How do you destroy a city and escape justice for six years?

Six years after the Beirut Port explosion, which killed more than 200 people and injured over 2,000, with no justice to this day, we present to you a “practical guide” on how to destroy an entire city and get away with it for years.

Rule number one: to destroy any city, make sure you are at the center of power and authority in the country, so you can later use your influence to protect yourself. Once that’s secured, you can begin.

First, bring in one of the most powerful types of explosives and store it in a vital port within the city. Among people, among civilians, among buildings, in an active working area, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that the quantity is large.

Then, leave it there and forget about it until a spark ignites and the explosion occurs. At that point, you will have successfully completed step one: destroying an entire city over the heads of its people, killing hundreds, and entering history as the site of the largest non-nuclear explosion in the world.

Second comes impunity. After all, news of the explosion has gone global.

Here’s what you do:
Within days of the disaster, begin filing motions to dismiss or remove investigating judges. Then, file lawsuits against them and accuse them of misconduct against the state. Create a crisis in judicial appointments within the Higher Judicial Council. If a judge manages to issue any decisions, use your security influence to prevent law enforcement from executing arrest warrants, and apply pressure to block the lifting of immunities for anyone named in the investigation.

Then comes the more dramatic part: call for protests in front of the Palace of Justice, objecting to the charges and demanding the removal of names from the case file. This escalates into attempts to storm areas like Ain el-Remmaneh, followed by clashes in Tayouneh that result in casualties, terrifying an entire population and fueling tensions. Later, the assassinations begin. Target anyone who might provide information to the investigation or who may have witnessed the crime.
And with that, the guide to destroying a city, and escaping accountability, is complete.