Website linked to far right hit list

Website linked to far right hit list
Home secretary under pressure to clamp down on fascist groups. Matthew
Taylor on a campaign of violence via the internet
Matthew Taylor
Wednesday December 17, 2003
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,11374,1108566,00.html
The home secretary, David Blunkett, is coming under increasing pressure to
shut down an extreme rightwing website following the discovery of a secret
hitlist of targets - including social workers, journalists and politicians.
The Guardian has seen documents from a secure email network which show
hardline fascists are planning a campaign of "violence and intimidation" and
are swapping information on bomb-making and details of possible targets.
The group is linked to the Redwatch website which carries hundreds of
pictures and details of anti-fascists - many taken during protests against
the British National Party - alongside the slogan "Remember places,
traitors' faces, they'll all pay for their crimes."
Only a handful of known neo-Nazis have access to the network which has been
infiltrated for the first time by researchers at the anti-fascist
organisation Searchlight.
Many of those featured on Redwatch have already suffered threats,
intimidation and physical assaults and campaigners fear the discovery of the
new email group, nicknamed Mole Intelligence Bureau, signals a worrying
escalation in far right violence.
A dossier on the website has been compiled by the National Union of
Journalists in Leeds and sent to the police and a local MP who passed it to
the home secretary.
A spokesman for the Home Office told the Guardian: "We are very aware of the
anxiety caused by the presence of such material on the internet. The Home
Office has had representations from many MPs about Redwatch and we will be
responding to their concerns very soon."
Unions, anti-fascist groups and MPs are looking at ways of closing the site
and prosecuting those involved.
"This email network is a very sinister development," said a spokesman for
Searchlight. "There are explicit threats against people who have stood up to
the far right and this is nothing more than political intimidation and
classic fascism."
Many of those featured on the site are people who have spoken out against
the rise of the British National Party in the north of England. During
anti-fascist meetings and protests in the runup to last year's local
elections many BNP activists took pictures of anti-fascist campaigners which
appeared on Redwatch.
Next June the BNP, which has sought to position itself as a respectable,
mainstream political party under the leadership of Nick Griffin, is expected
to field a record number of candidates in the local and European elections.
In many parts of the country all the seats on local councils are being
contested following boundary changes and anti-fascists are predicting the
biggest electoral push by the far right in recent British history.
In the private email network fascists list names and addresses of targets
and plan attacks on anti-racists in their homes or during public meetings.
One subscriber, who calls himself MIB, wrote: "Redwatch has accumulated many
names and addresses along with pictures of the targets, many of whom have
had nothing done to them. Now's the time to start a proper campaign of
violence and intimidation towards those who seek to see us silenced or
imprisoned for our beliefs."
The site has details of how to make plastic explosives and bomb designs.
One of the targets of the Mole Intelligence Bureau has been Yorkshire
Evening Post journalist Peter Lazenby, who has campaigned against racism and
fascism in Yorkshire. He was singled out after an expose of the British
National Party in the runup to last year's local elections.
Numerous addresses for Mr Lazenby were posted on the site for members to
"check out." One message read: "We need to find this reporter fast. If we
can scare this cunt off then we might get an easier time instead of being
slagged off and made to look a bunch of muppets."
The National Union of Journalists said Mr Lazenby was one of many members
who had suffered at the hands of Redwatch. "The site is about intimidation
and it's intended to stop our members doing their job, particularly when
they are exposing fascism. We have talked to our lawyers about trying to get
this site closed down but it is very difficult legally."
The MP for Reading West, Martin Salter, received a death threat from a BNP
supporter this summer after speaking out against the far right, and believes
it is crucial to tackle Redwatch.
"There are sinister elements within the far right of British politics who
are prepared to use violence and intimidation in order to silence and
discourage their opponents. They are the new model army of fascism and
Redwatch is at the centre of this evil."
In Leeds last year two teachers, Sally Kincaid and Steve Johnson, had their
car firebombed after their details - including photographs, address and car
registration number - were posted on the site. Another target was an
Anti-Nazi League activist from Halifax.
A couple of months later a leaflet including the man's home address was
distributed in his neighbourhood trying to link him and other local
activists to the mass murderers Fred West and Dennis Nilson.
In another message, posted by a BNP supporter from Batley, the people behind
Redwatch are asked if they have any intention of attending an anti-racist
meeting in Dewsbury in June. The event, which was addressed by Leon
Greenman, a Holocaust survivor, was described as a "Holohoax meeting".
One respondent advised: "The best place to attack the reds [is] just after
the meeting finishes as they are walking to catch their buses or going for
their cars." Police attended the meeting and ensured there was no trouble.
In early August, a message on the Mole Intelligence bulletin board listed
dozens of people in Yorkshire for further research, including the divisional
police commanders for Dewsbury and Huddersfield, the chief executive of
Kirklees Council, the director of a West Yorkshire health authority and
housing officers.
The Redwatch website, which also lists the home addresses of some MPs and
councillors, was launched in 2001 and has more than 1,000 photographs. In
most cases the pictures are unidentified but names, addresses, car
registrations, phone numbers and even workplace details are linked to
others.
It operates under the auspices of Combat 18, the neo-Nazi group, and takes
its name from a news sheet that C18 leaders in London produced in the early
1990s. Like now, it listed names and addresses of anti-racists and
encouraged other rightwingers to ring them up or pay them a visit.
To prevent internet attack and police action, Redwatch is hosted on three
separate sites all based abroad. One is registered in the name of the
National Front and the other two in the name of the White Nationalist Party
which is thought to be the political wing of Combat 18.
Alec McFadden, president of Merseyside TUC, appeared on the site with his
name and address after being followed home last month.
"In 1988 the fascists tried to kill me when my car was fire bombed," Mr
McFadden told the Guardian.
"Since then I have lived in secrecy and sometimes under police protection.
But now they have got my details again I'm having to have CCTV installed and
I have two children to think of. My wife, who has died, was a German Jew and
I speak to her family about this and, as they say, it is classic fascist
tactics and they know more than most that we mustn't give in to these
people."