Kontraterrorpolitienheten i Leeds som ble opprettet etter t-bane-selvmordsbombene 7/7, bruker nå like stor tid på å overvåke høyreekstreme som radikale muslimer. De siste seks ukene er 32 høyreekstreme gransket og politiet har gjort beslag av rørbomber og sprengstoff.
Nær én million briter stemte på BNP under EU-valget. Det markerte en sterk høyredreining blant velgerne. Nå kommer meldingene om at ytterliggående grupper ønsker voldelige oppgjør. Det er en farlig cocktail. Historien med den drepte gravide egyptiske kvinnen i Tyskland, som ble gravlagt i Alexandria mandag, viser at slike hatdrap har voldsom resonans i landene ofrene kommer fra.
Police are investigating a global arms ring supplying white supremacist groups who are becoming a serious terrorist threat to Britain, a senior officer revealed on Thursday.
“There is a growing right-wing threat, not just Al-Qaeda,” Sir Norman Bettison, chief constable of West Yorkshire police, told a security conference in London, stressing that Islamist terror is not the only problem.
Sir Norman, whose force runs a regional counter-terrorism unit in Leeds, said more than 30 people in the UK had been investigated and pipe bombs, rocket launchers, grenades and firearms seized during the operation so far.
There had been arrests in the UK, continental Europe, New Zealand and Australia, he said. Some 300 firearms and 80 homemade bombs had been recovered.
AN ALLEGED Neo Nazi plot to flood Britain with guns and explosives has been foiled by anti terror police set up to combat al-Qaeda.
Detectives recovered pipe bombs and rocket launchers after an investigation which showed the “growing threat” of the far right, a senior officer revealed.
Two men have been charged and further suspects identified in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, West Yorkshire chief constable Sir Norman Bettison said.
The case was handled by the North East Regional Counter Terrorism Unit, based in Leeds, where the 7/7 bombers plotted their suicide attacks.
Senior counter terrorism sources told the Mirror the Leeds CTU is currently investigating “just as many” far right plots as al-Qaeda conspiracies.
There are fears that ex BNP members are turning to US-style violent white supremacism which could wreck efforts to win Muslim hearts and minds.
One official said: “”They are not the cleverest people but they are capable of putting together viable devices after sharing information on the internet.
“Say they were successful and blow up a mosque and kill some Muslims. Not only would that be a horrific crime, it could well provoke a catastrophic response.
“It would re-energise radicals and extremists and could give them a flood of new recruits just when we’re starting to make progress in isolating them.
“The driving force behind the new units was absolutely the 7/7 bombings but they are now picking up more and more extremist right wing jobs.”
Sir Norman, head of the Government’s Prevent counter terrorism strategy, revealed details of the latest alleged plot at a security conference last week.
At least 32 people were investigated and 22 addresses raided across the North over the last six weeks, he said.
“They were encouraging the manufacturing of pipe bombs and rocket launchers. They were providing armaments to right wing extremists.
“We must get upstream and prevent those who have the potential to join the recruitment line for future terrorists attacks. It is not just al-Qaeda – there is a growing right wing threat.
“It has been growing in the last decade, it’s about internationalism, it about the internet fuelling hatred.”
Sir Norman added that a “significant number” of the 30 suspects the Leeds CTU arrested last year were far right extremists.
The unit, which works closely with Scotland Yard, the National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit and MI5, has investigated over alleged Neo Nazi plots.
Last month an 18-year-old man from Durham appeared in court accused of plotting an attack with ricin.
Prosecutors allege a quantity of the deadly poison was found in a jar and would have been used by white supremacists.
A year ago, Martyn Gilleard, from Goole, East Yorks, was jailed for 16 years for planning nail bomb attacks on black, Asians and Jews.
The 31-year-old fork-lift truck driver planned to bomb mosques and buildings where blacks gathered.
Whitehall insiders believe the activity could be linked to support for the BNP, who won a European Parliament seat in Yorkshire and Humberside last month.
The official said: “We are not picking them up anywhere else in the country like this and it may be related to the strong support for the BNP”.
Groups including the Aryan Strike Force and the Racial Volunteer Force, which have links to former Loyalist paramilitaries, are being closely monitored.