http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 2632
http://www.muslimne ws.co.uk/ paper/index. php?article= 2632
White extremists escape terrorism charges and media scrutiny
From the Muslim News
By Elham Asaad Buaras
Despite being accused of possessing the largest sum of chemical explosives of its type ever found domestically in Lancashire, a BNP member and a far right sypmapthiser will not face any terrorism related charges. Instead 49-year-old Robert Cottage, Colne and David Bolus Jackson, 62, from Nelson, appeared at a Pennine magistrate's court charged under the Explosive Substances Act 1883. The case has also attracted little publicity despite the record haul which included the discovery of a rocket launcher, a nuclear biological suit and
claims by prosecutor Christiana Buchanan that the pair had "some kind of master plan."
Police confirmed to The Muslim News chemical components were discovered in Jackson's premises but the Crown Prosecution Service, which refused to comment on why charges of Terrorism were overlooked, told The Muslim News explosives found were the largest in Lancashire and not in the UK, as previously reported.
The news comes just days after chemistry student, Edward Mattison, 21, from Salford, was sentenced to only 14 months on October 9, for possessing "Mother of Satan" chemical used by the July 7 bombers. Mattison was arrested after he detonated a device in his carriage at his Manchester home. Police also found a video showing Mattison setting the bomb in a M60 motorway field which left an 8ft crater.
It is not the first case in which white extremists escaped terrorism charges. In June 30, 2000, David John Copeland, now 30, was convicted only of murder despite carrying out a 12-day bombing campaign over three successive weekends in April 1999 aimed at London's black,
Asian, and gay communities. The attacks claimed three lives, injured 129 people, four of the victims lost limbs and 26 suffed serious burns. Copeland, a former neo-Nazi member of the National Socialist Movement, placed nail bombs, each containing up to 1,500 four-inch nails, outside a supermarket in Brixton, south London, with a large black population; in Brick Lane in the east end of London, which has a large Asian Muslim community; and in the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho's Old Compton Street, the heart of London's gay community.
In October 3, 2002, white supremacist David Tovey was found guilty of only two charges of racially aggravated criminal damage and explosive charges despite being on the verge of a murderous killing spree of Swindon Muslims. Unlike Copeland, who built his own nail bombs with information downloaded from far-right websites and some advice from fellow Nazis, Tovey had a massive arsenal of state-of-the- art British military plastic explosives, remote control devices to set it off and dozens of other pieces of lethal hardware. His main target was Swindon mosque where he stalked some of its 200 worshippers.
The cases illustrate stark inconsistencies in media coverage, charges and police conduct in cases where Muslim suspects are involved. Unlike the Walthamstow arrests in August and the Forest Gate raid in June in which innocent Muslims were shot at and wrongfully arrested, there were no media leaks as police sealed off Cottage's home on October 5.
In contrast to the Forest Gate raid, which involved 250 police, some of them armed, Lancashire police entered Cottage's home with a handful of unarmed officers. There was no "air exclusion zone" or assaults on neighbours, no closing down of surrounding streets. There was also no media leaks about the suspect's backgrounds, political and religious
affiliation.
Even with a record amount of chemicals recovered the story had only been reported in the local press and on a few websites.
National Assembly Against Racism, Secretary, Lee Jasper, told The Muslim News the lack of publicity illustrated an "Islamophobic Press."
He said, "The level of Islamophobic press coverage stands in stark contrast to the complete disregard shown for the possibly of the biggest terrorism ever planned. One can only imagine what the coverage would have been like if the suspects had been Muslims. This amounts to racist double-standards where the media seeks to vilify Muslims while ignoring those who are allegedly engaged in acts of racial terrorism."
There are also gaffes in the reporting with all local press describing Cottage, a sub-contracted driver for Lancashire Council as an ex-BNP member, however as the BNP has yet to announce the removal of any membership and as the Party itself states, its "membership runs for the calendar year January to December" as Cottage was a member when he stood in the May council elections in May (for the Vivary Bridge ward of Colne) his membership has yet to expire.