Re: Exploding pagers

On 9/18/2024 3:12 PM, Joe Gwinn wrote:

I heard that Hezbollah had decreed cell phones were too easily compromised
so thought lower tech would be better. Presumably the explosive material
was somehow embedded within the battery assembly as that is the only
largish object inside suitable for concealment?

 Mossad did that in a cellphone used to assassinate a famous bomb
maker, Yahya Ayyash, in 1996.
 I'm guessing that the high explosive was used as the potting agent, so
the pager would look as expected when X-rayed.  TNT melts at 82 C.
 Joe Gwinn

It was a high-risk operation with a very high probability of discovery and humiliation for the perpetrators.
IMO makes it less likely there was any "precise targeting" going on, the higher up in the organization you target with these things, and the longer you wait to blow them, the more likely discovery becomes.
Media explanation: The Mossad has super powers, was planning and organizing this for months, and nailed hundreds of high-ranking terrorists with exacting precision, all of whom were too stupid to know anything was amiss.
Realistic explanation: They shipped in a bunch of them in a hurry, doled them out in a hurry to just about whomever wanted one, and popped whomever was unfortunate enough to get their hands on one within about two weeks.