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BNP suspected in terror plot

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

A network of suspected far-right extremists with access to 300 weapons and 80 bombs has been uncovered by counter-terrorism detectives.

Thirty-two people have been questioned in a police operation that raises the prospect of a right-wing bombing campaign against mosques. Police are said to have recovered a British National party membership card and other right-wing literature during a raid on the home of one suspect charged under the Terrorism Act.

In England’s largest seizure of a suspected terrorist arsenal since the IRA mainland bombings of the early 1990s, rocket launchers, grenades, pipe bombs and dozens of firearms have been recovered in the past six weeks during raids on more than 20 properties. Several people have been charged and more arrests are imminent. Current police activity is linked to arrests in Europe, New Zealand and Australia.

Police are examining allegations that many of the guns were manufactured or reactivated, then sold over the internet to viewers of a right-wing website. Details of the previously secret operation were disclosed by Sir Norman Bettison, the chief constable of West Yorkshire, to security officials.

Police sources say that in a recent case not linked to the current arrests, detectives seized maps and plans of mosques from the homes of suspected far-right supporters. A senior Whitehall official said MI5 was monitoring the police investigation. While the security agency did not have a brief to probe right-wing terrorism, that position was constantly under review, said the official.

Fears have been heightened by the discovery of an alleged plot involving ricin, a lethal poison; two men have been been charged with offences under the Terrorism Act.

Concerns that this might be part of a global trend have been reinforced by the case of James Von Brunn, the 88-year-old white supremacist charged with shooting dead a security guard at the Holocaust museum in America last month.

Bettison said 32 people had been arrested in the investigation, although the counter-terrorism unit in Leeds said this figure was in fact the number of people questioned. At least 22 properties have been searched.

The operation had thrown up evidence that suspects were communicating online.

“The internet gives it reach and scope,” said Bettison. “The big bad wolf is still the Al- Qaeda threat. But my people are knocking over right-wing extremists quite regularly. We are interdicting it so that it doesn’t first emerge into the public eye out of a critical incident like an explosion.”

Several alleged right-wing extremists have been charged with terrorism offences in the UK in the past year. In one case, a jury convicted Martyn Gilleard, 31, a neo-Nazi forklift truck driver, who wanted to “secure a future for white children” and kept explosives at his flat in Goole, East Yorkshire. He built small hand-held bombs, and among the material seized were membership cards for the National Front, the British People’s party and the White Nationalist party. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

In 1999, David Copeland, the so-called London nail bomber, carried out a campaign against black, Asian and gay communities. His home-made devices each included up to 1,500 4in nails. In his final attack Copeland killed three people, including a pregnant woman, after nail bombing a Soho pub. He got a life sentence for murder.

Far-right parties across Europe are growing in popularity. In last month’s European elections, the BNP won two seats for the first time in Yorkshire and the northwest and took 6.2% of the national vote.

Sunday Times

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Concern over MI6 chief web details

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

The Liberal Democrats are calling for an inquiry into whether the new head of MI6, Sir John Sawers, should be allowed to take up his post after his wife apparently published personal details on the Facebook website.

Lady Shelley Sawers disclosed information, including the location of the London flat used by the couple and the whereabouts of their three children on the social networking site, The Mail on Sunday reported.

The details, which were removed after the newspaper contacted the Foreign Office, also revealed the couple’s friendships with actors Moir Leslie and Alister Cameron.

Lady Sawers’ half-brother, Hugo Haig-Thomas, a former diplomat, was said to be among those featured in family photographs on Facebook.

Mr Haig-Thomas was an associate and researcher for controversial historian David Irving, who was jailed for three years in Austria in 2006 after pleading guilty to Holocaust denial, the paper reported.

Lady Sawers put no privacy protection on her account, allowing any of Facebook’s 200 million users in the open-access “London” network to see the entries, the paper said.

Senior politicians said the security lapse raised concerns about Sir John’s ability to take up his post as chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in November, giving him responsibility for Britain’s overseas spying operations.

Edward Davy, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, called on Gordon Brown to launch an inquiry into the matter.

He told the paper: “Normally, I would welcome greater openness in Government for officials or politicians but this type of exposure verges on the reckless.

“The Prime Minister should immediately commission an internal inquiry as to whether this has breached the security of the incoming head of MI6 too seriously to allow him to take up the post.”

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Home Secretary ditched ID cards without telling Brown

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

GORDON Brown’s main rival for the Labour leadership tore up the government’s key ID card policy without informing the Prime Minister, it was reported last night.

The Home Secretary Alan Johnson is said to have surprised the Prime Minister and his senior advisers by declaring that holding an identity card would never be compulsory for British citizens.

Last night, reports suggested that No 10 had no idea that the Home Secretary would arbitrarily change the previous policy, which was that ministers would make ID cards compulsory.

Suggestions of friction between the two politicians has re-ignited speculation that Johnson’s name will once again become associated with plots to take over the Labour leadership before the next general election. Johnson, a former postman, has always declared he would not challenge the Prime Minister.

Johnson, who was recently promoted from Health Secretary to the Home Office, had been scheduled to make a low-key announcement last Tuesday, abandoning plans for ID card trials at two airports which would have made carrying them compulsory for some pilots and airline staff.

After doing so, however, he went much further and declared: “I want the introduction of identity cards for all British citizens to be voluntary.”

A government source said: “No 10 knew Alan was going to make the airports announcement. But they had no idea he would simply tear up the entire policy as far as compulsory cards were concerned.”

Brown has always insisted that he backs moves towards making ID cards compulsory – despite protests from Labour MPs and a pledge by the Tories they would abandon them if elected, saving an estimated £2 billion.

A Downing Street spokesman last night denied there was a “rift” between the Prime Minister and Johnson.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Contributions & Guests, Political News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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