Running Short, Running Scared?

The BNP has spent the past few days bussing in their big guns from all over the country in an attempt to get Richard Barnbrook elected back on to Barking and Dagenham Council in this Thursday's Goresbrook Ward By-election.

Recently elevated "Returns Officer" Clive Jefferson, has travelled all the way down from Cumbria to stay with Barnbrook and oversee the campaign, this is despite the fact that the renegade Eddy Butler is supposed to be Barnbrook's election agent.

Former Deputy Leader Simon Darby has also arrived, blogging separate desperate interviews with both the candidate and Jefferson making appeals for more members to come to B&D and help get the BNP vote out. They're trying to be upbeat and talking up their chances, but it's quite clear that the BNP in Barking and Dagenham has been decimated by not only the internal split but also their total wipe out in May's elections, Barnbrook would appear to be the only former Councillor shameless enough to show his face in the borough again.

Despite leadership candidate Butler cancelling a meeting on the weekend supposedly to campaign instead for Barnbrook, he was nowhere to be seen on Saturday when the BNP leader Nick Griffin, his arch enemy, made a brief appearance in the borough. The BNP may have been able to deliver more leaflets for the hapless Barnbrook if no less than seven security staff dressed in black suits and sun glasses were not watching Griffin's back and actually delivered some leaflets instead.

The Party continues to obsess about Searchlight's campaigning and while Griffin and his private army of minders played cat and mouse over whether they would actually have to come face to face with Butler and his followers, twenty Hope Not Hate activists leafleted the ward with a reminder of Barnbrook's previous record on the council.

We also managed to dig up the picture above taken of Barnbrook's house the last time he had the stress of an election campaign. They may be stressed about Thursday's election, but history dictates that at least they'll be well refreshed.

Hope Not Hate

French parliament to debate Islamic veil ban

The French parliament is due to begin a debate on plans to ban the wearing of full Islamic veils in public.

The legislation in front of the lower house will make it illegal to wear the niqab or burka anywhere in public.

It envisages fines of about 150 euros (£119) for women who break the law, with tougher penalties for men found to be pressuring their wife or sister.

A vote on the proposed legislation will be taken next week before a full senate vote in September.

The veil ban, which has the backing of President Nicolas Sarkozy, is also winning support in other parts of Europe.
Belgium's lower house has approved a similar measure and Spain's senate recently narrowly voted to impose a ban too.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon set the tenor of this debate last week at the opening of a new mosque in the suburbs of Paris, the BBC's Christian Fraser reports from the French capital.

Muslims who wore the full veil were "hijacking Islam" he said, providing a "dark sectarian image" of the religion.

There are only about 2,000 women who wear the full veil in France, and most of these wear the niqab rather than the burka.

Critics of the new legislation point to studies by the interior ministry that show many women do not fit the stereotype of marginalised, oppressed women, since a large number have taken the veil of their own volition.


The police unions have already expressed concerns over how such a law will be enforced and the idea of pressuring women to remove the veil.

There are also human rights considerations, and legal experts warn the broad scope of the law banning the veil in all public places as opposed to state institutions could be overturned by the constitutional court.

BBC News

Spanish Court Sentences 14 Members of Neo-Nazi Group Blood & Honour

A Spanish court on Monday ordered the dissolution of the neo-Nazi group Blood & Honor in a verdict that sentenced to prison terms 14 of the 18 members of the group who were on trial for illicit association and weapons possession

According to the sentences handed down on Monday, the main accused – Roberto L. U. and Francisco Jose L. P., each sentenced to between three and four years, were the founders of Blood & Honor Spain, and held leadership posts within the group.

In the homes of both, examples of the statutes of the association and other documents were found, along with magazines linked to the neo-Nazi ideology, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, as well as items praising Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Hess.

Among the rest of the accused, one received a prison term of two years and 11 were sentenced to a year in prison each, all of them for illicit association. The court absolved four of the accused for lack of evidence.

In addition, the court ordered that Blood & Honor be dissolved in accord with the Penal Code, which deems to be illegal groups that promote discrimination, hate or violence against people or associations on the basis of their ideology, religion, race, nationality, sex or sexual orientation.

LAHT

Nazi Executioner Strolls in Park

A NAZI executioner wanted for mass murder and concentration camp atrocities strolls through the park in a picture which shames Germany.

Evil Klaas Faber, 88, looked like an ordinary OAP when The Sun went to confront him about his war crimes.

But his white hair and glasses hide a shocking past as a bloodthirsty killer who volunteered for Adolf Hitler's notorious SS and a roving Gestapo death squad.

Faber was sentenced to death after being convicted of war crimes in 1947. But his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and in 1952 he escaped from prison in Breda, Holland, and fled to sanctuary in Germany.

Demands by Britain and other nations to hand over Faber - listed as the fifth most-wanted Nazi fugitive - have since been rejected by Germany.

Incredibly, officials still protect the Dutch-born killer and insist he is immune from extradition after Hitler granted him German citizenship as an SS volunteer.

Local privacy laws mean that Germans cannot be told Faber is a war criminal, or see photos of him enjoying his freedom.

But The Sun found Faber in the medieval town of Ingolstadt, where he lives with frail wife Jacoba. The name K. Faber marks the doorbell on his modern flat.
After years as an anonymous office worker at Audi, Faber now enjoys a cosy retirement relaxing in local parks and going on shopping trips in his VW Golf.

Neighbours say the dad of three is quiet, but friendly and polite.

The Sun confronted him and asked if he felt any remorse for his crimes or compassion for his victims and their relatives.

Faber's smile immediately vanished, replaced by an icy stare and grim silence.

His trial heard he was an enthusiastic Nazi who volunteered to join the SS in 1940, then travelled around northern Holland ruthlessly slaughtering Jews and Dutch resistance fighters.

He rose to become an officer with the notorious SD secret police and worked for the Gestapo as an executioner at Westerbork concentration camp, where teenage diarist Anne Frank was held.
He was convicted of murdering at least 22 victims, but the court heard he personally carried out mass shootings and experts believe the real toll was much higher.

Faber was then one of seven Nazi officers who escaped from Breda prison on Boxing Day 1952.

They fled to Germany, where they were welcomed at the border and given coffee and cakes by sympathetic customs officials.

The gang were given token fines for illegally crossing the border, then set free. German authorities still honour the special privileges granted by Hitler himself to his most hardcore followers.

Faber became a German in 1943 under the "Fuhrer's Law" - a personal decree granting German citizenship to foreign Nazi volunteers.

It is the only one of Hitler's laws never to have been revoked, and Germany still uses it to deny repeated attempts to return Faber to prison in the Netherlands.

Outraged Holocaust campaigners last night urged Germany to stop protecting Faber and hand him over to serve his sentence.

Simon Wiesenthal Centre director Dr Efraim Zuroff said: "He is one of the most evil men alive. For Germany to continue shielding him is a shocking stain on the nation's reputation.

"We are talking about someone who volunteered for the SS so he could help Hitler's regime turn his vile beliefs into reality. He didn't just support the Holocaust, he actively helped those behind it.

"The families of those he killed deserve justice, and it's time for Germany to stop hiding behind a law that Hitler brought in."
Sickened Arnold Karstens, of the charity War Crimes Investigations, said: "It is beyond belief that this man is free. Germany should hang its head in shame.

"Faber's crimes are so extreme he should die in prison. What makes it even worse is he has never shown remorse. It is sickening to see him enjoying freedom."

German authorities last night confirmed that Faber was immune from prosecution and extradition, despite repeated requests by the Netherlands to hand him over. State prosecutors decided in 2006 to classify Faber's crimes as manslaughter. So a time limit on trying him in Germany - which does not apply to murder - has now expired. A spokesman added: "Klaas Faber is a German citizen and cannot be extradited for this."

Th Sun