Poway synagogue shooting: suspect John T Earnest linked to mosque arson last month

April 29, 2019 Article

The 19-year-old man detained by police following an antisemitic-inspired mass shooting at a California synagogue ‘took inspiration’ from the Islamophobic terror attack in New Zealand last month.

Police named the suspect as John T Earnest and said he entered the synagogue in northern California during Passover celebrations and opened fire with an assault rifle, killing one person and injuring three others, including the rabbi.

An antisemitic and racist manifesto attributed to Mr Earnest was uploaded to 8Chan, a website popular with neo-Nazis and white supremacists before the shootings took place, came a bold claim: that John T Earnest had attempted to burn down a local mosque days after the terroristic mass shootings which left 50 Muslims dead in New Zealand.

Police have confirmed that John T Earnest is a suspect in the attempted arson of a mosque in Escondido, California, on March 25.

CCTV footage from the mosque captured the moment when an individual had poured petrol against a side door and started a fire, which was soon extinguished by worshippers, who were inside the mosque for Fajr (morning) prayers.

Details from the alleged manifesto of John T Earnest reference the mosque arson and take ownership of it – including the praise of Brenton Tarrant, which appeared in the car park. The manifesto states, however, that the message was spray-painted.

The manifesto used the racist epithet “Sandn******” to describe Muslims praying inside of the  Escondido mosque, which furthers how any understanding of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred must factor how racialisation impacts on Muslims. This understanding departs from traditional understandings transcends the “black-white divide” and welds Muslim with a singular racial category, often Asian or Arab, despite the racial diversity of Muslims in the United States (with notable numbers of Muslims identifying as black or Latinx).

Such “othering” works to further the dehumanising idea that Muslims are a cultural menace or securitised threat, which, in turn, helps to pre-empt empathy.

The synagogue shooting came six months after a white supremacist murdered 11 people inside of a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Robert Bowers, the main suspect, faces the prospect of the death penalty if convicted. Bowers’s name appeared in the manifesto attributed to John T Earnest.

Brenton Tarrant, the Christchurch terror suspect, is ‘credited’ with inspiring this latest act of antisemitic violence, which, if true, demonstrates how emboldened white supremacists and white nationalist feel to act upon the violence which underpins their ideologies.

White supremacist attacks on other faith groups remain in the headlines in the United States, as weeks earlier, a 21-year-old man, who once ‘joked’ about white power online, was charged with hate crime offences, following several arson attacks on black churches in Louisiana.

 

 

 

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Categories: Antisemitism, California, Far Right groups, mosques, News, terrorism

Teenager Praising Adolf Hitler Tells Fellow Pupils He Was Going “On a Rampage” to “Kill Many People”

April 15, 2019 Article

A teenager charged with terror offences told police that being arrested was “cool” and he would show off about it “forever”, a court has heard.

The 16-year-old boy is accused of accessing bomb-making instructions on the internet and making a potential bomb filled with shrapnel, but denies intending to harm anyone.

The trial at Leeds Crown Court heard that he told fellow pupils at his school that he was going to “go on a rampage” and “kill many people”.

The jury was told that the teenager also told students he was going to carry out a school shooting and had praised Adolf Hitler.

Paul Greaney QC, prosecuting, read out statements from the boy’s interview with the police following his arrest in August last year.

The court heard he said he would be able to show off to his friends about being arrested “forever”.

Mr Greaney said he told police: “When I have kids I’ll probably still talk about this.”

He described being in the cells as “wicked” and said the situation was “cool and funny”, the court was told.

But the jury heard he told police it “wouldn’t be a joke any more” if he was charged with offences.

The trial has heard that the boy developed an interest in extremist far right ideology and accessed videos and information about murder, torture and mutilation on the internet.

When asked about the violent material, the court heard he told police:

“I find that stuff cool like any teenager would.”

The teenager said he was bullied at school and would say and do “stupid stuff”, the court was told.

Mr Greaney said the boy told police he talked about bombs because:

“Bombs sound cool and will make me sound cooler. It makes me stand out and I look more cool.”

The barrister said the boy added: “I know in my head I wasn’t going to do anything, or haven’t really been doing anything wrong, so it’s cool to me.

“I know I wasn’t going to do anything bad or harm to anyone.”

The court has heard that a search of the teenager’s home in Bradford, West Yorkshire, found a device made from two carbon dioxide canisters joined together and filled with metal tacks, which could have been a “viable CO2 bomb” with the addition of gunpowder and a fuse.

Talking about the device in the interview with police, the court heard that the boy said: “If I was a terrorist, do you think I would leave the device on the bedroom floor?

“If I was a terrorist, I would hide it to the best of my abilities. Why would I have it in my bedroom just sitting on the floor?”

He denied planning an attack on anyone or any place.

The boy denies one count of making an explosive substance with intent, one count of making an explosive substance and three counts of possession of a document likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

The case was adjourned until Tuesday.

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Categories: Adolf Hitler, News, Teenager

Why was a far-right activist ‘invited’ onto a Counter Terrorism Advisory Group panel?

April 15, 2019 Article

A political candidate for the far-right For Britain party was pictured making the “okay” hand gesture, which depending on the context, has been used by white supremacists like terror suspect Brenton Tarrant and so-called ‘alt-right’ trolls, at a far-right event last year, a Tell MAMA investigation can reveal.

The wide-ranging investigation of Frankie Rufolo’s social media usage raises further questions about his suitability to sit on the Government’s Counter Terrorism Advisory Group for young people.

There’s another immediate concern: why was an individual, whose views on the For Britain group are traceable in 2017, who has been referred to Prevent, was able to secure such an invitation.

The photograph of Mr Rufolo and others making the “okay” hand gesture appeared on the social storytelling website Wattpad last year, in a poem titled “Union Flag” where he recalled attending a far-right rally. Without context or explanation, the photograph in question appeared at the end of the poem.

During a pro-Brexit protest in Exeter with well-known Islamophobe Katie Hopkins, Frankie Rufolo was pictured in an “Anti-Communist Action” t-shirt, the logo on this shirt, however, is closer to the neo-Nazi “anticom” front, which differs from the version sold by the US-based ‘Liberty Hangout’.

Credit:Twitter/KTHopkins

Mr Rufolo, however, has liked the Facebook page of the former. The page has engaged in Holocaust revisionism, including placing the number of Jewish Holocaust victims in quotation marks. Anticom helped to organise a neo-Nazi rally in Shelbyville in 2017 under the ‘White Lives Matter’ hashtag and provided security for the neo-Nazi Richard Spencer. The anticom Facebook page continues to post violent memes which target the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which mirrors the authoritarian violence of General Pinochet in Chile. Violently Islamophobic memes have also appeared on the Anticom Twitter account.

News of the Exeter bridge protest went viral after a man threatened to throw Mr Rufolo and a woman off the bridge.

Credit:DevonLive

Frankie Rufolo made headlines again after he burnt a copy of the Holy Quran in an Exeter pub following a ‘heated’ political debate.

Writing for “Make Britain Great Again”, the website of Luke Nash-Jones in 2017, an individual linked to the far-right storming of a left-wing bookshop in central London last year, Rufolo attempted to push the racialised idea of ‘Muslim-on-Muslim violence’, echoing a similar mythologised trope of ‘black-on-black violence’.

Frankie Rufolo has lionised Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson), and the Mussolini-praising Deputy Prime Minister of Italy, Matteo Salvini, on Twitter.

 

Credit:RufoloFrancesco/Twitter.

Credit:@RufoloFrancesco/Twitter.

On January 25, Rufolo tweeted, “Islam is evil and the sooner it dies out, the better.” Other notable tweets include a reference to a “Muslim rape gang” and following news of a stabbing in London, made a crude reference to London’s first Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, with the phrase “Khanage”’.

Other controversial ‘likes’ on the Facebook of Mr Rufolo includes the extremist Hindu nationalist Tapan Ghosh, who once claimed that “backwardsness is the most ‘powerful’ weapon of Islam,” was invited into parliament by Conservative MP Bob Blackman. Tell MAMA wrote a formal complaint to parliament following the appearances of Ghosh in 2017.

Photographs with the leader of For Britain, Anne Marie Waters, who expressed a desire to close mosques, end immigration from Muslim-majority countries, and for deportations, when standing for Ukip in 2015, appear on his social media.

Anne Marie Waters has sat on the leadership committee of Pegida UK, alongside Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and Paul Weston. In 2014, Ms Waters shared a platform with Lars Hedegaard, an individual who forms part of the wider ‘counter-Jihad’ network.

Mr Rufolo called David Lammy a “racist hypocrite” following the Labour MP’s criticism of Stacey Dooley, for perpetuating “tired and unhelpful stereotypes” about Africa, following her campaign work with Comic Relief.

He gave the Facebook page of Carl Benjamin (aka Sargon of Akkad) a 5-star review, adding that he was an “absolute lad”. Mr Benjamin, who intends to run as a candidate for Ukip at the upcoming European elections, was back in the news after their rape tweet to Labour MP Jess Phillips in 2016, was defended by Ukip leader Gerrard Batten, as “satire” during his appearance on the Andrew Marr Show. Following that tweet, Jess Phillips received over 600 rape threats.

A pro-refugee and pro-migrant group called “Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants-Bristol” was also given a 1-star review on Facebook by Mr Rufolo.

This Tell MAMA investigation raises further questions about Frankie Rufolo’s supposed involvement with any previous and future involvement in the Counter-Terrorism Advisory Group for young people.

 

 

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Categories: Anne Marie Waters, For Britain, Frankie Rufolo, News

Far Right Extremists Have Viewed IS Bomb Manuals – Security Minister

April 2, 2019 Article

Far-right extremists in Britain have viewed Islamic State (IS) terror and bomb-making manuals, the security minister told MPs.

Appearing before the Defence Committee to discuss global Islamist terrorism, Ben Wallace also highlighted how some “individuals are starting to pose significant danger”.

“The methods that are bringing these people to our threshold is predominantly through the internet,” Mr Wallace said during his evidence on Tuesday.

“Historically, in the past, they had no friends, they sat on their own, they couldn’t talk to anyone else – now they live in a virtual safe space.

“They communicate through the internet … sometimes we find them actually looking at Isis (IS) terror manuals to learn how to make bombs – obviously for a different reason.”

He said the internet has given the far right “better organisation and better momentum”, but that they are yet to reach the level of “determined conspiracy or cultural religious depth” of the Islamists.

“But individuals are starting to pose significant danger, it’s why Prevent in my view is very important to head them off,” Mr Wallace added.

He also said that nearly half of those in the so-called “Channel” part of the Prevent programme, dealing with individuals at risk of being drawn into terrorism, were involved with the far-right.

“Forty-three per cent are extreme right-wing neo-Nazis compared to 45% for the Islamists,” he said.

Mr Wallace said the prevalence of the right-wing threat is higher in different parts of the country – highlighting the North East and North West as particular examples.

He also referred to the period of the early 2000s when he said the banned extremist group al-Muhajiroun and hate preacher Anjem Choudary “were fomenting and recruiting”, adding: “Before these people crystallised into Isis fighters and volunteers – that is where we are seeing the far right.

“It is a bubbling group of extremists and we need to get in there using Prevent, using diversion, to prevent them becoming tomorrow’s terrorist groups.”

Asked whether the far-right threat is a new phenomenon, Mr Wallace said there have always been “neo-Nazis at large”.

“But it is a recent phenomenon that they are more capable, more organised and more able to live in a global community, which is also the same as Isis (or) Daesh,” he said.

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Categories: Ben Wallace, IS Bomb Making manuals, News

Surrey Stabbing a ‘Terrorist Incident Inspired by the Far Right’, the Police Say

March 17, 2019 Article

A stabbing in Surrey in which a man rampaged with a baseball bat and knife while hurling racist abuse is being treated as a terror attack.

Counter terrorism officers and Surrey Police are investigating the incident in a Tesco car park in Stanwell on Saturday night.

A 50-year-old man from the village, which is near Heathrow Airport, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and racially aggravated public order offences, Counter Terrorism Policing South East said.

Neighbours said they were “shocked” and “scared” by the incident.

Officers were called at around 10.30pm to reports of a man acting aggressively and shouting racist comments while carrying the weapons in Viola Avenue where vehicles had been damaged.

They then received another call reporting a man had been stabbed nearby.

Armed police attended and arrested a suspect who remains in custody.

A 19-year-old man, who went to a nearby McDonald’s to try to get help, was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries and continues to receive treatment, police said.

The extent of his injuries has not been confirmed.

Abhishek Agrawal, 40, and his wife Tanu, 36, who run catering company Indian Homemade based in the street, said they were shocked and scared by news of the attack.

Mr Agrawal said: “Last night I saw a helicopter so we knew something was happening. We could hear it flying above the area for a long time.

“We didn’t know what happened until today.

“We have lived here for nearly a decade and have never heard of anything like this happening.

“It’s very scary to hear this has happened, I work in central London and often come back late on the last bus.”

Mrs Agrawal said: “It’s very scary and sad.

“It’s a very quiet area.

“We have never heard of anything like this.”

It is believed the suspect in both incidents is the same man and officers are not looking for anyone else in connection with the attack, police said.

Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, head of counter terrorism policing,

said: “While this investigation is still in its infancy, it has hallmarks of a terror event, inspired by the far right, and therefore it has been declared a terrorism incident.

“This allows us to use all of the specialist capabilities available to establish the full circumstances of this attack.

“Police are committed to tackling all forms of toxic extremist ideology, which has the potential to threaten public safety and security.”

Officers will be out on patrol in the area and visiting places of worship and businesses, he said, and urged any witnesses or anyone who sees anything suspicious to report it to police.

Detective Superintendent Karen Mizzi, of Surrey Police, said it was a “shocking and worrying incident”.

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Categories: Isamophobia, News, Surrey, Terrorist incident

Brenton Tarrant: How the media helped turn the ‘shitposting’ terrorist into a meme

March 15, 2019 Article

In the search for answers following the terroristic murder of 49 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, we have the manifesto of 28-year-old Australian national Brenton Tarrant.

This manifesto, like the decision to live stream his murderous rampage, were stepped in dark internet culture, a composition of memes drenched in the stench of ‘shitposting’.

Mr Tarrant, for example, did not learn about ethnonationalism through the video game Spyro 3. Nor did he learn to kill by playing the video game Fortnite. It’s possible that this reference is a simple act of ‘shitposting’ but may also reflect how another far-right terrorist, Anders Breivik, cited as an inspiration by Tarrant, claimed that Call of Duty, another popular video game franchise, improved his proficiency with firearms. Tarrant boats of receiving a ‘blessing’ from Breivik to carry out the attack.

Minutes before the massacre began, a post attributed to Brenton Tarrant, on 8chan began: “Well lads, it’s time to stop shitposting and time to make a real life effort post.” He added: “I have provided links to my my writings below, please do your part by spreading my message, making memes and shitposting as you usually do.”

The image choice is no accident either. It references the long-standing meme that Australians are more responsible for shitposting due to the difference in time zone, according to Know Your Meme.

Brenton Tarrant wanted to become a meme, to transcend beyond his own’ shitposting’, and ethnonationalist and Islamophobic views. Sections of the British media, however, helped further this desire by turning sections of his live stream into a GIF, a decision which went against the advice of the New Zealand police. The MailOnline even uploaded Tarrant’s entire manifesto for its readers to access.

Such actions demonstrate a deeper sense of self-awareness, by inserting other examples of ‘shitposting’ in his manifesto, like the Navy Seal Copypasta, Tarrant hopes to catch the media off-guard and to keep himself relevant in the ever-changing news cycle, by alluding to popular culture and individuals like PewDiePie and Candace Owens. With the latter, he adds: “The extreme actions she calls for are too much, even for my tastes.” A clearer example if any of his ‘shitposting’ to keep his actions and manifesto in the public eye.

But his ‘shitposting’ has a deeper and sinister intent: to draw others into the actual propaganda, from his ethnonationalist screeds to outright Islamophobic conspiracies of Islamisation, demographics, and the white supremacist myth of the “Great Removal”. The ideological inconsistencies speak of the neo-fascist ‘ third-way’ positions and heap praise on Anders Breivik and Oswald Mosley.

On Facebook, he uploaded a video of the widely debunked video on Muslim demographics and a clip from the television show Ugly Americans where the koala character Doug sets fire to a building, which has been a popular meme since 2013.

Cyrillic, Armenian and Georgian references to historical figures and events; and the phrase: “Here’s Your Migration Compact” appeared on one of the weapons.

Archives of his social media accounts include a plethora of examples of Tarrant using mainstream news sources to scaremonger over demographics and link Muslims more broadly to crimes like child sexual exploitation, with several references to high-profile trials in the UK and Finland, including the slogan “For Rotherham” which appeared on his gun. On Facebook, an article from the Daily Express concerning ‘Asian grooming gangs’ was shared.

Archives of his social media accounts include a plethora of examples of Tarrant using mainstream news sources to scaremonger over demographics and to link Muslims more broadly to crimes like child sexual exploitation. His manifesto made several references to high-profile trials in the UK and Finland, including the slogan “For Rotherham” which appeared on his gun.

Tell MAMA, has, for years now, documented how the far-right have continued to exploit high-profile criminal CSE convictions to push a divisive narrative about Muslims more broadly. Full Fact, a non-partisan fact-checking charity, reported in September 2017, that the government had not updated data on convictions for sexual offences since 2014, data which found that 81 per cent (where ethnicity data was available) of people convicted for such offences were white, 7 per cent were black and 9 per cent were Asian.

Videos shared on his Facebook included neo-Nazi propaganda which praised Oswald Mosley, with one such video, created by the Youtuber ‘You Kipper’ having almost two-hundred-thousand views.

Tarrant shared memes about the Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh. He also shared a meme which promoted the burning of a mosque. Both appeared on his timeline on March 12.

Like Alexandre Bissonnette, Tarrant swam through similar echo chambers. It’s no accident that Bissonnette’s name appears on one of his weapons.

Consistent with far-right/radical right parties, Islamophobic ideologues/groups, and neo-Nazis is Tarrant’s ideological and selective reading of European history. For example, a meme celebrating the murder of Muslim men, women, and children featuring Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (aka Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Tepes), was shared on Tarrant’s Facebook. Academics argue that such imagery and language appeals to a chauvinistic form of identity politics which taps into ‘group-specific collective memories’ that are always hinted at and occasionally directly addressed. Anders Breivik, in his 760-page manifesto, envisioned creating a weapon to murder Muslims which was named after Tepes.

Music was also an important part of this terror attack, as the audio which played at the start of the live stream derives from a propaganda tribute to Radovan Karadžić, the Serbian general and convicted war criminal, who was responsible for the genocide of Muslims in Srebrenica in 1998. The ‘Serbia Strong’ video, known colloquially as ‘Stop Kebab’ has circulated on YouTube since at least 2008. A reference to ‘stopping kebabs’ appeared in his manifesto and on his gun. Other songs include the Initial D track ‘Gas Gas Gas’ and the remix “Grün ist Ünser Fallschirm” or Waffen SS Choir, an audiotrack popular among fascists on YouTube and Soundcloud.

He called on others to murder the Muslim Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and even made reference to the Finsbury Park terrorist Darren Osborne, spelt as Darren Osbourne.

As experts on far-right extremism in Australia have pointed out, the Australian Senate almost voted in favour of a bill which echoed far-right narratives about ‘anti-white racism’ last November.

His manifesto ends with the chilling reflection: “Do you feel any remorse for the attack”? the author asks self-referentially in the manifesto. “No. I only wish I could have killed more invaders, and more traitors as well.”

This act of Islamophobic terrorism was pre-planned for months, driven by a racist and hateful ideology, yet sections of the British press referred to him as a “smiling tot” and a “blond little boy”, which further demonstrate the need for such press to reflect on how terrorism against Muslims and other minorities from white perpetrators is framed. As Dr H.A. Hellyer tweeted: “I am losing count of the number of condemnations of this terrorist attack in that fail to mention the words “mosque” and “Muslim”. For goodness sakes: they were killed for being *Muslim*. Name it. Don’t pander to the far-right that led to this outrage.”

 

 

 

 

 

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Categories: Brenton Tarrant, Far Right groups, News, terrorism

Brexit Divisions Could Increase Far Right Extremism, Warns Police Chief

January 23, 2019 Article

The divisive potential of Brexit could lead to a “creeping rise” in people being radicalised by far-right extremism, a police chief has warned.

Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said the “febrile” atmosphere surrounding Brexit could give rise to division, allowing a way in for far-right extremist ideology.

Mr Basu said there was no intelligence pointing to an increased risk of terror attacks after Brexit, but he was concerned about a potential rise in hate crime.

The head of UK counter-terrorism policing said: “What’s most concerning me about Brexit is its potential to divide communities and set communities against each other.

“So what we saw after the referendum (in 2016) was a rise in hate crime, and a rise in far-right rhetoric, and we have seen the growth of organisations like National Action, and what I want to make absolutely clear is that we are concentrating very heavily on making sure that doesn’t get a foothold in this country.

“I’m really proud to be a UK citizen in a country that is largely tolerant, and we haven’t seen an explosion in that threat.

“What I’m concerned about is the creeping rise of that threat, and if we aren’t clear that we are combating that threat then that’s my concern.

“It’s still a relatively small threat compared to what we have faced from al Qaida in the past and Islamic State over the last four years or so.”

Earlier this month Scotland Yard was forced to increase its presence in the political heart of London after Tory MP Anna Soubry was branded a Nazi by a mob during television interviews and was then followed to the Palace of Westminster.

Mr Basu acknowledged the policing in place at the time “wasn’t assertive enough to stop who were intent on being intimidating”.

It comes as Labour MP for Great Grimsby Melanie Onn tweeted some of the abuse she has received, calling her a “traitor” and warning her to “Watch your back as you will not be forgiven”.

Appealing for “calm reflection and debate”, Mr Basu told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We have seen some of the behaviour from very, very small groups.

“If you think about what happened outside of Parliament just before Christmas and just after Christmas, we had months of very peaceful, very lawful, no problems protest outside Parliament.

“Then a very small group of people managed to turn that atmosphere and that cannot be right. We must make absolutely sure that doesn’t happen.”

Mr Basu said he finds the prospect of a no-deal Brexit “incredibly concerning”.

Leaving the European Union without continued access to shared data and intelligence systems would put the UK and Europe in a “very bad place”, he said.

Mr Basu said: “For counter-terrorism we have a lot of bilateral relationships, it is a devolved power for countries, it is not an EU power, so we are confident that my counterparts in those 27 countries want to exchange information with us and we are working very hard to make sure we put that in place.

“But nevertheless, to leave without … being able to exchange data or biometrics on people who might be criminals or terrorists would be a very bad place for this country, and for Europe, to be.”

Mr Basu said there was a central team working on contingency plans, while counter-terrorism police liaison officers were “embedded” in embassies and agencies in Europe.

He said: “They are working very hard with their counterparts to understand how we cope if there is a no-deal Brexit, but as I said, a no-deal Brexit for operational security would be a very bad thing.”

Mr Basu was speaking at the launch of a major cinema advert campaign to increase awareness of suspicious activity and encourage people to report it to police.

The 60-second film shows a series of scenarios, such as a man stockpiling hazardous material and another buying weapons, before rewinding and zooming in on the danger.

In 2017 and 2018, around a fifth of the information passed to police from the public had a “significant” role in thwarting attacks, he said.

Four far-right extremist plots and 14 Islamist terror plots were foiled in the last two years.

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Categories: Brexit, Met, Neil Basu, News, No-Deal Brexit, Rise in Hate Crime

Far Right ‘Winning The Hybrid War Against Society’, MP Warns

January 22, 2019 Article

The far right are “winning the hybrid war against society”, ministers were warned as MPs debated proposals to toughen anti-terror laws.

SNP MP Stewart McDonald, who was recently targeted by English Defence League (EDL) founder Tommy Robinson, raised concerns over “dark channels of money” funding the far right in the UK as MPs considered amendments to the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill.

The Bill aims to equip the statute book for the digital age and will allow police and prosecutors to intervene earlier in investigations, and will also close off potential loopholes.

Security Minister Ben Wallace, in response to the concerns raised by Mr McDonald, said that funding for extremist far-right groups had not been “as high as people imagine”.

He said: “For very little amounts of money you can groom people, inspire people, indeed the terrorist attacks of 2017, the five main attacks cost GBP5,000 in total.

“That is the reality of a modern-day terrorist attack and indeed the financing behind it, I don’t see much evidence of huge swathes of money funding it.

“What I do see is growing evidence of the impact of the internet allowing people to join up who in the past had nowhere to go, who may have been the oddball in their village, or the odd one out now has the ability to live in a fantasy world, to indulge their bigoted beliefs, to learn how to make bombs and hurt people and find kindred spirits across the internet.

“That is what I believe has given one of the big boosts to terrorism.”

The comments came as MPs considered a number of House of Lords amendments to the Bill.

One such amendment, Clause 4, seeks to soften Government proposals to jail UK nationals for up to 10 years if they enter a “designated area” overseas.

The move was designed to help police and prosecutors mount prosecutions in cases where there is limited evidence of the suspect’s activities while overseas but presence in an area associated with terrorism can be proved.

The Lords added a number of “reasonable excuses”, described as “get outs” by Independent MP John Woodcock (Barrow and Furness), for being in such an area.

The reasons, if accepted by the Commons, would include providing humanitarian aid, carrying out work for the Government, carrying out work for the United Nations, working as a journalist, attending a funeral or visiting a relative who is terminally ill.

Mr Woodcock, addressing the Security Minister, said: “Does he not share my concern that some of the get outs which are listed now on the face of the Bill could be very easy to exploit, for example how can it be proved that someone wasn’t going to attend a funeral if that’s what they say?”

Mr Wallace responded: “If you go your reasonable excuse has to cover all your activity, so if you are going there and you say you are going there as a doctor but you are also going there to commit a terrorist offence or a crime that reasonable excuse effectively falls away.”

“The designated offence is designed to be used to establish a clear ban on travel to a tightly defined area or areas outside the UK where such a ban is necessary for the purpose of protecting the public from a risk of terrorism with a criminal sanction breaching that ban”, he added.

Mr Wallace said such an offence would “send a clear message that there are areas that we do not want people to go to”.

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Categories: English Defence League, News, Stewart McDonald, Tommy Robinson

Man Accused of Planning Massacre ‘Rejected Offer To Address Far Right Views’

January 18, 2019 Article

A white supremacist accused of planning a massacre in his home town rejected an offer from counter-terrorism officials to address his far-right views nine months before his arrest, a court has heard.

Shane Fletcher, 21, is said to have wanted to achieve notoriety in emulating the Columbine High School shooters by committing a murderous mass attack in Workington last year.

He is alleged to have regarded Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold as “legends” and allegedly targeted the town’s traditional Uppies and Downies event – where large numbers of participants and spectators gather every Easter for three football matches played in the streets throughout the night.

Fletcher’s probation officer told Manchester Crown Court he alerted the authorities in March 2018 after the defendant told him the only thing stopping him committing a mass killing was a lack of cash and resources.

Lee Cartner said he held weekly meetings with Fletcher from April 2017 after his release on licence from custody.

Asked by prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford what his first impressions were of the defendant, Mr Cartner said: “He presented as very disillusioned and he was quite flat in mood.

“He came across that he was probably quite isolated and probably not very invested in the community. I would describe him as a loner.”

But Mr Cartner said Fletcher was keen to get a job and address his alcohol problems.

In subsequent meetings, he openly identified as being racist and Mr Cartner noted that Fletcher was “a risk to minorities, particularly Muslim” after Fletcher told him he had dreamt of shooting at a mosque.

The probation officer would challenge his views but Fletcher remained “insistent” and later that led to a referral to the Government’s Prevent counter-terror programme.

Talks were held about the possibility of Fletcher meeting with former members of EDL or Combat 18, but Mr Cartner said the defendant was “very clear” he did not want to do that.

Mr Cartner said: “He described any such former members as being race traitors.”

It was made clear to Fletcher he would continue to be monitored and the offer by Prevent to engage with him remained open, the probation officer said.

Mr Cartner said his concerns increased from December, when Fletcher would speak about Columbine and the Hungerford massacres, but “typically he would clarify he would not do these things”.

He went on: “He was becoming more specific in terms of an intention to cause harm. I thought that these fixations of mass casualty events was starting to increase.

“He told me the only thing stopping him carrying out a mass killing was lack of finances and resources effectively, but he did say he knew people from Liverpool who could get guns for him and he did know to make a bomb from the internet.”

Mr Cartner agreed he gave a diary to Fletcher in July 2017 so he could track his job centre appointments and avoid benefits sanctions.

Mr Sandiford asked: “Did you ask him to write anything else down?”

Mr Cartner replied: “No.”

Mr Sandiford continued: “Or suggest he should do so?”

“No,” repeated Mr Cartner.

Following his arrest at his family home in Wastwater Avenue, Fletcher told police his probation officer had told him to write his thoughts and feelings in the diary as a “coping strategy”.

Among the diary entries were instructions on how to make a pipe bomb and napalm, the jury has heard.

The Crown say Fletcher tried to recruit his only friend, Kyle Dixon, to agree to join him in the alleged planned Uppies and Downies attack in April 2018.

Fletcher denies soliciting Mr Dixon to murder persons unknown and two counts of collecting or making a record of information useful for terrorism purposes, namely instructions on how to make a pipe bomb and how to make napalm or an improvised version of napalm.

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Categories: Columbine High School, Hungerford, News, Shane Fletcher

Murder of Pawel Adamowicz, Mayor of Gdansk, Should Be a Wake Up Call

January 14, 2019 Article

The murder of Pawel Adamowicz, the mayor of the Polish city Gdansk, should send shockwaves trembling through Europe. It should also be a wake-up call about where toxic political discourse is taking us.

Adamwicz, a liberal mayor known for his vociferous and uncompromising defence of migrants, refugees, women and LGBT rights, was stabbed at a charity concert. His assailant is a 27-year-old with a record of violent crime and after the stabbing supposedly told the crowd he blamed Adamwicz’s former political party for his jailing in 2014.

Adamwicz was abhorred by the far-right for his socially liberal outlook and while no evidence exists implicating far-right motivations for the attack, it’s understood that Poland has experienced a rise in social tensions and increasing normalisation of hate speech.

Europe’s liberal values is under siege and though many would like to assume the pressure is being exclusively applied externally from reactionary Islamist movements and regimes, it also exists at home with the intolerance and bigotry of the far-right. Increasingly they have shown themselves not averse to assaulting liberal politicians or threatening them with such.

Politics has polarised society and created these divides in which those belonging to the other side are traitors and not worth reconnecting with. The politics of community and solidarity, in which we build common bonds with each other has been lost. It would be foolish to deny this issue does not exist on the left given the increasing bouts of anti-Semitism as well as the growing disconnect with blue-collar workers across many western societies. But the discourse around migrants and refugees, in painting them as threats to civilization has facilitated the targeting of liberal activists and politicians as traitors for risking national security by opening the borders to these people.

Britain has seen the dangerous consequences of allowing unchecked right-wing populist language to pervade our politics. The murder of Labour MP Jo Cox by a far-right sympathizer cannot be seen in isolation from her staunch defence of immigration. Her words, “more in common” have been immortalised in migrant campaigning, but it’s a reminder of how language matters. The People’s Vote campaign is technocratic, elitist and disconnected from the blue-collar working-class communities of the north which have been left behind by globalisation as London has enjoyed excess prosperity. But that does not excuse the terrible language around Anna Soubry which led to her harrowing abuse as she was essentially harassed by a far-right mob led by James Goddard.

Even if you were prepared to ignore this, you cannot ignore the hate crime that rose after Brexit, aimed at EU migrants and Muslims. These were not small spurts but astronomical spikes that was all about generating a hostile environment for minorities. The EU referendum had been toxic in its depiction of immigration and the far-right was euphoric in its abuse.

This is about remembering the basic principle of human rights, democracy and civil liberty, and how they work as the moral trident governing our political systems. But the far-right has threatened this repeatedly, abusing our democracy, seeking to undermine our commitment to human rights and liberties, and in doing so have contributed to the moral decline in our political discourse. They are content to watch children drown off boats fleeing war and will harangue anyone who makes a defence of that.

There are some who have sought to use the shadow of the far-right hanging over our politics as an argument against another referendum on Brexit. They might, shamelessly, cite Adamowicz’s murder as proof of that. But it’s clear the far-right will behave abusively whatever the outcome. The murder of a popular liberal politician in Poland should convey a warning to everyone that we must reel in our discourse because it has strayed too far into toxicity. It is fertilising Europe with hatred against minorities and those who seek to defend them.

In times like this we should celebrate those who have a steadfast commitment to human rights. We should be glad for charities like Action Aid, Afghanistan and Central Asian Association, Refugee Action and others who seek to make new homes for asylum seekers and help them connect with new communities. This is the best defence of our human rights.

Article by Rabbil Sikdar

The post Murder of Pawel Adamowicz, Mayor of Gdansk, Should Be a Wake Up Call appeared first on Faith Matters.

Categories: killing, Liberal Values, Mayor of Gdansk, Opinions, Pawel Adamowicz