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Fuel Depot Explosion

Hypnotised | 12.12.2005 05:28

News management of accident

Report on yesterday's explosion in Hemel Hempstead:

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,11319,1665127,00.html

Article about psy-ops company Strategic Communications Laboratories - note scenario posed in opening paragraphs:

 http://www.slate.msn.com/id/2126479/

Previous Indymedia posts about S.C.L. with further interesting details:

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/10/326553.html

No doubt the whatreallyhappened, prisonplanet et al crowd will be jumping on this one. I won't pretend I have a clue what's really happening, but these links did spring to my very probably paranoid mind.

Hypnotised

Comments

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'Fictitious smoke cloud'

12.12.2005 07:58

Oh dear, this psy-ops lot must have been breathing far too much of the fictitious cloud methinks.......... looks real enough from where i'm standing.

Bob


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This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Other links

12.12.2005 08:50

the first and indeed only question to be asked here is,

"What was the Israeli involvement ?". It must be obvious to anyone how Israel gains from this and with the large Jewish population in Harrow not far away logistical help for a Mossad unit would have been easy to get. It's noticeable that Luton airport nearby does not operate flights to Israel !!! Significant I think.

IMC regular


Hidden Comment

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

I bet it was Islamic terrorists who were responsible

12.12.2005 09:45

I bet it turns out that it was Islamic terrorists who were responsible. It just shows how big an enemy Islamic terrorism is. It also shows why the war on terrorism is right. Islamic terrorism is greatest evil the world has faced since Nazism.

Concerned


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This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

and communism....

12.12.2005 10:31

(u forgot that, or deliberately omitted it.)

biffa


real

12.12.2005 11:14

i live about 2 miles from the explosion and trust me it is very real and what they are saying about it is actually what happened.

tux


blockade the remaining depots

12.12.2005 12:50

The explosion should highlight the dangers of these massive depots being built in residential areas, especially when next to large petro-chemical processing plants, as well as the falllacy of any engineering structure being totally safe ( eg nuclear waste disposal sites that have to be safe and secure for millions of years ).

It is also an ideal opportunity for anti-war protestors to blockade the remaining four large UK depots thus bringing this oil-war economy to it's knees.

Danny


Pollution?

12.12.2005 14:22

Does anyone reading this know anything about the consequences of this
None of the news reports say anything about the consequences for babies and young children of this.
Does anyone on Indymedia care?

singe


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This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Scenario

12.12.2005 14:43

Are the Gas explosions in Hemel Hemptead really happening to destroy evidence of 'black ops' - R2I - resistance to interrogation - false imprisonment at BP intel-front owned facilities inside this depot & its neighbouring industrial estate? Is the rendition program actually providing 'terror suspects'
from Luton & Heathrow???

Remember the classic spy movie The Ipcress File? The lead character - Harry Palmer -played by Michael Caine - was taken to what he thinks is a location in Eastern Europe, He is tortured, & programmed to kill on a hypnotic trigger via a phonecall - when he manages to escape - he realises he is still in London and the Eastern European Prison was an eleborate theatre.

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Scenario - LONDON - The government faces a dilemma: It needs people to stay home, but if the news breaks of internment & torture being carried out in the UK, the Government, already under pressure from a war in Iraq & unpopular and anti-terror laws, will have to face a military/civilian confrontation due to mass protest on the streets and eventually resign under public & international outrage


A shadowy media firm steps in to help orchestrate a sophisticated campaign of mass deception. The company sets up a high-tech "ops center" to convince the public that Terrorist organisation has threatened Energy installations. An accident at a Oil & Gas depot threatens London. As the toxic cloud approaches the city, TV news outlets are provided graphic visuals charting the path of the invisible toxins. Londoners stay indoors, glued to the telly... watching all evidence of the crisis that threatens the continuance of Government getting destroyed in the burning depot. At all times the events are cited as accidental...but helpfully raise the price of oil.


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Al-Qaeda, Mr Zawahri said, was a "popular organisation confronting a new Crusader Zionist Western and Israeli campaign, in defence of all violated Muslim lands". In Iraq, he said, the US-led coalition was "receiving blows each day", while the Iraqi government was "begging Americans not to leave because they know the day Americans leave is the day they are finished". He urged attacks on oil installations in Islamic countries "because most of the revenues of this oil go to the enemies of Islam". Ayman al-Zawahri, an eye surgeon by training, is seen as the chief ideologue of al-Qaeda.

BBC
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4505670.stm


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The rebranding of Al Jazeera

The Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace (IIFWP) is backed by Korean CIA agent, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, head of the cultish Unification Church. In June 2002, UPI chief John O'Sullivan spoke at an IIFWP symposium in Washington D.C. He opened his remarks by referring to Imad Musa, from the Washington Bureau of Al Jazeera -a previous speaker.


"I should say how much I appreciated the remarks of the gentleman from Al Jazeera. I'm sorry he told us the story about the BBC because I had hoped to refer to him as the only member of Al Jazeera who hadn't been a former employee of the World Service of the BBC, thus subtly hinting that Al Jazeera is really an MI6 operation," -


from a Break 4 News story
 http://breakfornews.com/my/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=256

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Oil rebounded to $60 a barrel on Monday after a sharp fall at the end of last week, with forecasts for another U.S. cold spell offsetting OPEC's plans to keep output at near full-throttle through the winter. U.S. crude rose 55 cents to $59.94 a barrel, recovering from a 2.1 percent slide on Friday, while London Brent crude was up 69 cents to $58.00 a barrel. Oil raced to its highest level in five weeks on Friday and natural gas set a second consecutive record-high above $15 per million British thermal units as icy weather gripped the U.S. Northeast and Midwest, driving up demand for heating fuels. Profit-taking reversed those gains by Friday's close, but prospects for another cold snap at the weekend -- after a period of more moderate weather -- kept the market supported


In Kuwait, OPEC President Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah said there was unanimous support to carry on pumping at the cartel's highest level for 25 years, about 30 million barrels daily. "All the delegates are willing to maintain our production levels,"

Sheikh Ahmad, who is also Kuwait's oil minister, told reporters on Sunday after a meeting of OPEC's monitoring committee, ahead of the cartel's full meeting on Monday. And on Monday, he said: "I believe we will have a late-January or early-February meeting to discuss the second quarter."

Analysts said the market was also on edge after Sunday's explosions at a fuel depot north of London, which has the capacity to hold 5 percent of Britain's oil supply, although police said the explosion was almost certainly an accident.

"Even if it seems to be an accident, it stokes fears of terrorist attacks on oil facilities. This is bullish for product prices in Europe," said Tony Nunan of Mitsubishi Corp.'s risk management business.

It was not clear how much oil the depot, which supplies petrol and fuel oils to a large part of southeast England, including Luton and Heathrow airports, was holding. An al Qaeda leader last week urged attacks on oil facilities in Muslim countries, fuelling gains in oil prices. -

 http://today.reuters.com/business/newsarticle.aspx?type=tnBusinessNews&storyID=nSP92566&imageid=∩=

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reported to have a storage capacity of 150,000 tonnes, Buncefield holds massive stocks of oil, petrol & aviation fuel kerosene, used to supply airports across the region including Heathrow and Luton. The depot is in operation 24 hours a day, has been run as a joint venture by oil giants Total and Texaco. It is also used by BP and Shell. 400 tankers are filled at the site every day from a total of 26 storage tanks. A high-pressure oil pipeline, run by British Pipeline, runs all the way from the Lindsey Oil Refinery in North Lincolnshire to the Buncefield site, where the oil is then stored. It is one of three underground supply pipelines feeding Buncefield.
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Police in Baku, the capital of the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, have detained two British nationals near a water reservoir. The two are being held on suspicion of trying to poison water supplies, the Regnum news agency reported. The two men were arrested on Dec. 3 as they were trying to pour a white powder into the water. The powder has been sent for examination. Prelimary reports identified the suspects as employees of British Petroleum. The Azeri police said a map of the area was found on the detainees.

 http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/12/06/bakuarrest.shtml
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Flashback - Chicksands interrogation method used in Abu Ghriab scandal

"The sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was not an invention of maverick guards, but part of a system of ill-treatment and degradation used by special forces soldiers that is now being disseminated among ordinary troops and contractors who do not know what they are doing, according to British military sources.

The techniques devised in the system, called R2I - resistance to interrogation - match the crude exploitation and abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad. One former British special forces officer who returned last week from Iraq, said: "It was clear from discussions with US private contractors in Iraq that the prison guards were using R2I techniques, but they didn't know what they were doing."

He said British and US military intelligence soldiers were trained in these techniques, which were taught at the joint services interrogation centre in Ashford, Kent, now transferred to the former US base at Chicksands. " - UK forces taught torture methods
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1212197,00.html
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me


fao Singe

12.12.2005 16:41

The health risks fromn this are known - just search for info about petrochemical pollution. also consider that things which are not normally blowing in the air may be for a while - for instance if any of the destroyed buildings contained asbestos (i don't know the site so i have no idea if they have).

btw - all conspiracy ppl, it might just be the usual conspiracy that this modern world is no threat to health. some bigwig on the news was saying the cloud was not toxic - maybe not but i wouldn't take the dog for a walk in it.

bobby


more photos-

12.12.2005 17:15

nothing fake about the fire


an average days air pollution

12.12.2005 18:09

Thats how much petrol & aviation fuel gets consumed and combusted EVERY day

asma sufferer


Think of the children !!!

12.12.2005 20:04

The big risk this causes to children is the fact if we run short of oil then we'll just bomb the shit out of some oil rich nation until we can steal more, and for the most part that seems to consist of cluster-bombing schools and hospitals.

Oh, you mean your children ? Your lovely white, English children ? No, I couldn't care less, anything they suffer is better than what we impose on other peoples kids so tell 'em to drink their milk and get out in the fresh air and quit complaining.

I heard a CNN reporter say no terrorist group has claimed responsibility, as if that implied noone was responsible. I've yet to hear Texaco or Total claim responsibility...

Danny


you obviously don't have any children

12.12.2005 22:29

Way your spouting off Danny makes it very clear that you don't have children.
You are probably not long out of short trousers, what ever .
You however remember that our kids (white english) are just as innocent as iraqie kids or any others for that matter. Lucky over privileged no doubt about it. Once they have been to school for a few years and had all the natural creative talent rattled out of them thet are just kids.
Even yer actual upper class public school brats start off this way , growing up in what is known as a civilised society is a handicap we all have to deal with.

Dad


It matters

12.12.2005 23:55

danny are you the same one who also said 'The explosion should highlight the dangers of these massive depots being built in residential areas,'

so why are you concerned about residential areas if it is not for the residents which include babies, children, the elderly,pets etc of all colours, you idiot.

And dont you fuckin make assumptions about me and the colour of my children or if I indeed have them and yes I am concerned about ALL kids all over the world .

If we dont care about our own kids then what are we struggling for.
As I do not drive a car my need for this oil is low .
But I am concerned about the pollution.
I feel we are not being told all the truth.They keep showing yesterdays news over and over.
WAIT TIL THE CLOUD GETS TO FRANCE I BET THEY WILL BE MORE ANGRY THAN THE ENGLISH ARE

singe


Tune in

13.12.2005 05:47

Sorry dad, I know I said 'this should serve to highlight the dangers' but really, it should only highlight it to the truly stupid. Newsflash : petrol is flammable. Living next to a fuel depot carries risk.

The question "Does anyone on Indymedia care?" is sanctimonious claptrap. If Singe themself cared they wouldn't be raising their precious little ones next to a massive fuel dump. I'm meant to care for their kids when they obviously don't ? Maybe if I'd seen Singe posting last week about the demo they were organising to get the place relocated or shutdown, or if Singe had come on here suggesting closing down the other four then I would've even tried to help. Don't you care for the people still living next to these ?

What about the people of the Oriente Region of Equador, poisoned by your previous neighbours part owners Texaco - now that is something to care about. Or the people of Burma where Total operate with only the corrupt scrutiny of martial law ? Really, if you happily live next to psychopaths and never try to reform their behaviour then you best get used to things that go bang in the night.

And since the explosion, how many children have died in Iraq in order to fill these depots with cheap fuel ? And yet I'm meant to care about theoretical health risks of one explosion to the children of a nation who inflicts far worse on others ? So the good people of Hemel Hempstead could live a privileged lifestyle (even by our national standards) using stolen natural resources that they were quite happy to have go up in smoke around them everyday anyway. It was all destined to be burnt, and you weren't protesting about that - and the smoke doesn't differentiate between children depending on whether their parents are car-owners. Sure, there'll be some extra shit in the environment, asbestos or whatever from the buildings. I feel sorry for the two people seriously injured but I believe they chose to work there.

As the police warning notices that distributed by these depots say 'Go in. Stay in. And tune in.'

Danny


Oil Blockade

13.12.2005 15:23

CorpWatch just published its list of 'The 14 Worst Corporate Evildoers' today :

Caterpillar, Chevron, Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, DynCorp, Ford Motor Company, Kellogg, Brown and Root, Lockheed Martin, Monsanto, Nestle, Philip Morris International (a.k.a. The Altria Group), Pfizer, Suez-Lyonnaise Des Eaux, Wal-Mart.

Now for Chevron-Texaco to be the only oil company there - ie worse than Esso, worse than BP - gives some indication of the morality of the Buncefield operation and I hope a few residents have been stung into getting out and opposing it's rebuilding.

If the same explosion had occured at one of the four bigger depots with additional extensive petro-chemical plants then the explosion could've have triggered a true catastrophe. For instance, if a similar explosion had occured at the Grangemouth depot with such p-c plants and also an oil refinery then we really couldn't expect many survivors in that town, it'd be more like Bhopal than Buncefield. And the daily background pollution of refineries is far more serious pollution problem than faced in Hemel Hempstead.

If every road protest in the UK is successful, then some countryside will be saved from being concreted over, and the rate of increase in numbers of cars of British roads will be slowed but it would be far more effective and direct imo to target the fuel depots for these cars. A week ago here someone suggested the fusion of peak-oil and climate change as campaigns to make them more effective. The tactic of closing down the oil-refineries would not only link those two issues, it would draw peace-protestors and human-rights and indigineous-peoples campaigners too, and every anti-corporatist.

Before the Iraq invasion I travelled the country trying to persuade activists to block the depots, although I never got to Hemel Hempstead as I've never once met any activists from that area. I never got enough support for oil-blocks, i suspect as it was seen as a right-wing tactic, as employed the fuel-protestors. Well, and I'm sure I'm going to draw flak for this statement, the VAT-on-fuel protests was one of the most successful direct action campaigns ever in the UK. They forced a government u-turn in a week. It was made easy for them in that the police refused to act against them, and that wouldn't be the case for us, but it is achievable and it would have more effect on the UK than even a general strike would.

Danny
- Homepage: http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12869


News management

13.12.2005 23:44

For the record, I wasn't trying to say this never happened as quite obviously it did! Or that it wasn't an accident. My post simply tried to highlight the degree of news management involved in this situation.

And BOO! to Indymedia staff for removing the usual troll comments of Concerned. A quick look at a site like Infovlad will tell you that (non-agent provocateur) fanatic mujahadeen really exist, and that they're a bunch of arseholes. The atrocities of the USA have helped to create them, which is what s/he never acknowledges...Concerned is most likely a wind-up merchant of some sort, but free speech is important.

Hypnotised


och

14.12.2005 00:03

Och, boo Hypnotised ! You ignored my only good post here, that last one in case you are in doubt. I think everyone who read your original post read it as you meant it, and there are always other posts here solely concerned with IM guidelines. And yes, fanatic mujahadeen really exist, we know because our army admitted to training them and equipping them.

Answer me this and I'll try not to bug you again, what do you think of the idea of a blockade of the remaining fuel depots ? Possible ? Justified ? Appropriate ? Worthwhile ? Or none of the above ?

Danny


...

14.12.2005 01:38

Danny, your post made some great points, the fuel blockades of 2000 were indeed the only form of effective direct action since 1990 Poll Tax riots, although not for a cause (cheaper petrol) I'd support. Do remember that the cops gave indirect help to those blockaders though through their lack of force, and I can't imagine they'd do that in the scenario you posit.

Hypnotised


Oil block options

15.12.2005 19:23

Hypnotised,

It is refreshing to meet a pragmatic protestor who can steal tactics from the worst of causes and who doesn't worry ' the media will crucify you for killing pensioners if you succeed'. Yes, the police would kick the shit out of any non-establishment fuel blockade and that fact did deter enough support for the idea to be implemented. I was at a 'block' ( in actuality a small gesture Satuday demo) outside one refinery , and I have never seen higher ratio of police resources to protestors. There were only as many police visible as protestors, plus helicopter, but for miles around the laybys were full of rented transit vans full of coppers, I estimate 500 within a mile.

However, there are two ways to do it. One, in sufficent numbers, perhaps thousands per depot, to make police violence irrelevant. Or two, to use more imaginative tactics. Remember, the goal of any oil blockade would be to stop the petrol reaching the garages. This means there are ample opportunities and possible tactics for small and imaginative groups to pursue.

The pipelines feeding these depots are hundreds of miles long, they have access points every few miles, and even if you can't find one of the many maps of them then you can work out by their route and geographical constraints roughly where they are.

The tankers that take the oil from the depots are now all out-sourced and stored in separate locations, and are limited in number by market forces to roughly the number required. Following one at the start or end of a shift will show you the main tanker depot location.

Danny


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