Boofhead Goes to Court. Again.

Posted on May 23, 2007 by @ndy
    You want lies with that?

Man admits racist graffiti role
Ryan Pedler
The West Australian
May 22, 2007

A second member of racist group the White Devils yesterday admitted his involvement in a graffiti campaign across Perth three years ago.

Benjamin Weerheym [a/k/a Benedict Williams] told a District Court jury that he and several other men met Australian Nationalist[s] Movement leader Jack van Tongeren and his deputy John Anthony Van Blitterswyk to discuss the campaign in June 2004.

Mr Weerheym, who was recruited to the ANM in 2003, said Mr van Tongeren gave instructions to put up only “politically motivated” posters at various locations throughout Perth.

But Mr Weerheym said graffiti was incorporated when he and others put the posters up a week or two later.

[D’oh!]

Mr Weerheym was giving evidence at the trial of Mr Van Blitterswyk on a charge of conspiring with other ANM members to fire-bomb four Chinese restaurants in Perth in mid-2004.

Opening the trial last week, prosecutor Alan Troy said the fire bombings were due to be carried out in mid-2004 just before the release of Mr van Tongeren’s book The ANM Story but were postponed.

White Devils founder Daniel Tyrone Klavins [a/k/a ‘Donk’], who has admitted his group was racist, has told the court that Mr van Tongeren gave instructions to put posters up promoting the ANM but he and others decided to add racist posters and graffiti.

Mr Klavins confirmed the graffiti campaign included spray painting the slogans “Jews out” and references to six million at a synagogue and food mart in Menora and messages including “we will bomb you all” at a Chinese restaurant in Southlands.

Posters put up featured messages including “The ANM Story, read it now” and “Jack’s back”.

The court was played a telephone conversation intercepted and recorded by police in which Mr Weerheym threatened a fellow White Devils member named “Occy” with a $50 fine if he did not attend a mid-week meeting at the group’s “clubhouse”, at Mr Klavins’ home.

[As Boofhead himself might exclaim: “Ha ha ha ha ha!”]

Mr Weerheym confirmed that Mr Klavins later yelled at Occy by phone.

Mr Weerheym agreed that Mr Klavins liked to run the White Devils with an iron fist [Seig Heil!] and had insisted that people wanting to join do something that “made the news” as an initiation.

The trial continues today.

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, War on Terror | 2 Comments

2007 Sydney Forum

Posted on May 23, 2007 by @ndy

Sensitive New Age Hitlerites will be gathering in Sydney again this August, for the seventh annual Sydney Forum… and you’re invited!

“Speech!”

As in previous years, the Forum will function as a de facto Australia First Party conference, with AFP führer and convicted neo-Nazi criminal Dr. James Saleam organising things behind-the-scenes, and German-born unconvicted neo-Nazi (and Holocaust denialist) Welf Herfurth acting as MC. The Forum / conference gathers together, in the one place and at the one time, the er, ‘cream’, of the Australian fascist milieu, and addressing the one hundred or so attendees will be the following, largely middle-aged — and largely batshit — bigots:

    Perry Jewell : A far-right activist, founder of the now-defunct Queensland-based precursor to One Notion, the Confederate Action Party, and two-times Queensland Senate candidate (in 1993 and 1996), Jewell’s main claim to fame is having kidnapped his daughter a number of years ago in a bid to stop her using heroin (apparently);

    Jim Cassidy : NSW State President of One Notion, and speaker at last year’s Forum, last February Jim told Herr Doktor that he wasn’t welcome at ONP meetings… ‘cos he was a white supremacist. I guess Jim must now believe that Saleam’s alright ‘cos he’s belatedly discovered that he’s not all-white;

    Andrew Fraser : Since coming out of the closet, The Nutty Professor — and lover of all things blonde-haired and blue-eyed — has joined the long list of distinguished intellectual mediocrities to have spoken at the Forum, this being the third occasion the Canadian-born schmuck will have complained about there being ‘too many darkies’ in Australia;

    David Innes : WA Scumfront organiser, unemployed IT ‘expert’, and soon-to-be star in — appropriately enough — Zoo Weekly;

and last but by certainly no means least, Herr Doktor himself. Saleam’s also promised to arrange two vewy special surprise speakers from Europe this year too… one of whom, presumably, will be from either the German NPD or the British BNP.

Location location location…

The first day’s events, on Saturday August 25, will be held @ an as-yet undisclosed location, the reason for the non-disclosure being to ensure that a nervous host doesn’t withdraw permission for the fascist gathering to take place on its premises (as the Russian Club did in 2005).

To get the venue details: you will have to telephone either of the two numbers here after 7.30 am on the Saturday morning, August 25 or you will be phoned by us. It is our promise that plenty of time will be available for any resident to reach the venue by 9.15 am for a ‘start’ at 9.30 am. Phone 0407 732 868 OR 0411 669 181.

Judging by previous year’s events, in a kinda local, fascist, political equivalent of the Eurovision Song Contest, the venue will most likely be one of Sydney’s Eastern European Clubs; while the Russian Club sensibly cancelled the booking in 2005, last year it was the privilege of Sydney’s Estonian community to provide a platform for racist bigotry and anti-immigrant rhetoric. And this year — who knows? — maybe Sydney’s Lithuanian community will seize the opportunity to drag its name through the mud. In any case, the second day’s events will be held, as is seemingly customary, @ Jim’s bunker in Tempe (725 Princes Highway). Note that the bunker was formerly the Sydney headquarters of the now-defunct neo-Nazi grouping National Action, of which Saleam was also, prior to his imprisonment, Der führer. It’s witnessed some wild scenes in the past, including the shooting to death in April 1991 of NA member Wayne “Bovver” Smith by fellow NA member Perry Whitehouse, a murder caught on tape by ASIO:

Smith : What’s it say?
Whitehouse : Ask him, mate. Just ask him. He’s…
Smith : You’re the one that’s fuckin’ sayin’ this.
Whitehouse : Just wait here. (Footsteps.) I’ll show what I got to say.
Smith : All right.
Music. Pause in conversation. Six sharp noises in succession. Distinct sound similar to a gun being fired. Crashing sounds. Music.
Whitehouse : That’s what I got to fuckin’ say, you fuckin’ cunt.
Another member, Gregory Jorgensen, then speaks. His words are inaudible.
Whitehouse : I just killed the prick. You wanna know. Yeah, you wanna fuckin’ know. What’ya wanna know… to kill you too… I just shot the fuckin’ prick. Right. I just shot the cunt. Wanna know.
Music stops.
Whitehouse : Because he’s a fuckin’ arsehole, that’s why I shot him. Right. Do you think I’m fuckin’ scared of fuckin’ goin’ to jail. I don’t give a fuck. I’m not scared. Right. I shot the cunt dead. That’s what it’s all about boy, that’s what it’s all about, right. You ain’t got the guts to fuckin’ face up to that, you’re fuckin’ weak as piss. Right, he’s fuckin’ dead. Now we gotta get rid of that body or I’m gonna get rid of the fuckin’ body, right.
A gasp is heard.
Whitehouse : Shut up, ya fuckin’ prick.

Ah, such history! And worth recalling too, especially given the recent spat between David Innes (Baron von Hund) and Saleam (radnat) on Shitfront regarding Saleam’s status as a (non-)white, convicted criminal, and leader of a white supremacist organisation.

Which is a problem, apparently.

Whatever Saleam’s claims to the contrary, Innes’ partner and Scumfront moderator Lilith Peterson has relegated poor old Jim to the ‘Opposing Views’ segment on the site; the segment reserved for non-whites.

Which certainly won’t please Jamahl.

The documents regarding the character of Saleam’s grandfather and great-uncle — produced during their attempts to become naturalised Australian citizens, and reproduced on Shitfront — make for some pretty bizarre reading. According to one Australian bureaucrat, writing in 1921, Davis Saleam “is, plainly, morally oblique, and would seem to be hardly able to distinguish right from wrong. The candour of his confession is, to a certain extent, proof of the unsophisticated nature of the man.”

Plus ça change…

Posted in Anti-fascism, State / Politics | 2 Comments

APEC // G8 // G20

Posted on May 21, 2007 by @ndy

Summit protesters, whether ‘nasty’ (spiky) or ‘nice’ (fluffy), aren’t very popular with state authorities, that’s for sure. So while the trials of a number of G20 protesters who appeared earlier this month at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court have been set for August, according to Frank Walker and Kerry-Anne Walsh:

Demonstrators and anyone under suspicion can be arrested and held without bail under unprecedented police powers being brought in for the APEC summit in Sydney… Tough APEC security legislation being drawn up by NSW cabinet this week will include the suspension of normal bail provisions, new powers to do random searches and ban “prohibited” people from restricted zones. [NSW Police Minister David] Campbell said if police arrested anyone who did not obey orders to disperse or leave an area, they could be held in jail until APEC was over. Demonstrators will be kept well away from the world leaders during the summit from September 7 to 9 in order to avoid any “embarrassment” to VIPs. Known troublemakers will be refused entry to the city restricted zone. ~ Crackdown on ‘nasty’ summit protesters, Sydney Morning Herald, May 20, 2007

On the other hand — in an exercise that is estimated at costing hundreds of millions of dollars — Australian authorities will be locking down Sydney in order to roll out the red carpet to 21 even bigger troublemakers / ‘world leaders’, including the war criminals George Bush and Vladimir Putin, and Communist dictator Hu Jintao. Kinda like what’s happening in Heiligendamm, Rostock, and cities across Germany in preparation for next month’s (June 6–8) G8 Summit… so far, the only thing missing is pre-emptive raids on protest organisers.

Can’t wait for that one!

See also : Mike Head, Police-state measures for APEC summit in Sydney, May 21, 2007

Posted in Anti-fascism, State / Politics, War on Terror | Leave a comment

My computer is stoopid

Posted on May 18, 2007 by @ndy

It’s shat itself.

More news as it comes to hand… and the good news (May 21) is that a comrade has fixed it; the bad (?) news is that I’m gonna be away for a few weeks.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

The Mini Psychology of Fascism

Posted on May 15, 2007 by @ndy

Ben Weerheym, a neo-Nazi formerly of Perth, has recently decided to close his blog, avoiceofdissent — for a long period of time known as ‘Patriot Alliance Down Under’ in reflection of its author’s rather grandiose imagination (there being no other members of the ‘Alliance’). avoiceofdissent was established approximately nine months after Ben pled guilty on August 3, 2004, to nine counts of wilful damage for his part in a racist spree of vandalism in Perth, and for which he received a sentence of six months and one day, suspended for 12 months (and for which his fellow neo-Nazis — Damon Paul Blaxall, Daniel Tyrone Klavins, Frank James Lemin and Shannon Mark Post — received custodial sentences).

In addition to the racist fringe attracted to the 57 varieties of nonsense Ben published, during its two-year existence, from May 2005 to May 2007, his blog also managed to come to the attention of a number of other, slightly different audiences; including WA police and the Director of Public Prosecutions. In March 2006, both The West Australian and The Australian carried reports of investigations by these agencies into avoiceofdissent and another one of Ben’s blogs, Leftywatch, for alleged racial villification. Thus according to Dan Box (The Australian):

The Patriot Alliance Down-under blog site… has been used by members of Australia’s “White Nationalist” group to threaten physical violence and single out targets for intimidation by publishing their photographs, telephone numbers and addresses. Posts include a detailed fantasy of rounding up Lebanese men in a bus, then filling the interior with poisonous exhaust fumes. “Imagine the sight, if you will, of all those oily dune coons gasping for air and clawing vainly at the windows,” the post reads.

While Fran Spencer (The West Australian) writes:

While posts on the Patriot Alliance Down-under blog have included references to “oily dune coons”, “sandniggers” and “the Asian invasion”, the Leftywatch blog focuses on publishing pictures and personal details of individuals it claims oppose patriotic activists. Yesterday, the site contained personal details on four Perth individuals including home suburbs, email addresses and places of work along with calls for further information or photos for publication.

Despite protests from a number of the individuals profiled, church groups, ethnic groups, and others, WA police and the DPP took no action. In fact, the racial vilification legislation — introduced in explicit response to a previous outbreak of racial violence orchestrated by Jack Van Tongeren‘s Australian Nationalists Movement, penalties for which were strengthened following Weerheym & Co.’s spree — was not tested by authorities until they had the opportunity to do so by prosecuting, unsuccessfully, an Aboriginal teenager. Nevertheless, partly as a result of this kind of attention, Ben ceased publishing Leftywatch, while the profiles previously contained on this blog were reproduced, slightly altered, on ‘Patriot Alliance Down Under’.

    Those featured on Ben’s blog included journalists Jehan Casinader, Mark Dunn, Joe Hildebrand, Gavin King, Luke McIlveen, Lisa Pryor and Terry Sweetman, academics Karen Brooks and Jamila Hussain, refugee advocate Eddie Whitham, Muslim leaders Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali, Sheik Mohammed Omran and Keysar Trad and Port Macquarie local councillors Rob Drew and Cameron Price. One commenter congratulated Ben for his efforts, stating: “this is excellent information, i hate these fuckers for what they are doing to australia, i would love to torture each and every one of them, especially the imams, and then shoot them in the forehead point blank, filthy muslim scum… arseholes like howard and every other muslim loving politician and politically correct bastard need to have their heads kicked in, and i would do it all for free…”

Of course, since mid-2005, Ben’s activities have also been monitored by FightDemBack!, a number of members of which — including the author — were, until very recently, profiled on his site. Or as Ben puts it: “For years now I have been under repeated attack”, subjected to “ongoing torment” by “hatemongers”. In fact, Ben makes a number of rather dubious claims in the single blog post in which he announces his decision to withdraw from his online ‘Alliance’ with himself, and these claims are worth examining, chewing up, and spitting out.

To begin with, the reasons for Ben’s recent decision are not that difficult to fathom, as he himself outlines: recently, Ben has moved from Perth to another town in WA, and enrolled in a new course of study. His main educator is of African-American descent, and a number of his fellow students are Aboriginal.

    The Wit & Wisdom of Weerheym:

    “Listen here you fuckin’ ugly rock ape. I meant if you were born in NZ or born in a slum somewhere in Africa where your relatives still are — where you should still be. Go back to Africa and die of AIDS, just like the rest of you are! Hahahaha.”

    “Shut the fuck up nigger, you have no right to speak. Get back outside and clean out the chook house before you get lynched boy!”

    (Following a picture of two African-Americans being lynched): “Say hello to your relatives tar boy!”

This new reality, then, only adds to Ben’s sense of upset, especially at the alleged fact — according to Ben anyway — that the local press has expressed an interest in further documenting his vida loca — and even crazier politics — for the benefit of its readers; including, presumably, staff and students. But even prior to this point, it was obvious that Ben was becoming tired of fulfilling the role of a fascist jackass. (I mean, he certainly complains often enough about the burdens this has placed on his poor sore head to make one inclined to believe it.) Thus according to Ben: “I have been punished for my actions many times over yet to this day I am attacked by people who would have [you believe] that they are decent… members of society. The truth is… they are the most hate-filled, malicious people I could imagine”.

Why won’t anyone understand that Ben is the victim?, in other words. The typical reaction of a bully whose bullying ways have been forced to stop. Nevertheless, in order to add credence to his claims of having been subjected to unfair victimisation, Ben proceeds to outline some of his recent family history which, in brief, consists of, from the age of 14, having to contend with a mother suffering from — and eventually succumbing — to cancer, followed shortly thereafter by the death of his father, as a result of a similar illness, when Ben was in his mid-20s. This, and drug abuse, is Ben’s story, and the story of a middle class Dutch immigrant family in decline. As for his involvement in neo-Nazi politics, already a racist bigot, in 2003, Ben the Angry Young Man saw ‘Java’ Jack Van Tongeren, the Angry Middle-Aged Man, on the TV, and the budding racist came to bloom in the ANM / Australian Nationalist Workers Union.

ANM / ANWU leader, Van Tongeren was released from prison in September 2002, after having served a thirteen-year sentence for conspiracy, arson, theft, assault and fraud, the result of a terrorist campaign directed at the Asian population of Perth in the late 1980s. Shortly after his release, Matthew Collins (The Tale of Jack and Jim, The Review, November 2002) wrote the following about Jack and the ANM:

Van Tongeren’s ANM is little more now than a fan club for the fifty-three year old. It produces low grade and low maintenance material on the internet, where a large type face is used to fill the blank pages. Even for Nazis, their material is worse than inept. Pointless, childish and heavy on jingoism, of course, but also high in back-biting, racism, conspiracy theories (dreamt up by Jack while in his prison cell) as well as illiterate.

As part of the “White Pride Coalition” of Australia, the ANM has lost its website on Freeserve and moved to a US internet provider as Van Tongeren once more prepares to launch himself into a bitter campaign against the tolerant majority. Writing soon after his release, Van Tongeren launched an appeal for the $500,000 he feels the ANM needs to relaunch itself back onto the political landscape. The likelihood of this eventuating, other than by his tried and tested methods of robbery and violence is of course, zero. The ANM and their fellow coalitionists’ who believe Jack can lead them towards glory or at least a sizeable entity, are hopelessly out of touch with political reality on the far-right, not just in Australia, but also overseas. Van Tongeren’s former deputy in ANM, Peter Coleman, turned up two years ago in a Sydney garage wearing a white sheet over his head claiming he was the Grand Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan. That was shortly after he was asked to leave One Nation.

And it was to this political wreckage that a mournful Weerheym was apparently drawn, and on whose behalf he — and a small group of other twenty-something fascists, organising themselves as ‘The White Devils’ — sprayed racist slogans on a synagogue, an Asian restaurant, and the home of a Perth anti-racist in July 2004. They also graffitied a war widows’ retirement village — the only crime for which Ben has expressed genuine regret.

According to Ben, he first wrote Uncle Jack in July 2003 — less than a year after Jack’s release from prison. He then proceeded to join the ANM/ANWU, and to play an active role in its activities. At least, Ben freely admits to this now, but when some of these (illegal) activities landed him in court, Ben swore that it wasn’t true, Your Honour. And his lawyer, Michael Tudori, told the Perth Magistrates’ Court that Weerheym was not interested in the ANM, and had not wanted to take part in the graffiti. It was on this basis, and on the basis of his lesser role in the commital of the crimes (Ben was The Getaway Driver) that he avoided a custodial sentence. Note that Ben’s perjury was brought to the attention of authorities in WA, but just as they chose not to pursue racial vilification charges against Ben, they also chose not to pursue Ben for perjury.

Not that Ben Weerheym is a liar. And neither is Benedict Williams. No, Benjamin / Benedict is now a positive person, who reacts positively to other positive people in positive situations, has a great sense of humour, and loves to joke about.

One last thing.

If you see Ben walking down the street when you’re out and about and you have something to say to him or any questions to ask, don’t be shy, go and speak to him: his bark is a lot worse than his bite.

To be continued…

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, State / Politics | 7 Comments

G8: Rowdies go ‘way

Posted on May 13, 2007 by @ndy

“Extremists planning to disrupt next month’s Group of Eight summit of the world’s richest nations could be placed in preventative custody ahead of the meeting, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said Friday”; and despite the enormous carnage state figureheads from the Group of Eight — Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, the United States and Russia — are responsible for, I’m pretty sure Schäuble is referring to people with an extreme aversion to war and oppression (Interior Minister Advocates Preventative Custody for G8 Rowdies, Deutsche-Welle, May 11, 2007). Wolfgang’s warning comes just days after German authorities launched pre-emptive raids on a number of anti-G8 organising projects (with a view to disrupting protest activities in June), and has also been accompanied by reports in the German press that a number of marches scheduled to take place on June 7 will likely be deemed unlawful assemblies. As remarked upon elsewhere, such measures, unfortunately, are no guarantee that members of the European polity aren’t slightly rowdy in making their demands of the G8 (ranging, one imagines, from ‘Please sir, can we have some more?’ to ‘Fuck off and die!’).

Speaking of which, when the G8 met in 2005, the heads of state gathered in Gleneagles apparently made some kinda agreement to increase ‘development assistance’ to the ‘Third World’. An agreement which last month was declared to have been broken by the body monitoring its implementation: “Almost two years after the G8 group of leading industrial nations promised to boost development assistance by $50bn a year by 2010, the Africa Progress Panel headed by the former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan said rich countries were only 10% of the way to their target” (Larry Elliott and Kate Connolly, In 2005, G8 pledged $50bn for Africa. Now the reality, The Guardian, April 25, 2007).

And speaking of extremist noise terror, Irish multi-millionaire and British establishment figure Bono Bloody Bono has vowed to continue to bore the world with his hat, his glasses, and his complete failure to understand anything to do with issues of wealth and poverty, by again appearing on stage during the G8, on this occasion alongside some Deutsche Geräuschhersteller for a brief rendition of Deine Stimme gegen Armut (Your Voice against Poverty). Hopefully, Paul David Hewson can provide the audience in Rostock, as well as a much vaster audience in Africa, with a few tips on how to avoid falling into that desperate trap; a fate which he has quite spectacularly avoided. Perhaps something along the lines of…

Posted in !nataS, Anarchism, Anti-fascism, State / Politics, War on Terror | Leave a comment

Bangladeshi anarchist, human rights activist and journalist, Tasneem Khalil: arrested and released

Posted on May 12, 2007 by @ndy
    Sheesh. I wrote Tasneem a while ago to congratulate him on his reporting, and to express my concern over his safety. The story below has a happy ending.

London, Friday, May 11, 2007 : Bangladesh’s military-backed care-taker government should immediately release Tasneem Khalil, an investigative journalist and part-time Human Rights Watch consultant, who was detained by security forces late last night, Human Rights Watch said today.

Khalil, 26, is a journalist for the Dhaka-based Daily Star newspaper who conducts research for Human Rights Watch. According to his wife, four men in plainclothes who identified themselves as from the ” joint task force” came to the door after midnight on May 11 in Dhaka, demanding to take Khalil away. They said they were placing Khalil “under arrest” and taking him to the Sangsad Bhavan army camp, outside the parliament building in Dhaka.

“We are extremely concerned about Tasneem Khalil’s safety,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “He has been a prominent voice in Bangladesh for human rights and the rule of law, and has been threatened because of that.”

The men did not offer a warrant or any charges, Khalil’s wife said. Using threatening language, they searched the house and confiscated Khalil’s passport, two computers, documents, and two mobile phones.

“It is an emergency; we can arrest anyone,” one of the men said. Another asked if Khalil suffered from any particular physical ailments. They drove Khalil off in a Pajero jeep.

Khalil is a noted investigative journalist who has published several controversial exposes of official corruption and abuse, particularly by security forces. He assisted Human Rights Watch in research for a 2006 report about torture and extrajudicial killings by Bangladesh security forces.

According to Bangladeshi human rights groups, the army has detained tens of thousands of people since a state of emergency was declared on January 11, 2007. A number of those detained are picked up in the middle of the night, as Khalil was, and then tortured.

In Bangladesh, security forces have long been implicated in torture and extrajudicial killings. The killings have been attributed to members of the army, the police, and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite anti-crime and anti-terrorism force. The Human Rights Watch report Khalil worked on, Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Torture and Extrajudicial Killings by Bangladesh’s Elite Security Force, focused on abuses by the RAB.

Killings in custody remain a persistent problem in Bangladesh. To date, no military personnel are known to have been held criminally responsible for any of the deaths.

Khalil was called in for questioning by military intelligence last week, apparently as part of the military’s campaign to intimidate independent journalists ahead of May 10, 2007, when the army’s three-month legal mandate for ruling under a state of emergency came to an end.

“The Bangladeshi military should be on notice that its actions are being closely watched by the outside world,” Adams said. “Any harm to Tasneem Khalil will seriously undermine the army’s claims to legitimacy and upholding the rule of law.”

    Happy ending?

Bangladeshi journalist released after daylong interrogation, family says
AP / International Herald Tribune
May 12, 2007

DHAKA, Bangladesh: Bangladeshi authorities have released a journalist, detained hours earlier, who had written about alleged human rights abuses by the country’s security forces, his wife said Saturday.

Tasneem Khalil, a journalist at Dhaka’s Daily Star newspaper, was picked up early Friday from his residence in the capital by four men in plain clothes.

Khalil was released later Friday after being interrogated by intelligence officials, his wife Sharmin Afsana Suchi told The Associated Press.

“Yes, he has returned,” Suchi said.

She declined to say whether he was tortured while he was detained.

A government spokesman could not be reached Saturday to comment on Khalil’s detention or subsequent release.

Journalists in Bangladesh are often threatened, assaulted or even killed for writing about political violence, corruption or organized crime.

At least 11 journalists have been killed and dozens maimed in the South Asian nation since 1997, media rights groups say.

On Friday, Suchi said the men who took away her husband told her they were from the Joint Task Force, an army-led security force used by the military-backed government to fight corruption.

“The men said they were placing Khalil under arrest and taking him to an army camp in Dhaka,” she said.

Zafar Sobhan, an assistant editor at the Daily Star, said Friday that Khalil was held without charge or warrant.

Khalil, 26, also works for New York-based Human Rights Watch and runs his own Web site. His colleagues said he recently posted articles on the site criticizing the army and the security forces for alleged human rights abuses.

The detention sparked off widespread concerns among international media and human rights watchdogs.

Human Rights Watch voiced its concern about Khalil while the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, in a statement on Friday said the detention is an indication of the fragile state of press freedom in Bangladesh.

“We’re alarmed by the circumstances of his detention,” Joel Simon, Executive Director of the CPJ, said in the statement.

Bangladesh has been under a state of emergency since Jan. 11 when street violence over delayed national elections left more than 30 people dead.

According to Bangladeshi human rights groups, the military-backed government has used the emergency powers to arrest thousands of people. They say many of the detainees were picked up at night.

Posted in Anarchism, Media, State / Politics | Leave a comment

New Saxon = Femmy Nazis

Posted on May 10, 2007 by @ndy

Stephen Lemons, ‘Femmy Nazis’, Phoenix New Times, May 3, 2007, is funny:

“This sardonic sky-soarer’s been spending a butt-load of hours on the Net of late, studying all the far-right ravens on the neo-Nazi networking site Newsaxon.com, a racist MySpace, where bigoted dillweeds with time on their hands and Adolf Hitler in their hearts can let their fascist freak flags fly. As you’ll recall, this beaked biped reported last week that two-ton former Mesa City Council candidate and Rusty Childress-chum J.T. Ready had been outed by the ADL for having a profile on the white power Web site under the handle Viking Son…”

What’s also funny is the fact that Perth-based, ailurophobic net-Nazi Ben Weerheym appears to have abandoned his blog, avoiceofdissent, for the greener, dillweed-filled pastures of New Saxon… I guess it just doesn’t pay to mess with Bübi, eh?

Posted in !nataS, Anti-fascism, Media | 118 Comments

G8: Stay in your homes; you’ll only get hurt

Posted on May 10, 2007 by @ndy
    David Gordon Smith, G-8 Raids ‘A Warning Shot to Intimidate Activists’, Der Spiegel, May 10, 2007: “German observers feel that police raids on anti-globalization activists Wednesday were aimed at intimidating protesters ahead of the G-8 summit in June, with some commentators writing that the operation was too heavy-handed…” Police in Germany have conducted a number of raids in Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg today, in what is presumably the beginnings of a wave of pre-G8 summit repression. Rupert Murdoch’s man on the spot is Roger Boyes, and Roger reckons that German police fear that “a new brand of left-wing terrorism is about to ignite in Germany, triggered by the swelling protest movement against the G8 summit next month”. The danger has been exacerbated by the alleged presence of a number of RAF members at a May Day demo; “Bearded, grey but unrepentant, the old terrorists, now in their late 50s, are coming out to pass on tips to the new generation” (Leftist terror groups ‘to strike at G8’, The Times, May 10, 2007).

German police search apartments, offices over suspected plans against G-8 summit
AP / International Herald Tribune
May 9, 2007

BERLIN: Hundreds of German police on Wednesday raided the offices and apartments of left-wing activists suspected of planning to disrupt next month’s Group of Eight summit, leading security officials to tighten border controls ahead of the gathering.

The crackdown was an attempt to ward off the violence that has marred past summits, particularly in 2001 in Genoa, Italy, when police and protesters clashed in the streets for days.

Prosecutors said they were investigating more than 18 people suspected of organizing what they called a terrorist group that planned to carry out firebombings and other violent attacks.

Some 900 federal and local police officers in cities including Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen searched about 40 premises used by several anti-globalist groups, they said.

“The militant extreme left groups and their members are suspected of having founded a terrorist group, or of being members of such an organization, with the specific goal of staging fire bombings and other violent attacks in order to disrupt or prevent the upcoming G-8 summit in Heiligendamm,” federal prosecutors said in a statement.

Also Wednesday, Germany’s interior ministry announced it would tighten border controls to screen out violent protesters.

“As part of security measures for the G-8 summit in Heiligendamm, controls can be carried out on various border points … to prevent potential criminals and others intending to use violence from entering Germany,” the ministry said in a statement. “Particular attention will be paid to potentially violent anti-globalization activists.”

People can usually travel freely throughout the European Union once they cross its common border, but individual countries maintain the right to tighten checks for security purposes.

German security officials have built a €12.5-million (US$17-million) fence around the northern seaside resort of Heiligendamm, hoping to keep protesters away from the event, hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The leaders of the United States, Russia, Britain, France, Italy, Canada, and Japan are to attend.

Last year’s meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, saw few protest[s], and those that were held were generally small, largely due to protesters’ difficulty obtaining entry visas. But Germany is easier to reach from other European countries, and security officials do not want a repetition of the violence from Genoa in which one protester was killed by police.

Federal prosecutors said they had focused on dismantling a particular server [so36.net] where they said many leftist groups and projects maintained their Web sites and mailing lists.

Activists complained the raids were aimed at silencing legitimate protests against the G-8. Marches are planned — with official permission — in nearby Rostock ahead of the summit.

“The only point of these searches is to criminalize and disrupt the protests against the G-8,” the Anti-Fascist Leftists of Berlin said in a statement. “The accusation that terrorists would coordinate their movements through a leftist-run Internet server is ridiculous.”

In December, anti-G-8 activists splashed paint on a hotel in Heiligendamm and security officials in Hamburg cited a number of other lower-scale attacks, including several firebombings there and the torching of a car belonging to a top Finance Ministry official.

Germany swoops on militants before G8 summit
Noah Barkin / Reuters / The Washington Post
May 9, 2007

BERLIN (Reuters) – German authorities on Wednesday launched raids in six northern states and said they would impose new border controls over fears left-wing radicals were planning attacks to disrupt a June G8 summit on the Baltic coast.

Some 900 security officials were searching 40 sites in Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement, adding it had opened two separate investigations.

“We suspect those targeted, who belong to the militant extreme-left scene, of founding a terrorist organization or being members of such an organization, that is planning arson attacks and other actions to severely disrupt or prevent the early-summer G8 summit in Heiligendamm from taking place,” the prosecutor’s office said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will host the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States at the June 6-8 summit, which will focus on climate change, African poverty and economic cooperation.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble announced a tightening of border controls ahead of the G8 summit. The actions are similar to those taken by Germany during last year’s World Cup tournament to prevent an influx of soccer hooligans.

“We are particularly focused on dangers arising from violent globalization opponents,” the ministry said.

Prosecutors suspect the left-wing militants they are investigating of being behind nine minor attacks in the Hamburg area and three in the Berlin region in the past two years.

Those attacks include an incident last December when a car was set on fire in front of the home of deputy finance minister Thomas Mirow and windows and walls of his house were splattered with paint.

“WAVE OF REPRESSION”

Anti-G8 group “Gipfelsoli” denounced the raids, accusing authorities of a “wave of repression” to dismantle the movement’s communication network

“All attempts to criminalize us do not change the fact that we will use the G8 (summit) to cast a spotlight on the injustices of this world,” Hanne Jobst, a Berlin-based member of the group said in a statement.

Germany has not experienced any major left-wing violence since the militant Red Army Faction (RAF), which waged a bloody two-decade long campaign of killings and kidnappings, announced in 1998 that it was disbanding.

But authorities are taking aggressive pre-emptive measures to ensure the summit goes as smoothly as the World Cup did.

A 2.5-metre high steel fence, topped with razor wire, has been placed in a 14-km ring around Heiligendamm and police will control access through airport-style X-ray machines.

Around 40 km down the coast from the Kempinski Hotel where the leaders will meet, officials in the city of Rostock are expecting a demonstration of up to 100,000 people on the weekend before the event.

(Additional reporting by Philip Jarke in Hamburg, Sabine Siebold and Markus Krah in Berlin)

Wave of repression against anti-G8 structures
solidarity group
May 9, 2007
Press release [Edited]

At 8am on Wednesday morning a wave of searches took place against left structures throughout Germany. Those targeted were social projects and individuals that are organizing against the coming G8 summit — or suspected of doing so.

In Berlin, at least seven flats and office spaces were searched, including two offices in Bethanien, a social centre in Kreuzberg, Berlin, and the Fusion shop in the same district. The latter is a space used by an anti-fascist organization and the Interventionist Left [‘The “Interventionist Left” within which many autonomous and anti-fascist groups are organized, is part of the alliance, and it openly announces: “All forms of action are legitimate”.’]. Further, a bookshop in Mehringhof and the office spaces of several alternative media projects in Lausitzer Straße have been searched.

The criminal investigation police are placing special emphasis on the alternative Internet server so36.net. Many left and alternative projects have their websites, mailing lists and mail addresses hosted there. In this way, the communication structure of the anti-G8 movement has been hit on a crucial nerve centre.

In Hamburg, the repression is aimed against the social centre Rote Flora and diverse housing projects. Also in suburbs surrounding Berlin searches are taking place. And there are also reports of searches in the city of Bremen.

The orders for the searches are based on §129a: “Formation of a terrorist association with the aim to stop the G8 summit”. The seemingly random selection of many left housing and infrastructural projects makes clear that the investigation is being used in order to weaken the mobilization against the G8. “Probably diverse cases of property damage serve as an excuse for these investigations”, according to the Campinski Press Group. One of these cases occurred at the Kempinski Hotel, where the G8 summit is going to take place. The hotel was targeted with paintballs some months ago.

The context provided by the §129a investigation is being used in order to gather data about the protest movement. Besides, such measures have — most likely intended — intimidating effects. Only 2% of all §129a investigations result in sentencing.

However: “Who invites the G8 summit, also invites the protest against it”, maintains Hanne Jobst of the Berlin Bethanien office. “All attempts to criminalize this movement will not prevent us from exposing worldwide inequalities during the G8 summit”.

The repressive acts of the criminal investigation police are not entirely surprising. The left and radical left resistance against the G8 has reached an uncontrollable level for the police. “So far, the police only tried to split the resistance in the public media through hallucinating about an army of ‘anarchists’. Now they will try to sabotage the organizational structures”, Jobst explains further.

“It is noteworthy that the searches are targeted against all those parts of the resistance that refuse to direct claims to the G8, because they refuse the G8 in general as an illegitimate institution”, explains a spokesperson for Gipfelsoli Infogruppe.

    See also : The Approaching G-8 Summit: Big Trouble in Little Heiligendamm, Marcel Rosenbach, Gunther Latsch and Markus Deggerich, Der Spiegel, May 9, 2007: “…the largest police operation in the history of the German Federal Republic will transform the fenced in enclosure around Heiligendamm into the equivalent of a maximum-security prison” | Following Raids on Wednesday, G-8 Opponents Take to the Streets, Der Spiegel, May 10, 2007: “Thousands of G-8 opponents staged demonstrations across Germany on Wednesday evening, with the protest in Hamburg turning violent. The demos followed police raids on left-wing activists…”
Posted in Anti-fascism, State / Politics, War on Terror | Leave a comment

Atenco leaders get 67 years

Posted on May 8, 2007 by @ndy

“Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away…” I used to think these were just the lyrics to a song. But Mexican authorities — El Presidente Vicente Fox in particular — take flying very seriously, and have just sentenced three poor bastards to ridiculously long terms as punishment for successfully stopping the construction of an airport in San Salvador Atenco, Mexico. The three — Ignacio del Valle, Felipe Álvarez and Héctor Galindo — are leaders of the Frente del Pueblo en Defensa de La Tierra or People’s Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT). The Mexican Government says ‘kidnapping’ is the crime, but not even they believe it (Eduardo Alonso, Atenco leaders get 67 years, El Universal, May 6, 2007). See also ‘Who Can Imprison the Fury of a Volcano?’, a letter from del Valle, May 4, 2007; People’s Front in Defense of the Land communiqué, May 7, 2007:

To the People of Mexico:

Those who have heard the lies of Televisa, TV Azteca, and all the other (dis)information media, we ask that you now know the voice of the people of Atenco:

We must put a stop to this treacherous, lying, corrupt, and killer government. If we, those from below, don’t do it – nobody will.

In the Pasta de Conchos mine, in the state of Coahuila, today are forgotten the bodies of 65 miners, whose deaths were caused by the negligence of the government and the union bosses, and by the inhumane conditions in which they labored, also endured by millions of workers throughout the country to this day.

After this crime, the PANista government of Vicente Fox, together with the PRDista administration in (the state of) Michoacán, led by Lázaro Cárdenas Batel, used their armed police to assassinate at least 2 other miners in (the steel factory) Sicartsa, and wounded many others with bullets, in the Lázaro Cárdenas port, where, for years, hundreds of workers maintain a strong fight for the democratization of their union and for the defense of the rights of the people, marginalized by the interests of false “leaders of the miners”; the union bosses Napoleón Gómez Urrutia and Elías Morales, who fight amongst themselves for the benefit of their own mafias, not for the working miners…

Posted in State / Politics | Leave a comment