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Saturday, March 26, 2005

AZF

AZF or A-Z-F as I have seen it written in news accounts seems to be a group of brigands intent upon holding up the French government. Last year it threatened to blow up bombs on French railways if the French government didn't pay them a large ransom (and bombs were found), and now it's back in action:
A group sent parts of bomb detonators to President Jacques Chirac and the Interior Ministry, threatening to carry out attacks unless it was paid off, authorities said Friday.
No one really knows what this group is about, but I suspect it is really all about not working for a living. From the article linked above:
In July, letters signed by AZF were sent to eight multinational food and cosmetics companies, threatening to poison their products if they didn't each pay $1.35 million each. No evidence of a poison plot was found.
I wonder if they paid. There is something so vile about this that I can't quite figure out how to describe it. We know all societies have their share of people who have no sympathy for the rights of others. We call them criminals. If this sort of thing is seen to become successful, there will be no end to it. After all, how much risk does one really take when making threats? Very little. It's not nearly as risky as robbing a convenience store, bank or museum.

When the French catch these people I hope they slam them in jail for life and publicize that very, very thoroughly. But they probably won't. Here's an article from March of 2004 for more background, and here's yet another reporting that the French had detained three people for questioning. According to this more detailed article, the group said its true aim was to "strike a decisive blow against the depraved spirit that prevails today in most human actions". Likely story. You can't improve society by planting bombs and threatening to detonate them unless some of society's filthy lucre is transferred into your pockets.

These people are criminals and terrorists of a sort. I wonder really if the leadership of many of the "terrorist" groups around the world aren't really just the same? They may say they are defending a cause, but they always want money for their actions. Their leadership might really be composed of a lot of Ward Churchills exploiting people and causes for their own benefit while not caring how much human grief results as long as they don't have to work for a living.


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