Indeterminate Past
When the Israelites reached the Red Sea, Moses stretched out his hand and the waters parted allowing him and his people safe passage. The Egyptians followed them but God again commanded Moses to stretch out his hand and the sea engulfed their army.
Lot met the angels in the city square and urged them to stay at his house. The angels agreed. The Bible then reveals the sin lurking in the Sodomites’ hearts: “Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them’. The angels proceeded to blind the men surrounding the house and urge Lot and his family to flee the city warning them not to look back. Lot’s wife’s curiosity got the better of her and she looked back to be turned into a pillar of salt. The wrath of God was about to fall. Lot and his family fled the city, and then the LORD rained down burning sulphur on Sodom and Gomorrah.
These narratives are reflected, both in the Old Testament and the Koran.
November 27, 2020
Israeli agents had been planning to kill Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh for years. Eventually, they came up with a way to do it with no operatives present. A robot was built to fit in the bed of a Zamyad pickup, a common model in Iran. Cameras pointing in multiple directions were mounted on the truck to give the command room a full picture not just of the target and his security detail, but of the surrounding environment, yet carefully camouflaged. Finally, the truck was packed with explosives so it could later be blown to bits, destroying all evidence. The blue Zamyad pickup was parked on the shoulder of Imam Khomeini Boulevard.
The convoy turned right on Imam Khomeini Boulevard, and the lead car then zipped ahead to the house to inspect it before Fakhrizadeh arrived. Its departure left Fakhrizadeh’s car fully exposed.
The machine gun fired a burst of bullets, hitting the front of the car below the windshield; the car swerved and came to a stop.
The shooter placed a thousand miles away adjusted the sights and fired another burst, hitting the windshield at least three times and Fakhrizadeh at least once in the shoulder. He stepped out of the car and crouched behind the open front door.
According to Iran’s Fars News, three more bullets tore into his spine. He collapsed. Soon the truck exploded. (Based on a report in The New York Times September 18, 2021)
September 17, 2024 (ABC News)
“It was early afternoon in Lebanon when pagers clipped to the belts of thousands of men beeped, simultaneously.
They all appear to have been linked to the Lebanese militant Shia Muslim group and major political party, Hezbollah.
The pagers flashed a message that looked to be from Hezbollah’s leadership, according to the New York Times.
But then, according to witnesses and CCTV footage, the beepers became extremely hot and suddenly exploded, leaving horrifying wounds to the stomachs, hands and faces of those holding them.
At least 12 people are believed to be dead, and 2,800 others were injured. That was Tuesday.
On Wednesday, more blasts echoed across Lebanon. This time it was hand-held radio devices used by Hezbollah that were blowing up, with state media reporting at least another 14 more people had been killed and hundreds more injured.”
Hezbollah relies on pagers — which operate on radio frequencies instead of the internet — in part to elude Israeli surveillance of their conversations, but it proved counterproductive as it not only enabled the perpetrators to listen to all communications but selectively target Hezbollah operatives.
Hezbollah unknowingly paid for devices, doctored and marketed by the very enemies, they sought to elude and distributed them to their own operatives, thus identifying them for death and destruction. Never before had killers displayed such an audacity, to make the killed pay for their own killing and make a killing on the killings!
If we consider what has happened before our eyes with the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and the explosions, do the Red Sea crossing and destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah look impossible, anymore?
A lesson for India
National elections in India are a complex affair usually spread over seven weeks and seven phases. After each phase the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and the ballot boxes are sealed and kept under lock and key with solid security, to deter any trespass/tampering. Every so often there are allegations and protests that the machines have been influenced, giving rise to demands to scrap EVMs and restore the ballot. Petitions are filed in various Courts. The EVM itself is not made available for scrutiny to the citizens. As a result there is no evidence of tampering, nor of non-tampering. So how does a citizen establish tampering?
But the latest exploits in Lebanon have comprehensively established that there is no need to physically break into a machine to manipulate it; a mere command is sufficient. If a pager/radio device can be remotely made to explode, why can the same technique (with requisite modifications) not be used to manipulate an EVM? Is it not time for us to seriously ponder? Do we wait for our democracy to be maimed the way Hezbollah has been, before we react?
(Radharao F Gracias is a senior Trial Court Advocate, a former Independent MLA, a political activist, with a reputation for oratory and interests in history and ornithology.)