On a late-November day in 2013, an allegedly Russian-leased freighter bound for Mozambique docked at the Port of Beirut and, later, offloaded from its cargo hold about 2 750 tons of ammonium nitrate.
No one can say why it stopped in Beirut, which reportedly wasn’t on its itinerary, or exactly why the ammonium nitrate was removed. The industrial sacks were placed in Hangar 12, in the shadow of the port’s massive grain silos. At that moment, the countdown began to what would be one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.
Signatures were no doubt scrawled on dotted lines, the names of all those who authorised the reception and continued storage of the cargo. The longer the
