brianwhelan.net

Setting the record straight

Thu, 24 May 2012 09:54:50 +0100

You may recall my tweet from a number of weeks back in which I announced that my tenancy was being terminated at the height of the unfolding Olympic missiles story. The timing seemed rotten and the letting agent had claimed to my partner that the landlord was unhappy with our media appearances and allowing broadcast journalists into the apartment.

Very sad to learn my tenancy is to be terminated and I will be forced to leave my apartment days ahead of the opening ceremony.
— Brian Whelan (@brianwhelanhack) May 2, 2012

Soon after I tweeted about the situation (and it was picked up by the watching media) the story changed and I was informed by the letting agents that myself and my partner had actually decided to terminate the tenancy ourselves and that they had recordings of their calls to prove it. I was baffled, they had fed the story to the landlord too, who went public on Twitter.

Initially I was promised the recordings backing up these ‘facts’ would be delivered straight to my apartment, but as the weeks have dragged on I’ve been forced to threaten legal action under the Data Protection Act to have them disclosed, I even had to put the letting agents on notice to ensure the tapes were not destroyed - letting it be known they might have been necessary for any legal proceedings.

After stating I would get a county court order the letting agents finally sent me this confession:

The reason that you have not been provided with any recordings, is because there are no recordings to provide you with.

They went on to claim the new telephone system they have doesn’t work and they have never checked it since it was installed, despite repeatedly boasting of possessing recordings.

Luckily as a hungry journalist I record almost everything of worth, as the MoD learned the hard way. I don’t have the initial disputed calls made to my partner that led to the dubious termination of our contract, I had hoped to publish that recording here to clear myself and my partner of making any false claim about why we were being forced from our home. However, I do have the conversation in which the letting agents indicate strongly that those tapes did exist, the only call I ever had with the letting agent.

I’ve not edited it, except for warping personal details, have a listen;

As an interesting aside, my legal challenge to the siting of the missiles has been dismissed on the grounds that I will no longer be a resident in the block when the live weaponry arrives. I am now looking for a new home.

stoptheolympicmissiles.org

Some personal iPhone snaps from the Poland trip.

Mon, 21 May 2012 10:55:00 +0100

Some personal iPhone snaps from the Poland trip.

My Week in the Sunday Times and my appearance in Rod...

Sat, 05 May 2012 17:13:00 +0100

My Week in the Sunday Times and my appearance in Rod Liddle’s Got Issues.

Missiles appear on the roof. Email for publication/syndication...

Fri, 04 May 2012 16:03:00 +0100

Missiles appear on the roof.

Email for publication/syndication rights ©

Unguarded missiles

Thu, 03 May 2012 11:06:41 +0100

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

Unguarded missiles

The MoD spokesman did not even know what borough he was in.

Wed, 02 May 2012 00:10:18 +0100

The MoD spokesman did not even know what borough he was in.

How these missiles work

Tue, 01 May 2012 10:28:00 +0100

The missile battery is the HVM A5 Missile System and consists of a two-stage solid propellant rocket motor, a separation system and three high-density titanium ‘darts’.

Pic via Twitter

Once clear of the canister, the 1st stage motor is jettisoned. The second-stage motor ignites and accelerates the missile to a velocity greater than Mach 4. A separation system at the front end of the motor contains three ‘darts’. When the second stage motor is burnt out, the thrust triggers the three ‘darts’ to automatically separate.
The ‘darts’ maintain a high kinetic energy as they are manually guided to the same single target, a jet plane, drone or helicopter. Each dart contains guidance and control circuitry, a thermal battery and a high-density penetrating warhead with fuse.
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The separation of the darts initiates the arming of the individual warheads. Each dart is guided independently using a double laser beam riding system. As the dart impacts the target, the inertial forces activate the delay fuse, allowing the warhead to penetrate before detonation.
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Only a small number of A5 missiles have been fired in trials, at West Freugh in Scotland and two malfunctioned according to a Thales trials engineer.

From Mark Golding - Children of Iraq Association

I revealed to Sunday World how Nick Griffin held a...

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 10:01:00 +0100

I revealed to Sunday World how Nick Griffin held a ‘historic’ meeting with Irish nationalists.

Photo

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 09:19:55 +0100

Photo

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 09:19:06 +0100

Exclusive interview with the hackers behind OperationBlitzkrieg...

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:09:00 +0100

Exclusive interview with the hackers behind OperationBlitzkrieg on thelocal.de

Right-wing extremist violence has been on the increase across...

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:16:00 +0100

Right-wing extremist violence has been on the increase across mainland Europe in recent years with brutal murders in Norway, Germany, Spain, Czech Republic and Italy. I take a look at the growing problem on Yahoo! News.

Another spread in Sunday World, based on my work with leaked...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:48:00 +0000

Another spread in Sunday World, based on my work with leaked files from Operation Blitzkrieg - a top civil servant at the DFA was featured on the customer list of neo-Nazi linked company Thor Steinar and ran a bizarre skinhead porn site.

My Nazi maps make a splash in Ireland’s biggest-selling...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:45:00 +0000

My Nazi maps make a splash in Ireland’s biggest-selling tabloid.

Mapping #OperationBlitzkrieg

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:54:00 +0000

The map below shows all the Irish locations listed in the recent #Operationblitzkrieg leaks. I have removed names and exact addresses (house numbers, etc.)

View Operation Blitzkrieg map of Ireland (redacted) in a full screen map

The map draws together data from 4 leaks, revealing the spread of far right support across the country. There are 58 listings for Dublin with many based in Tallaght, Clondalkin and other west Dublin suburbs. Cork has 22 listings and Galway has a surprising 18. A number of addresses appeared several times for different verified names, indicating clusters of activists living together.

An unredacted version of this map including full names, addresses and email contacts has been shared with a number of Irish newspapers.

Details of a senior civil servant, secondary school history teacher and business professional are all included in the leak alongside those of known far right activists. Contact details lead to Facebook accounts revealing trips to Auschwitz and international hate sites run from obscure backwater villages.

A previous leaked list of Blood and Honour forum members from 2008 showed over 200 Irish members with just 20 active users. This leak reveals a new level of neo-Nazi activity in Ireland including scores of activists who have migrated from eastern European countries, many previously unknown to myself and anti-racist organisations I have shared the files with.

Some of my previous work on the far right in Ireland -

The Irish Nick Griffin

Nazis infiltrate Irish army

General’s niece trains for ‘race war’

BNP sets their sights on Ireland

Stormfront moderator unmasked

Irish National Party leader exposed

Previous B&H exposé;

This happened.

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:49:43 +0000

This happened.

North Korean arms links to Ireland

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 22:09:00 +0000

Sunday World piece on Xmas day following up North Korean links to Ireland;

A piece I wrote for Sunday Mirror in October 2009 about North Korean links to Irish politicians. Reposted after the death of Kim.

FORMER Official IRA members have revealed the group’s links to Communist North Korea, where members received military training in the late 80s.

Official IRA volunteers have admitted making trips to the totalitarian regime during the same period that the Workers Party, their political wing, had seven elected TDs in the Dail, including current Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore and former leader Pat Rabbitte.

North Korean agents also supplied the group with a shipment of weapons, which are believed to still to be in the hands of people loyal to the organisation.

Official IRA men have detailed how they traveled to the Far East where they were trained in assassination techniques, the use of heavy machine guns and intelligence gathering by the North Korean army.

Over a dozen Official IRA men, nicknamed Stickies, received training in early 1987 with two others having traveled to the country the previous year. The group included men from Belfast and Dublin.

Two younger operatives traveled to North Korea initially and trained alongside specialist units of the Korean People’s Army. The following spring a dozen more members traveled to Pyongyang for several weeks of intensive weapons, combat and intelligence instruction.

The group traveled via USSR, according to IRA sources, and were assisted by the KGB with elaborate measures were taken to conceal their real destination from western intelligence agencies.

Each man was forced to write a series of postcards and letters while in Moscow which they dated over the coming weeks; a Moscow-based IRA member sent these greetings on during their stay in North Korea.

During the same period the book claims the Official IRA were involved in bank robberies and other illegal fundraising schemes, which helped pay for the Workers Party.

The Workers Party was represented in the European parliament by Dublin MEP Proinsias De Rossa, who now holds the same position for the Labour party.

However, the Official IRA men say they were not training to fight the British but defend members from the Provos and other paramilitary killers.

Some volunteers believed it was “just an exercise in keeping them happy” while others claimed they were informed the training was to establish an elite “assassination squad”.

While in North Korea the Irishmen mixed with soldiers from African countries who were also being trained by the secretive North Korean army.

The revelation is contained in a new book “The Lost Revolution – the story of the Official IRA and the Workers Party”.

Historian Brian Hanley, one of the authors of The Lost Revolution, explained the men were committed to socialist ideas and believed that they needed to be trained so they could protect the Workers Party from republican rivals.

“The training in North Korea was actually part of a plan to stand down the Official IRA and finally allow their movement to give up the gun,” he stated.

The book also reveals the Official IRA continued to receive weapons supplies long after their 1972 ceasefire; the Russian secret service, the KGB, and other international groups supplied the Officials with guns into the late 1980s.

Among those who supplied arms were the Middle Eastern guerrilla group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Unlike other Northern Irish paramilitary groups the Official IRA have not decommissioned any of their weapons including two dozen hand-guns which were delivered by North Korean agents in the late 80s.

While the left was sleeping the EDL enter party politics

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 07:46:00 +0000

Imagine the streetfighting thugs of the EDL joined forces with an organised and well funded far right political party, a terrifying prospect isn’t it? It has already happened and everyone seemed to miss the whole thing.

Last Saturday EDL leaders met in the West Midlands where they agreed a tie-up between their group and the British Freedom Party, with the EDL serving as the street wing and BFP as the electoral front.

You might remember the BFP from the recent limp ‘expose’ of Nick Griffin on Panorama, it’s a group full of disgruntled ex-BNP members, led by former UKIP member who believes white English people are being ‘ethnically cleansed’.

The BFP recently announced former UKIP candidate Paul Weston as its chair, but if you look behind the scenes you’ll find people like the BNP’s former legal eagle Lee Barnes, BNP fundholder John Savage and their old Cornwall organiser Peter ‘rivers of blood’ Mullins.

Chairman Weston can hold his own against these seasoned racists though, in one blog post about the supposed ‘ethnic cleansing’ of white people he explains; “many Muslim men in Tower Hamlets routinely have four wives each, all “legally” supported by the British State in order they may father up to twenty-eight children in a literal tsunami of polygamous demographic warfare”. Charming stuff.

The BFP are now the political wing of the EDL, with EDL members urged to join the party en masse. The bully boys will be on the streets as the movement’s muscle, and Weston and his ilk will be the ideological leaders and strategists contesting elections.

You might scoff at this alliance of the far right, but the EDL are capable of mobilising in worrying numbers and have developed a serious appetite for scuffling with the police, anti-fascists and Muslim youths. For their part, the BFP have experience of running a far right party that has previously won more than half a million votes and seats in the European Parliament.

Reports indicate the alliance is already thriving. The BFP claim they are struggling to cope with the number of membership requests they have received and the EDL is supportive of the move towards contesting political power.

In a dubious splash last February The Daily Star previously announced that the EDL were to ‘go political’, but this didn’t ring true with EDL leader Tommy Robinson’s comments at the time;

“We aren’t ruling it out. I think this country needs a party that’s not afraid to say things some would consider unpopular. We are a single issue group and at the moment we would rather have a dialogue with the other political parties – but that could change.”

Now things have changed. Robinson has explained the merger as “an opportunity for EDL members to move over to BFP and for the first time provide input and promote the views of the British working class within a British political party”.

He added that the EDL will use their divisional structure to support British Freedom. What form this support takes remains to be seen but there has been a recent swing in EDL activity. Not content with bi-monthly drunken marches some divisions have taken to attacking left wing groups and meetings.

Occupy Newcastle was one recent target of attacks by EDL thugs, while previously a gig by punk band the Oppressed in Leeds had been targeted along with a handful of SWP meetings. Earlier this month 179 EDL members were arrested in central London, they were thought to have been preparing to attack the Occupy London camp.

A number of EDL divisions have now declared that all left wing events regardless of their cause are legitimate targets for attack. Some have even set their sights on the November 30th strikes.

This new alliance is unlikely to last, but while it does it could do serious damage. Robinson has said in the past that he hopes the presence of the EDL will force parties to take a harder line: “My hope is still that the Tories will take a tougher stance.”

Commentators claimed the BNP was ‘defeated’ in Barking in 2010, they received 563,000 votes that year, some defeat. They didn’t take any seats but their constituency within the disaffected white working class remains - one the Labour left fail to engage but an EDL/BFP group could find fertile ground with.

The campaigns to defeat the BNP focussed on their divisive politics, legalistic challenges to their constitution and attempts to ban the party. In a recent interview with seasoned anti-fascists I highlighted their stance that unless ‘the left could undermine the far-right’s political constituency in the white working class they would never be truly beaten’.

EDL members come from backgrounds many on the left could never relate to, members often moan about not having the meagre £15 it costs to take a coach to a demonstration. They claim that austerity means more of the same to them. They never benefited during boom years and are now openly hostile to those fighting the cuts, asking; where were they before?

This group could become very hard to ignore, some have already speculated Robinson could run for Mayor of London, he could never win but it would ensure the EDL and BFP grabbed the headlines and received a platform to spread their anti-Muslim agenda.

The BNP was met with vocal and even physical opposition everywhere it went, Robinson has no intention of falling victim to the same tactics; “Nick Griffin got two million votes and he’s an MEP but he didn’t have anyone supporting him when he went on Question Time.”

“Get me on…I’ll have 10,000 people turn up to support me”.

#NOV9 London Student Protests on Yahoo! covered by myself along...

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:04:00 +0000

#NOV9 London Student Protests on Yahoo! covered by myself along with Yahoo! news reporter Adam Parris Long.

Fool's gold: How Stuart Hughes tricked the global press

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:23:00 +0000

This is the man who has tricked some of the biggest global news organisations into running fake stories about the world’s most expensive homes, yachts and cars.

Hundreds of stories about fantastic gold products manufactured by Stuart Hughes have appeared in respected publications over the last 4 years.

He has previously been praised for; selling a gold iPhone to Victoria Beckham, selling the world’s most expensive house ($12.2bn) and flogging a gold yacht that would have been too heavy to float.

This week his latest fantastic product, a £5million gold and ammolite iPad with dinosaur bones, has been covered by at least 77 newsrooms including; Sky News, Daily Mail, Discovery News, Gawker, Perez Hilton and MSN Money.

I can now reveal that the supposed international gold and diamond dealer Stuart Hughes is a father of two who lives alone in a modest apartment in Merseyside, Liverpool and regularly moans about the state of his finances.

Stuart runs two websites filled with gold and diamond plated tat costing millions of pounds with pages and pages of international news clippings featuring his fantastic products going back over 4 years.

However, almost all of the images are computer generated and Photoshopped, with few actual pictures of the real life products - something many media outlets have failed to notice.

Last night when confronted with information I had gathered about the real state of his finances Stuart confessed that he had made up the stories about selling the world’s most expensive house and yacht.

However, he insists the gold iPad with T-rex bones is real and is being kept somewhere in Russia so is unable to show it to me. His story appeared to fall down when asked about the source of his T-rex bones.

He explained: “(I source them in) Arizona…they’re not rare, well they are rare but you can pick these fossils off Southport beach, you know what I mean?”

More recently Stuart has claimed to have entered a business partnership with minor celeb Jo-Emma Larvin, following difficulties with his former partner.

However, last night Stuart confessed the pair had never met but swore she had agreed to have her name and image associated with his products.

Asked why he would bother to place such obviously fake stories in the press he claimed “I’m just trying to make a wage here” – although he failed to explain what part of his business he was making money from.

When asked why a man who carries out some of the biggest gold and diamond transactions in the world has trouble paying his car insurance and needs to return pegs to the shop for a refund he proved evasive.

He swears his business is legitimate but was unwilling to discuss how much money it generates.

He claims the media are often aware that he is telling tall tales but are more interested in getting a good story.

“This is how I work…I keep things real, I buy second hand, I drive a Bentley,” he explains.

“I was on NBC last night, its just a wow factor, they don’t believe it but guess what – it sells their…I get personally on average about 20-25 requests from all the glossy magazines.”

“It sells their gear, that’s what it does.”

Stuart was equally evasive about the source of the pictures on his website and when asked to produce some real pictures emailed me a picture of a bmx spraypainted gold.

Previously his business was put under serious scrutiny by The Age, emails posted to the website of Computer Choppers seemed to cast doubt on the legitimacy of his images and his gold yacht was claimed to be a hoax.

A page on Stuart’s website offers members of the public a chance to become part of his franchise explaining; “Once the initial start up fee is paid, there are no further payments due to Goldstriker or Stuart Hughes.”

It is not currently known how many people, if any, have signed up to be part of Stuart’s business.

I have the tapes, documents, pictures, etc. to stand this story up. If you want to correct your stories with this information feel free to make contact.