1 week Ago By Firstpost
“Bury it; put it in an iron box and lock it,” Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said in a February speech as he pleaded with the organisation’s members to stop using mobile phones. Nasrallah had been advocating using pagers for years to avoid detection by Unit 8200, the Israeli Intelligence Corps’ elite and secretive unit of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), and Mossad. “The phone that we have in our hands is a listening device,” Nasrallah warned.
Perhaps, he was reminded of Shin Bet’s targeted killing around three decades ago in which cell phone tampering and surveillance helped eliminate a dreaded Hamas terrorist who had advanced suicide bombing. On January 5, 1996, an Israeli plane connected to a bugged cell phone with 15 gm of RDX inside a house in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip, relayed information to a command post. Yahya Abd-al-Latif Ayyash, aka The Mechanic, Hamas’s chief bombmaker and the leader of the West Bank battalion of the Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades, received his father’s call on the phone inside his childhood friend Osama Hamad’s house and was killed instantaneously.
Shin Bet had a mole in Hamad’s family. It provided the phone to Kamil Hamad saying it was bugged only to listen to Ayyash’s conversations—he was clueless about the RDX. With Israel and Hezbollah on the precipice of an all-out war that could engulf West Asia, Nasrallah was aware of the immense risk of leaking military plans and strategy and future attacks via Israeli cell phone surveillance.
Following his February speech, Nasrallah banned mobile phones at Hezbollah meetings. However, he was unaware that pagers, known for durability and long battery life, can also be compromised. Twelve people, including Hezbollah operatives, were killed and 2,800 others wounded in a series of synchronised pager explosions by the Mossad, Unit 8200 and the IDF in Lebanon on Tuesday.
Thousands of pagers exploded across Lebanon, in an attack on Lebanese group Hezbollah, killing nine people and wounding nearly 3,000 others. Here’s what you need to know about the attack https://t.co/8m4tTa4BSQ pic.
twitter.com/kW7vegJMay Another 20 people were killed and 450 wounded in a second wave of attacks as hundreds of walkie-talkies exploded on Wednesday. #BREAKING After pagers, now Walkie Talkie communications devices exploded across Lebanon on Wednesday, Reuters reported citing a security source and a witness.
pic.twitter.com/1vmsVVGkeD Israel’s message to Hezbollah was clear: We can target you anywhere and anytime—without leaving a trace.
Unit 8200 had already tested inserting PETN during the manufacturing of the pagers almost a year ago. The pager blasts are shrouded in mystery. Who manufactured the pagers? Who exported them to Lebanon? When and where did Israel insert three gm of PETN into every pager? The pager plot is a labyrinth of two shell companies, has no traceable source of manufacturing and export of the devices and has become a blame game.
A Taiwanese tech company and two shell firms, one in Hungary and the other in Bulgaria, and their alleged suspicious CEOs are in the spotlight. However, no media report has mentioned an American firm involved in the pager business with deep ties to the Taiwanese company and the US military. Taiwan tech firm in focus lies The pagers that exploded had Gold Apollo markings, sparking media reports and tweets alleging that the Taiwanese tech firm had made and exported them to Lebanon.
A Reuters analysis of the destroyed pagers found a format and stickers consistent with the “Rugged” AR-924 model of pagers with Gold Apollo branding. The pagers in question are the Gold Apollo AR-924. Manufactured by Gold Apollo Co.
, Ltd. They are based in New Taipei City, Taiwan, founded in 1995 by Hsu Ching-Kuang. The company specializes in wireless paging systems, including alphanumeric pagers and transmitters.
pic.twitter.com/0kBkxEJxCs The New Taipei City-headquartered firm manufactures pagers for restaurants and hospitals, transmitters, patient and nurse call buttons and house alarms and has clients like BMW and Starbucks, according to its website.
Taiwan’s economic affairs ministry acknowledged on Wednesday that Gold Apollo had exported 260,000 pagers to European and American markets from 2022 to August 2024 but not Lebanon. “Was this batch of goods actually modified? Did another manufacturer produce them and simply label them with the Apollo brand? This part is still under investigation by the authorities,” a ministry spokesperson told NBC News . The ministry also clarified that the Taiwanese pagers can only receive signals and use AA batteries, which are unlikely to cause deadly blasts.
Interestingly, several developments occurred after the blasts exposing Gold Apollo’s lies. First, the subhead “Rugged AR-924” under the ‘Applications’ section on the homepage was removed immediately after the blasts. Following the explosions, the page shows the message: “ Connection denied by IP2Location Country Blocker.
Please contact web administrator for assistance. ” Earlier, clicking on the subhead led to a page providing information about the pager. The archived page mentioned that Rugged AR-924 weighs 95 gm, contains a lithium battery—contradicting the ministry’s claim that pagers made in Taiwan use alkaline batteries—and lasts up to 85 days if fully charged for 2.
5 hours. Second, Gold Apollo issued a statement denying ever manufacturing AR-924, which obviously was a lie. Instead, it claimed to have authorised Budapest-based company BAC Consulting KFT under a “long-term partnership (signed three years ago) to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions”.
🚨 Gold Apollo has issued a statement identifying BAC Consulting, based in Budapest, Hungary, as the manufacturer of the pagers. https://t.co/s9rJXNyTYJ pic.
twitter.com/GwRv7WwfKn Gold Apollo’s homepage leads with the statement and further claims that AR-924 “is produced and sold by BAC. Our company only provides the brand trademark authorisation and is not involved in the design or manufacturing of this product”.
Gold Apollo Says It Authorized Its Trademark on the Pagers but Didn't Manufacture Them TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said Wednesday that it authorized its brand on the pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria but that another company based in Budapest...
pic.twitter.com/jXQkgKWFzY Third, Gold Apollo founder-president Hsu Ching-kuang initially neither named BAC nor provided its location merely saying that a European company had manufactured the pagers.
Later, he told the media that AR-924 “was not ours; it was only that it had our brand on it” without providing the “licensing agreement” with BAC. In an unbelievable account provided to NPR that further casts doubts on Hsu’s version, he claimed that a Taiwanese woman named only “Teresa”, who claimed to be a local BAC representative, approached him. Subsequently, Hsu signed a contract with Teresa to sell Gold Apollo pagers to BAC and allow it to use its trademark on his products.
Strangely, Hsu also said BAC paid his company from a Middle Eastern bank account that was once blocked once by their bank in Taiwan. Mysterious Hungarian, Bulgarian shell firms BAC Consulting is a mysterious nondescript company that apparently ‘operates’ from a residence in Budapest that houses other companies. However, according to BAC’s LinkedIn profile, it deals in natural resource management, international affairs, development, business development, partnership Planning and strategy planning, not pager manufacturing.
BAC’s LinkedIn page mentions the company’s website , which went offline after the blasts with the message: “Your connection is not private Attackers might be trying to steal your information from www.bacconsulting.org (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards).
” In a corporate registry, BAC listed 118 official functions, including sugar and oil production, retail jewellery sales and natural gas extraction. Registered as a limited liability company in May 2022, BAC earned $725,000 in revenue in 2022 and $593,000 in 2023, according to the company registry. More mysterious is BAC’s 49-year-old glamorous CEO Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono, whose LinkedIn profile mentions her as a “strategic advisor” for major international organisations like IAEA and UNESCO.
Bársony-Arcidiacono claims to speak French, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and English, being a London School of Economics (LSE) alumna and an expert in international relations, capacity building, management of natural resources, green and digital transition (AI, blockchain and cybersecurity) and business development. Shockingly, LSE denied having awarded any degree to Bársony-Arcidiacono. Intriguingly, Bársony-Arcidiacono confirmed to NBC News that BAC had indeed worked with Gold Apollo but denied manufacturing the pagers.
“I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong.
” British-educated businesswoman denies making Hezbollah explosive pagers which killed at least 12 people Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono studied for a PhD in physics at UCL between 2002 and 2006...
A British-educated businesswoman has denied allegations of manufacturing the pagers...
pic.twitter.com/CEMAFZxmzF Was BAC used as an intermediary in supplying the pagers to Hezbollah? According to the Hungarian government’s international spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs BAC is a “trading intermediary”.
“Authorities have confirmed that the company in question is a trading intermediary with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary. It has one manager registered at its declared address, and the referenced devices have never been in Hungary,” he tweeted. !!️ 🇭🇺 The Hungarian government’s position on the "pager issue": authorities have confirmed that the company in question is a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary.
It has one manager registered at its declared address, and the referenced...
A company with only a manager, no manufacturing plant and operating from the ground floor of a house in Budapest can’t manufacture pagers. Never ever did anyone manufacture any pager at BAC Consulting in Budapest, Hungary. Look at the CV & resumé of the Founder and CEO of BAC Consulting.
pic.twitter.com/jmmqIh4v3F Yet the Hungarian company has a gorgeous and suspicious CEO and a detailed LinkedIn profile.
BAC’s reality also shows that Hsu is lying. Therefore, the possibility of Gold Apollo manufacturing the pagers and supplying them to BAC can’t be ruled out. Meanwhile, Hungarian news portal Telex reported that a Bulgarian company called Norta Global purchased the pagers from Gold Apollo and sold them to Hezbollah.
Though the news report claims that the pagers were never in Hungary, it triggers more suspicion about the roles of Bársony-Arcidiacono and Hsu in the pager plot maze. According to Telex, Bársony-Arcidiacono dealt with Sofia-based Norta Global, which was actually behind the Gold Apollo-BAC deal. Like BAC, Norta Global is also extremely suspicious.
It is owned by a 39-year-old Indian-born Norwegian individual named Rinson Jose and operates from a building that houses 196 other firms. The implantation of explosive into consumer mobile devices by Israeli intelligence will deal a death blow to the Israeli tech industries. Now no end users want “Designed or Made in Israel” tech devices that can double as an assassination tool that can explode in your face.
PM...
Jose disappeared on the day of the explosions and has been untraceable. Norta Global Ltd CEO in Bulgaria is Norwegian citizen Rinson Jose. pic.
twitter.com/toI85oTYwe Jose’s primary employer is the Norwegian DN Media Group, according to his LinkedIn profile, which lists his areas of specialisation as digitalisation, CRM, process automation, AI and data-driven marketing. The Bulgarian company’s website has also been taken down.
It shows the message: “No Results Found. The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post.
” The Bulgarian State National Security Agency has denied any link between Norta Global and the pagers. “No customs procedures were carried out for the products described in the incident to go through Bulgarian territory, and no such procedures were found,” it said in an official statement. Bulgarian National Television also reported that Norta Global doesn’t operate in Bulgaria.
Clearly, the Hungarian and Bulgarian entities are shell companies with alleged role in the pager blasts. Twelve current and former defence and intelligence officials told The New York Times that BAC was part of an Israeli front and two other shell companies were created to hide the identities of Israeli intelligence officers who made the pagers. The pagers had batteries laced with PETN, according to the three intelligence officers.
US pager company and Gold Apollo link In the page plot puzzle, the name of an American firm that has a partnership with Gold Apollo and supplies to the US military is missing. No media report has mentioned California-based Golden Sab, Inc., which does business as Digital Paging Company (DPC) and manufactures numeric, alphanumeric and tone voice pagers, transmitters, and wireless communication products.
Digital Paging serves customers in the State of California. DPC’s LinkedIn page says that Golden Sab, Inc. GSI has been “the leading global provider and distributor of high-quality pagers” to more than “2,500 retail dealers, healthcare facilities and government health and military facilities”.
DPC’s clients include “Providence Health hospitals, Veterans Administration hospitals, US Army and Air Force bases”. “Whether you require numeric, alphanumeric or voice paging requirements, GSI will continue to be the leader in the paging communications industry.” DPC’s Facebook page to Gold Apollo.
Moreover, DPC is “the exclusive product development and manufacturing partner of Apollo brand paging products”. Established in 1992 as a pager retail and repair shop, DPC “established a design and manufacturing partnership with Taiwan-based Apollo pagers”. By 2000, DPC and the Apollo “offered the largest and most varied selection of end user-focused paging solutions in the industry”.
Shipping data shows that Gold Apollo’s sole client is DPC. According to ImportYeti, which makes import data accessible to e-commerce sellers, Gold Apollo shipped products to only DPC from January 2015 to February 2024. Hsu claimed that Gold Apollo’s last shipment of components to BAC was earlier this year.
According to media reports, Hezbollah acquired the pagers in February, the last time Gold Apollo shipped products to DPC. The US has denied any prior knowledge of the blasts or its involvement. “The United States did not know about nor was it involved in these incidents,” secretary of state Antony Blinken said at a press conference in Cairo on Wednesday.
Even State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller denied US involvement. “The US was not involved in it. The US was not aware of this incident in advance,” he said during a press briefing.
A big question remains unanswered. Why the American company, DPC, also blocked its website after the Lebanon pager explosions with the message: “Bandwidth Limit Exceeded. The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit.
Please try again later.” The writer is a freelance journalist with more than two decades of experience and comments primarily on foreign affairs. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer.
They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views..
