The Taiwanese company Apollo whose name was on the exploding Hezbollah pagers said that the pagers were manufactured by Budapest-based BAC Consulting.
That company website disappeared on Wednesday. But the archive of BAC Consulting webpages shows a site that really looks and sounds...fake.
It is filled with jargon and very light on details:
We work internationally as agents of change with a network of consultants who put their knowledge, experience, and humanity into our projects in a connecting and authentic journey!Seeking solutions to your business challenges revolves around "Create, Cooperating, and Conceive" authentically!We are excited!With over a decade of consulting experience, we are on an exciting and rewarding journey with our network of passionate experts with a hunger for innovation and discovery for the Environment, Innovation & Development, and International Affairs.Are you ready to implement novel visions in your organization to take it to the next height?
Would you hire a company where you cannot understand what they actually do?
Their address points to a real building in what appears to be an office/ light industrial park.
There are two notable parts of their website.
One is where they elliptically describe working with telecommunications manufacturers in the far East (emphasis mine):
Vision
We develop international technology cooperation among countries for the sale of telecommunication products. This cooperation entails scaling up a business from Asia to new markets e.g. developing countriesClient
International PartnershipOur Work
We are currently further developing innovative telecommunication instruments. This development entails
- Integrating the best past technological lessons and practices from different geographical areas
- Strategizing the business Scaling up
- Carrying out Negotiation and Sales
Expertise
Telecommunication, Innovation, Partnership Building, and Coordination
Current Results
- Coordinated Research & Development for Instrument innovation
- Developed an International Partnership via meetings
- Carried out Sales
Well, it certainly was innovative, and they did add business to a new market!
The only other part of the website that said anything specific was in projects where they consulted for the European Union:
We are glad to assist the Agency with the evaluation of project proposals presented by international partners during various Calls. Our evaluation work fosters innovation, development, and transparency in line with the European Union's values and vision.ClientEuropean Commission
And:
We are grateful to have been chosen to join the Results-Oriented Monitoring System (ROM) system for External Aid Interventions by the EU-Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO). The monitoring system enhances the EC's accountability and management capacities supporting EU Delegation and Headquarters services.ClientEuropean Union
The New York Times reports that BAC was entirely an Israeli front company. The CEO is a real person who seems to do at least some of this generic consulting work described. But the entire operation, according to the report, is unbelievable.
Israel knew for years that Nasrallah didn't trust mobile phones. They sold a small batch of the pagers to Hezbollah in 2022! Then, although the NYT doesn't say this, Israel may have leaked to Hezbollah that they can turn cell phones into remote spying devices using their cameras and microphones and GPS to track everyone. Nasrallah in February told Hezbollah to get rid of its cell phones and replace them with pagers.
An Israeli company was in place for years waiting for this opportunity, and probably manipulated Hezbollah to increase its use of pagers.
WOW.
Another company that seems to be involved, NortaLink, which also had generic consulting jargon on its webpage, has also just been taken down. It has been on the web since at least late 2021 and its Facebook page, which is still up at the moment, goes back to 2017.
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