Redwatch: run by police informer and glue-sniffer Kevin WatmoughThe police were asked to look at the vile far-right racist site Redwatch after Belfast councillor Niall Kelly discovered several pictures of himself along with dozens of images of members of the public attending rallies in Belfast city centre. A caption above the SDLP man’s picture, taken at last month’s anti-racism rally in support of the Romanian families who were intimidated out of south Belfast, read: “Fenian reds, causing trouble in South Belfast attempting to win support for Gypsy parasites turning the Protestant Village area into a slum.”
In England, a number of MPs and Mersyside trade union leader Alec McFadden received death threats from right wing violent extremists after their details appeared on Redwatch. It is now feared that some people in Northern Ireland could now be targeted.
Pictures of Health Minister Michael McGimpsey, former Belfast Lord Mayor Tom Ekin, north Belfast SDLP councillor Pat Convery and prominent UDA figure Jackie McDonald attending various rallies, including anti-racism and anti-war protests, also appear on the sickening site. It is understood some of the photographs were lifted from Mr Kelly’s Flickr site.
“Obviously I am concerned to see pictures of myself and party colleagues appear on this sinister website,” Mr Kelly told the Belfast Telegraph.
“Since this matter has been brought to my attention I have alerted the police who have informed me that they have been monitoring this website for a while now as this organisation appears to be engaged in hi-tech fascism. However, neither I nor my party will be deterred from standing for the rights of others. The SDLP has faced down threats before and we will continue to do what is right as we strive to fight against racism, sectarianism and bigotry.”
Redwatch was originally published in paper form by the far right racist group Combat 18 in March 1992. Among the Redwatch targets are journalist Eamonn McCann, Irish Trade Union Congress leader Claire Moore and Patrick Yu, executive director of Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities whose contact details including telephone number and address have been posted alongside his picture.
Crowd shots showing members of the public attending at rallies in Belfast dating back as far as 2004 are also posted and in a worrying development appeal for information on those in the picture.
A caption read: “Send us details of your local red scumbags — we want their names, addresses, phone numbers, photographs, work details — anything and everything about them to publish here in the same way as they are doing to our people. We are going to give them exactly the same treatment as they are. Fight back. Any further info on the freaks below will be gratefully received.”
However journalist Eamon McCann said he would not be intimidated.
“I am not in the least bit intimidated. I would be almost insulted if these people had been making a list of their enemies in Northern Ireland and I was not on it.”
A spokeswoman for the PSNI said: “We do not comment on the security of individuals. The police service does not monitor internet sites on a day-to-day basis. However it will take appropriate action when complaints are received of criminal offences that occur within its jurisdiction.”
Belfast Telegraph
Following the Sheppard/Whittle case, it should surely be possible to drag that little bastard Watmough into court and have him banged up for a few years. No protection by using American servers now, scumbag.
ReplyDeleteIt'd be nice to have a link to this site on Lancaster Unity.
ReplyDeletehttp://disabledpeopleagainstthebnp.org/
Combat 18 was a state honeytrap and Redwatch should be treated likewise. People shouldn't become hysterical about this. Rather than drag him into court - which the state is unlikely to do to their own people - he should be dragged down a dark alley and have the situation explained to him.
ReplyDeleteIt's about time Watty gets his just deserts what with good friend Sheppard in the slammer. He's protected from prosecution though, as a police informer, which always hampers enquiries.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone else read what I read into the little qualification about "criminal offences that occur within its jurisdiction"?
ReplyDeleteAs another poster has said, the Sheppard/Whittle case ought to have set a precedent in this department yet the PSNI seems to have its excuses already prepared.
There is a very good set of articles from Belfast in this month's Searchlight, initially they're quite depressing but also you can take some hope from them I suppose in the fact that the UDA were put firmly on the spot
ReplyDeleteIs there anyway of reproducing them here for those who have not seen them?
I imgagine it won't be long before the UDA are forced to throw the BPP out of the province like they did the last load of glue sniffers who pissed them off.
I'd like to see Watmough and chums try and intimidate Jackie MacDonald of the UDA. Do these guys value their kneecaps?
ReplyDeleteStockport fan,
ReplyDeleteThe articles by Matthew Collins in this month's Searchlight are very depressing.
That Jackie McDonald is fully prepared to meet and talk to Searchlight is however encouraging.
"No Peace Here" sums up perfectly the awful situation and historical misunderstandings that govern Unionist thinking.
With an open and frank dialogue between the UDA and someone of Matthew's considerable experience though, we should be looking forward to the UDA giving the BPP the boot. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall during these discussions.
As the article says however, although McDonald is very frank and open, there is quite obvious fear evident in the article in particular when McDonald is speaking about his "community."
Some of us on the left have long viewed the Unionist community as a twin evil of fascism but Collins has quite rightly engaged with a number of paramilitary leaders over the years in a bid to put a wedge between them and the fascists, for there is quite obviously a fertile breeding ground for negative thoughts and actions in the political vaccume that exists in Protestant working class comunities.
It was fair comment to say that the gap left by the sudden passing of David Ervine is still an enormous void that the Unionist community has to fill themselves.
Any help we can give and any positive pressure we can exert while there is a new dialogue still to be had can only have a positive impact on the whole peace process.
And obviously,putting Jackie McDonald's picture up on Redwatch is one way the fash have shot themselves in the foot.
I agree with Stockport and others.
ReplyDeleteGreat article and pissing off the UDA would be a very bad move for glue sniffers and hookers in Bradford who dont know the run of the ground in Belfast.
Are these articles on line yet?
ReplyDeleteJust been thinking about why Redwatch would feature Jackie MacDonald on it's pages. Can anybody confrrm if Wattmough and the BPP have connections to Johnny Adair and other ex-UDA people who were expelled by the UDA to the British mainland? Could this be Redwatch acting under the influence of ex-UDA figures currently living on the mainland?
ReplyDeleteWatmough had no direct contact with Adair etc because he was little more than C18's gimp boy at the time. Even now Watmough has no connection with the real peple that were behind C18.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, this could be true though Watmough's low level drug dealing is hardly on a par with Adair's. What they do have more in common is the fact that they are both notorious cowards. And grasses.
It's quite clear that Watmough is acting like a big man from the safety of his mother's house, without quite understanding how things happen on the ground over there.
Added to that, you have the awful Northen Ireland press that inflate the BPP through printing their lies about mass leafleting drives etc, etc. The Irish press is nortorious for lazy journalism; Take for instance the creation of the "Real UDA", a group that has no members!
Because Watmough has always been a low level gimp he probaby does not know what happens to people who piss the UDA off.
A pissed off UDA boss has very long arms:
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-133666838.html
Watmough runs Red Watch with absolutely no idea about the people he puts on it.
ReplyDeleteLet's be honest,Jackie McDonald is head of the UDA. Hardly a job for the weak hearted or soft liberal.
When the BPP were turned over in London the other year, some of the hardest people from the far-left were lining up to have a pop but for whatever reason(security I assume) Antifa kept the operation under their hats.
Since then, it seems that Watmough and his ex-hooker missus have gone out of their way to inform the old bill where they are to avoid getting turned over again.
Let's hope Mr McDonald is suitably unimpressed and hisory repeats itself.