A counter-terrorism briefing document, as the Guardian has discovered, has been “distributed to medical staff and teachers as part of anti-extremism briefings included Greenpeace, Peta and other non-violent groups as well as neo-Nazis … The guide … is used across England as part of training for Prevent, the anti-radicalisation scheme designed to catch those at risk of committing terrorist violence”.
This discovery comes hard on the heels of the same paper discovering that “Counter-terrorism police placed the non-violent group Extinction Rebellion (XR) on a list of extremist ideologies that should be reported to the authorities running the Prevent programme, which aims to catch those at risk of committing atrocities”.
Former independent reviewer of Prevent, Alex Carlile - a successor has still not been appointed - was unimpressed with the latter revelation, telling “The Prevent strategy is meant to deal with violent extremism, with terrorism, and XR are not violent terrorists. They are disruptive campaigners”. This should not need to be pointed out.
And it gets worse: “the list of groups viewed as a potential concern contained in the new 24-page document includes Extinction Rebellion. It also includes Greenpeace … and the ocean pollution campaigners Sea Shepherd … Also included is Stop the Badger Cull”. Then worse still, as the range of non-violent groups included is revealed.
“Among the groups listed with no known link to terrorist violence or known threat to national security are Stop the War, the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, vegan activists, anti-fascist groups, anti-racist groups, an anti-police surveillance group and campaigners against airport expansion. Communist and socialist political parties are also on the list”. All very 1960s establishment paranoia.
To put this in perspective, these are some of the far-right groups included: “Combat 18 and the National Front, as well as National Action, which has been banned for terrorist violence … [those who have adopted] religious and historical symbols used by white supremacists including ‘Odin’s Rune’, ‘SS Runes’ and ‘Thor’s Hammer’”.
John Sauven of Greenpeace has responded “Tarring environmental campaigners and terrorist organisations with the same brush is not going to help fight terrorism … It will only harm the reputation of hard-working police officers … How can we possibly teach children about the devastation caused by the climate emergency while at the same implying that those trying to stop it are extremists?” Yet the Government is silent.
And by Government, that has to mean a good long look at Priti Patel, the MP now claiming to be Home Secretary. What, one has to ask, did she know about this and when? And if she didn’t know what was going on, what’s she doing in the job? Apparently, “Police said it was ‘unhelpful and misleading’ to suggest non-violent groups in the document were being smeared”. That’s the same Police who report to Ms Patel.
Branding XR a terrorist organisation was bad. Equating Greenpeace, XR, Sea Shepherd and Stop the Badger Cull with C18, the NF and National Action is worse. A lot worse.
So will Priti Patel get this particular part of her house in order? Don’t hold your breath.
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Which only goes to show crackpot spooks have got immeasurably worse since the days of neofascist paranoid loonies like Peter Wright, James Jesus Angleton, Enoch Powell and Joe McCarthy.
ReplyDeleteBritain 2020. Sliding further into the sewer each day.
This is a glimpse of their endgame. The Tories wish to control a country where they can violently and undemocratically get rid of socialists, left wingers, whistleblowers, environmentalists, criminal justice reformers (God knows what they would have thought about, say, Elisabeth Fry- is that why she was taken off the banknote?), hunt saboteurs, and any judges and intellectuals they wish to. In essence, they want a regime that terrifies those innocents that oppose them. There are Tories who do not want this, don't get me wrong, but the worst Tory sycophants definitely do. Look to the mob rule in some parts of the countryside where foxhunters terrorise people and have the police in their employ for the sort of thing we can expect socially.
ReplyDeleteThis country is not supposed to be Stalinesque. But the Tories want fascism. This is something they will stop short of getting however. And they pretend to give a stuff about Churchill and D-day and all that.
Why is the Tory Party not on the list?
ReplyDeleteWhilst it is good to see them tackle idiots, I can't help but think about all of those profiles with Fawkes masks.
ReplyDeleteThe timing is certainly interesting.
So, when can we expect officials to have their accountability too?
The big things lije lying officials and those who thwart investigations and maintain deceit whilst people languish in jail. Politicians who bend over for Murxoch out of fear for personal ridicule? Or those who simply carry out his plans. Just to name a few.
Or is the plan to silence the majority so those things can't happen?
Good luck with that. It will only breed more contempt.
Today's unlucky numbers are 86,86,86, 87 and 88.
Will this new plan extend to those who claim royalty were going a Nazi salute whilst walking?
ReplyDeleteSure, you could claim there is Germanic roots within royalty, but that Sun newspaper headline tells another story.
Rupert hates the EU. Yes, we get it!
Although, it's not us that has to play catch up, is it?
Come on then cabinet. See it for what it is.
Oh dear, credibility issue. Taking a job from a willy waving philanderer isn't a good look!
Under the old oak tree, I betrayed you and you betrayed me, under the old oak tree...
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase the Kenny Everett character the General " we are going to round the all up put them in a field and bomb the b@#tards " is getting closer to reality everyday. I have a St Pauli T-shirt am I on the list? Would seem so
ReplyDelete