Nick Griffin and the Nazi flag dilemma. It's BNP Facepalm time again! (UK)

Yesterday on this blog we posted an item about Nick Griffin meeting with Welsh Neo-Nazi Bryan Powell in Swansea on Saturday the 5th of March.

Really un-surprisingly the reality avoidance “We Adore Griffin” denial chumps aka the Nationalist PRATriots have claimed that the photo below of Brian at home in front of the Nazi flag is fake because (get this) the flag is the wrong way round.

Now this is coming from people that “KNOW” which way the Nazi flag should be hung so we should really respect their opinion.

Um, no we don't respect their opinion, basically on anything. 

The image in question has been on-line for ages, and it is very, VERY well known that the Welsh Defence League (WDL) members in Swansea were Neo-Nazis. 

Sorry I should say “Are Neo-Nazi’s”, as the Welsh Defence League has disbanded due to (don’t’ laugh) racist infiltration. This huge post could be a hint as to what inazifiltration could be responsible for that.

Anyway here’s another image of Brian doing his Nazi grove thang. No it’s not fake.

Nor are they doing a white supremacist version of the Saturday Night Fever dance.

And here’s a video with a number of images of Brian and some of his Neo-Nazi chums doing their Nuzi best to be proud PRATriots. He's is quite easy to spot.

Finally a documentary made by BBC Wales that exposes the Neo-nazi’s in the WDL that Brian was a part of. (Although the fash will claim that its probably a iluminati lefty conspiracy  made up thingy with actors and Pixar animation.)

I would like to post that this is guaranteed to clear up the ludicrous claims that it’s all fake and lies and does prove that Nick Griffin did spend Saturday night in the company of a Neo-Nazi.

But I doubt it.

It’s much easier for them dance merrily off into fantasy land of ignorance and delusions than except that this is true.

Ex-Aryan Nations lawyer's trial to begin in Idaho (USA)

An attorney known for representing white supremacists goes on trial in federal court on Monday, charged with hiring a hit man to kill his wife and mother-in-law.

Edgar J. Steele's wife insists her husband is innocent and has been set up by the government because of his anti-Semitic, white supremacist views and for representing clients such as Aryan Nations.

"My husband is innocent, and the only reason the (FBI) put him in jail is to silence him," Cyndi Steele said after his June 11 arrest.

Federal prosecutors say they have plenty of evidence against Steele, 65, including tape recordings of him talking with the hit man about killing his wife. Prosecutors have said Steele was after insurance money and also wanted to pursue a woman in Ukraine.

Court documents contend Steele, for some time, had been building a relationship with a woman in Ukraine and sent her a letter even after his arrest. Cyndi Steele said the Ukrainian woman was involved in a "Russian-bride" scam and that her husband had been hired by the victim to bring down the human trafficking ring.

Steele is a Coast Guard veteran and UCLA law graduate who practised for years in Sandpoint.

He is well-known in anti-Semitic and white supremacist circles as the lawyer who defended Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler in a 2000 lawsuit brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center, on behalf of two people who were attacked by the group's security guards. Steele lost the case, and Aryan Nations was bankrupted after being ordered to pay $6.3 million to the victims.

But he became popular in the white supremacist community and went on to represent other controversial figures, make speeches at white supremacist events and launch the website ConspiracyPenPal.com, where he published his views. He also wrote a book, "Defensive Racism: An Unapologetic Examination of Racial Differences."

"I have defended and provide legal advice to probably more of the politically incorrect than has any other attorney in America today," Steele said in a 2009 essay available on his website. "Always, I have required that they be fundamentally decent people and always they must be innocent, regardless of how things might eventually turn out in court."

Steele has drawn support from numerous far-right groups.

A press release sent this week by supporters of Steele who operate a website called Free Edgar Steele contended the government's case is fabricated, including a fake voice on the recordings.

"The FBI and US Attorney's Office in Idaho are seeking to bring down another innocent person, Edgar Steele, and send him to prison, because he is an advocate for the US Constitution and individual rights," the release said. "Our own freedom is at stake."

Steele was arrested by FBI agents at his home last June and faces four felony counts, including use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.

Court records said an informant, Larry Fairfax, told the FBI that Steele offered to pay him up to $125,000 to kill his wife and her mother in a car crash meant to look like an accident.

While Fairfax told federal agents about the plot, he failed to inform them he'd already placed a pipe bomb under Cyndi Steele's vehicle, which did not explode while she drove to Oregon and back. The bomb was found by startled workers after she took her vehicle for an oil change. A bomb squad robot removed the explosive without incident.

Cyndi Steele has said in court documents that she believes Fairfax stole more than $45,000 in valuables from her home when he worked as a handyman there, and planted the bomb to cover his crimes.

Fairfax admitted to placing the bomb, but told agents he manipulated the fuse to malfunction, according to court documents. His attorneys contend Fairfax planned to take Steele's money but not go through with the killing.

Fairfax reached a deal to plead guilty to one count of possession of an unregistered firearm and one count of making a firearm in violation of the National Firearms Act.

The plea agreement document said Fairfax and Steele had several conversations between November 2009 and June 2010 in which they discussed killing Cyndi Steele and her mother.

The document said Steele also asked Fairfax to put a pipe bomb under Steele's own vehicle. Edgar Steele planned to ignite it after his wife's death "to provide an alibi or evidence that both he and his wife had been targeted for murder."

Steele also told Fairfax "to make sure that they were dead after the accident because Edgar Steele did not want to take care of a paraplegic," according to an FBI affidavit.

After his arrest, the government contends Steele immediately started pleading with his wife to discredit the case.

According to phone conversations recorded from jail, Steele told his wife that prosecutors have taped recordings that were doctored to sound as if he was hiring a hit man to kill her. Steele pleaded with her to deny the voice on the tapes belonged to him.

"This is going to be a 'Mission: Impossible' world-class-level production," Steele told his wife during a conversation recorded June 13. "I love you dearly. I would never be so stupid as to hire somebody else to kill anybody, for Christ sake, least of all you. You've gotta do this."

The Steeles, who married in 1985, have three grown children. They have endured marital troubles in the past.

Cyndi Steele, who operates a horse farm on the couple's property, had filed for divorce in June 2000, alleging her husband "misrepresented his marital status and eligibility" in online dating profiles "with the sole intention of meeting women."

The case was dismissed two months later.

Seattle Pi

COLLEAGUES MOURN DEATH OF RUSSIAN ANTIRACISM CAMPAIGNER GALINA KOZHEVNIKOVA

In a country with few prominent voices speaking out against racism, Galina Kozhevnikova was a determined exception. Kozhevnikova was the deputy director of SOVA, a Moscow-based group founded in 2002 that has proven one of the few reliable sources of information on xenophobia and racist attacks in post-Soviet Russia. She died on March 5 from an unspecified illness at the age of 36. Historian Vyacheslav Likhachev, a specialist on nationalist movements, told RFE/RL's Russian Service that Kozhevnikova was "an honest, professional, and very good person."  "It was clear that this was work, but for her it was also very personal. It was more a matter of antifascist activism than plain professional motivation," Likhachev says. "It's known that she was received serious personal threats from neo-Nazis. But she understood the kind of sphere she was working in. She understood the ways in which it could be dangerous. And for her it was a conscious choice. It was her struggle, so to speak." Russia has been plagued by growing racism in the years since the Soviet collapse, as social and economic uncertainty have fed both labor migration and a rising resentment of non-Slavic newcomers.

Outspoken Critic
A number of patriotic, nationalist, and neo-Nazi groups have sprung up in recent years, the most extreme of which have sought to intimidate non-Slav residents and labor migrants, including many Central Asians and other former Soviet nationals. Hundreds of migrants and other non-Russian residents are beaten and killed each year in Russia. SOVA was one of the few organizations to publish statistics on such attacks and to offer counsel to their victims. Kozhevnikova was an outspoken critic of ultranationalist trends in Russia. In an interview with RFE/RL following the January 2010 contract killing of human rights lawyer Sergei Markelov and a young journalist, Anastasia Baburova, Kozhevnikova said the rising power of the far right threatened the security of the entire country. "The ultra-right has openly turned to antistate terror and direct terror and have set themselves the aim of destabilizing the situation in the country, creating an all-out panic with which they then aim to start a military coup," she said. Tatyana Lokshina, the deputy director of the Moscow office of the watchdog group Human Rights Watch, told Interfax that Kozhevnikova the "No. 1 expert" on radical nationalism. Kozhevnikova's death is being mourned by many members of Russia's diaspora community, who saw in her a valuable ally and defender of migrants' rights.

'Big Loss'
Abdullo Davlatov, who heads the Tajiks in Russia association, the largest Tajik-diaspora group in Russia, told RFE/RL's Tajik Service that his community had lost a powerful protector. "Her death is a big loss. She was a strong defender of all the foreign migrants and nonmigrants, including Tajiks, who were victims of racial attacks," Davlatov says. "Diaspora groups always claim that we are the ones defending our migrants, but I believe that Tajik migrants got more support from Galina than from all of us." In a statement, SOVA said Kozhevnikova "kept working until the last moment," despite suffering from what they described as a "grave disease." Her latest report, on racism and xenophobia in Russia in 2010, is expected to be published soon. Natalya Taubina, who heads the Public Verdict rights foundation, told RFE/RL's Russian Service that she was a rigorous researcher who was deeply committed to fighting racism in her country. "Galya was probably one of the very few experts in our country who understood this problem really well and could speak about it in a very professional and thoughtful way, without hysterics, and very convincingly," Taubina says. "I'm sure that she could prevail in a dispute with any opponent on issues related to xenophobia and ethnic hatred. "It's actually pretty difficult to imagine how we're going to live without Galya," she adds.

rferl.org

POLL PUTS FAR RIGHT AHEAD IN FRENCH PRESIDENTIAL RACE (France)

The leader of France's far-right National Front party, Marine Le Pen, would come out ahead of incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in the first round of voting if a presidential election were held now instead of in the spring of 2012, according to the surprise result of a latest political-opinion poll published Sunday. The poll, published in the daily newspaper Le Parisien, gives Le Pen 23% of voting intentions, ahead of Sarkozy and Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry. The poll was carried out among a sample group of 1,618 people by the Louis Harris Interactive organization. In five previous polls between March and November last year, Le Pen scored voting intentions of between 11% and 13%.

Le Pen recently took over leadership of her party from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who, in the first round of the 2002 election, came in second to conservative Jacques Chirac, beating Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin, who subsequently retired from politics. French voters then closed ranks behind Chirac in the runoff round to keep Le Pen out. Sarkozy's popularity has sagged in recent months amid a series of ministerial scandals that culminated in a cabinet shake-up at the end of February. His political foes say he is paying the price for what they see as an uncompromising and fear-mongering stance on immigration and stirring up anti-Muslim sentiment. The recent civil unrest in North Africa since December is another factor that has worried public opinion in France, which has a large North African immigrant population.

Political commentators have cautioned that the margin of error for such on-line polls is large, of more than 2%. And they point out that the those polled weren't asked to give their opinion on Dominique Strauss-Kahn, currently head of the International Monetary Fund. Strauss-Kahn, a Socialist, hasn't declared his intention to run for the presidency in 2012, although he benefits from much more favorable popularity ratings than Martine Aubry. Le Pen is drawing her support from Sarkozy's camp according to the poll results. More than 20% of those who said they would vote for her in the first round said they had voted for Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election. Sarkozy has yet to declare his candidacy to seek a second term in 2012. Jean-Francois Cope, Secretary-General of Sarkozy's UMP party, said it would be a mistake to read too much into the poll result so far ahead of the election, saying that the poll "is just one among many" and called on the party's members to "keep a cool head." He acknowledged that moderate conservatives will suffer attacks from both the left and the far right in the lead-up to the election in 14 months' time.

Wall Street Journal

Protesters outnumber supporters as BNP leader speaks at a Swansea pub (Wales, UK)

BNP leader Nick Griffin has warned of a "hideous, unholy alliance" of big business, left wing supporters and European bureaucrats who are intent on destroying Britain.

Addressing the party faithful in a Swansea pub, he said that a revolution was coming, and that it was the party's role to "lead our people to the light".

The presence of the controversial politician in Swansea led to a noisy demonstration in the street outside the Landore inn, with protesters outnumbering supporters.

The Evening Post was the only media organisation to attend Saturday night's meeting at The Globe, which attracted around 65 activists from as far afield as London and Liverpool.

In a room above the bar, the party leader began by saying that mass immigration was destroying Britain and was "grotesquely unfair" to working people.

He said that unless migrants spoke English or Welsh they should not get access to benefits or schooling, and he called for a ban on building mosques — adding that the Koran was a fundamentalist book "about conquering other people".

But most of the MEP's speech was about the state of the economy, and how "they" — the political elites in charge — were intent on destroying the country.

He said: "The bankers crash has scarcely started — it is going to be truly horrible, and the Tory party cuts are not going to help, they are going to make it worse." He warned of a coming 1930s-style depression.

He went on to say that institutions such as the family, schools, the health service, council housing, and the Post Office were being deliberately undermined and privatised by a combination of hard-left activists and multinational business.

He also said Britain had been deliberately "de- industrialised".

He concluded by telling supporters that the party was on the "hard road" that would eventually lead to revolution and power.

He said: "The night is always darkest just before the dawn, but the dawn will come, and we will lead our people to the light."

He urged members to work to become community leaders ahead of the revolution.

While the leader talked, a group of around 80 anti- fascist protestors gathered near the pub.

Police blocked both ends of Mysydd Road and kept the protestors — some of whom wore masks — at one end of the street.

Among the crowd was David Phillips, leader of the Labour group on Swansea Council. He said: "Nick Griffin and the BNP are not welcome here — the people of Swansea do not support them and do want them here."

Chief superintendent Mark Mathias said he was happy with the policing arrangements.

He said: "Everybody has the right to express themselves peacefully, and the police presence was purely to ensure that the peace was kept."

He also thanked the people of Mysydd Road for their patience during the operation.

This is South Wales

Voting reform would give voice to extreme parties, says Clarke (UK)

Extreme political parties such as the far-right British National Party will be given a voice in British politics if the referendum on voting reform is passed on May 5th, leading Conservative minister Kenneth Clarke has said.

The referendum on the introduction of the alternative vote, which would put an end to first-past-the-post, was agreed between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats as part of the smaller party’s price to enter the coalition, although Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg once described it as “a miserable little compromise” compared with the party’s preference for proportional representation.

So far, opinion polls show that the majority of the public have failed to grasp the nature of the change proposed, though, if opinion polls are to be believed, voters coming to a decision are increasingly likely to come down against AV, which has been used in Australia for nearly a century, but rarely elsewhere.

The issue featured prominently during the Conservatives’ spring conference in Cardiff over the weekend, where posters warned delegates that the alternative vote would see candidates who finish third in the race for first preferences ending up winning, once subsequent preferences are counted.

The decision yesterday to feature Mr Clarke so prominently during a conference debate on the issue has much to do with hopes that the justice secretary, who is regarded as dangerously left-wing in many of his sentiments by Conservative grassroots, can attract middle-ground support, both inside and outside the party.

Saying it is “extremely important” that the referendum is beaten, Mr Clarke said that, if passed, it would mark “a profound change” in UK politics, leading to a situation where every future British government is formed in post-election negotiations between parties, rather than decided by voters in the ballot boxes.

First-past-the-post, he said, allows voters to make clear changes: “If I look back with the benefit of hindsight, I really cannot recall, with hindsight, a general election where I think the great British public got it wrong . . . We were finished in 1997. It was plain that it was time for us to be put out of our misery and a change to be made. Gordon Brown was finished in 2010 and it was plainly in the national interest for Labour to be extinguished.”

Noting that the referendum is taking place while the Conservatives are in a coalition pact with the Liberal Democrats, Mr Clarke said: “The irony is that I am rather happily serving in a coalition government, [but] at the moment Britain is best in class as coalition governments go across western Europe.” He said he had believed before the election that a hung parliament would be “a catastrophe”, but Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg had successfully brought the two parties together to face a national crisis, putting party interest aside.

Using the Olympics to illustrate his opposition to AV, prime minister David Cameron said: “Imagine it’s London 2012. We’re all watching the 100 metres. Usain Bolt powers home first over the line. But then he gets to the podium and it is the guy who finished third who gets the gold. We wouldn’t put up with this in the Olympics. We shouldn’t put up with it in our democracy.”

Irish Times