HOPE not hate: international news feed

Why the eurozone crisis doesnt spell a return to the well of nazism

Wed, 23 May 2012 15:02:14 GMT

By Matthew Goodwin

Ukraines Eurovision entry Gaitana ashamed by racism

Wed, 23 May 2012 14:02:14 GMT

For an event meant to celebrate kitsch entertainment, the Eurovision Song Contest retains an almost unrivalled ability to cause controversy.

Five arrests following attack on migrant camp

Wed, 23 May 2012 12:46:36 GMT

Five people were arrested, more than 20 detained and eight policemen injured late on Tuesday when a group of about 350 people attempted to force their way into an abandoned factory in Patra, where dozens of undocumented migrants are squatting.

Right-wing firebrand Budahzy fined HUF 200000 for 2006 vandalism

Wed, 23 May 2012 12:41:49 GMT

Nazi activist and Blood&Honour fan György Budaházy has been ordered to pay a Ft 200,000 (£500) fine for damaging the Soviet memorial on Budapest's Szabadság tér, on September 18, 2006 during a nationalist riot there.

Eugene Terreblanche murder South African man guilty

Wed, 23 May 2012 03:43:29 GMT

One of the two South African farm workers accused of murdering white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche in 2010 has been found guilty.

German banker claims Nazi guilt has made Germany a euro zone hostage

Tue, 22 May 2012 17:49:00 GMT

Former German central banker Thilo Sarrazin claims that Germany has allowed itself to become the euro zone’s “hostage” as penitence for the Holocaust, in his new book Europe doesn’t need the eurowhich has provoked fresh controversy.

Notes from Italy

Tue, 22 May 2012 15:25:52 GMT

From Hope not Hate's Italian correspondent, Michele Zacchi in Milan

Its not all bad news Serb far-right SRS wiped out in parliament poll

Mon, 21 May 2012 11:37:59 GMT

New Europe Online reports…

Outrage over honour for Lithuanian Nazi leader

Fri, 18 May 2012 18:09:54 GMT

The puppet prime minister installed in Lithuania during the Nazi occupation is to be commemorated in the capital this week, and reinterred with full honours.

The remains of Juozas Ambrazevicius will be returned from the US to Vilnius for a ceremony this weekend, before being reinterred in Kaunas, in central Lithuania.

Mr Ambrazevicius became prime minister in June 1941, after the Nazi invasion, but was removed just two months later after the government was dismantled.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Holocaust historian Efraim Zuroff said the Lithuanian government had tried to distance themselves from the ceremony. “But we now understand the government has paid for the transportation of the remains,” he added.

The former professor of Yiddish Studies at Vilnius University, Dovid Katz, now editor of website Defending History, said: “Jewish people in Lithuania, who have excellent relations with Lithuanian neighbours and friends, are in a state of shock that the government and parliament could do this to them: financing the reburial with full honours.

“The duplicitous policy of honouring the victims, for the consumption of naive Jewish foreigners, as well as the perpetrators, to satisfy the local antisemitic far right base, is just not on.”

Mr Ambrazevicius — who died in the US in 1974 — has been linked to the establishment of the Kovna ghetto to imprison Kaunas’s Jews, and to the setting up of a concentration camp.

New York police accused of racism

Fri, 18 May 2012 17:48:37 GMT

A US Federal judge has given the status of a class action suit to the claim demanding a revision of the method of street searches employed by New York police.

Neo-Nazis attack gay activists in St Petersburg

Fri, 18 May 2012 17:38:41 GMT

Suspected neo-nazi planned attack to influence US presidential vote says FBI

Fri, 18 May 2012 17:33:36 GMT

In an attempt to stir debate on immigration amnesty issues ahead of the 2012 presidential election, a man with suspected ties to white supremacist groups planned to attack the Mexican consulate in St. Paul, Minnesota, according to a federal affidavit, which also said he would risk his life in the event of a "race war."

Joseph Benjamin Thomas also told an undercover FBI agent he considered himself a "domestic terrorist" instead of an American, the FBI affidavit said.

The document, recently unsealed in federal court, provides new details about the investigation into Thomas' alleged plan. He was indicted in April on drug charges, though authorities had been watching him and another man since 2010 as part of a domestic terrorism probe. The affidavit said he'd amassed weapons and wanted to attack minorities, people with left-leaning political beliefs and government officials.

Thomas, 42, is not facing any terrorism-related charges. His attorney did not return a phone message Thursday, and the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment.

"We consider him a threat, and we believe he had the capacity to carry these threats out," FBI spokesman Kyle Loven said in an interview Thursday. "This was a lengthy investigation, and it was driven by our belief that the intentions of these persons were sincere."

In addition to the plot against the consulate, the FBI alleges, Thomas had collected license plate numbers of people with Barack Obama bumper stickers and had asked an associate to volunteer at a left-leaning bookstore to obtain customers' addresses.

The affidavit alleges that Thomas and another man arrested in April, 31-year-old Samuel James Johnson, were trying to form a supremacist group with a militant wing. Thomas told an undercover agent he expected a race war within two years and that his group would be able to control an interstate and airports to prevent the military from coming into Minnesota, the affidavit said.

In the plot against the consulate, Thomas allegedly told an undercover agent he wanted to steal a pickup truck, load it with barrels of oil and gas, drive it into the consulate and allow the mixture to spill, then set it ablaze with a road flare. Thomas also said he'd found recipes for the mixture and instructions for making napalm, the affidavit said.

The affidavit alleged Thomas wanted to carry out the attack on May 1, a day used in recent years by activists in the U.S. to hold rallies for immigrant rights. But he later said the attack couldn't happen that day, blaming personal reasons and noting more police were in the area, the affidavit said.

Details of the planned attack comes days after ten alleged members of a military-styled white supremacist organization with plans of beginning a "race war" were arrested in central Florida.

FBI agents reported seeing Thomas conducting surveillance on the consulate building in December. At that point, he told an undercover agent he wasn't sure if the plot should move forward but continued to develop it and found a place where 55-gallon barrels could be stolen.

Thomas also suggested placing hoax explosive devices along the May Day parade route in the Twin Cities, saying he had video of prior parades so he could identify parade participants.

Ana Luisa Fajer, the consul of Mexico based in St. Paul, said the consulate was "duly and timely" notified of Thomas' alleged plot.

"We take these threats very seriously and appreciate the full support we have received from the outset," she said in a phone interview, adding that the consulate's security protocols have been reinforced.

"Expressions of hate are the ones that motivated the alleged plotter," she said. "These things exist, but we definitely think it's an isolated voice here."

Thomas, from the St. Paul suburb of Mendota Heights, was indicted on four charges related to possession and sale of methamphetamine, while Johnson, of Austin, Minn., was indicted on weapons charges. The indictment said Johnson's prior convictions barred him from having weapons, though he was found with five — including a semi-automatic assault rifle — and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.

Mark Pitcavage, director of investigative research for the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks extremist groups nationwide, said weapons charges are common in such cases because it's hard for prosecutors to prove terror charges based on someone's planning.

"In my 18 years of having tracked extremists, I think that weapons charges are among the most sure to stick," he said. "Weapons charges are pretty common among most major right wing extremist movements because they love guns."

According to an affidavit unsealed last month, Johnson was a former member and Minnesota leader of the National Socialist Movement, a white nationalist group, and he and Thomas were trying to form a spinoff group called the Aryan Liberation Movement with the intent of committing violence.

Mangs mother noticed racism

Thu, 17 May 2012 22:05:46 GMT

The mother of suspected Swedish serial killer Peter Mangs admitted to police that he had expressed racist views before he was arrested for a string of immigrant shootings in Malmö. According to police reports quoted by Aftonbladet newspaper, Mr Mangs’ mother at first thought it was pure “idiocy” that her 40-year-old son had been arrested, but later admitted that he had shown signs of xenophobia in the past.

Regional elections far-right battered

Thu, 17 May 2012 12:49:55 GMT

Hope not hate correspondent Michael Klein reports from Düsseldorf

FA concerned about Euro 2012 racism

Wed, 16 May 2012 22:22:23 GMT

The head of English soccer has raised concerns with UEFA president Michel Platini that players and fans could be racially abused at European Championship matches in Ukraine.

Swedish MP convicted of drugs offences

Wed, 16 May 2012 20:52:56 GMT

William Petzäll , an independent Swedish MP who quit the Sweden Democrats last year amidst a battle with substance abuse, was convicted on Wednesday of drugs crimes.

ELAM seeks to echo Golden Dawns success

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:38:47 GMT

THE unprecedented rise of the far right in Greece in last Sunday’s election has succeeded in raising enough alarm here in Cyprus to prompt President Christofias to comment that the economic crisis is strengthening radical parties across Europe.

Neo-Nazi could have escaped but chose to die

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:35:55 GMT

Neo-Nazi terrorists Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Böhnhardt could have easily escaped police last year, but chose to die instead, in another in a long line of embarrassing revelations for investigating authorities.

Political social turmoil worries Hungarys Jews

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:29:45 GMT

The debate over anti-Semitism in Hungary has sharpened since the anti-Israel, anti-Jewish and anti-Roma (Gypsy) Jobbik movement entered Parliament two years ago as the country’s third largest party.

Greek neo-Nazi head condemned for Holocaust denial

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:22:59 GMT

The Greek government and Jewish community have condemned the leader of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party after he denied there were gas chambers or ovens at Nazi death camps.