Tag Archives: BNP

‘Worcester council candidate under fire for “despicable” internet posts casting doubts over the Holocaust’

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‘A WORCESTER City Council election candidate has sparked fresh fury by casting doubts about the Holocaust – on a sick website hosted in Russia.

We revealed earlier this week how Carl Mason, who is standing in the Nunnery ward in May, has quit as the city’s BNP organiser to launch a new right-wing group called the ‘British Resistance Party’.

But the controversial figure, who was questioned by police last Saturday after stickers linking the Labour Party to paedophiles appeared on lampposts, is now coming under fresh scrutiny for his online blogging.

The 50-year-old is a writer on a website called the ‘European Knights Project‘, which claims to provide a platform for people looking to “preserve Christian culture”.

On it Mr Mason, who boasts about waging “a one-man war against multiculturalism”, says many Germans were jailed for “doing little more than following orders”.

He also refers to the documented history of the Einsatzgruppen, where Nazi death squads were responsible for the mass slaughter of Jewish people, as wrong – saying “they did no such thing”, claiming the Germans instead shot “Communists” as a “revenge” for allied forces taking their farms, factories and homes.

Worcester Nazi Carl Mason

Worcester Nazi Carl Mason

He also cites doubts about several other elements of the Holocaust, before suggesting a conspiracy is at play to fool people.

“Could it be to control people’s voting habits, and in turn keep certain political parties in power, and in the money,” he writes.

“Is it being done in a manner so we feel sympathy towards the people that control our money supply, run our banks and media, so people are socially conditioned to hating people like me?

“Recall whenever a patriot is referred to as a ‘Nazi’, an image of shrunken heads and skin lampshades immediately pops up.”

Other online posts also bring up similar rhetoric, and on his official resistance party’s website he calls himself its “security adviser”, using the slogan: “Enough is enough – attack one of us, attack all of us – meet the British Resistance, our organisation and nation’s last line of defence.”

He also refers to wanting to “stand against Islamism, Zionism and British traitors”.

Mr Mason has told this newspaper he was “not denying the Holocaust” but admitted writing the posts because of doubts over the official narrative.

“If I wrote that in 53 countries I’d be arrested, that’s why the site is hosted in Russia,” he said.

“I’m not denying the Holocaust, as such but I’m asking questions – I think it did happen, but it was different to what history says.”

Worcestershire MEP James Carver, who is of Romanichal descent, has called it “despicable”.

“It’s disgusting, the historical facts about the Holocaust are clear,” he said.

“I know Holocaust survivors personally, this is just despicable – I know the stories and the heartbreak.”

West Mercia Police are taking no action against Mr Mason for the stickers linking the Labour Party to paedophiles, after he denied sticking them on lampposts.

He did, however, admit to printing off “around 2,000” to sell to other people.

Worcester Evening News


EDL supporters sentenced to 60 years for Walsall disorder

31 men from across the country, aged between 18 and 59, have been given sentences totalling 60 years and eight months for their part in the 2012 disorder which broke out in Walsall following an English Defence League demonstration.

Over 600 supporters of the EDL held a demonstration in the town centre on 29 September last year. A counter demonstration was also held nearby by the Unite Against Fascism group. Police officers had to keep the two groups apart.

EDL Walsall 2012

EDL supporter injured by his own side in Walsall 2012

A number of officers and EDL stewards were injured when the atmosphere turned hostile and supporters of the EDL threw missiles at the police.

The following men have been sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court for their part in the disorder:

Douglas Ralston (53) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 20 months

Darron Davies (49) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 22 months

Neil MacDiarmid (50) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 15 months

Alan Turnbull (32) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 26 months

Stephen Currien (30) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 28 months

Lee Rogers (26) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 24 months

Gary Lycett (55) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 26 months

Jack Lambert (25) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 14 months

Michael Thomas (49) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 28 months

Jack Clark (22) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 16 months

Christopher Boyall (31) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 24 months

Benjamin Banfield (35) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 20 months

Mark Baker (44) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 21 months

Dean Lidster (44) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 28 months

Craig Forward (38) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 25 months

Stephen Bennett (23) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 20 months

Christopher Jelley (28) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 22 months

Myles Smith (39) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 24 months

Nicholas Cooper (28) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 27 months

Peter Kirkham (30) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 14 months

Mark Conroy (35) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 30 months

Kirk Reeves (40) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 18 months

Richard Schulz (38) – found guilty after trial to violent disorder and sentenced to 42 months

Dean Smith (33) – found guilty after trial to violent disorder and sentenced to 27 months

John Cureton (48) – found guilty after trial to violent disorder and sentenced to 36 months

Kirk Jones (28) – found guilty after trial to violent disorder and sentenced to 33 months

Ronald Hatton (59) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 20 months, suspended for two years and 200 hours unpaid work.

Leslie Silk (37) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 18 months, suspended for two years with 200 hours unpaid work.

Samuel Phipps (18) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 16 months, suspended for two years, 200 hours unpaid work.

Duncan Smith (43) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 20 months, suspended for two years, 200 hours unpaid work.

Lee Coxshall (aged 34) – pleaded guilty to violent disorder and sentenced to 14 months, suspended for two years and ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work.

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“On 29 September, the English Defence League had arranged for their supporters from around the country to assemble in Walsall for a demonstration. It is the right of anyone to hold a peaceful assembly and Article 10 of the European Commission for Human Rights provides the right for freedom of expression; however, on that day, the supporters of the EDL went far beyond freedom of expression or a peaceful assembly.

Fuelled by hate and alcohol, a section of the group, instigated by key figures within the demonstration, began to direct their anger towards the counter demonstration. As police then sought to contain the group, supporters of the EDL began throwing missiles.

Police officers were then exposed to some of the worst violence that they have been subjected to in a public order situation. Concrete slabs, bricks and a table leg were among some of the various items which were used as weapons and thrown at the officers.

Those engaged in such reprehensible conduct paid little regard to what they were doing or who they were attacking, as during their orgy of violence, a number of their own EDL stewards, as well as police officers, were seriously injured.

A year on from those violent scenes those responsible for their actions that day have been arrested, brought to justice and now they have to face the consequences for their actions.”

– Robin Allen, Senior Crown Prosecutor from West Midlands Crown Prosecution Service

Link

Full sized mugshot gallery here


Is anti-fascism being criminalised? (IRR)

Reposted from the Institute of Race Relations

“An activist comments on the implications of recent arrests of anti-fascists at demonstrations opposing the English Defence League and the British National Party.

In the space of just over three months this year, police made upwards of 340 arrests of anti-fascists in London. Of the arrests made over two occasions, less than a dozen will proceed to trial. ‘No Further Action’ has been taken against the vast majority of those arrested, raising questions about the credibility of the grounds for arrest.

Anti-Fascist Network (AFN) in action

Anti-Fascist Network (AFN) in action

But Wednesday 6 November saw the first court date for five anti-fascists arrested on 1 June. All five pleaded not-guilty and will present a united defence case, in a five-day trial due to take place in April next year.

This trial could have important implications for anti-racist and anti-fascist campaigners, should opposition to far-right street movements be effectively criminalised. In a climate of resurgent anti-Muslim racism and attacks from the media and politicians on migrants and refugees, the police response to those campaigning against racism and fascism has, by any measure, been severe.

The background

On 27 May 2013, less than a week after the killing of Lee Rigby, the English Defence League (EDL) organised a protest outside Downing Street in central London. Estimates of the number of EDL supporters in attendance ranged from 1-3,000. A smaller number of anti-fascist demonstrators, around 600, were present to voice their opposition.

Toward the end of the protest and counter-protest, anti-fascists were forced to retreat under a hail of glass bottles, cans, sticks and other debris thrown by EDL supporters over the heads of the police and into the crowd of their detractors. Police said thirteen arrests were made over the day, but it was only by chance that the crowd of anti-fascists, which included wheelchair users and the very young, did not sustain any serious injuries.

Three days later, Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party (BNP), used Twitter to make a ‘personal appeal’ to EDL leader Tommy Robinson to join him on the BNP’s own anti-Islam protest the following Saturday.

Griffin had originally planned to hold a march from Woolwich barracks to the Lewisham Islamic Centre, but the Metropolitan Police used the Public Order Act to force the demonstration to relocate out of South London and to Whitehall. The BNP agreed to assemble instead at Old Palace Yard, close to the Houses of Parliament, and then march to the Cenotaph.

Arrests at the BNP protest

Arrests at the BNP protest

Anti-fascist activists again mobilised in response, this time significantly outnumbering their opponents. Hundreds linked arms and moved to blockade the path of the BNP and prevent them marching to the Cenotaph. After several hours, police moved to disperse the anti-fascists and facilitate the BNP march. ‘Snatch squad’ tactics were used to pick off demonstrators – who were then arrested and placed on London buses marked ‘special service’, to be driven to various police stations around London.

'Special service' buses used to detain arrested anti-fascists at the BNP protest

‘Special service’ buses used to detain arrested anti-fascists at the BNP protest

In contrast to the more timid policing of the EDL the previous Monday, fifty-eight anti-fascists were arrested. One woman was hospitalised with a broken leg, caused allegedly during her arrest by police. Restrictive pre-charge bail conditions were imposed on those arrested, preventing them from attending future protests against the BNP or the EDL.

Despite the arrests, the BNP were unable to complete their march, and left humiliated. On 7 September, however, the EDL returned to London – this time to the borough of Tower Hamlets. Again anti-fascists took to the streets to voice their opposition to the Islamophobic and racist politics of the EDL, and again the police responded by making mass arrests.

This time 286 arrests were made, including anti-fascists, legal observers and passersby. London buses were again used to send arrestees as far away as Sutton, where punitive pre-charge bail conditions were handed out en-masse. Information recently revealed under the Freedom of Information Act shows that the Metropolitan Police contacted Transport for London twelve days ahead of the planned march to inquire about hiring London buses. A booking with Sullivan Buses was confirmed by 29 August.

Anti-Fascists kettled in Tower Hamlets

Anti-Fascists kettled and arrested in Tower Hamlets

Should the anti-fascist protestors be convicted next year on a series of public order offences, it will set a worrying precedent. On the one hand, it would imply that positions and tactics of fascists and anti-fascists can somehow be equated. On the other, it could send out a warning signal to would be opponents of the EDL and BNP that they face criminalisation just for demonstrating. That is, if the arrests themselves – and the collection of names, addresses, DNA and fingerprints that accompanied them – have not already made the message clear.”

Original article (Institute of Race Relations) here


A medal at the British embassy for Birmingham’s Neo-Nazi terrorist

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Of all the circumstances surrounding last week’s conviction of Britain’s Neo-Nazi Ukrainian born terrorist, Pavlo Lapshyn, the London press’ failure to join the dots, even to call him a terrorist, is scandal all of its own.

When considering state actors’ role in aiding domestic terrorism, the London press has a blind spot. They seem to forget that during the 1970s & 1980s Irish troubles, state complicity and ‘collusion’ was pouring petrol on the flames. Evidence has been around for years that the British Army’s Force Research Unit (FRU), Brigadier Gordon Kerr specifically, was an integral part of the anti-IRA, Loyalist terror program.

State terrorism in Northern Ireland

State collusion with British terrorists arguably represents the greatest threat to UK national security, because it has gone almost entirely unrecognized and unpunished. This week Irish writer, Anne Cadwallader, pointed out in her new book about the Irish troubles, ‘Lethal Allies’, that serving policemen in the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) instigated and took part in terrorist murders of Catholics. Along with the unofficial ‘shoot to kill’ policy, this collusion was a powerful recruiting tool, generating ever more terrorism.

Collusion also turned Northern Ireland into a civil war training ground for the police and army, pitting soldiers against urban guerrillas. Cadwallader says: “There was systematic collusion in the 1970s… there must have been somebody trying to push Northern Ireland over the edge of the abyss. If there had been a virtual civil war, I think it would have suited some people in London.” 

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The disbanding first of the British Army’s Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) and then the RUC police force in Northern Ireland were, arguably, two of the most important acts that paved the way for the peace we see in the province today. Since so few were brought to justice for these state-sanctioned assassinations, it is absurd to suggest, as so many do, that UK state terrorism is ‘all in the past’.

Birmingham’s summer of terror

Britain’s most recent terrorist, 25 year old Ukrainian, Pavlo Lapshyn, who was convicted last week, was extraordinary in many ways. Despite a racially motivated murder and three bombs including Mosque bombings and a nail bomb, most of the London media used the word ‘murderer’ rather than ‘terrorist’ to describe him. The fact that no-one was killed by his bombs, which terrorized Birmingham’s Muslim community over the summer months, was described by the city’s spiritual leaders, quite rightly, as a miracle.

Lapshyn turned up in Britain in the spring, having won a work experience intern competition run by the robotics software company, Delcam. Astonishingly, this competition was run in conjunction with the British Embassy in Kiev, where he received his ticket to the UK from the British ambassador himself.

It is the Diplomatic Service and Foreign Office’s job to look into the credentials of anyone taking up residence in Britain. Yet not only, it seems, did they miss Lapshyn’s fanatical Neo-Nazism but failed to notice that he had been arrested in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, in 2010 for using home-made explosives to virtually destroy the flat he was living in. Despite blowing out his mother’s doors and windows, Ukrainian police let him off with a caution because he said he was simply doing a ‘science experiment’.

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Whether MI6 and the Diplomatic Service failed to do their job when vetting Lapshyn or not rather depends what their real job was. Incredible though it will seem to some, Lapshyn might have been identified by MI6 as a useful puppet to fuel sectarian strife in Britain and been conveyed to the UK for that very purpose. This is precisely the covert role the British Secret State has taken on in the past and does regularly abroad, all shrouded under the guise of ‘national security’.

Just like MI5 and GCHQ, the top echelons of MI6 operate like a cult, light years and several hermetically sealed cordons of security from democracy. The MP charged with their oversight, former Conservative Defense Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, has even been criticized by former GCHQ boss Sir Francis Richards as being inappropriate.

One of Rifkind’s many jobs is working for LEK, who consult on satellite, missile, security systems and electronic warfare. He is blatantly a fox in charge of the democratic henhouse, a front in the corridors of power for the private profiteers of the NATO zone Military Industrial Complex.

The ‘lone wolf’ theory

Just five days after entering Britain and taking up residence at the Birmingham flat Delcam software provided for him, Pavlo Lapshyn crept up behind 82 year old Muslim grandfather, Mohammed Saleem, and killed him by plunging a knife into his back three times. The explanation he later gave to police was simply that Saleem ‘was not white’ and that he ‘wanted to start a race war’.

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Mohammed Saleem’s daughters, Shazia Khan and Maz Saleem, say whilst dealing with the trauma of their father’s murder their grief was made worse by an excruciating struggle. It took them weeks to convince West Midlands police that their father’s murder was racially motivated.

The two sisters expressed their relief when Lapshyn confessed to the murder because they would not have to endure a lengthy and painful trial. The flip side though is we may never know whether, as the police say, the Ukrainian really was a ‘lone wolf’. The Norwegian police insisted Norwegian neo-Nazi killer of 77, Anders Breivik, was a ‘lone wolf’ too, despite some evidence of state collusion.

In the 1970s and 1980s, MI6 and the CIA were lead agencies in Operation Gladio, which recruited European Neo-Nazis like Lapshyn to commit terrorist acts in Italy, Germany, Belgium and elsewhere. The aim was to create a state of panic, a ‘Strategy of Tension’ which would enable governments to scapegoat society’s innocent minority groups and to take draconian measures, running rough-shod over civil liberties.

Otherwise professional, British police and journalists seem reluctant to take state collusion with far right terrorists seriously. One look at the 1992 three-part BBC Timewatch series on Operation Gladio should put them straight on that though. After watching it they’ll wonder, as with Norway’s Anders Breivik, are all these Nazis really just lone wolves?

In a country where the greatest threat to national security and natural justice is arguably the secret state itself, MI6 staff have once again let us all down in Birmingham. So rather than just shrugging their shoulders and turning a blind eye, perhaps named officers should be standing in the dock alongside Pavlo Lapshyn this week, ‘fessing up, and serving long jail sentences too.

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NO PASARAN UNCUT

Magdeburg is a city in the east of Germany: there is disruption created by an annual parade of fascists claiming to commemorate the casualties of an allied air strike that happened during the Second World War.

The emphasis they place on the nature of these casualties as victims could have the effect of distracting people’s attention from the atrocities performed by the Nazis themselves during the war, and from their role as the instigators of the conflict.

No Pasaran Uncut from CS Productions on Vimeo.


EDL – Attack Dogs of the State and Enemies of the Working Class

Origins of the EDL

1011994_293190610826058_1211824587_nThe English defence league was formed in 2009 to counter a tiny ultra-islamist group ‘Al-Muhajiroun’ who protested the return of British soldiers from Afghanistan.

The flashpoint came when Al-Muhajiroun burnt a poppy at a demonstration which fed the flames of hatred and caused the far right to react. It was also the perfect excuse for the far right to point the finger at all muslims from that moment on although concealed for a time under the guise of only being against ‘muslim extremism’.

Research suggests that many involved in the EDL originate from the criminal fraternity and the criminal fraternity is in turn attracted to the EDL. The so-called Luton based ‘leader’ of the EDL ‘Stephen Yaxley-Lennon’, an individual who uses multiple aliases, has convictions for drug dealing, fraud, breaching bail conditions and violence.

176587_1Amongst supporters it is common to find rather a lot of paedophiles, rapists, hardcore racists, nazis, violent thugs, petty criminals and even the odd murderer, most having their convictions documented in local newspapers and by anti-fascist organisations, others still at large hiding en masse within the ranks of the EDL. Since this article was written the number of EDL related convictions continues to rise.

In the first years from 2009 the EDL concentrated mainly on demonstrating against muslim extremist groups, then slowly moved their sights towards immigrants before finally focusing on left wing groups and basically anyone else that opposes them, because of these revalations, the EDL has been termed a fascist organisation.

On the racism front alone the EDL have built up the confidence to shout “send the black cunts home” over megaphones in city centres.

EDL and Austerity

The English Defence League are playing a significant part in diverting attention away from the banking collapse caused by bankers greed .. the failing capitalist system .. and of course the much despised and hated right wing Conservative party who elected themselves into office back in 2010. The Tories being the party that have implemented brutal austerity measures against the working class and under privileged as way of making us pay for the greed of the rich who caused the banking collapse in the first place.

master's biddingThe EDL’s main objective has been to demonise immigrants/ muslims and lay the financial blame solely at their door thus diverting attention away from the crimes of the bankers, the rich and the stranglehold austerity measures that they have imposed as a consequence.

Back in Thatcher’s day it was the National Front who thrived on the right wing rhetoric of the Tory party, now in Cameron’s day it is the EDL thriving on the same rhetoric.

Cameron stating that ‘there is none sicker than the EDL’ was a two-bit sound byte that meant nothing. Cameron hates the left and the working class making the EDL very useful because the EDL rail against working class people who fight for their rights and try to intimidate workers into silence on street level.

same_shitIt’s business as usual on the streets for the EDL and business as usual for the Tory party as the left and anyone else who opposes fascism is submerged into constant battle with the EDL. It seems that more effort and energy is put into fighting off the EDL than people can muster to fight austerity.

Already the EDL have cost the taxpayer over £10,000,000 towards policing a mob of drunken, coked up criminals on the streets of England every month or so since 2009. So much for the EDL stating that they are a ‘working class organisation’. They are literally pissing public money down the drain whilst intimidating entire communities whenever it suits them.

The English Defence League and its many offshoots who intimidate the working class on the streets would rather us wave little union jacks whenever a tory mp is in town, a royal gets pregnant or a soldier gets a badge rather than criticize their masters,  the ruling class.

Basically the far right EDL want the working class to ‘shut their mouths’ whilst the Conservative party would rather kill the working class off slowly and “legally” through stranglehold austerity measures that leave little option to some of our class.

A cunning plan indeed, a plan that is working out pretty nicely for the ruling class except for those ‘lefties’ and other critics that constantly attack and confront the ruling class and the subservient nationalist groups that serve them.

EDL achievements

Alan Lodge, Photographer tash@indymedia.orgThe major achievement of the EDL has been to draw every decent person opposed to racism, fascism and hatred into the lenses and notebooks of the police evidence gatherers to be rubber stamped and documented, at the request of the ruling class, no doubt.

Whether these opponents were politically active beforehand or not is irrelevant, they are now on file in their thousands. In this respect there is no question that the the EDL work hand-in-hand with the police and the state.

Violent nationalist EDL thugs ‘casuals united‘ supplied us with what was required in or hour of need, aiding us in finishing this article…

10.09.13 #EDL Hashtag

10.09.13 #EDL Hashtag

The EDL’s Prison wing/ lynchmob mentality

The EDL being structured like a gang, employ bullying tactics that can be found on any prison wing in any prison. Any person that happens to disagree with the EDL is commonly labelled a ‘paedophile’ in public and online and as soon as the finger is pointed at certain individuals, or groups, the rest of the gang go in for the kill, trying to garner public support whilst they are at it.

imagesThis behaviour happens on a daily basis with the EDL, and of course this behaviour is rife in prisons. If this doesn’t work they will say that those that oppose them are ‘anti-British’ or ‘supporters of militant Islam’ as a final last gasp or continue to circulate unfounded rumours plucked out of thin air to keep the pressure on their opponents.

The EDL as ‘scabs’

On a number of occasions the EDL have tried to publicly disrupt anti-cuts events, usually unsuccessfully but still with determination. Members of the public attending these events have  been accused of being ‘paedophiles’ for no other reason than fighting the measures imposed on the working classes by the government and the rich.

1818_816As in prison, labeling an innocent person a ‘paedophile’ would put them in fear for their life, the EDL are using this same tactic out on the street.

We can now see where the EDL are coming from.

As well as attempting to disrupt anti-cuts protests they have also been active in trying to disrupt anti-racist concerts and all kinds of meetings held by the left, on quite a few occasions resorting to violence when the insults and false accusations fail to have the desired effect.

The EDL and custody

wakefield_prison_croppedEDL members are not phased in the slightest by custody or prison. We’ll call prison their ‘home’ as we believe this is where they started and this is actually where they are most at home.

The policeman on the street to them is ‘guv’ or ‘boss’, as the screws in prison are ‘guv’ or ‘boss’ to them.

Over the four years since the EDL came to light there has been a steady and consistent trickle of scores of offenders belonging to their movement coming in and out of prison, the revolving door.

The EDL and ‘Britishness’

As a hate group that points the finger to divert attention from the crimes of the rich it is of no surprise that the EDL do not want to save the British badger or the NHS or any other public services that serve the British people, that would put their masters in the firing line. That is why we do not see any effort to help British people out in any way, shape or form mentioned in their hate filled agenda.

 The EDL are class traitors and used as attack dogs by the state.

More info on what the EDL wouldn’t want you to see at edlnews and exposingon


Bomb blast debris found near Wolverhampton Central Mosque

Bomb blast debris has been found near a mosque in Wolverhampton, as police continued to question two foreign students over the West Midlands-wide terrorism investigation.

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Bomb blast debris has been found near a mosque in Wolverhampton, as police continued to question two foreign students over the West Midlands-wide terrorism investigation.

Wolverhampton Central Mosque was last night evacuated just hours after detectives and an Army bomb disposal unit swooped on an industrial park in Birmingham where the two suspects were arrested.

Today they revealed that they had found the “seat of an explosion” and debris, on the Five Ways roundabout.

Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale, who is leading the investigation, said today: “Officers searching the area have found the seat of an explosion and debris on the island near the mosque.

“The investigation is being led by specialist officers and staff from our Counter Terrorism Unit who are being supported by a range of departments from across the force.

“We recognise the impact news of the latest find will have on the communities of Wolverhampton and further afield. We’re working hard to complete our enquiries so that the area can be returned to normality.

“We are keen to hear from people who may have seen anyone acting suspiciously on or near to the roundabout on the night of the 27 or the morning of 28 June,” said ACC Beale.

“Whether people feel the information is important or not, I would urge them to contact us so that we can assess that information.”

Detectives were today quizzing the Ukranian men – aged 22 and 25 – on suspicion of causing the recent bomb blasts at mosques in Walsall and Tipton.

Police said they were acting on fresh intelligence about a suspected bomb plot at the Wolverhampton mosque in Waterloo Road as they revealed they were heading to the scene last night.

They had been called to the mosque on June 28 to investigate reports of a noise, but found nothing untoward. New information yesterday sparked a major police operation as officers searched the mosque and surrounding area for signs of any device.

Nothing was found at the mosque, which has now reopened for worship.

They evacuated the building at 8pm yesterday. Military bomb disposal and specialist search teams also descended on the mosque.

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Security has been heightened at mosques around the region and police have stepped up patrols to ensure a higher visibility presence on the streets.

Officers insisted the Wolverhampton evacuation – which involved cordoning off parts of Stafford Road, Cannock Road and Dunstall Road – was to ensure safety and security of the community. Superintendent Jan Thomas-West from Wolverhampton Police said: “We had a report of a noise on June 28.

“Nothing untoward was found at that particular time. We received information which resulted in an attendance at the mosque.”

The message from mosque leaders was one of calm as they came to terms with the day of drama. Prayers were redirected from the Waterloo Road mosque to nearby Dunstall Hill Community Centre, where senior mosque member Mahmood Khan said relations with police and the community were extremely positive. He added: “We’re united against this.”

In Birmingham, parts of the city had earlier been brought to a standstill and hundreds of workers were evacuated from software engineering company Delcam – where the two suspects were arrested at 2.50pm.

Detectives, an Army bomb disposal unit and police dog team carried out investigations late into the night. The first man was arrested after being spotted by officers working in the local area, and the second was arrested nearby. It is believed an officer on routine patrol spotted one of the men and initially identified him as a suspect in the Walsall mosque bomb inquiry.

The pair, who remained in custody today, are university engineering students and are on work placement with Delcam.

Clive Martell, chief executive of Delcam, said: “We had two men arrested on our premises. They are both Eastern European and they are here as overseas students on work placement and are not employees of ours.”

He added: “This is completely unexpected and we are fully co-operating with the police.”

It is believed the pair did not know each other before they met at the company.

The first terror investigation was launched after a handmade device exploded by the Aisha Mosque and Islamic Centre in Rutter Street, Caldmore, on June 21. The road was sealed off and around 150 residents evacuated from their homes, as white-suited forensic officers scoured the scene for clues.

Police reveal details of the arrests at the scene

A 75-year-old man from Walsall who was arrested on June 27 in connection with the investigation has been eliminated from inquiries and faces no further action.

Then on July 12, counter terrorism police, the army and bomb disposal teams were sent to the Kanz-ul-Iman Muslim Welfare Association Central Jamia Mosque in Tipton after nearby residents heard a loud bang.

The blast, which resulted in nails and debris flying into nearby buildings, happened at around 1pm when there should have been hundreds of people inside the mosque – but the first Friday prayers of Ramadan had been put back by an hour so there were just three people present.

Link

What the EDL had to say about the latest bomb find

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