'Anonymous' declares 'Blitzkrieg' on neo-Nazis

“Anonymous” hackers have declared “Blitzkrieg” on neo-Nazis for the New Year, disabling a number of their websites and publishing lists of extreme-right supporters.

A “Nazi-Leaks” portal has appeared on the internet listing hundreds of names of people subscribed to various shops selling far-right clothing, as well as writers for the Junge Freiheit newspaper which carries contributions from far-right commentators. The hackers say they have managed to close down 15 websites associated with the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD), the Frankfurter Rundschau reported on Monday. They have reportedly called their campaign "Operation Blitzkrieg".

The paper said that the German version of the neo-Nazi internet platform “Altermedia” was at times offline. A Twitter message addressed to those trying to get into the site wished “all Nazis and in particular Altermedia a good start to the New Year.”

This was greeted by a message reported by left-wing websites as coming from Altermedia calling for information about the hackers, and offering to reward useful tips with the hackers' “amputated fingers.” The Frankfurter Rundschau said it could not check whether the comment was really from Altermedia as the site was offline.

Long lists of names, some with addresses, purporting to be customer registers of firms such as the infamous Thor Steinar clothing firm were posted on the “Nazi-Leaks” portal.

People listed on the portal as having written for the Junge Freiheit newspaper included Peter Scholl-Latour, according to the Frankfurter Rundschau. He is a respected journalist and Afghanistan expert who has written for, among other publications, the Stern magazines.

The Local

Thanks to Anon for the heads-up

German neo-Nazi gang 'developed Monopoly-style game with death camps'

A neo-Nazi gang suspected of murdering 10 people developed their own version of the board game Monopoly featuring death camps and gas works.

Called "Pogromly" and intended for other far-right extremists the game has the names of four Nazi concentration camps instead of the railway stations found on the traditional Monopoly board. Players have the chance to buy Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald and Ravensbruck, with each camp costing 4,000 reichsmarks, the currency used in Hitler's Germany.

A number of sets of the game were discovered in a garage used by the gang the self-styled National Socialist Underground amongst bomb-making equipment and unused nail bombs last month.

Players start on a square emblazoned with a swastika and also have the chance of landing on a numbers of squares marked with the SS emblem. The board also comes with pictures of Hitler and sinister looking Jews. It is thought the game is based loosely on events surrounding Kristallnacht. On the night of November 8, 1938, the Nazi's unleashed a violent pogrom against German Jews, destroying hundreds of synagogues and Jewish-owned business, and arresting 30,000 people, many of whom were sent to concentration camps.

The gang, apparently, produced dozens of Pogromly sets, which retailed on the underground far-right scene for about £42, as a way of supplementing their finances from 2000 to 2011. The games were sold by an associate of the gang Andre K., who has since been arrested, although, apparently, they suspected he was pocketing too much of the proceeds.

A report by the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine said that gang members called other extremists to complain about the lack of money they were receiving from their colleague.

Pogromly comes as the latest lurid twist in the scandal surrounding the operations of the National Socialist Underground. Despite murdering nine men of immigrant background and a policewoman between 2000 and 2007, and conducting 14 bank robberies, police remained oblivious to the gang's existence.

It was not exposed until a botched bank raid last month led to two members committing suicide and the survivor handing herself into the police.

Daily Telegraph

English Defense League - who are they?

Interview with Suzette Bronkhorst, General Manager of the Internet Center for Anti-Racism in Europe

Last time we talked we discussed the tactics used by neo-Nazi groups. One of them was provocation. Can you tell our listeners about the choice of the location for the demonstration by the English Defense League (EDL) in Britain?

They went to Tower Hamlets. There is a big mosque there. Actually, the Ministry for the Interior [?] forbade marches for 30 days, so they organized what is called a “static” demonstration – they were standing still. It couldn’t be forbidden. But a thousand people turned up and 3,000 policemen at the other side, opposing demonstrations, that stood near the mosque to protect it. They were with 1,500 people. And a riot broke out between the police and EDL. The funny thing that happened in England is that Scotland Yard have been accused of underestimating the threat from EDL, because the head of the unit monitoring hate groups declared it’s not an extremist organization, because he looked at their website and said it was not extreme. But they did after all deem it necessary to invite 3,000 policemen to keep a group of a thousand people down. That’s strange. But Breivik shouldn’t work in favour of EDL.

I think after the Breivik tragedy they got a lot of press attention. They wouldn’t have got otherwise.

Yes, but if you get attention like being involved into a huge terrorist attack, that wouldn’t be in your favor, would it?

No, it wouldn’t. And I think maybe their activities had quieted down a little bit. So, I was surprised to hear that they were still holding big demonstration.

I’m sorry to say but this is a kind of vermin and they never quiet down.

Was there a special reason why they chose this day, in particular? Neo-Nazi groups love to play with numbers, dates and stuff.

No, not that I can see. They just want to keep their momentum of demonstrations going, I guess. In Britain, they have a lot of opposition from the state that tries to stop demonstrations because of public order, or to be precise disorder. Then, of course, they started to talk about freedom of speech.

Was there any connection between the last time we talked and now when there were huge riots in Great Britain? Was EDL involved in those extensively, with football fans etc?

As far as I can see, the rioting that went on was a strange mix of things because there were a lot of just ordinary looters. But it started, of course, at a black man getting shot by the police. So, there were a lot of things at the same time. And it’s not in particular EDL. What they did do is they started these neighborhood watch patrols.

The EDL did?

Yes, although they didn’t announce it like that. If you would see those neighborhood watch groups walking through the streets and what they were saying – they were definitely part of it.

They tried to pretend to be like Citizens Vigilante group or something?

Yes, to protect the streets.

Strange.

Not so strange. It’s actually quite smart, if you can control the people that are in these Vigilante groups.

It’s just strange that this group would be allowed to do that.

Well, they are not allowed – they do it, so what are you going to do.

Do the events in London have any relationship to the events that happened a few hours ago in Dortmund, Germany?

No, the rioting in Dortmund has no connection to the demonstration in London. The problem was that Dortmund police tried to keep the opposing demonstration, the counter-demonstration and the neo-Nazi apart, and that didn’t work out.

How accurate do you think are reports that anti-Nazi demonstrators attacked the police?

The anti-Nazi? They didn’t. Actually, the neo-Nazi did. As it’s called in the media, the left-wing protesters. I don’t know why anti-racism or anti-fascism has to be left-wing.

They broke through the barriers?

That was separating the two groups. Then a scuffle broke out, in which a police officer was seriously injured, because they stood in between the two groups.

I was alarmed to see that the two events happened so closely together in two different European cities. Have you picked up anything on your radar about any further activities or protests like this in Europe in the near future?

No. EDL is planning more marching in Great Britain. But there is a lot of going on in Europe, which is very concerning, I think.

Could you give us some examples?

With the whole atmosphere of groups standing opposite each other, the extreme right wing that moves up in politics, the intolerance – it’s very extreme, very worrisome.

It’s growing?

Oh, yes. And they are getting into political power now more and more in several countries.

Is there anything people can do to prevent it?

These groups and political parties just come out with what is wrong with the country but they never come with solutions. And therefore it’s like “it’s a war against Islam!” or “a war against the Roma,” war guns writing non-democratic measures.

But they have no intelligent solution to anything, right?

They have no solution. Period.

So, you don’t see anything happening in Europe in the near future. What about the upcoming anniversary of September 11 events in the US? Are neo-Nazi groups in Europe or anywhere that you know planning events for that date?

Yes, in the US, a lot. Probably, in Europe, you will have some activity, because it’s always a good opportunity to bash some more Muslims.

Voice of Russia

Thanks to I-CARE for the heads-up

The stork sticking its beak into the German far right

Armed with a copy of Mein Krampf (My Cramp),
Heinar tours Germany to lampoon its neo-Nazis

He wrote a book called Mein Krampf (My Cramp), sports a toothbrush moustache and a rigid side parting and infuriates members of Germany's main neo-Nazi party with his satirical take on the Teutonic far-right.

The character in question is Storch Heinar, an anti-Nazi cartoon stork, whose image has appeared more than 5,000 times on anti far-right campaign posters in north-eastern Germany where state elections will be held on Sunday. The stork posters proclaiming "Stork Power instead of Nazis" have been deliberately placed beside the campaign placards of Germany's neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD).

The lampooned NPD is furious. Party workers have made frenzied efforts to rid the region's big cities of stork posters to avoid further ridicule. Hundreds of Stork Power placards have been ripped from lampposts in the port of Rostock. "We are on the home stretch. The stork is giving his all to keep out the extremist idiots," says creator and Social Democrat politician, Matthias Brodkorb.

Storch Heinar began life as a satirical anti-Nazi figure whose aim was to debunk the "Thor Steiner" clothing frequently worn as a status symbol by members of far-right and skinhead groups. Heinar's Hitler moustache and Mein Krampf biography is complemented by his penchant for steel helmets and egg nogs and a rabid intolerance of frogs.

Mediatex, the company which owns the "Thor Steiner" label, tried to get "Storch Heinar" banned for belittling its products. But last year a court in Bavaria threw out the case after a judge ruled that he could see no reasonable grounds for the complaint. Aping the language of Adolf Hitler, Storch Heinar boasted afterwards: "The enemy has been destructively defeated."

Storch Heinar has since gone from strength to strength. The cartoon character has toured Germany with his own rock band: "Storchkraft" (Stork Power). T-shirts and badges bearing his image are best-sellers. He has even travelled the country promoting Mein Krampf.

The Social Democrats' decision to use the stork for their election campaign in the north east is a new development, but has gained popular local support. Benjamin Weiss, a Rostock hotel owner, grew so irritated by the NPD's xenophobic propaganda in a region that depends heavily on tourism that he joined the "Storch Heinar Division" and organised his own team to put up some 300 stork posters around his hotel. "I am fed up with seeing my guests welcomed to Rostock with slogan such as: 'Tourists welcome – foreigners out,'" he said.

The NPD has parliamentary seats in the east German states of Saxony and Mecklenburg-Pomerania. The government's bid to ban the openly racist organisation was rejected by Germany's constitutional court in 2003 after it emerged that intelligence service moles were the source of incriminating evidence against the party.

The NPD's chances of retaining its north-east seats are considered so narrow it is toughto make an accurate prediction. "The far right gets particularly annoyed by humorous initiatives," said Gudrun Heinrich, a political scientist at Rostock university. "Because it doesn't know how to deal with them."

Independent

City hailed for blocking bid to stage far-right parade

CONFRONTATION: Police control an SDL march on the Royal Mile last year

Councillors have been praised for their decision to ban a planned far-right parade through Edinburgh amid fears it would create a "flashpoint" of violence.

The Scottish Defence League's rally would have seen around 200 people take to the streets on the day before the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York. The controversial march attracted a flurry of objections over the group's "racist and homophobic" views, with Justice Secretary Kenny McAskill claiming it "could pose a threat to public safety". The council's licensing committee voted unanimously to throw out the plans yesterday.

Aamer Anwar, a human rights lawyer and organiser of Scotland United, said: "We welcome the council's decision to ban the SDL march. Neo-Nazis masquerading under the flag of Scotland will never be welcome in our capital city."

During the meeting yesterday, Councillor Joanna Mowat said she feared the parade could turn violent.

"Given the tension there is in the UK, along with what has happened in England, I think this could be a flashpoint. There could very well be a risk to public safety."

Asked to explain the views shared by SDL members, regional organiser Paul O' Donnell told councillors: "The main issue is the rise of militant Islam in the UK and how we feel the Government is not doing anything about it. We feel that when peoples' lives are being put at risk because of Islamic extremists, we've got to stand up."

Fellow organiser Graham Fleming added: "The EDL have members who are BNP members, we ourselves are trying to get these people out. We do offer moderate Islams the chance to stand beside us."

But the pair were grilled over photographs of an SDL event in Irvine, which showed participants carrying banners proclaiming "No more mosques".

Mr Fleming insisted the people carrying the banners had no connection with the SDL, but Councillor Louise Lang said: "The concern I have is over the lack of proactive action over those placards. I would not be comfortable in supporting this on the basis of public order."

Lothian and Borders Police did not object to the bid, but Superintendent David Carradice said in a statement: "If previous experience in February 2010 is anything to go by, any opposition rally is likely to be significant in size with some of the opposition wanting to find themselves near to SDL with a view to registering their concerns at the views being expressed."

Asked whether the SDL would appeal the decision, Mr Fleming said: "We will need to sit down and work out what is the approach now for the SDL."

Scotsman

From the EDL 's secret Neo-Nazi 'Order 88' group

Click on image for full-size

Note: The eighth letter of the alphabet is "H." Eight two times signifies "HH, " shorthand for the Nazi greeting, "Heil Hitler." 88 is often found on hate group flyers, in both the greetings and closing comments of letters written by neo-Nazis, and in e-mail addresses.

Source: Hate on Display

Cash-strapped BNP 'turns to racist hardcore'

Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP which opponents say has suffered a split

The BNP was last night accused of turning to "a hardcore group of neo-Nazis and racists" to stand as candidates in next month's local elections.

The anti-BNP campaign group Hope not Hate said it had compiled a dossier of extremist postings of candidates standing on 5 May, either in council elections or those to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. Among the postings the group collected from Facebook pages were:

• One BNP candidate in the North of England who posted on his Facebook page a mock advert for the gas Zyklon B – used in the Nazi extermination chambers of the Second World War – captioned, "Try Zyklon B. It's a gas!"
• One candidate urges his followers to "Stamp out diseases today. Spray pakis and poofs with hydrochloric acid".
• An activist in Wales, who has a photograph of his endorsement by BNP leader Nick Griffin on his Facebook page. Underneath it reads: "My grandfather was killed in Auschwitz. Apparently he got pissed and fell out of the watchtower!"

The candidate also posted, "Just popped round to see my Muslim neighbour's new baby. She asked me if I wanted to wind it but that seemed a bit extreme so I gave it a dead leg instead."

• A woman, describing herself as a "a big supporter of the BNP leader Nick Griffin", responded to a protest by Muslims Against The Crusades by saying: "They should all be burned."
• Another candidate posting about his arrest for "an out of date bus ticket", says: "They [police] have just made me hate them even more. From now on I will be celebrating the death of serving police officers when they are announced on the news. May sound a bit extreme but I hate them that much." He also posted that Labour's newly elected MP for Barnsley Central, Dan Jarvis, a former officer in the Parachute Regiment, "should have been shot from behind while facing the enemy".

Overall the BNP will be fielding just over 200 candidates in next month's elections – nearly 500 fewer than the in 2007. It said it "was having to cut its cloth" because of the amount of money it had had to spend defending a legal action against the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

Hope not Hate said: "As his party crumbles, Nick Griffin has been forced to turn to what even by BNP standards, is a hard core of neo-Nazis and racists. These are not just activists, but people Griffin is putting forward as candidates for elected public office. They are literally the best the BNP now has to offer."

Hope not Hate, which is funded by the trades union movement, said the party had become hopelessly split – with many members defecting to the English Democrats and the breakaway party British Freedom Party.

The BNP has been engaged in a long-running court battle with the EHRC over its policy of restricting membership to "indigenous British people". It scrapped the rule but the Commission accused Mr Griffin of failing to comply with an order to remove potentially racist clauses from his party's constitution. In December Mr Griffin fought off an attempt to have him declared guilty of contempt of court at the High Court – which rejected the EHRC's attempt to seize the party's assets. Costs were awarded to the BNP but deputy leader Simon Darby said the battle had affected its ability to recruit members and had cost a huge amount in legal fees which had yet to be reimbursed.

Mr Darby said: "Unlike the Labour Party we cannot afford to be £19m in debt and we have had to cut our cloth accordingly." He said the unsavoury postings could be fakes to discredit the party.

'BNP postings' on Facebook

• "7/7 – keep trying ya raghead bastards. This is our country our England our rules. Time2 packup and get the fuck out of dodge."
• "Fly your flag! no excuses. We stock them. £5 to piss off your Muslim neigbours off big style. What a fucking bargain."
• "Going to the polling station was aday out for the lazy African population as they don't work."
• "Unless we stand up and are counted then it's bye bye England."

Independent

20,000 anti-fascists against Nazis

Mounting many varied blockading actions, 20,000 anti-fascists from all over Germany and other European countries prevented a planned large-scale Nazi march in Dresden on Saturday 19 February.

There were massive clashes with police acting extremely brutally. They attacked the blockers with batons, pepper spray, water cannons, armoured vehicles and newly acquired pepperball guns. Several people were seriously injured. But the brutal police violence didn’t stop the broad spectrum of activists who’d travelled to Dresden from making its centre impassable for the fascists. In addition to mass squats, in the old quarter there were also many barricades.

Only about 2,000 fascists of both sexes had dared to go to Dresden and failed with every attempt to carry out demonstrations. Even a spontaneously demonstration called by them in nearby Leipzig ended on the rails of its main railway station before it even began.

All in all a very successful day for the anti-fascist movement in Germany.

Naturally not everyone is happy about that. While the Nazis are sulking, the Saxony police are also proving sore losers and on Saturday stormed the press office of the “Dresden Nazi-free” alliance. The alliance people present were forced to strip naked and submit to a registration of personal data.

Information available so far is that they’ll be charged with conspiracy and public incitement to criminal acts as well as breaches of public order. The raiding police took all computers and storage media. That has led so far to 79 arrests of anti-fascists.

Indymedia

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up

Gunman may have white supremacist link

The gunman who shot a US congresswoman in the head might have links to a US white supremacist group that has hosted the British National Party leader.

The US Department of Homeland Security is investigating whether Jared Loughner, who has been charged over the attack, in which six people died and 13 were wounded, was connected with the racist and antisemitic organisation American Renaissance.

Founded in 1991, American Renaissance, which holds biennial conferences, is dedicated to propagating the pseudo-scientific “research” of racial and racist scientists obsessed by a belief in the innate mental and moral inferiority of blacks to whites. The conference is a central event for white nationalists, neo-nazis, Klansmen and Holocaust deniers, who form a large part of the audience.

It also produces a newsletter of the same name, edited by its founder and conference organiser Jared Taylor, which focuses on the discredited subject of racial science and argues repetitively that blacks are genetically inferior to whites. It described the recent success for the Republican party during the US mid-term elections as the “great white wave”, a view that corresponds with Taylor’s “clear conception of the United States as a nation ruled by and for whites”.

Nick Griffin featured on the list of speakers for last February’s American Renaissance conference, where he was hoping to celebrate his election as an MEP with an address entitled “Victory against all odds”. However the conference was cancelled after four successive hotels cancelled bookings.

Taylor had also hoped to bring over the BNP ideologue and website editor Arthur Kemp, author of the monumental racist tome March of the Titans, but Kemp was unavailable.

It was not Griffin’s first invitation. In 2002 he spoke on “Nationalist Movements and the Crisis of the Liberal Elite”. In 2006, fresh from his acquittal at Leeds Crown Court, he opened the conference with a 45-minute speech entitled “What is left of free speech in Britain”, in which he attacked Britain’s “bastardised, mongrelised democracy” and told delegates “we have had enough of this ghastly multiracial experiment that has been forced upon us”. He concluded: “people are going to be killed before we de-Islamify Europe”.

Afterwards Griffin spent time networking with racists such as Don Black, the former Alabama Ku Klux Klan leader who now runs the world’s largest white supremacist website under the slogan “white pride, world wide”.

This year American Renaissance has invited Jonathan Bowden, the former BNP “cultural officer”, to address the restaged ninth conference in North Carolina early next month. Bowden remains a regular speaker at BNP events despite his leading role in the New Right group led by the former National Front “political soldier” Troy Southgate.

At a New Right meeting last October Bowden sang the praises of the infamous nazi Savitri Devi. A close associate of the British nazi leader Colin Jordan and the US nazi leader Lincoln Rockwell, Devi was one of the founders of the World Union of National Socialists in 1962 and wrote a number of books that hardline national socialists and pagan mystics see as the ultimate expression of their world view.

Devi, who died in England in 1982, visited Germany after Hitler’s fall in 1945 to expound his beliefs and was imprisoned by the British occupation authority. She spent time with SS prisoners and tried to facilitate their escape but failed. Her ashes were carried to the headquarters of the US nazi party by Tony Williams, an old colleague of Griffin and leader of the National Socialist Movement, the group that encouraged David Copeland to embark on his terror bombing spree in London in 1999.

American Renaissance has denied any knowledge of Loughner. “No one by the name of Loughner has ever been a subscriber to American Renaissance or has ever registered for an American Renaissance conference,” Taylor stated yesterday. He went on to deny, improbably, that his organisation was racist and antisemitic.

However its mission statement repeats the standard racist claim that white people are suppressed. “One of the most destructive myths of modern times is that people of all races have the same average intelligence,” it reads. “Racial loyalty or racial consciousness is normal and healthy. All non-white groups instinctively pursue their own interests, and legitimately so. It is only whites who have been taught that it is immoral to take even the most basic steps to ensure their survival.”

Hope not hate

The Village Where the Neo-Nazis Rule

Hitler salutes in the street and firing practice in the forest: Neo-Nazis have taken over an entire village in Germany, and authorities appear to have given up efforts to combat the problem. The place has come to symbolize the far right's growing influence in parts of the former communist east.

Horst and Birgit Lohmeyer have been working on their life's dream for six years, renovating a house in the woods near Jamel, a tiny village near Wismar in the far northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Birgit Lohmeyer writes crime novels, her husband is a musician, and both try to pretend everything is normal here in Jamel.

It wasn't easy to find their new home. The Lohmeyers spent months driving out to the countryside every weekend, heading east from where they lived in Hamburg, but most of the houses they saw were too expensive. Then they came across the inexpensive red brick farmhouse in Jamel. Slightly run-down, but not far from the Baltic Sea, the house sits surrounded by lime and maple trees, near a lake.

The Lohmeyers knew that a notorious neo-Nazi lived nearby -- Sven Krüger, a demolition contractor and high-level member of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD). What the Lohmeyers didn't know was that other neighbors felt terrorized by Krüger. He and his associates were in the process of buying up the entire village.

Jamel is an example of the far-right problem that has plagued Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for years. The rural region, once part of communist East Germany, has a poor reputation in this regard -- the NPD, which glorifies the Third Reich, has been in the state parliament since 2006 and neo-Nazi crimes are part of daily life. In recent months, a series of attacks against politicians from all the democratic parties has shaken the state. Sometimes hardly a week goes by without an attack on another electoral district office, with paint bombs, right-wing graffiti and broken windows.

Norbert Nieszery, leader of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the state parliament, calls it an "early form of terror." Nieszery's own office windows have been smashed twice. State Interior Minister Lorenz Caffier of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) says he has registered a "new level" of right-wing extremist violence. He believes the NPD is trying to raise its profile through aggressive behavior ahead of the state parliament election in September. One local mayor requested police protection after receiving repeated right-wing threats. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic intelligence agency, has warned that the NPD is becoming increasingly influential in local municipalities and that the neo-Nazis are trying to entrench themselves in daily life.

Mounting Concern About Far-Right Influence

Nowhere have they succeeded as well as in Jamel. If the right-wing extremists left, the village would be empty. Jamel is no longer just a problem at the regional or federal state level -- even Berlin is growing concerned about the situation.

SPD member Wolfgang Thierse, vice president of Germany's federal parliament, the Bundestag, visited the village a few months ago. He spent half an hour in the Lohmeyers' living room and promised to support them in their fight against the neo-Nazis. So far, nothing has changed. Jamel has come to symbolize the fact that there are places in Germany where right-wing extremists can do virtually whatever they want.

When the Lohmeyers moved here in 2004, they started to fix up their country house and to make contact with the neighbors -- although not with the neo-Nazi Krüger. They were sure right-wing extremists wouldn't be the only people in Jamel.

Only gradually did they realize just where they had ended up. Plaster crumbled from many of the houses in the village and one roof had collapsed completely. Beer bottles, car tires and gas canisters were littered behind the bus stop. There were metal fences surrounding some properties and attack dogs strained against their chains in the front yards. No one bothered to remove the swastika scribbled on the sign at the entrance to the village.

Children Giving Hitler Salute

There were young men with shaved heads and army trousers in the village and Nazi rock music could be heard from across the fields on the weekends. Shots sounded from the woods, where the neo-Nazis practiced their shooting -- police later found bullet casings in trenches there. When the Lohmeyers walked through the village, children raised their hands in the Nazi salute.

Krüger has shaped the village. He grew up here, with a father who was known as a right-wing radical and who used to make his son salute each morning in the snow. Young Krüger was an outsider at school, an acquaintance remembers, and didn't find friends until he joined the skinhead scene. As a young man, he incited right-wing thugs to attack a campsite and spent time in pre-trial detention on suspicion of burglary. Still, for a long time, the Krügers were the only neo-Nazis in the village.

"Now," says Horst Lohmeyer, "they see Jamel as a 'nationally liberated zone'" -- a neo-Nazi term for places foreigners and those of foreign descent must fear to tread. The extremists took over the village in just a few years. They now own seven of the 10 houses and have driven out anyone who couldn't come to terms with them. They battered down doors and broke windows, slashed tires, flew the German imperial war flag and celebrated Hitler's birthday. In the 1990s, they stuck dead chickens on one family's garden fence with the warning, "We'll smoke you out."

The village emptied and Krüger encouraged his right-wing friends to buy the available houses. Few others dared to venture into Jamel anymore. Neo-Nazis greeted one couple that wanted to move there with "Piss off" -- and the couple's house burned down shortly before they planned to move in. One new property owner dared to set foot in the village only accompanied by police.

The Lohmeyers have made it their life's work not to let themselves be driven out of Jamel. Each year, they host a rock festival on a field behind their house. Governor Erwin Sellering of the SPD has been patron of the festival since 2009. Police fence in the area and guard the entrance, and in past years, things remained largely calm.

Help is Far Away

This summer, though, neo-Nazis jumped over the fence, yelling slurs and attacking concertgoers. Police stepped in and stopped the troublemakers. But police can't always protect the Lohmeyers -- the nearest station is 12 kilometers away.

Horst Lohmeyer sits in his kitchen, bent over a map, and runs his finger along the roads and through the towns -- Gressow, Neu Degtow, Grevesmühlen. It takes a quarter of an hour to reach the nearest police station. When Krüger got married this summer, the village was inundated with several hundred right-wing extremists from Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, including a number of high-ranking NPD politicians such as Stefan Köster, NPD party head for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Jamel has become a right-wing pilgrimage site -- they come from all over Europe to see the village where neo-Nazis call the shots. They celebrated Krüger's wedding until late in the night, with nationalist rock music and fireworks. The Lohmeyers lay awake in bed, frozen with fear.

Mayor Uwe Wandel is helpless in the face of the right-wing movement in his community. He sounds bitter when he talks about Jamel. "The police, the authorities, no one dares to intervene," he says. "The Nazis are laughing in our faces." Wandel says he has repeatedly asked the state government for help. The interior minister and a parliamentary delegation came by one time, he adds. "They stayed for 20 minutes, expressed concern -- then they left again."

No One Responsible

Jamel has become a lawless place, Wandel complains, and the authorities don't take decisive enough action against the right-wing extremists. He says Krüger is allowed to dump demolition waste and burn trash in the village with impunity. The head of the department of public order in nearby Grevesmühlen says higher-level officials at the district level need to tackle the problem. They in turn say the local authority is responsible for Jamel.

Krüger, meanwhile, has much bigger plans. He has been a member of the district council for the NPD since 2009 and has bought parts of a concrete factory in Grevesmühlen, which he uses for his NPD office and his demolition company. The company logo shows the outline of a Star of David being smashed; the slogan is, "We do the dirty work." Barbed wire encloses the factory premises and dogs bark. A sign above the entrance reads, "Better dead than a slave." Krüger prefers not to comment on the accusations against him. All he says is, "Nothing that's written about me is true. I don't stand a chance against the system."

Krüger has hired new employees in the last few months. He gets contracts from fellow members of the far-right scene, but also from local businesses. Mayor Wandel says he's appalled by how far these right-wing structures now extend. "I'm afraid of a second, third, fourth Jamel," he says.

Neo-Nazis placed a boulder at the entrance to the village. A plaque attached to the rock reads, "Village of Jamel - free, social, national." Signs next to it point the way to Hitler's birthplace ("Braunau am Inn 855 km") and to the formerly German cities of Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland) and Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). No one has removed the rock. "We've given up on Jamel," Wandel says.

Only the Lohmeyers are left.

Spiegel Online

White supremacists jailed over 'vicious' online messages

Two white supremacists were jailed today after being convicted of posting violent and vicious racist messages on the internet.

Michael Heaton, 42, and Trevor Hannington, 58, described Jews as "scum" and called for them to be "destroyed". The "proud neo-Nazis" were unanimously cleared of soliciting murder at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday but Heaton was jailed today for 30 months after being convicted of four counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting words likely to stir up racial hatred.

Hannington previously admitted two counts of stirring up racial hatred, two further counts of possessing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism and disseminating a terrorist publication. He was jailed for two years.

Sentencing, Mr Justice Irwin told Heaton, of Leigh, in Wigan, Greater Manchester, his internet posts were "vicious and repulsive". He added: "You saw yourself as the leader of a potentially significant and active National Socialist group. Your sustained racist rants were intended to bolster that group. You wanted to start a race war. You are clearly filled with racial hatred and also with violent and angry beliefs."

The judge told Heaton his words were of the most "insulting and extreme nature" marked by "violent racism" and said only a significant jail term was acceptable.

Hannington, from Hirwaun, Cardiff, was described as a loner by the judge, who told him: "You are a long standing racist who has never hidden your views, which are violent and vicious in the extreme. You are a lonely man with little in your life. You habitually told lies about a non-existent army career and your knowledge of survival techniques in an attempt to gain status. You are, to some degree, pitiable in this, however repugnant what you said."

Heaton, a packer for a food company, was jailed for 30 months for each of his four offences, to run concurrently. He nodded to the judge and said he understood as he was taken to the cells. He admitted in police interviews he was a founder member of the Aryan Strike Force (ASF), whose goal was "the eradication of ethnic minorities from Britain", the prosecution said.

In one posting on the ASF website, he said of Jews: "They will always be scum, destroy 'em with whatever it takes."

He also wrote: "I would encourage any religion or race that wants to destroy the Jews, I hate them with a passion."

And in another posting he said Jews were leeches and "treacherous fucking scum" and that black people were "less intelligent than other species".

Heaton made more than 3,000 posts on the ASF site between January and June 2008, before he had a "bust-up" with the organisation and created his own, the British Freedom Fighters (BFF). The website changed its name to Legion 88 and then Wolfpack, before it was closed down.

The trial jury, nine of whom returned to court for today's sentencing, were told the number eight refers to the eighth letter in the alphabet, H. So 88 stands for HH, as in Heil Hitler, a common greeting for neo-Nazis. Both men had a number of user names when they posted their comments on the website. Heaton called himself Wigan Mike, and then later Lenny.

David Fish, mitigating for Heaton, said the defendant had been banned from accessing the internet while on bail and was no longer involved in the BFF. He said: "(Heaton) has, in effect, shed the habit and lost interest in putting up these posts."

Hannington admitted he was an administrator for the ASF, Legion 88 and Wolfpack websites and gave himself the user names Fist, Lee 88 and Paul. He pleaded guilty to inciting racial hatred with internet posts stating his beliefs that Jews were "parasites feeding on others" and "utterly evil sub-beings". The self-employed builder also posted the message: "Kill the Jew, Kill the Jew, Burn down a synagogue today! Burn the scum."

Hannington admitted owning the Anarchist's Cookbook, Kitchen Complete and The Terrorist Encyclopaedia, all of which are considered useful tools to someone preparing or committing an act of terrorism. He also admitted publishing a post on the internet with instructions on how to make a flame thrower out of a water pistol.

Richard Mansell QC, for Hannington, said: "There is a significant element of the fantasist about him and the jury's verdict accepts the posts were made without a great deal of thought but are, nevertheless, extremely offensive. Having had the terror books he never made any effort to produce such items or seek components for them. He has reflected on the language he used and his conduct and he also recognises he has problems with alcohol and anger management."

Hannington showed no emotion as he was jailed for a total of two years for all his offences. As he was convicted under the Terrorism Act he must inform the police of his home address for the next 10 years.

Independent

Convictions point to rise of far right extremism

Today's convictions of a 42-year-old food packer and a 59-year-old builder on inciting racial hatred brings to 16 the number of convictions connected to far right extremism in the past two years...


Trevor Hannington, from South Wales, and Michael Heaton, from Lancashire, ran their own far right organisation which promised street action to help rid the country of minority communities.

Their Aryan Strike Force boasted 350 members. Its website had tens of thousands of postings, all messages of hate like urging the destruction of Jews, describing them as treacherous scum. There were references to "chopping niggers legs off" and "kill the jew, burn down a synagogue today". Heaton was found guilty on four charges, while Hannington admitted to four terrorism charges including distributing instructions on how to turn a water pistol into a flamethrower. Both were both found not guilty of soliciting to murder.

Dr Matthew Feldman, who runs the UK's only research unit on new media and domestic extremism at Northampton University, was the prosecution's key witness in this case. He says "These are neo-Nazis, pure and simple, and consider themselves really the most extreme versions of this ideological neo-Nazism that is new. We have had some evidence, I believe, of activists from the ASF appearing on videos at the English Defence League marches and so forth."

Dr Feldman believes this recent string of convictions of "lone wolf" cases and the creation of the English Defence League point to a resurgence of far right extremism. He said: "In terms of what we might call small cell or lone wolf terrorists cases since 2008, but also other events in 2008 such as the successful election of two British National Party MEPs in the Yorkshire, Humber area, and in 2009 the creation of the English Defence League on the back of those protests by some radical Islamism groups against the return of Anglican soldiers. So I think there is a confluence of factors that do point to a resurgence in the far right."

The two convicted today actually turned up at several of the EDL rallies and used their website to praise the EDL's actions. Yet the EDL denies any links to these extremists organisation. We asked for an interview with its organisers so we could put all our evidence to them. They declined.

Does that mean EDL is infiltrated with those with a much more extreme agenda intent on more than just glorified football style violence? Police who monitor these events say no. Assistant Chief Constable Anton Setchell, national coordinator for domestic extremism, told Channel 4 News that "we have seen some individuals from the far right on the margins of EDL organised events but these are only one or two individuals. We have found no strong links between extreme groups like the Aryan Strike Force and the EDL."

Yet today's guilty verdicts bring to 16 the total number of far right extremists who have been convicted over the past two years. Among them were father and son Ian and Nicky Davison who were sent to prison last month for possessing the poison Ricin and for making and detonating pipe bombs. They were also co-founders of the Aryan Strike Force.

Dr Feldman says: "in groups like the ASF successor organisations we are seeing a group numbering in the few hundreds probably at the maximum. That's a few hundred too many because these are not people who are far right activists for the BNP and knocking doors. These are people who may very well be considering a future as we saw in the Davison case undertaking terrorists.

In fact Heaton stated publically that as part of a "rites of passage" to join, potential recruits had to carry out a serious op, meaning a violent racist attack.

The Institute for Race Relations is about to publish a report, which Channel 4 News has had exclusive access to, mapping out 600 serious racist attacks in the UK last year. Many have taken place in towns which have had influxes of a migrant workforce or asylum seekers. But it also hints at a correlation between attacks and pockets of extremism.

We found that of the 16 extremist convictions since 2008, two thirds come from towns which form a corridor across the north of England: Penwortham, south of Preston, to Leigh, west of Manchester, to Batley, to Selby, to Goole, to Grimsby, then further north to Elsdon and Durham. Privately, police sources have confirmed to us that their intelligence suggests the same. They admit there are some dangerous individuals, but overall the threat from right wing extremists has hardly changed since the days of the nail bomber David Copeland, who killed three and seriously injured 79 people in three attacks, the worst at Soho's Admiral Duncan Pub in 1999. It was the last time white supremacists were said to behind a bomb attack in the UK.

Those monitoring far right extremists attribute the recent string of convictions to a combination of "good police work", community relations and luck, rather than an increased threat. But they say what has changed is their profile boosted by a combination of the numerous convictions and the tenor of EDL marches.

Channel 4 News

Thanks to NewsHound for the heads-up.

Pair are 'proud to be neo-Nazis'

Michael Heaton (circled) at one of the many 'not nazi at all' EDL rallies (Image: PMcC)

Two men "made it their life's work" to spread racist messages and encourage others to help them achieve their goal of "the eradication of ethnic minorities from Britain", a court heard today.

Michael Heaton, 42, and Trevor Hannington, 58, both "proud" neo-Nazis, are accused at Liverpool Crown Court of urging people to kill Jews.

Andrew Edis QC, prosecuting said: "Each of these men is proud to call himself a National Socialist, or a neo-Nazi in other language. Each is a member of an organisation called the Aryan Strike Force, whose goal it is to clear the country of all ethnic minorities, as they say, whatever it takes."

Both men deny that postings they made on a right-wing website solicited others to murder. Heaton is standing trial over four comments he made on the Aryan Strike Force website (ASF) between January and April 2008.

The prosecution argue that his comments about Jews - "...they will always be scum, destroy 'em with whatever it takes", and "I would encourage any religion or race that wants to destroy the Jews, I hate them with a passion..." - encourage their murder, or at least stir up racial hatred. In one post he wrote that black people are "less intelligent than other species", and in another that Jews are leeches and "treacherous fucking scum".

Hannington denies one count of soliciting to murder with the post: "Kill the Jew, Kill the Jew, Burn down a synagogue today!... Burn the scum...".

Mr Edis told the jury of seven men and five women there was no question over whether the defendants made the postings.

"That is undisputed," he said, referring to Hannington's post. "It's what he wanted to achieve when he put that on a forum on a website that matters."

The panel was told that Hannington has already pleaded guilty to possessing information which may be useful to terrorists. On Wednesday he admitted to owning the Anarchist's Cookbook, Kitchen Complete and The Terrorist Encyclopaedia, all of which are considered useful tools to someone preparing or committing an act of terrorism.

He pleaded guilty to inciting racial hatred with internet posts stating his beliefs that Jews were "parasites feeding on others" and "utterly evil sub-beings". He also admitted publishing a post on the internet with instructions on how to make a flame thrower out of a water pistol. Mr Edis said the guilty pleas should not persuade the jury that he is guilty of the count he stands trial over, but that it demonstrates he is "to be taken seriously", and has the knowledge of how to follow his comments through into practice.

The prosecutor said Heaton made more than 3,000 posts on the ASF website between January and June 2008, before he had a "bust-up" with the organisation and created his own, The British Freedom Fighters. The website changed its name to Legion 88 and then Wolfpack, before it was closed down.

Mr Edis explained that the number 8 refers to the eighth letter in the alphabet, H. So 88 stands for HH, as in Heil Hitler, a common greeting for neo-Nazis. Both men used a number of monikers when they posted their comments on the website. Heaton called himself Wigan Mike, and then later Lenny. Hannington gave himself the names Fist, Lee 88 and Paul.

The prosecutor said: "These are the descriptions they gave themselves. It's how they wish to be named."

The pair were in regular contact over the internet with two men who have now been convicted of terrorism charges, including possessing the deadly poison ricin, the court heard. Jurors were shown chatroom conversations between them and fellow racists who called themselves Sweeney and Thorburn. Sweeney was the moniker for Ian Davison, who set up the ASF website, and is now in prison. Thorburn is the name used by his son, Nicky Davison, now serving time in a young offenders' institution.

Mr Edis told the jurors they would be shown more logs of internet chat conversations between both men and their associates during the trial.

The prosecutor briefly showed the panel a collection of photographs found on Heaton's computer, as well as a video showing him training in a form of martial art. He is seen kicking a training partner, and Mr Edis said more videos of him teaching his skills to others will be shown. This, he said, shows he is not simply preoccupied by posting racist material on the internet, but is active in spreading his beliefs to other.

The trial continues.

Independent

Pictures of UK neo-Nazi plotters released

Ian Davison (left) and son Nicky

Pictures of the father and son neo-Nazis involved in a UK right-wing plot to kill Muslims, blacks and Jews, have been released.

Hate mob leader Ian Davison, 41, planned to use the deadly poison ricin and recruited hundreds of followers to his Nazi Aryan Strike Force. His son Nicky, 19, had set up a computer network of white supremacist extremists around the world.

Members of the group planned to fight against what they called the "Zionist-occupied government" and believed Britain had been taken over by Jews. A police raid at the Davisons’ home on Grampian Way, Annfield Plain, Co Durham in England, found copies of paramilitary manuals 'The Poor Man’s James Bond' and the 'Anarchist’s Cookbook' on two computers.

Davison Jnr, a former milkman’s assistant, denied any knowledge of the documents and claimed a “mischievous” friend downloaded them. But he was convicted on Friday of three counts of possessing information useful in committing or preparing terror acts. Former pub DJ Davison Snr previously admitted six charges, including producing deadly ricin, one of the world’s most dangerous substances. They will be sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on May 14.

Judge John Milford remanded Davison in custody and he was taken away after hugging his weeping mother in the public gallery.

The racist gang was fully intending to use the deadly ricin, said the officer leading the investigation, Detective Superintendent Neil Malkin.

“I have no understanding of their intended target,” he said. “What I do know is the nature of the organisation and what it had pulled together in terms of the ricin, pipe bombs and the manuals can only give me concerns that the next step was to take it to the streets.”

He said the deadly substance was found in a sealed jar and was in a usable state. It has now been taken to the UK’s chemical weapons centre at Porton Down.

Mr Malkin said the father was the head of the organisation which had “abhorrent views” towards “ethnic minorities and Jewish people”. But the son was old enough to know his own mind, the detective said.

“He lived in an atmosphere of extreme right-wing white supremacist neo-Nazi rhetoric and he has embraced that.”

Mr Malkin said others investigated as part of the inquiry will face prosecution later this year.

Evening Echo

The BNP and the neo-Nazis

The BNP claims it isn’t racist – this is a lie. The BNP claims it has no links with violent neo-Nazis – this is a lie. The BNP claims to be a ‘normal’ political party – this is a lie.

What ‘normal’ political party would associate itself with Nazi sympathisers and violent right-wing paramilitary groups?

In Liverpool, the BNP works openly with people who promote Hitler’s ideology and groups which spout racism and anti-Semitism in their crudest forms. Its candidates attend demonstrations organised by violent racists and are happy to be associated with neo-Nazis.

On Friday April 23rd, Liverpool BNP hosted an event at Aigburth People’s Hall. But it was not just BNP activists who were present. Also attending were members of the Racial Volunteer Force (RVF) and the British Freedom Fighters (BFF). These pictures were not intended for the public – they show BNP candidates and activists with neo-Nazis. When you read Liverpool BNP’s election material, you are not being told the truth about the party.

Picture 1 looks innocent enough – three patriotic men in front of Liverpool BNP’s banner:

Yet the two on the left are members of the Racial Volunteer Force. This is a neo-Nazi paramilitary group whose leading members have been jailed for inciting racial hatred and publishing information on how to make bombs. Their publications included praise for David Copeland, the former BNP member jailed for life for his London bombing campaign in 1999, which killed three people and injured over 100 others.

Go to 6.11 on the following video and you can see the men pictured at the Liverpool BNP event attending a Racial Volunteer Force gathering in Glasgow in March 2009:


Picture 2 shows the RVF men (here seen left and right) with Liverpool BNP’s Steve Harwood (in the Union flag t-shirt) and Steve Davis (with flag):

Picture 3 shows Karen Otty, Liverpool BNP’s secretary and candidate for Anfield in Thursday’s election. With her is one of the as yet un-named members of the Racial Volunteer Force:

Otty is not just a member of the BNP herself. She joined a Facebook group affiliated to the violent English Defence League and attended the EDL’s demonstration at the House of Lords in March this year. She is highlighted in Picture 4 below:

Coverage of Otty’s EDL links can be found here and here.

Otty’s friend from Picture 3 is not only in the Nazi terror group, the RVF, he is also a member of the British Freedom Fighters, another neo-Nazi paramilitary group (which says itself that its main aim is the promotion of Hitler’s National Socialist ideas). Picture 5 shows Otty’s companion with the BFF’s leader ‘Wigan’ Mike Heaton (currently facing terror charges for soliciting the murder of Jewish people):

Picture 6 (below) shows him at leaving a BFF meeting in 2009, sieg-heiling with other Nazi thugs:

The RVF/BFF men are also friends of Gary Aronsson. He is the large gentleman seated in the centre of Picture 7 (below), seen talking to Andrew Leary, BNP candidate for Church ward in Sefton.

Aronsson was for a long time the BNP’s declared candidate for Knowsley in the general election. However, personal rivalries and the fact that Aronnson had been told to remove neo-Nazi imagery from his website by Nick Griffin, AND the fact that he disagreed with the new membership rules forced on the BNP by the courts, led to him being withdrawn from Knowsley shortly before the election. (Picture 8 (below) shows the SS Death’s Head Aronsson used on his Facebook page).

Picture 9 shows Aronsson (centre) with the RVF man (right) and Liverpool BNP’s Gary Lucas (who posts on Facebook as ‘Gary James’):

Picture 10 (below) shows ‘Gary James’ with BNP leader Nick Griffin, Christmas 2009:

The links between the BNP and neo-Nazis are plain for all to see. They socialise together; they campaign together; they attend each other’s events. Liverpool BNP tries to hide what they really believe in and who they really work with.

Thinking of voting BNP on May 6th? Think again.

Liverpool Antifascists

English Teabaggers: The EDL vs “COMMUNISM!!!!”

A couple of left-wing websites have noted the English Defence League’s new target: union power and Communism. A couple of days ago the EDL’s site told us that

The EDL know that unions have a part to play to protect workers’ rights, to ensure that employees are treated fairly in the workplace. However it would seem that these unions have become more powerful, more influential and more militant in the political sphere, this is where vested interests infringe upon a democratic political platform, so much so that democracy seems to be ebbing away right before our eyes and its replacement………COMMUNISM!!!!

Great Britain doesn’t do Communism, it never has, yet Communists are afforded more influence and more power as the Labour party look to fund its upcoming election campaign.

Lenin’s Tomb and Barrykade suggest that this is the organisation’s “true colours”, and this is shows that the EDL has an agenda beyond simply opposing “Islamic extremism” – attention is drawn to the fact that the EDL has a millionaire businessman sugar-daddy.

There are, though, a couple of other factors: It’s clear that the EDL would rather people support parties such as UKIP or the English Democrats over mainstream parties, and Labour’s association with the Unite union is a topical knocking-point. Perhaps we are also seeing the importing of rhetoric from the USA, where the crudest 1950s-style anti-Communist posturing has enjoyed a renewed lease of life over the past year or so. I recently noted Pamela Geller’s reference to Obama as the “mad Commie clown”, and this kind of thing is now commonplace among the “teabaggers” – Geller has written posts commending the EDL to American conservatives, and the EDL in turn has directed traffic to her site.

More widely, Communist groups have shown up at Unite Against Fascism anti-EDL events waving around hammer-and-sickle iconography, and the Trotskyist SWP looms large within the UAF. Naturally, just as the UAF denounces the EDL of having semi-hidden far-right links (a subject I have also written on), so the EDL will point to the UAF’s far-left links, as a matter of tit-for-tat. There are also, of course, actual links between far-left groups and Islamists.

Meanwhile, EDL members are also planning a rally on a “Not Compatible with Britain” theme, attacking the BNP along with neo-Nazis and Communists. Anarchists don’t get off lightly, either…

Bartholomew's Notes on Religion

German riots on 65th anniversary of Dresden bombing

Neo-nazis beaten back by anti-fascists at Dresden

More than 1000 neo-Nazis were confronted by around 10,000 of their left-wing opponents as they protested in Dresden on the 65th anniversary of the Allied bombing at the end of World War II.

More than 5,000 police were dispatched to try to prevent the groups from clashing but there have been scuffles on the streets and damage to property.

Tristana Moore has been tracking the day's events from the German capital Berlin. Watch the BBC report here.

Thanks to Sue for the heads-up. :-)

Four investigated over neo-Nazi links

Two suspected neo-Nazis due to appear in court tomorrow are alleged to belong to the same extreme right wing organisation as a County Durham father and son arrested on terrorism charges.

Trevor Hannington, 58, and Michael Heaton, 42, are accused of being “administrators” of the Aryan Strike Force website and used wall posts to encourage others to murder Jews. They are due before the Old Bailey tomorrow facing a string of terrorism and public order offences dating back to January 2008. Also alleged to have links to the Aryan Strike Force are former pub DJ Ian Davison, 41, and his son Nicky, 18.

Ian Davison was brought before City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London last June accused of stashing deadly poison and explosives at his North East home. He was arrested along with Nicky, of Grampian Place, Annfield Plain, near Stanley, on June 2, when counter-terrorism detectives raided his home on Myrtle Grove, Burnopfield, County Durham. He is currently remanded in custody charged with offences under the Terrorism Act including acquiring a quantity of the toxin ricin, explosives and other manuals and disseminated them to others, encouraging others to commit acts of terrorism.

He also faces two offences of possessing a record containing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. One of those charges relates to a manual containing information and instructions on the use or production of firearms, explosives and chemicals, the other relates to information and instructions on the use or production of explosive substances and related items. He is also accused of an offence under the Chemical Weapons Act for possessing the ricin, and is due back in court in April.

Nicky Davison appeared in the same court accused of a single terrorist offence. He was released on bail and is understood to have to returned to his County Durham home. His bail conditions include a ban on contacting members of the Aryan Strike Force.

Hannington and Heaton are accused of writing threatening, abusive or insulting comments about Jews and black people. The pair were arrested on December 9. Jobless Hannington, from Cardiff, faces three charges under terrorism laws for possession of records containing information that could be used in preparing or committing acts of terrorism. He faces a further charge of disseminating information on his website informing others how to construct a flame thrower out of a water pistol.

Factory worker Heaton, from Wigan, Lancashire, allegedly stopped his alliance with the Aryan Strike Force last year. He faces no terrorism charges but is charged with two counts in relation to solicitation to murder and two counts of using threatening internet posts to stir up racial hatred.

Last month at City of Westminster Magistrates Court in London District Judge Daphne Wickham released Heaton on bail while Hannington was remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey tomorrow.

Journal Live

Fears grow over possible clash at Scotland's biggest mosque

Religious leaders fear militant Muslims will travel to Scotland to confront far-right racists planning an illegal march on the country's biggest mosque

They have warned that Islamic hardliners will be out in force to take on the neo-Nazi thugs planning to march in Glasgow under the banner of the Scottish Defence League.

We told last month how gangs of right-wingers, including senior BNP activists and members of the English Defence League, will travel from Birmingham, Luton, London and Carlisle. And there is growing concern that they will be met by counter demonstrators - including Muslim groups, trade unionists and left-wing activists.

A police insider said: "Senior respected figures in the Muslim community are worried that extremists will use the SDL event as an excuse to peddle their own brand of hate."

Sdl organisers have been using the internet to organise the demo on Saturday at Glasgow Central Mosque. They made contact with the council over plans to stage a march but plans did not comply with council procedures and did not go any further.

Trade unionists, political parties, antiracist organisations and faith groups called Scotland United have organised a rally on the same day to celebrate multicultural Glasgow at Glasgow Green.

Daily Record

Bercow breaks convention to attack BNP

He swept to office on the back of a promise to break with tradition. But John Bercow, the Speaker of the Commons, has been accused of taking his shake-up of the role too far after he unleashed an attack on the British National Party.

Centuries of political impartiality demanded of the Speaker were rolled back in spectacular fashion by Mr Bercow yesterday, as he described the far-right party as "evil", adding that it was a "poison which we could well do without". It is thought to be the first time that a Speaker has ever launched such an assault on a legal party.

Mr Bercow, who was in the Speaker's chair to oversee the first ever UK Youth Parliament session taking place in the Commons, earned cheers and even a standing ovation from the delegates for his outburst. "I'm under absolutely no obligation whatsoever to be impartial as between the forces of democracy on the one hand and the forces of evil on the other," he said. "I do feel very, very, very strongly as someone from a Jewish background that the evil of the BNP is that its whole politics is based upon and driven by hate. That is a poison which we could well do without."

While the Speaker is always expected to remain independent while overseeing business in the Commons, Mr Bercow may be saved from censure because Parliament was not technically sitting. The ornamental mace, which marks that the Commons is in formal session, was not in place during his comments.

Mr Bercow asked the delegates to reflect on history, during which political extremists had always sought to capitalise on discontent. "The Nazis in Germany in the 30s, and the neo-Nazis today, seek to scapegoat whole communities as they peddle their message of hate and scurrilously appeal for support," he said. "They depend on either ignorance, or apathy. And the counter to ignorance and apathy is education, interest and participation – all of which you have displayed today."

Simon Darby, the deputy leader of the BNP, said the outburst was "quite shocking" and broke the rules of the office of Speaker. "He is meant to be independent and this kind of outburst is quite extraordinary," he said. "We are hopeful of performing well at a general election and if he is still the Speaker, I do not see how he could possibly continue in the role. He has jeopardised his position."

Overseeing the Youth Parliament session, the first time non-MPs have ever been allowed to use the Commons, Mr Bercow said that MPs had been "vindicated" in allowing the chamber to be used by the 300 delegates, who were aged between 12 and 18. More than 100 were given the chance to speak in debates on tuition fees, crime, transport, the economy and the voting age. A small group of Tory backbenchers had tried to block the move.

Independent