The Daily Signal - What Really Happened In Beirut, Explained

Episode Date: August 6, 2020

A large explosion Tuesday in Beirut, Lebanon, killed at least 100 and wounded 4,000 others, authorities say. The president of Lebanon said the explosion was caused by 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that was not safely stored. Was foul play involved? How should Lebanon respond? Are there likely to be any shifts of power because of what happened? Jim Phillips, senior research fellow for Middle Eastern affairs at The Heritage Foundation, joins the podcast to discuss. We also cover these stories: Sally Yates, deputy attorney general in the Obama administration, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee about investigating the 2016 Trump campaign.  Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., asks Attorney General William Barr to investigate the vandalism of Catholic churches across the country in recent weeks.  New York City cracks down on out-of-state travelers by setting up checkpoints at the main entries to all five boroughs.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And I'm Rachel Del Judas. What happened in the horrific explosion in Beirut that killed at least 100 people and wounded 4,000 others? Jim Phillips, a senior research fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Heritage Foundation, joins me on the Daily Signal podcast to discuss. Don't forget. If you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Now, under our top news. Sally Yates, a former deputy attorney general and President Obama's administration, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday. In her testimony, she said that both Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden did not try to have an impact on the FBI's review of then-incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

During the meeting, the President, the Vice President, the National Security Advisor, did not attempt to any way to direct or influence the investigation. Yates said of the January 2017 meeting with top national security advisors in the Oval Office. Politico reported that Yates' testimony went against claims from President Trump that Obama and Biden tried to investigate Flynn as the incoming national security advisor. Yates also said that she did not remember Biden mentioning the Logan Act, an antiquated law from the 18th century that is meant to keep private citizens from meddling in foreign policy, which was the main reason for the FBI investigating Flynn. The Department of Justice dropped Flynn's case in May. Here is an exchange between South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and Yates about Flynn and the Logan Act via C-SPAN. Now, let's talk about a January 5th meeting.

Was the vice president there? Yes, he was. Okay. Did he mention the Logan Act? You know, I don't remember the vice president saying much of anything this meeting. So you don't remember him mentioning the Logan Act? No, I don't. President Trump joined Fox News, Fox and Friends on Wednesday morning and shared his opinion on how schools should handle reopening this fall.

Let's take a listen to what the president had to say. My view is the school should open. This thing's going away. It will go away like things go away. And my view is that school should be open. If you look at children, children are almost, and I would almost say definitely, but almost immune from this disease. So few, they've got stronger, hard to believe. I don't know how you feel about it, but they have much stronger immune systems than we do somehow for this. And they do it. They don't have a problem. They just don't have a problem. I mean, literally, in New Jersey, where you had thousands, many thousands of death, the governor, Phil Murphy told me, good guy, too, by the way. But he told me thousands and thousands of deaths. It was hard hit. There was only one person under the age of 18 who died of this, and I think that person also had diabetes, a young person. It doesn't have, and especially when you get younger than that, it doesn't have an impact on them.

And I've watched some doctors say they're totally immune. They're totally immune. I don't know. I hate to use the word totally because the news will say, oh, he made the word totally and he shouldn't have used that word. But the fact is that they are virtually immune from this problem. And we have to open our schools. The president did add that older teachers might need to stay home this fall in order to protect their health until a vaccine is available. Congressman Chuck Fleischman is asking Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate the vandalism inflicted on Catholic churches across the country in the past weeks. In a letter to Barr, Fleshman said, since June, there have been nearly a dozen reported attacks on Catholic churches

around the nation. These disturbing attacks range from arson to the beheading of a statue of the Virgin Mary. I find these attacks to be a disturbing trend happening in multiple areas across the nation, including within my own congressional district, Fleshman wrote. Statues of Mary and Jesus have been the headed and a satanic symbol was painted on a church to name a few of the incidences of vandalism. The violence and vandalism comes after the death of George Floyd on May 25th. Writer, activist, and Black Lives Matter supporter, Sean King tweeted June 22nd, Yes, I think the statues of the white European they claim is Jesus should also come down. These are forms of white supremacy, tear them down.

New York City is cracking down on out-of-state travelers by setting up checkpoints at the main entrances to all five of the city's boroughs. New York State, along with Connecticut and New Jersey, are continuing to require a 14-day quarantine for anyone entering the state from an area reporting more than 10 cases per 100,000 people on a seven-day rolling average. 34 states are now on this mandatory quarantine list,

with Rhode Island being the latest edition on Tuesday. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a press conference Wednesday per Bloomberg quick takes that the checkpoints are being implemented to keep the city's case numbers down. So starting today, we're going to do something new in New York City. We will have checkpoints at key entry points to the city. Travelers coming in from those states will be given information about the quarantine. They will be reminded that it is required, not optional. they'll be reminded that failure to quarantine is a violation of state law. And it comes with serious penalties. In fact, under certain circumstances, the fines can be as high as $10,000. So this is serious stuff.

And it's time for everyone to realize it. If we're going to hold at this level of health and safety in the city and get better, we have to deal with the fact that the quarantine must be applied consistently to anyone who's traveled. The announcement of the checkpoints comes just one day after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York City had no COVID-19 deaths for three consecutive days. Cuomo said in a statement Tuesday that our progress in New York is even better than we expected, thanks to the hard work of New Yorkers. But we need to protect that progress. It's a critical time in our nation's history. Now more than ever at the Daily Signal, we're committed to acquitted to acquit.

you with the best information and insight we possibly can. And to do that, we need your help. By sharing your thoughts and suggestions through our five-minute online survey, you can help the DailySignal improve our reporting and reach even more Americans with the message of freedom. Find the five-minute survey at daily signal.com slash survey. Again, that's dailysignal.com slash survey. Now stay tuned for my interview with Jim Phillips on the horrific explosion in Beirut. I'm joined today on the Daily Signal podcast by Jim Phillips. He's a senior research fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Heritage Foundation. Jim, it's great to have you with us on the Daily Signal podcast.

Well, thank you. It's great to be here. So on Tuesday, there was a really huge tragic explosion in Beirut, which is the capital city of Lebanon. Can you bring us up to speed, Jim, on what happened? Well, the Lebanese government has launched an investigation, and the preliminary indications are that there were 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate in the harbor, which exploded. And ammonium nitrate is commonly used in fertilizer, but it's also used to make explosives and build bombs. It looks at this point like it was an accident, at least the explosion, although it remains unclear what started the fire that led to the explosion. But in the past, there have been many huge explosions of ammonium nitrate, including in the United States.

In 1947, a ship carrying about 800 tons of ammonium nitrate, much smaller amount. exploded in Texas City at a dock in Texas City, Texas, and it killed more than 400 people. There's also been explosions of that substance in France, in China, and in 2013, there was a Texas fertilizer plant that exploded killing 15 people. So although the explosion is suspicious, it is common for industrial accidents to happen with this very dangerous substance. Well, on that note, on Wednesday AP reported that Lebanon is putting unspecified number of Bay report officials under house arrest after this huge explosion and that the move comes amid speculation that negligence was to blame for the blast that devastated the Lebanese capital.

What is your perspective on their response and what they're saying here about? about how they're putting all these officials under house arrest? Well, there were reports that the Lebanese authorities confiscated this ammonium nitrate from a ship in 2013 that was traveling from Georgia to Mozambique. And I think the reason the government is focusing on negligence is because that huge amount should not have been stored so apparently casual. in a port for all that time because it did pose a threat to any nearby people. Initially, many people suspected this could be a sign of the growing tensions between Hezbollah

in Israel, and Hezbollah has been known to smuggle weapons through the port, and it may have owned the warehouse where these explosions happen. And if so, it may have been a holding on to this explosive material to use it against Israel, either in some of its missiles or in bombs or IEDs. So that could have been motivation for keeping such a dangerous substance in the port. Well, overall, Jim, looking at everything that's happened so far, the different, just what the Lebanese president has said as well as others in government, What do you think of the response of the Prime Minister and others in leadership roles?

Well, first of all, let me say the Prime Minister is walking on eggshells because the Lebanese government is extremely unpopular with a huge portion of Lebanese people. And the Prime Minister Hassan Diab is seen as kind of a puppet of Hezbollah. Hezbollah is not only the largest military militia in Lebanon, but it also plays a very powerful behind-the-scenes role in propping up this unpopular Lebanese government. So I think one of the reasons he's seized on negligence as an issue is that it's a way of responding to the crisis and appeasing many Lebanese that are up in arms about this as well as, you know, systemic corruption and mismanagement of the Lebanese economy, as this allows him to blame port officials rather than Hezbollah, if Hezbollah was involved in this huge explosion.

Jim, how likely do you think it is that Hasbola is involved? I think it's very likely. involved one way or another. I don't think it set off the explosion because it controls substantial parts of the Port of Beirut, and that would be hurting its own interests. But I think it definitely had an interest in tapping into that ammonium nitrate for its own purposes for terrorism and military clashes. It has been known to be looking for ammonium nitrate through Syria. And, you know, we'll never know now, but I'll bet that a substantial part of that ammonium nitrate was already siphoned off by Hezbollah for its own purposes. But, you know, I think Hezbollah will face a backlash by the Lebanese people.

They were already fed up with its, you know, very arrogant behavior and the fact that it is dragged, Lebanon into repeated clashes with Israel in order to serve the interests of Iran, not Lebanon. And I think in the long run, this will be another point against Hezbollah. But in the short run, Hezbollah is in substantial control of Lebanon. So I think it will do everything it can to block a full investigation. Well, Jim, Amnesty International, they're calling for this explosion in Beirut to be independently investigated. Would you agree with what they're asking for? I think that would be a good move in part because it's not just, you know, foreign observers that distrust the Lebanese government,

but it's also Lebanese people. And I don't think they will be satisfied if there's some kind of a whitewashed job done here. Well, what should people know about Lebanon in its rule in the Middle East as this happens as well as how the area and politically, there might be changes coming due to what all has happened? Well, Lebanon was once seen as one of the most cosmopolitan and tolerant democracies in the Middle East. but it has unfortunately fallen into very polarized and bitter factional struggles between many segments of its multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian society. There's a very weak state which is ruled by a corrupt oligarchy, not only Hezbollah and its henchmen, but other sects. There's 18 religious and ethnic groups in Lebanon, and many of them have their own political parties that when they join the government, they get control of a cabinet department, and they really milk that department to sustain their own constituents in their fellow ethnic and religious groups. And that has been a formula for incredible corruption and economic mismanagement.

It's also led to a huge political explosion in last fall when many Lebanese people, including Shia, that normally would support Hezbollah, protested in the streets against the Hezbollah-dominated government. So there's an economic crisis, a financial crisis. Over all of that, there's this COVID epidemic or pandemic that is really destroyed Lebanon more than most other countries. Lebanon also is burdened with an estimated 1 million refugees from Syria who also are very exposed to the virus. So it's not a very pretty picture. Well, Jim, how likely do you think it is that there might be shifts of power because of what's happened here? That, I think, is a $64 question. I mean, if I was more optimistic, I would say in the long run, the Lebanese people will rise up and form a better government.

But the problem is it's so easy for Hezabala, leaders and other leaders of other ethnic and religious communities to demonize the other factions and refrain from making the very hard sacrifices that will be necessary to put Lebanon on the right, you know, economic and political path. And lastly, Jim, I mean, not only has the city been changed in the way it appears due to all the buildings that have been leveled and all the lives that have been lost following this explosion. But how else do you expect the city to change? What are the things do you see coming down the pike as it tries to recover from this?

Well, I think it's going to be very difficult for it to recover from this, because in the past, Lebanon was bailed out, despite its incompetent and corrupt government. It was bailed out by the rich Arab oil states of the Persian Gulf or by France, which was the colonial power that gave Lebanon independence or by the IMF and World Bank. But now because Hezbollah is such a power behind the throne, the United States and the Arab oil kingdoms and many Europeans, Europeans are reluctant to give Lebanon more aid because it's just wasted the aid in the past, and there's no sign of real change. So, unfortunately, I think as long as Hezbollah is in a position where it dominates Lebanon, all Lebanese will suffer.

Jim, thank you so much for joining us today and for bringing perspective this situation. it's been great to have you. Well, thanks a lot. And that will do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast. And don't forget, we need your help to continually improve your podcast experience. So please be sure to head todailysignal.com slash survey, or you can click the link in today's show notes to take a five-minute survey. Your thoughts and suggestions are critical to our work for America. Thanks again for listening, and We'll be back with you all tomorrow. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation.

It is executive produced by Kate Trinko and Rachel Del Judas, sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. For more information, visitdailySignal.com.