Redwatch closes ranks but the threats continue

Last month Searchlight exposed the men behind Redwatch and the vital part it plays in the British National Party campaign to silence its critics. Our revelations, together with the fact that several trade unions have taken up the case, are forcing the authorities to act.

Even the nazis at Redwatch are getting nervous. “We need to STOP posting the messages on this site about Reds,” posted Tony White, one of the three men behind Redwatch. “Its going to be a nail in the coffin for many people, these need to be held, selectively shared for security purposes of course but not shared with the opposition so they are alerted. What’s the point in warning them that they ARE KNOWN.”

A more furious response came from the man we could only identify as MIB. Fortunately several readers contacted Searchlight and provided his real name: Tony Foy.

Posting on the Redwatch guestbook, he wrote: “After a minor set back IE a jew sticking his big nose into our business, namely The Mole.Intelligence.Bureau, we have had to take effective action in other words the group has ceased to exist. Instead we have decided to move operations else where all the original intelligence on red scum from the mole has been filed to a new archive.

“The reds are now on a counter offensive 4 pages of lies to try and silence us or draw ZOG attention to our activities.”

Realising that their inner group had been infiltrated, White, Foy and the main person the website, Kevin Watmough, belatedly decided to throw out the majority of those registered on their secret Yahoo discussion group.

Several trade unions are demanding that the authorities take action. The Leeds branch of the National Union of Journalists has compiled a dossier, which it has sent on to the police. The union acted when two of its journalists were targeted after they wrote articles exposing the criminal nature of local nazis.

Now the TUC is beginning to take action after several of its members were featured on the site. One TUC official told Searchlight: “The Redwatch site is clearly designed to intimidate decent people from protesting against racism and fascism. This is unacceptable and it is time it got brought to an end.”

In Oldham, several anti-BNP activists have complained to police after Tony Wentworth, the BNP youth organiser, took pictures of them during the Failsworth by-election and promised to post them on the Redwatch site.

However, it is events in Liverpool that have been instrumental in forcing the authorities to look into Redwatch. In the past few weeks there have been two serious threats against an individual and a newspaper that highlights the role and purpose of Redwatch.

The first was a verbal threat left on the mobile telephone answer service of one leading Anti Nazi League activist. The mobile was a contact number for people wanting to get involved in the anti-BNP campaign.

Addressing the anti-fascist by his real name, the caller gave him a tirade of abuse and said: “This call is from the BNP and we stand for the white people of Great Britain. If you ever go to Liverpool city centre again we will cut you up.”

A week later, a new Liverpool section appeared on the Redwatch site, containing photographs and personal details of those behind the newly formed Merseyside United Against Racism and Fascism.

When the Liverpool Echo contacted the local BNP organiser for his comments, he had little to say. Literally hours later a letter was delivered to the offices of the local paper threatening to blow up the building if the paper continued to run anti-BNP stories.

For the local BNP organiser, this was personal. It was, after all, the Liverpool Echo that had put a picture of him on the front page in April with the headline: “Vote Scum”.

The letter was written in the name of the Aryan Martyrs Brigade. This is the same group that sent a threatening letter to a journalist from Wales on Sunday, whose crime had been to write an article about the BNP.

The group does not exist. Its name is just a cover for the Redwatch and BNP thugs who are setting out to silence media critics.

There is now a clamour for action. It is deplorable that so far the police have not moved against those behind Redwatch. Given the evidence that the perpetrators also discuss and plan violent assaults, it can only be hoped that action will finally be taken.

The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, is studying a dossier on Redwatch and several MPs have promised to take up the issue. But the matter must not be left there. Searchlight readers need to continue to write letters of complaint to their local MPs and support anti-racist campaigners, journalists and newspapers under attack.