Here A Nazi, There A Nazi

Trial of extremists over arson attack on Roma starts
(CTK) - The trial of four right-wing extremists suspected of the April 2009 arson attack on a Romany [aka Gypsies, Travellers ed.] family house in Vitkov, north Moravia, started under tough security measures at the Regional Court in Ostrava yesterday.

The four, David Vaculik, Jaromir Lukes, Ivo Mueller and Vaclav Cojocaru, face exceptional sentences, up to life imprisonment, if convicted of racially motivated attempted murder.

They have been escorted to the courtroom by a strong unit of Prison Service officers.

The state attorney says the crime, committed in the night to April 19, 2009, was planned by Lukes.

This is also what Cojocaru and Mueller told the court. They said Lukes told them about the plan that was to frighten local Romanies in a pub in Opava, a town near Ostrava, on April 18.

Lukes and Vaculik refused to give testimony.

Lukes stayed in the car and each of the three young men threw a Molotov cocktail in the windows of a Romany family house in Vitkov. Then they drove away.

Three of the house inhabitants suffered injuries in the subsequent fire. The worst afflicted was a 1.5-year-old girl, Natalka, who suffered severe burns on 80 percent of her body.

Natalka stayed many months in hospital, undergoing a series of surgeries. Doctors call her survival a miracle. She will bear lifelong consequences of her injuries, however.

Cojocaru and Mueller claim they did not know that the house they attacked was inhabited. Muller said Lukes told them it was a place where stolen goods were stored.

Both Cojocaru and Mueller said they heard the news about the burnt girl only in the morning after their attack. They read it on the Internet, they said.

"We really felt sorry for the little girl... We didn't realise that something like this might happen," Mueller told the judges.

The four wanted to draw attention within local extremist groups. They also wanted to take a "bigger action" on the eve of Adolf Hitler's 120th birth anniversary, the attorney said.

Someday, not necessarily today, these dumbfucks and their fellow travelers might learn that the Austrian corporal had a solution for the Czechs, too. And, just like The Final Solution to the Jewish Question, it's architect was Reinhard Heydrich, Reichprotektor Bohmen und Mahren until his assassination in 1942.

Cojocaru and Mueller rejected this.

"I was spontaneous. I don't believe that anybody prepared it. At least not with me," Cojocaru said.

Lukes's lawyer Pavel Penkava said he disagreed with the statements that Lukes masterminded the attack. "We will try to refute this claim during the trial," he said.

Pavel Uhl, the representative of the children who were in the house when the attack occurred, told CTK yesterday that he would demand financial compensation worth some nine millions of crowns. Markus Pape and Ladislav Balaz demand compensation of 900,000 crowns on behalf of Natalka's family.

The VZP health insurance company demands the payment of 7.5 million crowns for the treatment of Natalka and her parents.

The trial is to continue on Wednesday at 9:00.

The ACLU was unavailable for comment.

Via The Prague Monitor

Here A Nazi, There A Nazi

Czech extremists planned attacks on power plants, kidnaps

The Czech extremist organisation White Justice (WJ) was preparing terrorist attacks on power plants and unit substations and kidnappings of police and "Jews in high posts," daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes today, referring to a secret neo-Nazi web.

It writes that it also drew information from testimonies by two founding members of White Justice, Filip Stransky and Lukas Sedlacek.

Organisation members were taught to destroy property, blast cars and fight with and without arms at "fight camps," MfD writes, adding that training and communication was strictly secret.

MfD writes that Stransky was probably the head of the whole organisation, or at least some members consider him to be the chief though he himself denies it.

White Justice organised four fight camps at which professional soldier Sedlacek taught the interested persons to attack concrete persons and buildings, MfD writes.

It says the group also launched a project called "red watch" within which the neo-Nazis wanted to monitor and intimidate "ideological enemies," particularly anarchists and police.

The police found the plans of the hydro-electric power plant in Zelezny Brod, north Bohemia, in the flat of one of the group founders, MfD writes.

"I am one of the founders of the organisation. Filip Stransky and a person called Jany founded it with me," Sedlacek said in police questioning, MfD writes adding it has his testimony at its disposal.

Sedlacek confessed to having trained about 30 people in the camps. He taught them hand-to-hand combat, both armed and unarmed, and attacking animate as well as inanimate targets. He also trained them to blast cars and destroy property, MfD writes.

Stransky claims that he administera web ervers of the White Justice group. He also received instructions via the Internet, but he says he does not know the authors, MfD writes.

Anonymity was a condition both in training and in Internet communication. All participants used nicknames, the paper writes.

"We knew ourselves only in small groups. If one of us were exposed, this would not threaten the rest of the organisation," MfD quotes Stransky as saying.

Sedlacek also testified to having known practically no individual members. For the sake of secrecy they communicated only electronically via foreign and mostly encoded servers. One of them is in the United States and another in Israel, MfD writes.

"The WJ organisation is here to do the dirty work. We know now who is a Jew and who is his lackey. It is unfeasible to remove the top-placed Jew within a week, but it is feasible to gradually rise along the pyramid of those in power up to the very peak," a person nicknamed "Redakce" (editorial office) said on a secret web, MfD writes.

Stransky admitted in an interview with MfD that he used to enter the web just under this name.

The police arrested a part of the extremist group for propagation of Nazism two weeks ago.

"We were monitoring the group on suspicion of preparation of terrorist attacks," Robert Slachta, director of the police Squad for Uncovering Organised crime (UOOZ) said then.

Community organizer David Duke was unavailable for comment.

Via ČeskéNoviny

H/T Mishi & Pito

Here A Nazi, There A Nazi

Police arrest 30 suspected of ties to extremism, neo-Nazi movement
Wednesday afternoon saw roughly one hundred right-wing extremists protest in front of the Office of the Government, in reaction to a carefully-planned crackdown by police earlier in the day. Officers moved in in the early hours of Wednesday morning to arrest almost 30 individuals across the country suspected of ties to extremist and neo-Nazi groups.

Wednesday morning the police move in at addresses including Prague, Kralupy nad Vltavou, Ceské Budejovice, Zlín, a crackdown against individuals suspected of ties to extremist and neo-Nazi movements. The second such wave in four months saw almost 30 people arrested, among them, a politician for the extreme right-wing Workers’ Party, thought to have ties to the neo-Nazi movement known as Národní odpor. (Note: Translatation may not work in Firefox, Ed.) Another picked up by the police: the bassist for a known neo-Nazi rock band called Impérium.

In the course of the crackdown, police confiscated books, computers, and other items – allegedly looking for evidence related to neo-Nazi concerts and more. Interior Minister Martin Pecina confirmed for Czech TV that such steps would continue as long as there was reason to suspect criminal activity. But representatives of the extremist Workers’ Party cried “foul”, saying the arrests were an attempt by the government to strengthen its aim to see the party banned. The party’s Martin Vandas: “It’s a last minute attempt to try and find some kind of evidence that would legitimise banning our political party.”

Not surprisingly, the police, aren’t commenting: tight-lipped even on the exact number of those taken into custody Wednesday. So far for this year, though, this much is clear: the police have largely stepped up crackdowns in apparent response to the alarming jump of neo-Nazi activities in the country in recent years - from demonstrations to illegal concerts.

Arguably, the most significant bust came by police back in August. After months of investigation and slow-going, officers arrested 12 (and later charged four suspects) for a brutal firebomb attack against a Romany family (aka Gypsies, Ed.). That attack which took place in the east of the country, left three people injured: parents and their two-year-old daughter. In the incident, the toddler only narrowly escaped death and remains in treatment after having suffered burns to 80 percent of her body.

by Jan Velinger | Radio Prague

Intrepid community organizer David Duke was unavailable for comment.


Via Radio Prague

H/T Mishi

Somebody Alert Charles

This will probably cause the folks over at Little Green Footballs to clutch their chests and require CPR.

A German artist is posing 1,250 garden gnomes with their arms outstretched in the stiff-armed Hitler salute in an installation that he calls a protest of lingering fascist tendencies in German society.

But hey, it's all good and the German government has given it a stamp of approval.

Displaying Nazi symbols is illegal in Germany but a court ruled earlier this year that Hoerl's gnomes were clearly satire and thus allowed.

Relax, it's a joke.

I'm probably the last guy on the web to say something about what has happened over at LGF in the last few months, where the only topics discussed anymore are rampant neo-Nazi sympathizers behind every misdeed in the world and the danger that creationists pose for the survival of the western world.

So to make them feel better there is this story about Ohio seeking the reinstatement of the death penalty for a professed real neo-Nazi.

Here A Nazi, There A Nazi

Tensions Mount in Neo-Nazi Hotel Case
Despite efforts to have them evicted, right-wing extremists in Germany continue to occupy a hotel building they plan to turn into a training center. And now police fear a violent clash between local left-wingers and their new neo-Nazi neighbors.

Bullets have been fired and weapons confiscated. But as tensions between left and right wing groups mount, a court has rejected an application to evict a group of neo-Nazis from a disused hotel in the village of Fassberg, in the northern German state of Lower Saxony.

The Hotel Gerhus went into receivership just one day before Jürgen Rieger, deputy leader of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), signed a 10-year lease on the property. That has sparked controversy about whether the neo-Nazis are there legally or whether they are squatting.

The receiver himself, Jens Wilhelm, had hoped to be granted a court order this week to force the neo-Nazis off the property. But he was unsuccessful and will now have to wait for a court hearing at the end of the month. Reacting to the decision, Wilhelm told Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper: "What could be more urgent than vacating an illegally occupied hotel?"

Guns Fired, Fears of Violence

And as Wilhelm's frustrations grow, so too do those of left-wing groups outraged by reported plans to convert the hotel into a neo-Nazi youth camp and training center. After shots were fired in the area over the weekend -- nobody was injured -- police seized pepper spray from two left-wingers and a baton from a group of right-wingers. Local police are also stepping up their presence because of fears of a violent clash between left and right. Local police spokesman Christian Riebandt said: "We have squad cars patrolling the area around the hotel around the clock."

The right of the neo-Nazis to remain in the 80-room hotel will be depend on whether a court deems their current lease -- signed off by the debt-ridden owners just one day before they went into receivership -- legal and valid.

Should the court rule that the lease is valid, it wouldn't be too surprising to hear that Anarchists have gone on a whoopass spree cleaned up the neighborhood.

Via Spiegel Online

Isn't That Special: Missouri Neo-Nazis 'Adopt-a-Highway'

Call it the highway to hell.

I hate those Missouri Nazis.

A neo-Nazi group has joined the state's "Adopt-A-Highway" volunteer litter pickup program, taking advantage of a free speech court fight won four years ago by the Ku Klux Klan.

The Springfield unit of the National Socialist Movement has committed to cleaning up trash along a half-mile section of Highway 160 near the Springfield city limits.

Two signs noting the group's membership in the Adopt-A-Highway program went up in October but drew attention only recently when the group picked up litter as part of a gathering in Springfield.

The state says it had no way to reject the group's application. A 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling arising from a similar effort by the Ku Klux Klan says membership in the Adopt-A-Highway program can't be denied because of a group's political beliefs. At the time, the state could reject applications for the program from groups that denied membership based on race or had a history of violence.

"It's a First Amendment thing, and we can't discriminate as long as they pick up the trash," said Bob Edwards, a spokesman for the transportation department's office in Springfield.

Trash picking up trash. How cute.

Just a hunch, but I suspect those signs won't be up much longer.

Leftwingers will note the use of the word socialist in the name of the Nazi group. Just a reminder.

Neo-Nazi Obama Plot Foiled

Frankly, this sounds like amateur hour, but you need to break these plots up before they go too far, obviously. Apparently these neo-Nazi punks planned to target a predominately black school and ultimately Barack Obama.

Federal agents have broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree, the ATF said Monday.

In court records unsealed Monday, federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name.

Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the Nashville field office for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the two men planned to shoot 88 black people and decapitate another 14. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.

The men also sought to go on a national killing spree, with Obama as its final target, Cavanaugh told The Associated Press.

"They said that would be their last, final act—that they would attempt to kill Sen. Obama," Cavanaugh said. "They didn't believe they would be able to do it, but that they would get killed trying."

An Obama spokeswoman traveling with the senator in Pennsylvania had no immediate comment.

The men, Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman 18, of West Helena, Ark., are being held without bond. Agents seized a rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and three pistols from the men when they were arrested. Authorities alleged the two men were preparing to break into a gun shop to steal more.

It's difficult to fathom anyone would be able to go on a nationwide spree and then target Obama, but obviously there are enough delusional people out there.

More here.

According to the Complaint, approximately one month ago, Cowart and Schlesselman met via the internet through a mutual friend and both claim to have very strong beliefs regarding "White Power" and "Skinhead" philosophy. Cowart and Schlesselman began discussing going on a "killing spree". The Complaint further alleges that Cowart and Schlesselman discussed robbing a gun shop (Federal Firearms Licensee) in order to gather weapons and ammunition. The Complaint notes the defendants were in possession of a sawed off shotgun.

On October 20, 2008, Cowart allegedly traveled from Tennessee to Arkansas to pick up Schlesselman in order to carry out their plan. The Complaint states that at this time, the defendants further discussed their killing spree to include targeting a predominately African American School and to continue their spree until their final act of violence which would be to attempt to assassinate Presidential Candidate Barack Obama. "The United States Secret Service takes all threats against Presidential Candidates seriously and is actively investigating the allegations," said Richard Harlow, Special Agent in Charge of the Secret Service-Memphis Field Office. "The Secret Service does not comment on this type of investigation."

The Complaint further notes that the defendants stated that they would be willing to die during this attempt. According to the Complaint, after soliciting a friend, to drive their car, between 11:00pm on October 21, 2008 and 2:00am on October 22, 2008, the defendants made plans to rob a house but were diverted when they arrived and observed a dog and two cars at the location. Cowart and Schlesselman then dropped Stafford back off at her residence and then went to a local retail store and allegedly purchased nylon rope and two ski masks.

"It is critical that the alleged plot was interrupted," said James Cavanaugh, Special Agent in Charge of ATF. "We give credit to the Deputies of Crockett and Haywood Counties. All forces of law enforcement have come together to stop this threat."

The Defendants were arrested on October 22, 2008 by the Crockett County Sheriff's Office. "Once we arrested the defendants and suspected they had violated federal law, we immediately contacted federal authorities, " said Sheriff Troy Klyce of Crockett County. "The Sheriff's Department is committed to keeping Crockett County a safe place for our all of citizens."

Naturally, the HuffPosters leap to wild conclusions.

formerprosecutor

I expect Rush to have them on his show; I am sure they are huge fans of his

CTmom13

Palin/McCain and republicans are inciting VIOLENCE, HATE and FEAR and this is what happens.........John Lewis was right!!!!

McCain you are a dishonorable man and need to stop this before it's too late

MSMSucksCom

Well thank God these were a couple idiots as indicated that they had swastikas painted on their cars.

But they were serious enough to have created a threat to blacks in the area.

Hopefully this will keep the FBI and Secret Service on their toes. I worry about Obama's safety and I condemn Palin for giving speeches that motivate the unstable to act on her commands and hate-filled speeches.

Verdugo

I'm not worry about this plot. I'm worry about the fact that the current administration is a criminal regime and if the Democrats win many of them may find themselves in legal jeopardy. Also, after having put in place a fascist infrastructure during the last eight years, I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop. This Bush regime is a criminal regime and I fear what they may have in store before the election.There are pages and pages of this.

We Must Stop Meeting Like This

Six Czechs hospitalised after row between skinheads, anarchists
Skinheads and anarchists who chanced to meet at Prague's namesti Republiky square started a fight after which six injured people were taken to hospital, Jirina Ernestova and Ladislav Bernasek, spokespersons for the Prague emergency service and police, confirmed to CTK.

The injured, aged 18-38, have suffered bruises and brain concussion, the server tn.cz said.

A youth, aged 24, has also broken wrists on both of his arms, Ernestova said.

One day - maybe - the Nazis just might get a clue.

Two ambulance cars and one car with a doctor were called to the scene.

The case is being investigated by the police. The anarchists seem to have started the attack. They vanished from the scene before the police came. The police are searching for them. If caught, they will face breach of the peace charges.

Via ČeskéNoviny

Never Underestimate The Courage Of A Nazi

Nazis assault feminist festival-goers
At least seven people attending a festival promoting feminism were assaulted on Sunday evening by a group of neo-Nazis in a small Swedish village.

One man was left needing hospital treatment after he was attacked with a metal pipe by an unidentified gang in Österfärnebo in east central Sweden.

“The men drove around the area in a car, shouting ‘sieg heil’ and doing a Nazi salute,” police investigator Kalju Poltrago told newspaper Upsala Nya Tidning.

It was around 1am when a group of people aged 17 to 25 left Färnebo Community College at the end of a three-day feminist festival. The festival, which is organized by the college, is eight years old and attracts people from all over Sweden.

“Witnesses described how a group of Nazis or skinheads got out of a car, which was circling the area. After shouting ‘sieg heil’ and doing the Nazi salute the men then proceeded to assault the teenagers who had exited the college” said Poltrago.

“They assaulted the teenagers with metal pipes. One girl was beaten bloody and another thirty year old man was battered while he lay on the ground. He was injured so badly that he had to be rushed to the local hospital for treatment.”

The police have classed the attack as grievous bodily harm of a racist nature.

“We are aware of the Nazi organizations but we are unsure which one is responsible. We have not accused anyone at this time,” said Kalju Poltrago.

Österfärnebo is an idyllic village with a population of around 700 people, situated beside one of Sweden’s most beautiful national parks. It is famous for its moose hunting, course fishing and clean air.

“It is a tragic thing when this kind of violence enters a community. We are not used to this kind of thing. I am shocked,” said Annika Eriksson, a lifelong inhabitant of Österfarnebo.

Damnable cowards.

Via The Local

Germany Bans Two Far-Right Holocaust Denier Groups

These creeps will just go underground, of course, but the Germans should be applauded for taking such action.

German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble shut down two far-right organizations on grounds that they deny the Holocaust took place.

The minister accused the groups of being "reservoirs of organized Holocaust deniers" who distribute anti-Semitic propaganda and praise the Nazis over the Internet.

Authorities raided 30 locations looking for evidence early on Wednesday, May 7, taking evidence with them, a statement from Schaeuble said.

"Rightwing extremism has many faces, among them young neo-Nazis and similarly old Nazis," Schaeuble said. "They have in common their rejection of our free democratic principles."

Collegium Humanum (CH) and its subsidiary organization, Bauernhilfe (Aid to Farmers), were the two groups identified by the Interior Ministry. The CH was founded in the 1960s and has long been monitored by domestic security services.

A third related group, the VRBHV, was described as working to "rehabilitate those persecuted for denying the Holocaust."

They have their bases in the western German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Hesse.

How long until their sympathizers on the web start whining about free speech being oppressed?

David Duke, Line One

Erwin Kemna, the far-right NPD party's national treasurer, was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of embezzeling hundreds of thousands of euros since 2004. If found guilty, he faces up to ten years in prison.

'Germany's Neo-Nazi Party Is in Self-Destruct Mode'
With the arrest of the NPD party's national treasurer on Thursday, things are looking increasingly grim for the far-right organization. Cooked books, poor finances and internal corruption are all leading to self-strangulation. Good riddance, say German newspapers.

Police in Berlin raided the national headquarters of the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) on Thursday, following the arrest of the organization's national treasurer, Erwin Kemna, earlier that morning on suspicion of embezzlement.

Erwin Kemna, the far-right NPD party's national treasurer, was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of embezzeling hundreds of thousands of euros since 2004. If found guilty, he faces up to ten years in prison.

Kemna was detained in the western German city of Münster Thursday morning on suspicion of siphoning off €627,000 ($913,500) since 2004 from the party's funds solely for personal use. If found guilty, he faces between five and 10 years in prison.

Kemna's arrest comes at a time when the far-right party has been facing grave financial troubles, federal investigations, and a demand from the Bundestag that the party repay €870,000 in defrauded funds.

A recent leak of internal documents to SPIEGEL ONLINE revealed that the party had "not enough membership revenue and only a few financial backers," and that there were deep divisions within the party. Another threat to the NPD coffers is a recent move by the 16 German interior ministers to halt state funding to organizations and foundations that espouse the party's rightist views.

Thursday's raid and the arrest of the NPD treasurer come as additional blows, and it has German newspapers buzzing with talk on Friday about how the NPD doesn't need to be outlawed to go away; it seems to be doing that just fine on its own.

And another gaggle of losers will step right up to take their place.

See the rest at Spiegel Online International

Here A Nazi; There A Nazi Pt. V

Neo-Nazis to march through Plzeň March 1

A neo-Nazi march will be held on March 1 instead of a banned march scheduled for January 19, the march's organiser Vaclav Bures told ČTK Monday.

The original march date, January 19, coincided with the 65th anniversary of the first deportation of Jews from Plzeň to the concentration camps.

Plzeň Mayor Pavel Roedl (senior ruling Civic Democrats, ODS) finally banned the march. However, the regional administrative court decided last Friday that the march was banned unjustly because the criteria for the ban were not met. As a result, Bures could organise a new rally.

Bures has to announce the new march to the authorities one day in advance at the latest.

The route of the march is the same as planned before. The marchers are to pass by Plzeň's Great Synagogue (second largest synagogue in Europe; ed.).

Bures said he did not know how many people could take part in the event.

Later in January it turned out that Bures was a member of the ODS branch in Plzeň-Lochotin. The branch immediately expelled him from the party.

Bures announced the January 19 march as a march in support of the freedom of speech, in reaction to the police intervention that prevented a neo-Nazi march through the historical Jewish Quarter in Prague.

This story is from the Czech News Agency (ČTK)

See also: Nationalists' complaint against PM Topolánek shelved

Photo credit: Miaow Miaow

Here A Nazi; There A Nazi Pt. IV

ARSON SUSPICIONS AFTER LUDWIGSHAFEN BLAZE
Police Find Neo-Nazi Graffiti on Burnt-Out Building

German police investigating eyewitness claims that Sunday's blaze in Ludwigshafen was caused by arson have found neo-Nazi graffiti daubed on the building where nine Turkish immigrants died. Turkish media are reporting that the occupants had received xenophobic threats.

German police said on Wednesday they had found neo-Nazi symbols daubed next to the entrance to a Turkish cultural center on the ground floor of the Ludwigshafen building where nine Turkish immigrants, including five children, died in a fire on Sunday.

The word "Hass," German for hatred, had been smeared twice next to the door, with the last two letters written in the style of the Germanic runes of Hitler's SS organization.

Police spokesman Michael Lindner said it was unclear when the graffiti was written, but that it must have been before the blaze because the building had been cordoned off and under police guard ever since.

The building has been shored up by engineers and police were able to enter it with sniffer dogs on Wednesday to look for any signs of arson.

Police had announced on Tuesday they were investigating a statement by two Turkish girls (more...), aged eight and nine, who claim to have seen a man setting fire to a wooden stick in a corridor of the building and then running away. Police said they would try to create a photofit picture of the possible arsonist from the statements of the two girls, but stressed it was too soon to draw any conclusions about the cause of the fire.

Turkish media are speculating that the fire was laid by German neo-Nazis. If the suspicion is confirmed, Germany will have to brace itself for the same international condemnation that followed the 1993 killing of five Turkish women and girls in a fire in Solingen, western Germany, which was set by German youths.

Reports of Far-Right Threats

Turkish newspaper Zaman reported on Wednesday that the Kaplan family living in the century-old apartment block had been threatened by young German right-wing extremists after they moved into the building.

The newspaper cited relatives of the victims living in the southern Turkish town of Gaziantep. The threats were received after a Turkish coffee shop was opened in the ground floor of the building, said Ismail Ceylan, a family relative. He said the Kaplans had not taken the threats seriously.

Bild newspaper cited police as saying that there had been an arson attack on the building in August 2006, when unknown assailants threw a cobblestone and two petrol bombs into an empty pub on the ground floor. It caused only slight damage.

The incident is starting to cause diplomatic tensions between Germany and Turkey. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported Wednesday that German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble criticized the Turkish ambassador to Germany, Ali Irtemçelik, for having said it was "strange" that German politicians had ruled out any xenophobic motive before any cause had been established.

[...]

An 11-month-old boy is perilously dropped from the blazing third floor of the apartment building to safety below.
Read the rest at International Spiegel Online

Here a Nazi; There a Nazi Pt. III

Far-right leader ejected from German state assembly
An NPD assemblyman in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania is thrown out after anti-Semitic comments.

A far-right political leader was ejected from a sitting of the state assembly of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania state in Germany on Thursday after he railed against Jews immigrating to Germany.

The debate was halted after Udo Pastöers, who leads six members of the anti-immigrant National Democratic Party NPD in the parliament, called for an audit of the "true costs of immigration."

He then attacked "parasites" and criticised Jewish immigration.

The house speaker, Renate Holznagel, rebuked him. After another NPD deputy objected, she halted the debate and consulted with the other parties. She then told Pastöers he could not attend the rest of the day's proceedings.

The NDP denies it is Nazi, but its nationalist, anti-foreigner message and its outreach to overtly neo-Nazi groups have made it a pariah for Germany's mainstream parties.

The NPD had the previous day outraged the other parties by staying seated while the rest of the assembly in the northern coastal state stood for a moment of silence to express sorrow on the 75th anniversary of the Nazi takeover of Germany.

The NPD has no parliamentary seats at federal level and only sits in one other of Germany's 16 state assemblies, in Saxony.

Mecklenburg-West Pomerania's Interior Minister, Lorenz Caffier, told Pastöers Thursday that his behaviour the previous day formed grounds for questioning whether the NPD was democratic at all.

Via Expatica

The intellectual superiority of the true untermenschen puts itself on public display . . . again.

A little Nazi here; a little Nazi there Pt. III

Czech neo-Nazis' rally ends without incidents
Prague- A demonstration of rightist extremists at Prague's Palackeho namesti square ended without any incident after about an hour this afternoon, the police said.

Some 200-250 rightist militants gathered at the square where public rallies can take place without any authorisation, the police said.

Four of the demonstrators were taken to the police station.

After delivering some speeches, the neo-Nazis dispersed themselves at about 3:00 p.m. (Central European Time. ed.)

Two extremists were detained for the violation of the assembly law. Police spokeswoman Eva Brozova said they had been armed with nunchaku sticks and a knuckleduster.

Another two extremists were detained in order to check their identity, Brozova said.

All of them have been or will be released, Brozova said.


Some demonstrators wore balaclavas and black flags. On one of the flags, there was a logo of Autonomous Nationalists.

Some activists read speeches in which they complained about the ban of the march in Plzen, West Bohemia. They said the ban was illegal.

They also criticised the state of freedom and democracy in the Czech Republic.

The gathering in Prague was to be replace the rally originally planned for Plzen.

Chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities Jiri Danicek told ČTK earlier the date of the march, January 19, was connected with the first transport of Jews from Plzen to the Terezin (Theresienstadt) concentration camp, north Bohemia, that was dispatched on January 18, 1942.

Out of 2605 Jews on the transport only 112 survived the war.

On Thursday, Plzen mayor banned the planned extremists' march.

About ten followers of extreme right met at the Plzen Emila Skody square today.

They were prevented from marching to the local synagogue by the police vans that barricaded the streets.

Several hundreds of opponents of fascism gathered outside the Plzen synagogue and remembered the Holocaust victims.


Via ČTK

The Czech news server is reporting that, "A protest rally of anarchists was also to be held in Plzen. However, it was banned. Nevertheless, there are about 100 leftist militants with the banner "No Nazis in Plzen" there. Around 800 opponents of the neo-Nazis have come to the remembrance event for the Holocaust victims outside the Plzen synagogue."

David Irving & Dr. David Duke were unavailable for comment.


Also at A Tangled Web

A little Nazi here; a little Nazi there Pt. II

German neo-Nazis want to take part in Plzeň march
Plzeň, West Bohemia (ČTK) - German neo-Nazis are calling on the German ultra-right discussion forum thiazi.net (registration required; ed.) for participation in a march through Plzeň planned for January 19, Plzeň police spokeswoman Jana Vaclavova has said, adding the police are monitoring several such calls on the internet.

The German neo-Nazis invite German "free, social and national" friends and say that they expect police manoeuvres to be held in Plzeň.

The Czech police say it is not clear how many German neo-Nazis will arrive, but they estimate their numbers to minimally count by hundreds.

They have already asked colleagues from Bavaria and Saxony for help.

"The Plzeň Resistance organises a demo against curtailing freedom of expression and opinions in Plzeň on Saturday, January 19. The date has already caused panic in the Jewish-controlled media because the first transport from the Jewish ghetto in Terezin (north Bohemia) left on January 18, 1942," the neo-Nazis write on their web site.

The police are also preparing for the possible arrival of anarchists. The Plzeň Town Hall is preparing to restrict traffic along the march route.

With any luck, the anarchists will again feel compelled to perform a civic duty.

The most risky section of the march will probably be the vicinity of the Grand Synagogue where the Jewish community will hold a commemorative meeting on Saturday afternoon. Christians are also expected to come in support of them.

From the synagogue the participants will move to the Plzeň cathedral where the meeting will be ended with the symbolical lightning of candles, Karel Simr, spokesman for the action, said.

Another meeting in the afternoon is planned by the Youth against Nazism organisation.

The extremists' march was announced at the respective local authority by Vaclav Bures under the name of Protest March for Freedom of Expression. The march is to be a reaction to the police action that prevented neo-Nazis from marching through the Prague Jewish Town in November. The Prague City Hall did not ban the march.

Many view the march as an offence and mockery of the Holocaust victims.

The organisers have announced that some 150 people will take part in the march, but the police count with more people, and that they probably be armed.

The extremists have announced another march in Plzeň on January 26. The respective authority has banned the action.

This story is from the Czech News Agency (ČTK).
The Prague Daily Monitor and Monitor CE are not responsible for its content.
Via The Prague Monitor

See also White Men in Black. Neo-Nazis call for march in Plzeň

A little Nazi here; a little Nazi there

German Neo-Nazi group plans march
Rally comes on concentration camp anniversary

German neo-Nazis will join their Czech counterparts on a march through Plzen on Jan. 19, Týden reports.

Although Czech organizers have officially said the march is for freedom of speech, the Germans are calling it an anti-Jewish demonstration, Týden wrote.

The Plzen magistrate says it had no choice but to approve the march because it did not have any information to justify prohibiting the event. Plzen police claim they cannot intervene because the march does not pose a threat.

Nonetheless, a previous march, planned for Jan. 26, was banned by the police because "it is expected that the true reason for the demosntration is the suppression of the civic rights of citizens due to their religion, and it will lead to hate-mongering," a police report cited by Hospodárské noviny on Wednesday states.

Jan. 18, 1942 is the date when the first transport of 3,000 Jews left Plzen for Terezín. Only 200 of them survived.

On the day of the march, the town's Jewish citizens are planning to hold a small memorial service of its own, Jirí Löwy, the head of the Plzen Jewish Community told TYDEN.CZ.

"It will be a brief, peaceful act of piety, during which, I hope, the police will protect us. We cannot do anything about the Nazis. We can only fight them by reminding people of that which they deny: the Holocaust," he said.

The German side has other plans.

"The date of the first transport of Jews to a concentration camp makes the media panic. We'll put the rabbis on the run," the neo-Nazi group writes online.

However Löwy says he is not afraid of any violent confrontations.

"The right-wing extremists may be stupid, but they have lawyers along at these events. They will tell them how to avoid criminal activities and statements. They will be trying to avoid a conflict just like we are. At worst, they might moo at us," he said.

Via The Prague Post



Also at A Tangled Web

Germany Takes on Neo-Nazis

Germany has been grappling with this issue for many years and may have a new solution to their problems.

What's shocking to me is the fact some of these extremist groups have apparently been receiving state funding.

How crazy is that?

For four years, ever since a 2003 push to ban the neo-Nazi party NPD failed in Germany's high court, political leaders have been looking for a strategy to combat the country's extremist right wing. But ideas -- most of them centering on a renewed attempt at prohibiting the party -- have been wanting, and action has been virtually non-existent.

On this Thursday and Friday in Berlin, though, interior ministers from Germany's 16 states will discuss a plan to weaken the NPD by eliminating state funding from foundations and organizations that espouse the party's right-extremist views. It is time, many believe, to move beyond a commitment to banning the party and begin looking for ways to make the lives of Germany's neo-Nazis more difficult.

"We have to publicly stigmatize people who fund the NPD and the associations that support it," Schleswig-Holstein Interior Minister Ralf Stegner (SPD) told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. "We should name by name the trade organizations that recruit using their right-extremist ideology and that prefer to give apprenticeship positions to young neo-Nazis. We should not stand back and be polite about this."

The problem, say many, is that the NPD, as a legal political party in Germany, receives federal and state funding based on election results. NPD representatives in the state parliaments of Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, for example, got a combined €1.38 million for campaign costs in 2006.

Germany's Social Democrats are still in favor of a second attempt at banning the NPD, but have not pushed hard for the idea at the federal level. The Christian Democrats under Chancellor Angela Merkel fear that a second failure in German courts could give the NPD a boost and are against pursuing a ban.

"If we wage a second attempt, we have to be sure that we're going to accomplish our goal," Saxony's Interior Minister Albrecht Buttolo (CDU) told Deutschlandradio Kultur on Thursday.

There are numerous ideas on the table for cutting funds to the right. In Saxony, for example, the law requires that subsidies be paid to foundations and organizations if the party they are affiliated with has been represented in the federal or state parliament for two legislative periods. Since 2004, NPD has held seats in Saxony's state assembly and has founded an "Educational Institute for Homeland and National Identity."

Neo-Nazi Goons Spread the Love to the Soccer Pitch

I guess fading quietly into the night and becoming normal, productive members of society is out of the questions for these insidious punks.

Now they have to go about ruining sporting events.

Regional Football Battles against Neo-Nazi Influence

Hardly a weekend goes by in Germany without some sort of racist incident on the football pitch or in the stands. A new program in Germany aims to combat neo-Nazi influence among soccer fans.

Sometimes, words simply aren't enough. Last month, the multicultural Berlin football club Türkiyemspor was in Rathenow west of the capital for a regional league match. The atmosphere was tense, and became even worse once the opening whistle blew. Almost immediately, one of the Turkish players got in the face of a fan who had insulted him. "It almost turned ugly," says Mehmet Matur. "I jumped in between them and was able to calm the situation down."

Matur, 47, isn't a player. Rather, he is the so-called integration officer for the Berlin Football Association. His primary duty is that of leading the fight against racism on Berlin football pitches. Normally, he relies on his voice, but sometimes, like last month, there is no choice but to get physical. "That is the last resort," he says.

The problem of racism on German soccer fields is one that has gotten worse and worse in recent years. There have been numerous cases of fans chanting ape noises at black players. Mass punch ups involving right-wing extremists after second and third league games have become more common. There was even a case last summer of fans firing off a torrent of anti-Semitic abuse at two teams of 14-year-olds.

Isn't that special?

Even though they've had programs to combat this idiocy, the problem is far from being eliminated.

How soccer clubs can resist such infiltration was an important topic this weekend in Halle. Though the neo-Nazis appear less menacing without Third Reich flags and combat boots, they often work with codes and symbols. The number 18, for example, stands for "Adolf Hitler," and 88 for "Heil Hitler," based on the position of the letters in the alphabet. Neo-Nazis are also geared up with the token marks of the alternative left: black hoodies and peaked caps, for example, are worn by extreme right-wingers. A picture of Che Guevara qualifies as a symbol for the national fight for liberation. A seminar entitled "Is the Jersey Number 88 Taboo?" aimed at helping coaches and referees identify such symbols.

Doing The Same Thing Over And Over . . .

Neo-Nazi groups plan revenge for Kristallnacht fiasco
The failure of neo-Nazis to march through Prague’s Jewish quarter (Josefov) – and the subsequent skirmishes between skinheads and anarchist demonstrators – have certainly dominated the headlines in recent days. Images of battered and bloodied skinheads being taken away by police were flashed around the world’s media, who described Saturday as a fiasco for the far right. But could next weekend turn into a second installment?

“The neo-Nazis’ Waterloo” was how Lidove Noviny newspaper described Saturday’s clashes, featuring an image of a neo-Nazi skinhead, his nose bleeding and looking very much worse for wear. The far-right – massively outnumbered by black-clad anarchist demonstrators – certainly received a bloody nose on Saturday. But observers believe the neo-Nazis are now out for revenge. A group calling themselves “Autonomous Nationalists” have released a statement on their website, calling for a gathering at 2pm (8AM EST ed.) on Saturday to “mourn the death of the freedom of speech.” Klara Kalibova monitors far-right extremism for an NGO called Tolerance and Civic Society: “The Autonomous Nationalists are a relatively young group, about 2-3 years old. They’re active mostly in Central Bohemia. They belong to the neo-Nazi wing of right-wing extremism. They’re linked to National Resistance, the militant neo-Nazi group which is active all over the Czech Republic. We’ve also found a link between them and German neo-Nazis – the Autonomous Nationalists have supported actions by the NPD, which is a neo-Nazi political party in Germany.”

The Autonomous Nationalists plan to gather on Palacky Square in Prague 2. Unlike the Young National Democrats, the far-right group that was denied permission to march through the Jewish quarter on Krystallnacht, the Autonomous Nationalists don’t actually need permission for their demonstration on Saturday. Palacky Square was recently designated a “Hyde Park Corner”, where anyone can gather to discuss the issues of the day. Saturday’s meeting is unlikely to be the polite “discussion” the organisers of the Czech “Hyde Park” had in mind – the neo-Nazi skinheads are out for revenge, and the gathering is likely to attract a large contingent of anarchist opponents.

Groups such as Tolerance and Civic Society warn that the far-right is becoming more and more active in the Czech Republic. The number of racially-motivated attacks is down compared to the 1990s, when skinhead attacks on Romanies and foreigners – including several murders - were common. Now, warn observers, such groups are making a concerted bid for political respectability.

Via Radio Prague

As of 11/11/2007:
Anarchists -- 1
neo-Nazis -- 0

Reasonable speculation suggests that following the second installment of Courage on Display, it will be:
Anarchists -- 2
neo-Nazis -- 0

And who woulda thunk it?!? Anarchists on the same side as the coppers and society in general.

I love it when a plan comes together.