A MYSTERY tech guru who is believed to have accidentally helped source the explosive pagers that rocked Lebanon has gone missing.
Entrepreneur Rinson Jose, 39, hasn’t been seen or heard from since the day of the pager blasts which targeted Hezbollah fighters.
Rinson Jose, a mystery tech guru with inadvertent links to the explosive pagers, has gone missingFacebook
Founders NationJose is listed as an owner of Norta Global Ltd who Bulgarian media say took delivery of parts from Taiwan before helping to manufacture the pagers[/caption]
TELEGRAM/UNPIXSThe moment pagers exploded in Lebanon in a supermarket[/caption]
Jose is listed as an owner of Norta Global Ltd who Bulgarian media say took delivery of parts from Taiwan before helping to manufacture the pagers.
Those close to the Indian-born businessman say he may have fled to the US and is afraid to answer any calls due to the chaos in the Middle East.
It’s unclear what connection, if any, Jose has to the deadly pager bombs that wreaked havoc in Lebanon.
His colleagues are becoming increasingly concerned as they fear “something very strange” is going on.
A source close to Norta Global Ltd told The Sun: “Everyone is worried. On learning he was linked to the Lebanon pager bombs some of his colleagues have tried to reach him, but he’s on a business trip in America and is not answering calls.
“He left on the trip on Tuesday, but it doesn’t make any sense why he isn’t responding to people given the seriousness of what is going on, something very strange is happening.”
Originally from Mananthavady, India, the 39-year-old entrepreneur came to Norway in September 2012.
He lives in Oslo with his wife and has Norwegian citizenship.
There was no answer at his home on Thursday and neighbours say they haven’t seen him since the summer.
A close pal told Norwegian news site VG Jose was a man with a “big heart” who was well liked in the community.
As well as running several companies, including an IT consulting firm called NortaLink, Jose also works for Norwegian media firm, DN Media Group in Oslo.
His LinkedIn profile says he is their Customer, Journey and CRM lead.
Jose also runs a firm called the Indian Sport and Cultural Association of Norway.
According to local media reports DN Media Group have contacted the Norwegian Police Security Service after being contacted by an American journalist asking questions about Jose.
Oslo Police District have since “launched preliminary investigations into the information that has come to light”.
Spokesman Unni Grøndal said: “We are aware of the information, but have no comment on the matter as of now.”
Norta Global Ltd is registered to a shabby apartment block in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Despite the investigation in Norway, Bulgarian officials declared today that “no communication devices were imported, exported or manufactured in Bulgaria”.
AFPNorta Global Ltd, the firm linked to exploding pagers in Lebanon, is registered to this shabby apartment block in Sofia, Bulgaria[/caption]
X/Rulaelhalabi
A destroyed device following a blast[/caption]
XAn injured man lays on the ground following the sabotage wave on Tuesday[/caption]
Israel’s Mossad spy agency were allegedly behind the blasts after they were accused by Hezbollah of planting a small amount of explosives inside thousands of pagers ordered by the militant group.
The highly coordinated and long term plan reportedly involved several different covert operations which took place across the globe.
The trail of sabotage started months ago when Hezbollah ordered 5,000 beepers made by Taiwan-based Gold Apollo.
Leaders of the group are said to have told their fighters to use the pagers instead of mobile phones after fears they could be tracked by the IDF.
Gold Apollo told media the specific order was manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT in Budapest.
Gold Apollo boss Hsu Ching-kuang said BAC asked to manufacture their own pagers with the company’s trademark and they were paid from a mystery Middle Eastern bank account, NPR reports.
Despite the accusations against Israeli spies Mossad they are yet to comment on their involvement in the attacks.
Reports say Mossad set up shell companies to build the devices themselves taking advantage of Hezbollah’s use of “monkey firms”.
The gadgets were officially manufactured by Hungarian company BAC Consulting – who later denied allegations it had built them.
But the New York Times reported BAC is an Israeli shell company, one of at least three used by spies to mask their identity.
BAC took on ordinary clients and produced ordinary pagers but pagers sent to Hezbollah contained the explosive PETN.
Where did the pagers come from?
BY James Halpin, Foreign News Reporter
Iranian proxy Hezbollah ordered the pagers months ago but never thought the quaint piece of tech could be tampered with.
Hezbollah shifted to pagers after the group’s leader told members to stop using phones in February over fears they could be tracked by Israeli spies.
A senior Lebanese security source said the group had ordered 5,000 beepers made by Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, which were brought into the country in the spring.
But Gold Apollo told media in Taipei today the specific order was manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT in Budapest.
Gold Apollo boss Hsu Ching-kuang said BAC asked to manufacture their own pagers with the company’s trademark and they were paid from a mystery Middle Eastern bank account, NPR reports.
BAC Consulting chief executive Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono confirmed to media that her company worked with Gold Apollo.
But said, “I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate.”
At some point during the manufacture, the devices were modified by Israel’s spy service with a small amount of explosive.
The AR-924 pager is described as being “rugged” and contains a rechargeable lithium battery with 85 days of battery life.
Their longevity would be important in Lebanon which has suffered major power outages.
Pagers also run on a different wireless network than mobile phones, making them more resilient in emergencies and harder for Israel to hack digitally.
The affected pagers were only delivered to Hezbollah recently, but other associates of the group were also injured, including the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon.
The devices are believed to have then been detonated almost simultaneously when the targets read a coded message.
This was tactically done in an attempt to maximise damage, say reports.
Former British military intelligence officer Philip Ingram told The Sun that Hezbollah has its own supply chains it relies on.
He said: “It will have had to been planned very carefully indeed. It will have required a large organisation or an organisation with a large reach, to be able to get into the supply chain of Hezbollah.”
Hezbollah and Iran vowed to seek revenge with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps promising “a crushing response from the axis of resistance”.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah hit out against Israel in a speech, saying the “enemy” had crossed “all limits, rules and red lines” in a “massacre”.
He dubbed it a “declaration of war”.
It comes as Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire across the Israeli-Lebanon border in parallel with the war Israel has waged in Gaza against Hamas after October 7.
Israel bombed hundreds of targets overnight with the military claiming to have destroyed 100 rocket launchers and around 1,000 launch barrels in the strikes.
Black and white footage posted to social media showed the country blowing up targets.
Tens of thousands of people have had to flee the border area on both sides.
Hezbollah have reportedly killed 26 civilians and 20 soldiers and forced another 80,000 Israelis to head south to escape the blitz in recent weeks.
Netanyahu vowed on Wednesday to return the evacuated Israelis “securely to their homes“.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant declared the start of a “new phase” of war as the country’s army moved north.
The announcement paves the way for the first full-scale invasion of southern Lebanon since 2006 in a drive to push back the terror group and allow Israelis to return home.
Israel launched spy movie pager plot to lure Hezbollah into war…& destroy them once and for all, ex-Mossad agent warns
BY James Halpin, Foreign News Reporter
ISRAEL’S pager plot could be inspired by a spy film and the country is goading Hezbollah into starting a war, an ex-Mossad agent says.
Nearly 3,000 people were injured on Tuesday and 12 were killed in the sabotage attack leaving Lebanon in chaos and hospitals full of bloodied and injured.
Avner Avraham claims Israel is directly challenging Hezbollah to start a war in retaliation, so it can then invade Lebanon and wipe them out.
Avraham says the chess move attack was Israel saying: “Don’t mess with us”.
He said: “The attack on Tuesday was so strong and wide if they [Hezbollah] do start a limited war, they will lose immediately.
“In the north, we have to start a limited war and we prefer that Hezbollah would make the first mistake.
“The response would be a huge damage to Lebanon, it would go 100 years back.”
But, the 28-year spy veteran says Hezbollah has been left weak with so many people injured and Lebanon plunged into chaos.
“Now they don’t have a different kind of communication system, all their hospitals are full with injured people, this is the best time to attack them.”
Avraham said he believed Israel needed to attack Lebanon and create a “dead zone” inside the country where nobody lived.
That buffer would provide safety for the Israelis living in the north of the country – tens of thousands of whom have been displaced since fighting began last year.
“To bring back the families to the north, you cannot bring them to the world without destroying and pushing all the Hezbollah from the border.”
Avraham also said it is possible that the attack could have been inspired by gadgets used in spy films, something he did as an agent.
“Sometimes we use examples ideas from James Bond films, we took ideas, I can tell you this for sure.
He said: “No one could write the script for Tuesday. This is the real example of thinking outside the box… All the world saw what happened Tuesday, this is the money time.
“If Mossad is doing something and wants to declare it, they will declare it… In all cases they just do it and disappear.
“That’s the whole idea, you don’t know who is responsible for this, you don’t have any idea.”
AFPSmoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanon on Thursday[/caption]
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