about protecting turf than running the country. Favors for favors to benefit Team Islam, a little quid pro quo disguised as Christianity.
Thomas L. Friedman wrote in the New York Times, quote,
One of the only ways to get things done in Lebanon was through graft and bribery, while the politicians in Beirut were fattening their pockets. There were rolling blackouts throughout the city, a lack of safe drinking water, overflowing garbage and 6-year-old ammonium nitrate blowing up the port. Not to mention COVID-19. Before the explosion, the Lebanese people were already on the brink. They were dealing with hyperinflation, government corruption, unemployment, a lack of basic services and scarcity.
Imported goods, which the country heavily relies upon, had all but disappeared. According to Sri Magdisi at The Nation, because the country no longer had access to common medicines, people were dying from treatable ailments like scorpion stings.
Some may call it resilience, but for many this is about survival. Nearly half the population of 5 million Lebanese were below the poverty line before this disaster. The situation has since got worse. After the explosion, the situation in Lebanon got much worse. The blast destroyed three already overcrowded hospitals, as well as 17 containers filled with personal protective equipment that had just been delivered to the port to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
The Lebanese pound deflated even further, losing over 90% of its value as a currency. The people are hungry. Not only has food become more expensive due to the financial crisis, but it has also become harder to find, thanks to the global pandemic which slowed imports, and thanks to the explosion at the port, which destroyed the silos where Lebanon's 15,000-ton grain reserve used to be stored. It was now scattered and rotting on the beach.
Over half of Beirut was affected by the blast, resulting in more than $15 billion in damages. Reportedly only $3 billion was covered by insurance. Self-repairs are near impossible because again, there is no money.
According to the World Bank, Lebanon is undergoing one of the worst economic catastrophes the world has ever seen. The Lebanese people deservedly blame the rulers who have held power for decades for neglecting the country to enrich themselves instead. For years, the port of Beirut was sarcastically referred to as the cave of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves.
The negligence surrounding the port explosion was the final straw for many. The Lebanese people took back to the streets, a continuation of the protests that had started in the fall of 2020 when the government announced they would be implementing a 20 cent tax on WhatsApp voice calls.
As darkness fell on the streets of a shattered Beirut, protesters confronted Lebanese security forces. The rage follows revelations the government knew about the 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate being stored at the city's port and did nothing despite repeated warnings from customs officials the material had been left to rot.
As many as 10,000 protesters, young and old, assembled in Beirut's main square the weekend following the blast. They hung symbolic nooses, blocked roads near the parliament building, threw stones at the police, and burned portraits of the president. "We were born and raised with this regime in place. We believe it's time for it to go, especially after the last explosion," an 18-year-old protester told CNN. "These politicians deserve to be hanged here. They deserve even worse, honestly."
A 51-year-old demonstrator added, quote, A top trending hashtag in Lebanon earlier that week translated to, quote,
"Either they keep killing us or we kill them," a prominent TV anchor tweeted. The anger was real. Protesters stormed the association of banks that was withholding their money. They took over the economy and foreign ministries. They declared revolution and demanded an end to the corrupt regime that had mismanaged their country to disaster. On Saturday, multiple members of the Lebanese parliament resigned in protest in solidarity with the people.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced early elections to satisfy the people's rage. "Just vote a little harder this time, everybody." The violence only increased. By the end of the day, on August 9th, more than 700 people had been injured in the protests and one cop was dead. Authorities were accused of violating international standards for their excessive use of force on the demonstrators and the media. As many as 14 journalists claimed they had been attacked by the police while covering the story.
That same day, the Lebanese government's information and environment ministers resigned. The next day, the justice minister resigned, followed by the entire Lebanese cabinet. Prime Minister Hassan Diab had no other choice. He announced his own resignation during a televised statement.
This crime was a result of corruption, Diep said. I discovered that the system of corruption was bigger than the state and that the state is bound by this system and that it is not possible to confront it or get rid of it, he said. I declare today the resignation of this government. May God protect Lebanon.
Lebanon's government has finally caved in, like the shattered buildings along Beirut's waterfront. It took an explosion of 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate to bring down the Prime Minister and Cabinet. President Michel Aoun accepted the resignations of Prime Minister Hassan Diab and his Cabinet, but asked them to stay on in a caretaker role until new leadership was appointed.
For the protesters, the resignations were not enough. The problems ran much deeper. It would take a complete removal of the old guard to win back their confidence. The government resigning is not enough for us because we want the people responsible for the blast and everything that's been happening for us 30 years ago until now to be held accountable. That's when we will be satisfied.
The investigation into the port explosion continued. Judge Fadi Sawan, the 60-year-old specially appointed prosecutor leading the charge, was given a cartoonishly small office to work out of in the Hall of Justice. He questioned former ministers and directors of security, while two assigned clerks took notes by hand. By mid-August, Judge Sawan had ordered the arrest of more than 20 people, including the 16 port workers placed on house arrest.
In December 2020, he charged four high-ranking government officials, including two former ministers of public works, a former minister of finance, and the caretaker prime minister, Hassan Diab. The caretaker prime minister, Hassan Diab, along with three former ministers, are accused of negligence. Diab says his conscience is clear and that he has no intention of being questioned again. He is now the first prime minister in Lebanon's history to be charged.
Diab was forced to resign days after the blast, but later returned as caretaker. He was only in power for a few months when the explosion happened. That's why some are questioning the judicial decision. Judge Sawan accused the former officials of negligence related to the deaths caused by the explosion. Hassan Diab had only been prime minister a few months before it happened. The people felt like his arrest was a scapegoat.
On the other side, Hezbollah protested the charges and accused the judge of leading a highly politicized investigation that targeted only certain political forces. Hezbollah and its allies protested for Judge Fadi Sawan's removal, and it worked.
In February 2021, the court removed Judge Sawan from the investigation on the basis that his own home had been damaged in the blast. He was replaced with Judge Tarek Batar, a 47-year-old politically non-affiliated judge who poses a serious threat to those in power.
Judge Batar's investigation has been suspended multiple times after accusations of bias were filed against him. He told a French newspaper that he will not be dissuaded amid the political pressure, threats from Hezbollah security apparatus, and the smear campaign. Quote,
Endless rounds of gunfire rang out in the streets of the Lebanese capital on Thursday. Here, a man struck by bullets is seen being carried away by other residents. Elsewhere, this man in a balaclava fires a machine gun in the middle of the road.
Beirut became a theatre of urban guerrilla warfare, forcing the army to be deployed to bring calm to the streets. It all began with this demonstration by militants from the Shiite Muslim movements Hezbollah and Amal. They gathered in front of the Palais de Justice, located in one of Beirut's Christian neighbourhoods, calling for the removal of Tariq Bitar. That seems to be going well.
That's right. So a year after that blast, there has been no government investigation. No one's been arrested. No one's behind bars. There's been no accountability. And for the thousands of victims of that blast, there has been no justice.
Other countries have called for an international investigation, including French President Emmanuel Macron. He visited the site of the blast hours after it happened and spoke to people on the streets. Macron led the international fundraising effort. I'm here to bring help, to help to coordinate. We will launch a European and international initiative to bring money and help directly to people. But on the other side, we have to launch a new political initiative
to change in depth what is today at stake because all this nervosity that you see, all this fear, this anxiety, this anger you have is against politicians and against corruption in the country. Everything is broken. A lot of things.
Some countries sent doctors and equipment. Other countries sent cash. In total, international leaders pledged more than $300 million to help the Lebanese people.
Most of the funds were distributed through the United Nations and NGOs because the Lebanese people had warned that they would never see a penny if given to their government. They warned that the politicians would put that money into their own pockets along with the rest of it. The international community took heed. The whole world wants justice for Lebanon, but it hasn't happened yet. A year and a half later there have been no arrests, no accountability.
Victims, relatives and activists say the inquiry is being hampered by the Lebanese political leadership's efforts to shield politicians and officials from scrutiny. So far, it seems to be working. Again. And everything else just seems to be getting worse. Children at work. Their numbers are increasing in a country where a worsening economic crisis is pushing more people into poverty.
Nearly eight in ten people in Lebanon are now poor. Nearly half of the workforce is unemployed. Those who still have jobs struggle because of the collapse in the value of the local currency. As of November 2021, a liter of fuel in Beirut cost about $10.50. For the Americans, that's just under $40 per gallon. Still, the weight of the pump is hours long. Fuel and medicine are scarce because they're being hoarded by the elite.
There's a black market for both, but the average person is getting gouged either way. Social media is filled with pleas for help. There's also a shortage of bottled water, which is trouble in a country with tap water that cannot be trusted. There isn't enough fuel to power the machines that make the bottles or the pumps that fill them. Even if there was, there's no fuel for the trucks to deliver them. Lebanon is a stark reminder of how fast a society can collapse. But what does that mean exactly?
Lena Munzer, a writer and translator living in Beirut, wrote for the New York Times that it means, quote, "...days entirely occupied with the scramble for basic necessities, a life reduced to the logistics of survival, and a population that is physically, mentally, and emotionally depleted. May God protect Lebanon."
It will take billions to rebuild this city, but the irony for many Lebanese is that the destruction at the port is not even the real tragedy. The ruins here are just another terrible symbol of a corrupt ruling elite who've stolen all the people's wealth, and now their hope too. Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen.
with original music by Trevor Howard, a.k.a. Deformer, a.k.a. the hardest working man in show business, besides me. For more information about Swindled, you can visit swindledpodcast.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, at Swindled Podcast, or you can send us a postcard at P.O. Box 6044, Austin, Texas, 78762. But please, no packages. We do not trust you.
Swindled is a completely independent production, which means no network, no investors, no bosses, no shadowy money men, no ammonium nitrate. We plan to keep it that way, but we need your support. Become a valued listener at patreon.com slash swindled or on Apple Podcasts. For as little as five bucks a month, you will receive early access to new episodes and exclusive access to bonus episodes that you can't find anywhere else. And everything is 100% commercial free.
Become a valued listener on patreon.com slash swindled or Apple Podcasts. Or if you want to support the show and need something to wear to your next trip on the MV Roses, consider buying something you don't need at swindledpodcast.com slash shop. There are t-shirts, patches, hats, hoodies, posters, coffee mugs, and more. swindledpodcast.com slash shop
And remember to use coupon code CAPITALISM to receive 10% off your order. If you don't want anything in return for your support, you can always simply donate using the form on the homepage. Don't forget to check out SwindledVideo.com. That's it. See you next season. Thanks for listening. My name is Clive from Leeds, Yorkshire, England. Hi, my name is Julie, originally from South Africa. My name is Ron.
From Florida, and I am a parent to this, and I am a parent to this. This is Swindled. Thanks to SimpliSafe for sponsoring the show. Protect your home this summer with 20% off any new SimpliSafe system when you sign up for Fast Protect Monitoring. Just visit simplisafe.com slash swindled. That's simplisafe.com slash swindled. There's no safe like SimpliSafe.