A Japanese manufacturer that supplies the U.S. military also supplied walkie-talkies reportedly used in Wednesday’s mass attack in Lebanon.
The company, ICOM, has supplied millions of dollars worth of equipment to the Pentagon for more than 30 years.
Pagers used by hundreds of Hezbollah members exploded near-simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday, killing at least 12 people, including two young children, and wounding thousands more.
The next day a second wave of explosions, reportedly involving walkie-talkies used by the Iran-backed militant group bearing the ICOM logo, killed at least 20 people and wounded 450, The Associated Press reports.
Women mourn over the coffin of Hezbollah member Hussein Amhaz during his funeral in Baalbek, Lebanon, on September 19, 2024. Hezbollah was in disarray on September 19, after a second wave of explosions swept through its strongholds across Lebanon.
AFP/Getty Images
Both attacks are believed to have been carried out by Israel, which is yet to make any official comment about them.
The U.S. government has said that it had no advanced knowledge of the Lebanon attacks.
ICOM said in a statement on Wednesday that it is investigating whether its walkie-talkies were involved in the attacks.
The company said that it had stopped making the walkie-talkie model believed to have been used in Wednesday’s attacks and only shipped it to international markets from 2004 to October 2014. It also said that counterfeit versions have emerged in recent years.
Security experts believe Israel packed explosives into walkie-talkies before they were supplied to Hezbollah and was able to detonate them by sending a remote signal.
The Pentagon has not yet replied to Newsweek’s query on whether it has supplied ICOM walkie-talkies to Israel in recent years.
ICOM’s last contact with the federal government was on September 6, with an unspecified budget to supply computer servers and software, according to the U.S. government’s Federal Procurement Data System.
That contract was with the Federal Acquisition Service, which had worked with ICOM to supply the military technology equipment for many years.
ICOM signed a contract on March 1 for $34,986 worth of electronic testing equipment and a contract with the U.S. Navy in January, 2023, to supply $8,500 worth of communications equipment.
U.S. Department of Defense records show that in June, 2018, it was invited to supply tenders for a massive defense contract.
The Department said ICOM was one of five companies that “will compete for each order of the $495,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for land mobile radio supplies and services.”
U.S. Army Contracting Command was handling the bids and the contracts were to be completed by June, 2023.
As far back as 1998, it won a multi-million dollar contract to supply the U.S. Army with 22,000 walkie-talkies. It was the “first Japanese company to supply the U.S. Defence Department with radio communications,” according to its statement at the time.
“The company will deliver over 22,000 two way radios to specific Ranger, Airborne, Air Assault, Light Infantry and Mechanised Infantry units for operation during battle situations in which clear communication is paramount,” it said.
On Wednesday, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the pager attack violated international humanitarian law and said she wanted answers about U.S. involvement.
She has been a frequent critic of Israel and America’s relationship with it.
She wrote on X: “Congress needs a full accounting of the attack, including an answer from the State Department as to whether any US assistance went into the development or deployment of this technology.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken was quick to respond on Wednesday, saying the U.S. did not know about and was not involved in the pager attack.
He said during a news conference with Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty: “With regard to Lebanon, the United States did not know about nor was it involved in these incidents. We’re still gathering the information, gathering the facts.”
