Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- UNITE! Info #154en: A "strange accident" in France [Posted: 24.09.01] Note / Anmerkung / Note / Nota / Anmärkning: On the UNITE! / VEREINIGT EUCH! / UNISSEZ-VOUS! / ¡UNIOS! / FÖRENA ER! Info en/de/fr/es/se series: See information on the last page / Siehe Information auf der letzten Seite / Verrez information à la dernière page / Ver información en la última página / Se information på sista sidan Last Friday, 21.09, there was a large explosion in the AZT petrochemical factory in Tolouse, France, which produced ammo- nium nitrate, a fertilizer. The entire plant was devastated. 29 people were killed and over 2,400 injured. Serious damage was caused in large parts of the city. Two things in connection with this event should cause the at- tention and concern of people everywhere, not only in France: Firstly, the fact that many of the international media at once "knew" that this was an accident, though in reality the cause of the explosion was not at all known at an early stage; two parallel investigations of it are continuing. Secondly, the point in time on which this devastating explosion occurred and some factors in the international political situation at that time. In the last few decades, on several occasions and in a number of countries, in Europe for instance, some strange accident, in many cases a quite serious one, has occurred in a country or other precisely soon after a decision has been made or some other event has taken place in that country which has dis- pleased either US imperialism or, earlier, when that power was still in existence, Soviet social-imperialism. When such a thing occurs, the possibility of a coincidence of course must be taken into account. Actual accidents do happen. But so many strange such have taken place under such remarkable circumstances, as to their times and places and as to the res- pective political situations when they occurred, that there are good reasons to suspect that intelligence services of the most powerful reactionaries in the world since a long time back have had it as one of their methods to engage in sabotage, in mass murder even, in order to "take revenge on", threaten and put pressure on those who in some way are opposing the aims of these particularly powerful reactionaries. WHAT WAS THE POLITICAL SITUATION WHEN THIS EXPLOSION TOOK PLACE IN TOLOUSE? This disaster, in a city in southern France with also many plants of the defence industry in that country, occurred only hours after the particularly threatening speech by US president Bush late on Thursday 20.09 (local time), in which he in effect declared war on any country in the world which would not kowtow completely to the biddings of the US imperialists. "Those who are not with us are with the terrorists", he said, among other things. In reality of course, precisely the opposite is the case, as recent events had rather clearly once more indicated too. Those who are with US imperialism also are *with* the terrorists, at least with the main such in the world. The atrocities in the USA on 11.09, targeting above all, directly, the people in the USA, and indirectly the people in all other countries too, hardly could have taken place without the involvement of at least some forces within US imperialism itself, whose aims they so precisely have suited. Now the bourgeoisie in France, like the rulers of all the other "rich", imperialist states too, in general terms have assured the US rulers of their support in the so-called "struggle" of the latter against "terrorism" in the world. But some signs, small but clear, of a difference in opinion and aims between the rulers of France and those of the USA on this question have been visible, indicating a conflict of interests which may be sharper than is apparent to those who can only follow events through various public reports. Shortly before US president Bush held his speech on 20.09, both British premier Blair and French president Chirac had ar- rived in the USA for discussions. Blair was part of the audien- ce applauding that speech at the house of the US Congress in Washington, and in return received particular commendations from Bush. Chirac however was not present on that occasion. On the same day that the explosion in Tolouse occurred it was also reported in the media that the governments of some West European countries had declared their readiness to participate with military forces in any war action against other countries which the US government might see fit to initiate, under the pretext of "fighting terrorism": These were the governments of Britain, Germany and Spain. Notable in this context is that the government of France was not reported to have made a similar declaration, nor the leadership of the European Union as such. Under these circumstances, and also because of a number of earlier events - whose actual causes in many cases, admittedly, remain unclear - there are good reasons for a suspicion, which hereby is put forward: Did an intelligence service of the US imperialists cause this disaster in France, by an act of sabo- tage in order to "take revenge on", threaten and sway the go- vernment of that country? The writer of this Info, obviously, cannot tell whether this was actually the case or not. But at the very least, this pos- sibility should be kept in mind by those who are investigating the cause of this explosion, and by people in general as well. WHAT IS BEING SAID IN TOLOUSE ABOUT THIS DISASTER According to the news agency AFP, the procureur (District At- torney) of Tolouse said late on Monday 24.09 (today) that "the chances were 99% that this was an accident"; "An attack by a group, absolutely not; I'm certain of this". However, as reported by the local newspaper Tout Tolouse like- wise today, 24.09, three workers of the plant itself said, eight hours after the explosion, that it could not possibly have been due to an accident. According to the newspaper, the most senior among them said: "Ammonium nitrate cannot explode all by itself. I'm certain: I've worked for 20 years in that silo which exploded; I know what I'm talking about". "In order to function as an explosive, nitrate which is used in agriculture must be combined with another component, more of gas/oil, the whole thing must be compressed and there has to be a fuse which one ignites in order for an explosion to occur. If you ignite a sack of nitrate, it hardly burns at all". His two younger workmates agreed: "Sacks of nitrate were stored in the silo. But only one part of that silo, which has two parts, exploded: that in which the nitrate was stored. The other side, where the mélanine [a word in French for which my dictionaries are insufficient - RM] did not not actually explode; its metal structure is only twisted." The local newspaper added, in another article today with the headline "Officially, an accident", i.a.: "What is the exact cause of the tragedy? No doubt one has to wait for several days in order to know this precisely.... Despite everything, the possibility of an attack cannot be eliminated completely...[T]he report on [television channel] TF1 at 13.00 on Friday [21.09], according to which a security committee had recently inspected the plant and had concluded that it would be possible for anyone to enter it without being subjected to very severe checking-ups could not but add to the suspicions...." WHAT CONCLUSIONS SHOULD BE DRAWN? What conclusions should be drawn, by the people in France and elsewhere, if it turns out that this disaster in fact was caused by sabotage, and one by the forces mentioned above, and was not an accident? Unfortunately, there is not much that people in general can do quite directly to prevent such things from occurring, in the world of today. Vigilance against them of course is necessary, as is such against actual accidents. Vile acts of sabotage directed, directly or indirectly, against the people are a result of the rule of capitalism and imperia- lism in the world and can be eliminated only by the overthrow of that rule. Experience from several earlier strange disasters whose causes have remained unclear has shown a tendency by official (bour- geois) investigating committees or authorities in medium-sized or small countries to cover up such facts which do point in the direction of a sabotage by the most powerful reactionaries in the world. The bourgeoisie in those countries also are depen- dent on those reactionaries for their rule and likewise stand in antagonistic conflict with the workers and the masses of people in "their own" country. By no means can they be relied on always to want the truth about such disasters to become pub- licly known. Co-operation, via the Internet for instance, among people who may not agree on various aspects of social affairs but who do want the truth to be found and to become publicly known, of course is to be recommended. In the political situation at present, several bourgeois poli- ticians in the USA and also within the European Union, for in- stance, are proposing new laws purportedly aimed at "combating terrorism". As many have already pointed out, there is good reason to suspect that their aim in reality is to hit, not at the actual terror but at opposition to the rule and the poli- cies of the bourgeoisie, the imperialists, in the various coun- tries. It was no coincidence of course that Bush in his war threat speech on 20.09 twice called reactionary islamic funda- mentalism a "radical" ideology - as if it had something to do with political Leftism. Any new laws which in effect mean fur- ther infringements on the democratic rights of the ordinary ci- tizens in various capitalist countries of course must be op- posed. On a number of earlier events which were clearly, or must be suspected to have been, "PsyOps" by forces of US imperialism, another Info is planned. Some of them have been touched on briefly in some earlier items, in English, German respectively Swedish, of this series. For a more comprehensive and detailed treatment of this subject (as far as possible, based on the in- formation available to me), I refer present readers to this planned later item. One relatively smaller thing at least is worth mentioning in this connection, in my judgement: On Saturday, a depot of some 5,000 tons of automobile tires in the harbour of Malmoe, Swe- den, from which this Info is being posted, caught fire due to a so far unknown cause; it still is burning despite the ef- forts of some 70 firefighters, with a big pall of smoke for the time being blowing out towards the sea. Two persons are reported to have been slightly injured by this fire. Some events in the past which there have been reasons to sus- pect were sabotages by big-time reactionaries in fact have appeared to have quite small, though consistent, forces of opposition to those reactionaries as their indirect targets. There is a possibility, in my opinion, that this event here in Malmoe was caused by a "displeasure" on the part of some such reactionaries with, for instance, the latest Info in this se- ries, which opposed the mendacious propaganda in connection with the reactionary atrocities in the USA on 11.09: 'UNITE! Info #153en: The people is target; an "inside job"', of 20.09. It's also possible of course that this fire was accidential, or else due to some crime or other not connected with poli- tics, and that its point in time was a coincidence. UNITE! / VEREINIGT EUCH! / UNISSEZ-VOUS! / ¡UNIOS! / FÖRENA ER! Info en/de/fr/es/se series: Advocates the political line of Marx, Lenin and Mao Zedong. Each item # will be posted in one or more language(s). Leaflets in the INFORMATIONSBLAD series published by me, mainly in Swedish, since 1975 are available on request. Befürwortet die politische Linie von Marx, Lenin und Mao Zedong. Jedes Nummer # wird in einer oder mehreren Sprache(n) gesandt werden. Flugblätter der Reihe INFORMATIONSBLAD, von mir haupt- sächlich in Schwedisch seit 1975 veröffentlicht, sind auf An- frage erhaltlich. Avocate de la ligne politique de Marx, Lénine et Mao Zedong. Chaque numéro # sera envoyé en une ou plusieurs langue(s). Vo- lantes de la série INFORMATIONSBLAD, publiée par moi principale- ment en suédois depuis 1975, sont accessibles sur demande. Partidaria de la línea política de Marx, Lenin y Mao Zedong. Ca- da número # se envía en uno o más idiomas. Están a su disposi- ción, bajo petición previa, distintos folletos de la serie IN- FORMATIONSBLAD, publicada por mi principalmente en sueco desde 1975. Förespråkar Marx', Lenins och Mao Zedongs politiska linje. Varje nummer # kommer att sändas på ett eller flera språk. Flygblad i serien INFORMATIONSBLAD, publicerad av mig huvudsakligen på svenska sedan 1975, kan fås på begäran. 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