BNP bid to recruit our heroes

Johnson Beharry VC and General Sir Mike Jackson

The reviled BNP has launched a recruitment drive to sign up soldiers serving in Afghanistan

The far-right British National Party is secretly hoping to gain support before the general election, expected in May. The main theme of the campaign is "Bring Our Boys Home". But it's gone down badly with troops - where soldiers of diverse ethnic background serve alongside each other like brothers. And they just want people back home to support them. They are also angry after the racist BNP criticised Grenada-born VC hero Johnson Beharry, who saved the lives of 30 comrades.

Soldiers are allowed to join the BNP but membership is frowned upon.

A source at the anti-racist campaign group Searchlight said: "The BNP think they will get support because the Taliban have different colour skin. But soldiers are hardly going to join a racist party."

NotW

Griffin branded 'despicable' for attacks on Army top brass

Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry VC, with General Sir Mike Jackson

Former generals warn that far-right party is attempting to 'hijack' the armed forces

Racist insults made by the BNP against Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry, the black Victoria Cross holder, was a driving factor behind General Sir Mike Jackson, the former head of the Army, making a stand against the far-right party.

Gen Jackson is among a group of distinguished former military leaders who have warned against the extremists attempting to “hijack” the reputation of the armed forces “for their dubious ends”. The General told The Independent: “I heard complaints that the BNP were being extremely offensive about Johnson Beharry, I looked into it, and found out that was indeed the case. I thought it was pretty appalling that a brave man like that should be insulted in this way.

“The BNP claim that they have a better relationship with the armed forces than other parties. But their behaviour shows that they don’t understand the armed forces at all. The fine men and women who serve so courageously are not like the BNP. They are decent people who appreciate and honour the sacrifices made by their comrades.”

Yesterday another senior former officer, Major General Julian Thompson, the highly decorated former commander of the Royal Marines, also speaking to The Independent, said: “The BNP trying to exploit the good name of our forces is pretty monstrous and the fight against this must continue. The fact that they had been maligning Johnson Beharry is dreadful.”

General Sir Richard Dannatt, the recently departed head of the Army, Lord Guthrie of Craigebank, a former Chief of Defence Staff, and Major General Patrick Cordingley, commander of the Desert Rats in the Gulf War, were among the others who signed the letter as part of Stolen Honour, a campaign by the military against the BNP’s attempt to exploit them.

Their view that the far-right groups was “fundamentally at odds” with values of the British military was supported by veterans like Simon Weston, who was severely injured while serving in the Falklands, and the writer and former SAS member Andy McNab, who condemned the BNP’s use of images of the armed forces in election materials.

Mr Weston said: “I find it appalling to think that they can take the dignity and the honour and the respect with which those people treated their service and their uniform, and align it to the horrors and desires of these people.” Mr McNab added: “What it’s doing is abusing and taking advantage of what our troops are doing in both Iraq and continuously in Afghanistan.”

Lance Corporal Beharry, whose family comes from Grenada in the Caribbean, received his VC in 2005 after twice saving lives of comrades under intense enemy fire in Iraq. On the first occasion his Warrior armoured vehicle was hit by rocket propelled grenades during an ambush. He pulled other soliders clear of the burning wreckage despite a bullet going through his helmet. He went back to duty and a week later drove an armoured vehicle through fire, while seriously injured, saving the lives of others.

In its website the BNP declared that Lance Corporal Beharry was an “immigrant” who had benefited from “ positive discrimination by a PC mad government”. What he had done was nothing more than “routine” said the message , continuing "All he did was drive away very fast from a combat zone. . . to safety, as have hundreds and hundreds of other British soldiers."

Veterans groups have complained that the BNP have been selling full-size replica VCs, and other medals for valour. Under military rules, only armed forces heroes who have won the decorations in combat - or their widows and widowers - are allowed to wear them. However, the Ministry of Defence said selling the replicas was not illegal.

BNP leader Nick Griffin insisted yesterday that his party has support among the military. He added. "The generals might not because some of these generals are now in the pockets of the Conservative Party, who used to be able to take Armed Forces votes for granted but now cannot.”

Independent

Andy McNab goes after the BNP

Andy McNab has told the BNP, “give me my books back”.

The ultimatum comes after Nick Griffin announced that signed copies of Brute Force and Seven Troop would be auctioned to raise money for Help for Heroes.

McNab – ex-SAS hardman, Gulf War veteran and best-selling author – told Nothing British, “When someone called me to say that the BNP was using one of my books in a publicity stunt, I was sick to the stomach. I served with men of all colours and from many nationalities. They were all equal to me. That’s what the army teaches you. Nick Griffin thinks differently. He thinks the British Army should be for whites-only. He thinks heroes like Johnson Beharry, our only living VC, should be sent back to Grenada.

“He doesn’t understand that what makes the British Army great, and what makes this country great. It’s the way we draw together people from all around the world and give them ideals worth believing in: tolerance, fairness, decency, looking out for the little guy. It’s the British way of doing things. That’s why I’ve asked for my books back. Because I don’t want anything to help the BNP promote their poisonous politics of segregation and hatred.”

Biographical note:

Andy McNab joined the infantry in 1976 as a boy soldier. In 1984 he was badged as a member of 22 SAS Regiment. He served in B Squadron 22 SAS for ten years and worked on both covert and overt special operations worldwide, including anti-terrorist and anti-drug operations in the Middle and Far East, South and Central America and Northern Ireland.

In the Gulf War, McNab commanded the famous Bravo Two Zero patrol, an eight man patrol tasked with destroying underground communication links between Baghdad and north-west Iraq and with finding and destroying mobile Scud missile launchers. McNab was held for six weeks and was relentlessly and savagely tortured. By the time he was released he was suffering from nerve damage to both hands, a dislocated shoulder, kidney and liver damage and had contracted hepatitis. After six months of medical treatment he was back on active service.

Awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and Military Medal (MM) during his military career, McNab was the British Army’s most highly decorated serving soldier when he finally left the SAS in February 1993.

Andy McNab has written about his experiences in the SAS in two bestselling books, Bravo Two Zero (1993) and Immediate Action (1995). Bravo Two Zero is the highest selling war book of all time and has sold over 1.7 million copies in the UK.

McNab is the author of seven fast action thrillers, highly acclaimed for their authenticity and all Sunday Times bestsellers.

Nothing British

(Thanks to BB for the heads-up)

Tell us BNP, who are these "critics"?

A typically ignorant piece of race-baiting published on the BNP's website in August 2008 is in the news today. The News of the World has dusted off the piece, about the sale of replica Victoria Cross medals and comments about recent recipient of the honour, Lance Corporal Johnson Beharry VC, and reported it in an article as part of a campaign to remind voters what the BNP is really like. In all honesty it is a clumsy article by the News of the World beause Jamie Lyons opens his article by saying:

BRITISH National Party cowards have launched an outrageous attack on a decorated Iraq war hero - claiming he only got the Victoria Cross because he is BLACK.

The fact is they did not say that explicitly. It is blindingly obvious that the BNP's subtext was this is what they believe, but they deliberately avoided using those actual words. By doing so they would hold a plausible deniability card - which they have played today as expected thanks to Lyons' sloppy generalisation.

However, in its attempt to devalue the bravery of L Cpl Beharry VC, the BNP repeatedly cites "critics" who have supposedly said Beharry of "that all he did was drive away very fast from a combat zone"; pointed out that "the VC was normally only awarded for gallant acts of bravery such as the Defence of Rorke’s Drift, head on enemy attacks such as in the trenches of World War I and so on - and that driving a vehicle through an ambush hardly compares to any of these deeds" ** see footnote below and suggested "that the only reason that Beharry was singled out for a VC was because of a made-up “positive discrimination” directive by the PC-mad government" - in other words only won the VC because he is black. So given all this, the questions the BNP should answer are:

• who are these "critics" cited in the BNP piece?
• where are the links to these assertions so we can verify them?
• what evidence is there that Beharry only won the VC due to positive discrimination?

Apart from the usual BNP sockpuppets who will leave comments trying to i) deflect attention from this by attempting to change the discussion to something entirely unrelated such as immigration and what 'British' means in their view and ii) do anything but answer the questions in the hope people forget the point being made, rest assured we will hear nothing.

I have no doubt that these "critics" are either BNP supporters furthering their racism in the usual anonymous fashion of the coward, or more likely, that these "critics" do not exist and were created specifically to enable the BNP to slur L Cpl Beharry VC (while retaining their deniability card) for no other reason than the fact he is not white British and was quoted in an article criticising the BNP trying to make money by selling cheap replica medals.

If I was serving in uniform and given a choice between having a BNP keyboard warrior alongside me in my section, or a courageous, determined and reliable squaddie like Johnson Beharry, I would want Beharry every time. The man chose to serve the Crown, he put his life on the line, he saved the lives of his brothers-in-arms and he is, without any doubt, a true hero.

** For the record: The BNP is keen to repeat on its website that all Johnson Beharry was recognised for was "driving a vehicle through an ambush". The ignorant morons are clearly incapable of reading, or just simply determined to hide the truth as part of a determined attempt to undermine him for not being white British. Beharry's citation makes clear:

Despite this harrowing weight of incoming fire Beharry continued to push through the extended ambush, still leading his platoon until he broke clear. He then visually identified another Warrior from his company and followed it through the streets of Al Amarah to the outside of the Cimic House outpost, which was receiving small arms fire from the surrounding area. Once he had brought his vehicle to a halt outside, without thought for his own personal safety, he climbed onto the turret of the still-burning vehicle and, seemingly oblivious to the incoming enemy small arms fire, manhandled his wounded platoon commander out of the turret, off the vehicle and to the safety of a nearby Warrior. He then returned once again to his vehicle and again mounted the exposed turret to lift out the vehicle's gunner and move him to a position of safety. Exposing himself yet again to enemy fire he returned to the rear of the burning vehicle to lead the disorientated and shocked dismounts and casualties to safety. Remounting his burning vehicle for a third time, he drove it through a complex chicane and into the security of the defended perimeter of the outpost, thus denying it to the enemy. Only at this stage did Beharry pull the fire extinguisher handles, immobilising the engine of the vehicle, dismounted and then moved himself into the relative safety of the back of another Warrior. Once inside Beharry collapsed from the sheer physical and mental exhaustion of his efforts and was subsequently himself evacuated.

Tony Sharp

Zeroes blast hero

BNP claim Beharry didn't deserve to win the VC

British National Party cowards have launched an outrageous attack on a decorated Iraq war hero - claiming he only got the Victoria Cross because he is BLACK.

The vile BNP denounced brave Johnson Beharry for being "an immigrant" and tried to belittle his heroics - which saved the lives of 30 comrades - as no more than "routine". In a sick rant on its website the far-right BNP - headed by Nick Griffin - allege Lance Corporal Beharry only got Britain's top military honour because of "positive discrimination by the PC-mad government".

Our revelation comes just days after the extremist group held an Armed Forces Awareness Day in a shameless bid to portray themselves "the only party that supports our troops". The truth is that Grenada-born Beharry, then a private, was honoured in 2005 after TWICE saving colleagues' lives under enemy fire.

When his Warrior armoured vehicle was hit by rocket- propelled grenades he drove through the ambush and pulled comrades clear of the burning wreckage while a bullet penetrated his helmet.

Weeks later, he was at the wheel again when a grenade detonated inches from him. Despite blood pouring from his head, he reversed out of range before collapsing. Despite that, the spiteful BNP claim: "All he did was drive away very fast from a combat zone. . . to safety, as have hundreds and hundreds of other British soldiers."

Last night a spokesman for the anti-racist Searchlight group said: "The BNP are repulsive. Private Beharry was awarded the highest honour in the land for risking his life in the service of his country. When did Nick Griffin last show his face in a war zone?"

News of the World