SEARCHLIES EXPOSED:
The following articles are taken from various websites, from both the right and left, in the UK that show the lie-sheet Searchlight up for what it is, a State-funded Zionist lie-sheet produced by convicted criminals solely for British Nationalists to consume in the hope that the rumourmongering contained in the rag's pages every month will spread unrest amongst the rank and file members of White Nationalist organisations.

Above: The elusive Nick Lowles, editor of Searchlies.

NB These pages are produced in order to enlighten the reader about the vile Searchlight organisation and does not necessarily mean we subscribe to all or any of individual groups' political ideals.

November 28, 1963

Magistrates are told 'there is a political background to case'  

'SECRET PAPERS' - THREE ACCUSED 

Story of raid on an author's home
Evening Standard Reporter

Highgate magistrates were told today that there was a "political background" to a case in which three men were alleged to have posed as GPO engineers to get into the home of David Irving, author of the controversial war book Destruction of Dresden. 

Mr. Ivan Lawrence, QC, defending[*], told the Court: "This is a matter which has some political background to it. It is not a case of three young men embarking on a career of crime." 

After Det.-Con. James Morley had applied for a remand saying: "This is a serious matter and there are certain other implications involved," the three were remanded on bail until Wednesday. 
The accused are David F., 19, Electrician, of Solander Gardens, Stepney; Gerald Gable, 26, electrician of Quantock House, Lynmouth Road, Stoke Newington and Manny Carpel,20, unemployed of Downs Park Road, Dalston. 

Director stands surety

Each was allowed bail in his own recognisances of 50 with one surety of 250. Standing surety for all three were company director Leslie Jacobs, of Chatworth Road, Clapton. 

Police-Sergt. Fred Tavener said the three men, who were accused of breaking and entering, got into the home of Mr. Irving, of Alyn Court, Crescent Road, Hornsey, yesterday afternoon.He went to the house in answer to a call from Mr. Irving, who told him: "These three men say they are GPO engineers but I don't believe them." 
Eventually, Said Sergeant Taverner, the men admitted they were not GPO employees and told him they had gone to the house "with the intention of stealing documents." 
After the hearing Manny Carpel[**] said: "We are anti-Fascists but not members of any movement." He also referred to "secret documents" which he claimed were in Mr. Irving's possession. 
Mr. Jacobs said his intent in the case was "purely personal," adding that he was a friend of the three men. 
David Irving, a young historian, scored a remarkable hit with his book, The Destruction of Dresden, which drew upon German and British records to present new facts. 
An article he wrote recently for the Evening Standard on German Intelligence's pre-knowledge of the Dieppe raid also caused a considerable stir. 
At the moment he is working on the story of Peenemünde, the Nazi rocket-research station.
Lawrence QC
* Lawrence, now Sir Ivan Lawrence QC [right] was the leader of the clique of Members of Parliament who tabled an Early Day Motion under Parliamentary privilege designed to smear Mr Irving in June 1989.
Since the third of the malefactors, David F., was ultimately acquitted on a technicality and did not commit further offences against Free Speech we have omitted his full name from this site.

** Manny Carpel began however a life of crime, being imprisoned for an arson offence in 1983 and for antique furniture frauds more recently.

November 29, 1963

"POLITICS" HINT IN BREAK- IN CHARGE 

 

Highgate magistrates were told yesterday of a "political background" to a case in which three men posed as GPO engineers to get into the home of Mr. David Irving, author of "The Destruction of Dresden." 
Mr. Ivan Lawrence, defending, said; "This is a matter which has some political background to it. It is not the case of some three men embarking on a career of crime." 
David F., 19, electrician, of Solander Gardens, Stepney; Gerald Gable, 26, electrician, of Lynemouth Road, Stoke Newington, and Manny Carpel, 20, unemployed, of Downs Park Road, Dalston, were remanded on bail until Dec.4. 
All were charged with breaking and entering Mr. Irving's home at Alyn Court, Crescent Road, Hornsey.
December 4, 1963 

THREE BAILED ON BREAK-IN CHARGE 

 

 Three men accused of breaking into the Hornsey home of historian David Irving with intent to commit a felony, appeared on remand at Highgate today and were again remanded on bail totalling £900. 
Gerald Gable, 26, electrician, of Quanstock House, Lynmouth Road, Stoke Newington; Manny Carpel, 20, unemployed of Downs Park Road, Hackney, and David F., 19, electrician's mate, of Solander Gardens, Stepney, are accused. 
Company director Leslie Jacobs, of Chatsworth Road, Clapton, again stood surety in the sum of £250 for each of the accused and each supplied his own bail of 5
December 18, 1963 

Bogus GPO men tried to grab Nazi papers

<>Historian tells of trio who came to test phone  

Three young men tricked their way into historian Mr. David Irving's flat by posing as GPO engineers, Highgate Magistrate were told today. 
One of them, David F., was alleged to have told a policeman: "This man is Fascist. We got in because we wanted to get some of these books and papers of his and he knows a lot of Nazis who are top brass." 
Sgt. Tavener said F. pointed at a number of books and papers on the table in the room. 
Charged with breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony were F., 19, electrician, of Solander Gardens, Stepney, Gerald Gable, 26, electrician, of Lynmouth Road, Stoke Newington, and Manny Carpel, 20, unemployed, of Downs Park Road, Dalston, who appeared on remand. 

Unbelievable 

Opening the prosecution case Mr. Henry Hargrave said:"You might regard this as a rather unbelievable case." 
Mr. Irving, of Crescent Road, Hornsey, said that two of the men came to his door and told him they had come about the phone and he invited them in. 
"Carpel dialled two or three times on the phone and said 'Hallo, hallo, hallo testing 1, 2, 3, 4.' Then he put the phone down and made himself comfortable in my armchair, saying 'Do you mind if a smoke?' and lighting a cigarette." 

Suspicious 

Mr. Irving said, that Gable told him a large rewiring scheme was in hand in the area and said they were increasing the voltage. 
Mr. Irving said that Gable and Carpel and F. returned about an hour later. In the meantime he had phoned the GPO engineer and the police because he was suspicious. 
Said Mr. Irving: "Gable began to strip the wire from the wall after cutting the wire by the phone. When I looked at him Gable said 'I am sorry I forgot to show me my authorisation card.' He produced a blue GPO card and that satisfied me. I told them that I had asked the police to attend and Gable said 'that's all right, Sir. It often happens to us. It happened in a bank once.'" 
Mr. Mathew submitted that the charge should be dismissed because Mr. Irving agreed that he invited the defendants in although he was suspicious. 
The three men were committed for trial to Middlesex Quarter Sessions starting on January 1. Gable is also charged with stealing a G.P.O. pass card. 
A Company director Leslie Jacobs, of Chatsworth Road, Clapton, stood surety in the sum of 250 for each of the accused and each supplied his own bail of 50. 
Mr Irving is the author of The Destruction of Dresden.

January 15, 1964 

JEWS RAIDED FLAT "SEEKING NAZI PAPERS" 

DAILY TELEGRAPH REPORTER 

TWO young Jews who broke into the flat of a man they believed was a Fascist hoped to find political material which they could take to the Special Branch, said Mr.John Mathew, defence counsel, at Middlesex Sessions yesterday. 
Manny Carpel, 20, unemployed, of Downs Park Road, Dalston, and Gerald Gable, 26, electrician, of Lynmouth Road, Stoke Newington, admitted breaking into the flat of Mr. David Irving, author of "The Destruction of Dresden," at Alyn Court, Crescent Road, Hornsey, on Nov. 27 with intent to steal. 
The were each fined £20 for stealing. Gable was also fined £5 for stealing a GPO card by finding. 
David F., 19, electrician, of Solander Gardens, Stepney, pleaded not guilty to the breaking and entering charge and was discharged.

Posed as engineers 

Mr. Kenneth Richardson, prosecuting, said Carpel and Gable broke into the flat by posing as GPO engineers and arranged to return later. Mr. Irving checked with the Post Office and found their story was untrue. 
When the three were arrested, one said: "This man is a Fascist. We got in because we wanted to get some of the books and papers of his as he knows a lot of Nazis who are top brass." 
Mr. Richardson said: "In view of this allegation, I am bound to say that this gentleman would, if he had come to give evidence, have most strongly denied the allegation."

January 17, 1964

Three fined for breaking into author's flat 

 By a correspondent 

When three young men were charged with breaking into the flat of Mr. David Irving, an historian and author of "The Destruction of Dresden," one of them told the police officers: "This man is a fascist. We got in because we wanted to get some of his books and papers, as he knows a lot of Nazis who are top brass." 
Mr. Kenneth Richardson, prosecuting, said this at Middlesex Sessions on Tuesday. 
Charged with breaking into Mr. Irving's flat at Alyn Court, Crescent Road, Crouch End, on November 27 with intent to steal were: David F., aged 19, electricians mate, of Solander Gardens, Stepney; Manny Carpel, aged 20, unemployed, of Downs Park Road, Dalston; and Gerald Gable, aged 26, electrician, of Lynmouth Road, Stoke Newington. 

No evidence 

Carpel and Gable pleaded guilty. F. pleaded not guilty and the prosecution offered no evidence in his case. On the direction of the deputy chairman (Mr. T.R. Fitzwalter Butler) the jury returned a formal verdict of not guilty in the case of F. 
Mr. Richardson said Carpel and Gable entered the flat by posing as G.P.O. engineers. 
"In view of this allegation -- that Mr. Irving was a fascist -- I am bound to say that that gentleman would, if he had come to give evidence, have most strongly denied this allegation," said Mr. Richardson. 
Mr. John Mathew, defending, said: "Both these men were Jewish. Both were brought up with strong anti-Nazi and anti-fascist views." 
"They intended to hand over any documents or books they found to Special Branch. 
Carpel and Gable were fined £20 each, on the first charge, and Gable £5 on a charge against him of stealing a G.P.O. pass card. 
 

 

 
The Searchlight on Searchlight      
     Ian Buckley dissects the 'anti-fascist' lie magazine     
       
    The name of Searchlight magazine will be familiar - if hardly popular - with most readers. Personally, I had never so much as looked at an issue until a few weeks ago, but now that I have done so I'd like to share some impressions with our readership.

One initial surprise was the rather backward-looking nature of the magazine. Recent numbers have carried interminable material about the Spanish Civil War, or the nefarious and violent activities of the '62 Group. Forty-year-old anecdotes of street battles and the overturning of a car of a 'fascist' are cheerfully related.

But woe betide anyone on the 'other side' who is thought even slightly to emulate these people's bad behaviour! Then Searchlight will let fly with all the venom at its disposal, with references to 'Nazi rat nests', 'terrorists', 'maniacs' and 'thugs.' In a Searchlight article of March 2003 by Thomas Reynolds entitled 'Disciples of Blood', even a prominent Roman Catholic anti-abortion activist, Thomas Monaghan, was accorded this treatment. We are informed that a giant 220ft crucifix outside a college run by Monaghan is 'arrogant'. Well, you can't please everybody!

Searchlight's distortion of the language and its fantasist tendencies are very reminiscent of the propaganda of the Israeli Government. The demonisation of British Nationalists follows the same pattern, whereby an elderly Christian Arab bell-ringer shot by troops becomes a 'terrorist' who was 'holed up' in the Church of the Nativity.

The reaction of Searchlight to the September 11th attacks was well worth studying. According to the magazine, these were 'murderous terrorist attacks'. Such an attitude is very different to these writers' previous standpoint on terrorism. Twenty-odd years ago they would doubtless have greeted the news of bomb attacks on South African oil refineries or railway stations with barely suppressed glee. They would have run the story in terms of the brave resistance of the oppressed to a tyrannical government.

But now they sing from a different hymn sheet, and write in terms that would not be out of place in the Daily Mail or Daily Telegraph. But that is just one contradiction. As is well known, the editor and staff of Searchlight are all Marxists to a man (and woman). Now, disregarding moral considerations which, as we've seen, don't interest Searchlight very much - the destruction of the World Trade Centre was indeed an assault on the symbolic and actual centre of global capitalism. But these far-leftists not only disapprove of the attack, but also give a guarded welcome to the ensuing so-called 'war on terror'!

Remote from the British people
The Searchlight crew claim to be leftists, but what exactly have they achieved for the working classes by all their 'anti-fascist' activities? Mistaken trade-unionists like John Edmonds may contribute articles to Searchlight denouncing the BNP as a 'threat'. But I would like to ask Mr. Edmonds what ordinary British people fear most: the BNP or the collapsing, failing, crime-ridden society created by his erstwhile friends of New Labour? Searchlight magazine is symbolic of the way the healthy element on the Left has been neutered. The siren song of today's left has been followed for years, so that there is no more talk from that quarter of jobs and a fair society, but of 'gay' rights and more immigration!

This was made explicit by Steve Silver in a piece entitled 'Anti-fascism and globalisation' when he said that: "We need to find ways to address the contradiction that in a world where capital can traverse the planet with less restrictions than ever before, labour has never had less freedom of movement."

This 'leftist' suggests that because of the unfettered movement of capital - which any nation in full possession of its senses should have prevented by law - we must allow in even more and more asylum-seekers as cheap labour! I wonder how John Edmonds' members in the neglected heartlands of old Labour would react to that suggestion?

Quite apart from any 'racist' consideration, such a mass influx would have an even more deleterious effect on living standards than the economic sabotage of Thatcher, Major and Blair. The Searchlight scribblers should be aware that their proposal of further flooding the country with asylum-seekers, will, to put it mildly, never be popular or accepted. Indeed they should realise that the general public is seething with rage over the issue.

Indeed, all educated, mainstream nationalists are, if anything, more moderate than that public. A vox pop in my local pub on the BBC's risible 'Asylum Day' came to the conclusion that asylum-seekers should be shot at by troops as they attempted entry. To which my rejoinder was that it would be a better idea to do something along those lines to the politicians responsible for allowing this folly - and so many others.

The guys at Searchlight would class this as horrific racism; but, really, is it as bad as Israeli Transport Minister Avigdor Lieberman's statement that Palestinians should be drowned in the Dead Sea, as this was the lowest point in the world? Truly, the policy of 'Racism in One Country' would seem to apply!

Selective view of nationalism
'Anti-fascism and globalisation' further goes on to state that: "Nationalism is not a monolithic entity and should not be viewed as such: it is not necessarily a bad thing." Basque or African nationalism are considered to be 'progressive', but we are cautioned that some forms of nationalism must be considered dangerous. The reader will be agog with boredom to find that British Nationalism is placed in this category.

While, of course, the main thrust of Searchlight has always been against nationalists, recent essays have begun to target the sceptical left. People like John Pilger or Tam Dalyell are accused of "an emotive response bordering on hysteria" in their reaction to the Jenin slaughter. The essay goes on portentously to warn the dissenters that: "Anti-semitism, like other forms of racial hatred, does not always come from the fascist right." So just remember, when you see a bulldozer in Gaza crushing a protestor, always to examine your conscience and make sure you're not suffering from an emotive 'anti- semitic' response!

But Searchlight also has its amusing side, demonstrated when Gerry Gable says in the course of an attack on David Irving that Irving was "praising the SS and attacking Britain's heroic wartime fliers as little better than war criminals" in his first book The Destruction of Dresden.

As to the first part of this statement, Mr. Gable must have read a unique printing of one single copy of The Destruction of Dresden to which no-one else has had access. As for the RAF, regrettably on this particular occasion they did behave like war criminals - or at least carried out the orders of such people. But it is a great laugh to hear the Marxist Gable sounding just like Biggles author Captain W. E. Johns!

In spite of all its talk of features, investigation and such-like, Searchlight seems to operate very much on the principle of what we say goes, just as did the East End gangster and 'anti-fascist' Jack Spot. Sceptical elements in the media should take note of the fact that it's not normal journalistic practice to go for stories to the bitterest opponents of a particular political grouping or individual. They don't ask Sinn Fein for the full story on the Rev. Ian Paisley, so why on earth do they rely on the inaccurate and distorted ramblings of Searchlight whenever they want information about nationalism?
  
With acknowledgements to Spearhead Online
At War with the Truth
The True Story of Searchlight Agent Tim Hepple

This booklet is about a man of many possible faces and many possible allegiances. For the mainstream media and readers of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight Tim Hepple was simply a member of the fascist British National Party who 'saw the light' and approached Searchlight asking if he could act as a mole for them. As such he seemed to follow in the footsteps of other Searchlight moles, the most famous being Ray Hill who in 1984 in a blaze of publicity and a World in Action documentary 'came out' exposing his former friends in the far right.

In April 1994 in a dramatic World in Action programme Tim Hepple appeared on camera as a source helping expose the violent Nazi group Combat 18. However, at the end of April a pamphlet 'A Lie Too Far', exposed Hepple as an agent provocateur in the Anarchist movement. This pamphlet focused on the list of names and details of C-18 thugs which Hepple encouraged Green Anarchist magazine to publish. The list contained many factual errors and was composed with intention of getting Anarchists arrested and encouraging C18/BNP members to mount-counter attacks. However the list had another purpose. They had been designed to put Green Anarchist under attack on 3 fronts - arrested by the state, attacked by C18/BNP thugs and also by anti-fascists. This would come about because after Green Anarchist had published them Searchlight would 'expose' the lists as being supplied by Nazis. The resulting smears would open the target up to attack from the Left/anti-fascists. It was this third front of desired assault - by their own comrades on the Left - that points most clearly in the direction of list passing as being part of MI5's current battle plan.

Luckily O'hara was able to prevent Green Anarchist from publishing the lists, but unfortunatly, unknown to him, Tim Scargill of the Class War Organisation was also passed a copy of this list (by presumed Searchlight assets still under investigation) and published himself. As O'hara had predicted Scargill was immediately attacked as a being a fascist.

O'hara responded by working on with Green Anarchist and Tim Scargill to produce a pamphlet, A Lie Too Far (ALTF), to try repair some of the damage and to prevent such events happening again. In ALTF Searchlight magazine, it editor Gerry Gabble, Ray Hill and Tim Hepple were accused of implementing a plot to physically and politically subvert the Anarchist movement. Searchlight was plotting against the British left. Why? Some would answer that Searchlight is an arm of the secret state. This pamphlet certainly does. Many years ago Duncan Campbell in the New Statesman unearthed a document which incontrovertibly showed that Gerry Gable had spread disinformation on behalf of MI5. This 'Gable Memorandum' was recently published by Lobster Magazine (issue 24).

ALTF contains extracts from letters which Hepple wrote to Green Anarchist's editor, and this publication uses letters not disclosed in ALTF to prove beyond doubt that Hepple was an agent provocateur. It is up to you to decide whether you should continue to buy searchlight. If you do- remember Searchlight is a thoughly discredited organisation serving the secret states' agenda.

From Green Anarchist
<>Searchlight and the State
The article where "anti-fascist" magazine Searchlight's links to the British security services were first revealed.

"Leave it to the experts!"

"I have now given the names I have acquired to be checked out by British/ French security services, especially the French and German connections and the South American stuff is being checked by Geoffrey Stewart-Smith's institute. He has strong CIA links. (1), I may try somebody in the Israeli Foreign Office that I know for some checks on Kelly. It is now a time for waiting for a feed-back and also further checks here."

"I have attached a number of documents including the transcript of Kelly's interview with World in Action. It goes without saying that I would like this kept strictly secret."

'Strictly secret': one of a series of reports on other journalists which London Weekend Television researcher and Searchlight Publishing Chairman Gerry Gable prepared with a little help from "the experts".

In January 1964, three young men (2) were convicted at Highbury Magistrates Court for breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony, after attempting to steal private papers from the self-proclaimed "mild fascist" historian David Irving. Despite the fact that one of them was unemployed and the other two gave their professions as "electrician", they were represented in Court by a Queens Council and £1,000 bail was put up by a businessman, company director Leslie Jacobs of Clapton. One of the three was additionally charged with stealing a GPO identity card which he used in the burglary: his name was Gerry Gable. Council for the defence told the court, "they hoped to find material they could take to Special Branch". (3)

Twenty years later the same Gerry Gable, reviewing Stuart Christie's Investigative Researcher's Handbook (which had included profiles of two leading right-wingers as examples of how to go about an investigation), dismissed the book with the scathing admonishment to "leave it to the experts".(4) We think our readers should be made aware of just which "experts" Mr. Gable has in mind, and why it is that Searchlight reacts so curiously whenever anyone outside their select circle dares step onto their jealously guarded territory of investigating the extreme Right.

Born in January 1937, Gerry Gable is a former member of the Young Communist League (YCL), and stood as Communist Party candidate in the Northfield ward of Stamford Hill, north London, in 1962. He was also linked to the Zionist 'antifascist' 62 Group nominally led by Harry Bidney (manager of the Limbo Club in Soho) — formed by veterans of the anti-Mosley 43 Group (basically a CP set-up) who thought the group had grown 'too liberal' — to counter the antics of Colin Jordan, John Tyndall, and the revived neo-Nazi movement of the early '60's. The 62 Group (mostly supporters of the Beginite Herut organisation, a political successor to the Irgun Zvai Leumi terrorist group) specialised in direct action, infiltration, dirty-tricks, and 'black-bag' jobs (burglary). Gable has retained an endearing affection for 'black-bag' jobs, as a means of gathering information on target individuals, ever since.

Searchlight
Parallel to the activities of the '62 Group, a small anti-fascist journal was founded in London to monitor the activities of Jordan, Tyndall & Co. The journal was called Searchlight. Amongst its early editors were Labour MP's Reg Freeson and Joan Lestor (both subsequently Government Ministers for Housing and Foreign Affairs respectively). Searchlight's "research director" was Gerry Gable. The journal ceased publication in 1967, but Gable, Maurice Ludmer (a veteran Communist and anti-fascist), and others stayed together as Searchlight Associates, in order to go on providing 'research material' on the extreme Right to journalists and broadcasters. In 1974 Gable and Ludmer collaborated in the production of a pamphlet detailing the background and nature of the National Front: A Well Oiled Nazi Machine. The instant success of the pamphlet (it sold out in a few weeks), helped by the wave of concern awakened on the Left by the seeming advance being made by the NF (and incidentally, the re-emergence of 'anti-fascism' as a bandwagon for groups like the SWP to use for their recruitment drives), prompted Searchlight Associates to resume publication as a regular journal. The pilot issue of the new Searchlight appeared in February 1975, with Maurice Ludmer as its editor. Ludmer and Gable were also amongst the first sponsors of the Anti-Nazi League.

Since then Searchlight has built up an impressive reputation for investigative reporting, and has done pioneering work of genuine value in exposing the activities and international links of fascist organisations. But the political expediency of a perceived identity of interest in the short-term, in the cause of 'anti-fascism' just as in 'anti-communism', is apt to lead one to work with some strange allies. In Searchlight's case, opposition to the 'extremists' of the Right has opened up the door to the extremists of the centre, for whom Right and Left are equally perceived as a threat to 'democracy'.

"Strictly secret"
Not only has Gable admitted, as part of his defence in the 1963/4 burglary trial, that he hoped to supply information to Special Branch on David Irving, but a confidential memorandum written by him to his producers in London Weekend Television (where he worked until recently as a researcher/presenter on the London Programme: he is now trying to work his ticket with an alleged 'heart condition') on 2 May 1977 gave clear, hard, evidence that he has also engaged in a two-way traffic of information with the security services of several countries, and acted as a conduit of misinformation for MI5 against fellow journalists, and socialists. The memo was the subject of an article by Duncan Campbell and Bruce Page in the New Statesman in February 1980. Gable has never successfully refuted the information contained in the article. When Campbell and Page went down to LWT's offices to confront Gable with the evidence and demand some answers, Gable simply cleared his desk and fled, refusing to talk to them. This is in marked contrast to his previous meeting with Campbell, whom he took out to an expense account lunch during the 'ABC' Official Secrets case to pump him for information he could pass on to his friends in Special Branch.

The memo, written by Gable followed, he says, a lunch with a Security Service employee in May 1977. The nature of the official material received and recorded by him — mixed with large amounts of random gossip — indicates that much of it was coloured by phone-tap information and informer's reports. It consists almost entirely of libellous untruths about a group of 'target' individuals — the 'ABC' Official Secrets defendants, American deportees Philip Agee and Mark Hosenball, and several of their acquaintances. In certain respects, material from Special Branch had been deliberately falsified to mislead Gable and his employers. The timing of the memo showed clearly an intense interest on behalf of MI5 in manipulating events surrounding the Agee/ Hosenball case and the beginnings of the 'ABC' prosecution.

"Kelly is the KGB man…"
The person most frequently, and libellously, mentioned in its pages was not directly involved in either case: Phil Kelly, a journalist acquainted with both sets of accused men. Kelly was around this time one of the victims of a number of burglaries and thefts in London which were clearly designed to gather information and documents rather than valuables (Gable's proven speciality, as witnessed by the Irving trial…)

Admitted to be one of a series, the memo was headed "Agencies" presumably a reference to Gable's information sources (named, apart from MI5, as the CIA, French and German security, Stewart-Smith's FARI institute, and the 'Israeli Foreign Office'). It mixes up a few accurate facts with half-truths, and constructs upon them a series of fantasies, linking the Young Liberals with Cubans, Palestinian and German terrorists, various contributors to Time Out, members of the London Co-Op, and the KGB, into a deadly, all-encompassing conspiracy. Gable also asserts that an "eye-witness" who "had infiltrated the Palestinians and some left groups" (and is apparently well known to him) has backed up his claims. There is a remarkable similarity between information received by Special Branch when they stopped Kelly at Heathrow Airport in 1970, and the "eye-witness" story re-told by Gable in 1977. The implication must be that Gable was at least aware of a Special Branch or MI5 informer amongst left-wing groups and remained quiet about it.

Gable wrote: "The arrest of Campbell / Berry and Aubrey has caused a civil rights row, but according to my top level security sources, they inform me in strictest confidence that for about four years Campbell/ Berry/ Kelly and others have been systematically gathering top-level security material. Campbell, who claims to have only an interest in technological matters as far as the state is involved, had done four years detailed research into the whole structure of the other side of not only our Intelligence services but those of other NATO countries. He has also gone to people who work on top security contracts and started off by asking them about open commercial work their companies do and then gradually asked them for information on top secret work, including that on underwater detection hardware, which he clearly knows is beyond the pale."

"Politically it appears the group have no guiding light or line, but Kelly is the KGB man who reaps the goodies gathered by other people…"

"The security service accepts that once the real nature of this case begins to emerge they expect people like Jonathan Aitkin (the Tory MP, who has expressed support for the ABC) will fade away fast. The security service accepts that a number of decent people have signed up to support these people on civil rights grounds and also they unofficially accept all the shortcomings of the act they have been held under, but they say they are sure this has gone beyond the bounds of Press Investigation."

In the last few words of the memo Gable wrote: "I have now given the names I have acquired to be checked out by British/ French security services…it is now a time for waiting for a feed-back and also for further checks here." The feed-back never came of course, because the whole story was really just black propaganda.

The Infiltration Game
Searchlight obtains much of its information from imaginative use of the telephone, 'black-bag' jobs (of the sort Gable has been convicted for), snippets of gossip and information blackmailed out of vulnerable fascists eager to protect some guilty secret or other (usually of a sexual nature), and selected tit-bits fed to Gable from his "top-level security sources". The value of a great deal of the material they print is arguable. Often it is slanted to achieve other ends than simply 'antifascism'. Gable has recently lent himself to a series of manoeuvres, allying himself with former members of the Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB) who had joined the Libertarian Alliance, aimed at seizing control of the Alternative Bookshop in Covent Garden (a pivotal influence within the LA) and ousting Chris Tame (who has recently also come under fire in the pages of Searchlight) in what they hoped would be the resulting split.

On the rare occasion when they do print information from genuine anti-fascist infiltrators (two people, independently, during our researches expressed bewilderment at Searchlight's lack of interest in information gathered on fascists — in one case through a successful infiltration of the NF — which was offered to them), it is subject to a curious process of 'editing' before being published. Birmingham Communist Dave Roberts, who provided Searchlight with much of their information during the mid '70's, is a case in point.

Amongst the information passed to Searchlight in 1976 by Roberts (who was subsequently disowned by Gable after Maurice Ludmer's death), was the revelation that David King (a Birmingham Nazi known to have close links with the so-called "Column 88") had told Roberts in prison that he suspected fellow fascist Peter Marriner of being in touch with Special Branch. Marriner, a long-time Nazi activist in Birmingham, then local organiser for the British Movement and said to be involved with "Column 88", achieved notoriety when he was exposed as a fascist infiltrator of the Labour Party, International Socialists, and other left-wing groups during the Ladywood bye-election. Searchlight subsequently printed a long expose of Marriner's activities, but only after the local press had already picked up the beginnings of the story and blown Marriner's cover as election agent to Labour MP Brian Waldon and his successor, John Severs. Nowhere in Searchlight's coverage of the Marriner case was there any mention of a Special Branch connection. Marriner told the Left he was infiltrating the Right. He told the Right he was infiltrating the Left. If he was also in contact with Special Branch, just who was infiltrating who? And why, after they published so much else of the information gathered by Roberts, did Searchlight balk at exposing a leading Birmingham Nazi as an agent of the Special Branch? Interestingly enough, another of the defendants in the Irving burglary case with Gable in 1963, Manny Carpel, was jailed for 2.5 years in April 1981 after setting fire to a printing works in Sussex which printed fascist literature. Carpel described himself during the trial as a freelance journalist working for Searchlight. His defence lawyer, Leonard Krickler, claimed on Carpel's behalf that his client had helped the Special Branch in the past in the Midlands and Birmingham.

Plausible Denial?
Gable's role in all this is open to speculation. He may be the naive tool (and fool) of the Special Branch. More probably, he appears in the classic role of "plausibly deniable" agent, used by "the experts" to do the dirty work which his "top level security sources" would rather not grubby their hands on. It is documented fact that Gable has been passing information to Special Branch, MI5, and foreign security services for 20 years; acted as a conduit for misinformation and 'black' propaganda between MI5 and the media (aimed in at least one case in affecting the course of criminal proceedings against fellow journalists); and concealed the existence and activities of at least one Special Branch or MI5 infiltrator inside left-wing groups.

We can not really shed any tears about Gable employing unscrupulous methods against fascists; but his activities in other directions give us cause for concern. We are entitled to ask Mr. Gable, when he scolds those who ruffle his feathers, to just which "experts" we should leave the task of investigating those who threaten our well-being: MI5, Special Branch, CIA, Mossad? It is also necessary to ask those genuine anti-fascists amongst the Searchlight staff and contributors, whether they are in fact aware of Gerry Gable's activities on behalf of his "top level security" chums? If they are and continue to have any dealings with the man, then we would have cause to question their motivations also. With "experts" like Gerry Gable, who needs fascists?

Footnotes:
1 Besides having served as advisor to the British Military Voluntary Force which unsuccessfully tried to send mercenaries to the Congo, Biafra, and Southern Africa, former Tory MP. Geoffrey Stewart-Smith is the editor of East West Digest (an anti-communist rag sent free to all MP's), and director of the Foreign Affairs Research Institute (FARI). From a small beginning in 1966, by 1981 it was able to host an international conference which received a message of goodwill from President Reagan. FARI acts as an umbrella group for the Coalition for Peace through Security (CPS), located in the office above FARI at 27-31 Whitehall, which has also housed Freedom Communications International (yet another rabid anti-communist set-up) of whom Stewart-Smith is the director. Foreign Affairs Publishing Co. is a major publisher of right-wing books in England. The East West Institute/ FARI maintains close links with British, Dutch and American Intelligence.
2 Gerry Gable, Manny Carpel and David Freedman.
3 Evening Standard, 28 November 1963.
4 Searchlight, No.96, June 1983.

From Anarchy 36, 1983

Searchlight  :  A Well-Oiled Disinformation Machine
By Paul Cox

For those not in the know -- and sadly that includes at least 90 per cent of those active within the periphery of radical politics in Britain, let alone the mass of the population -- Searchlight present themselves as specialists in the comparatively small field of "racism and fascism".

To all intents and purposes Searchlight the organisation (1) has a monopoly on the subject of fascism and is politically influential.
As Larry O'Hara points out, "barely a story on fascists printed in the UK has not got their paw-prints on it, and the same (even more so) goes for TV documentaries on fascism";  furthermore, Searchlight provided "official and exclusive research back-up for the two European Parliament reports into racism and fascism in Europe", (Searchlight for Beginners  p.1)(2).
Larry O'Hara has spent much of the last few years researching and writing about Searchlight, not because he has nothing better to do in his spare time from analysis of the machinations of the secret state, but also because Searchlight has itself put a great deal of effort into blackening the name of O'Hara, suggesting amongst other things that he is a "nazi fellow-traveller" (Searchlight No 216 June 1993, p.24), and "an informant for an agent of the SIS" (Searchlight No 218 August 1993, p.12) (3)

O'Haras latest booklet, woefully entitled Searchlight For Beginners, is on the whole easy to read and comprehend for those of us with primary or secondary experience of the multifarious role of the Searchlight organisation. However, for those new to the subject it could be pretty bewildering, as it does require a degree of prior knowledge of the subject-matter and jargon... the Searchlight organisation; Column 88; 'hit-lists'; Combat 18 and so on.

The publication Searchlight originally surfaced in 1965 as an occasional anti-fascist broadsheet, and included amongst its contributors Reg Freeson and Joan Lester, two left-wing Labour MPs. It was not until 1972 that any significant impact was made by the Searchlight organisation, with the publication of the anonymous pamphlet The Monday Club - A Danger To Democracy, highlighting the activities of George Kennedy- Young, an ex-Deputy Head of MI6.

Although it was an "anonymous" publication, O'Hara is convinced of its authorship:


No-one has ever admitted to writing this, but the content and style is highly redolent of the themes that were to be a staple of Searchlight stories throughout the 1970s and later... (Searchlight for Beginners, p.1).
Two years later, Searchlight produced a pamphlet exposing the past activities of key members of the National Front, namely John Tyndall and Martin Webster. More surprising was the photograph of a uniformed John Courtney, described as leader of the undercover National Socialist Group, an organisation which Searchlight were later to claim were highly active within Column 88.

The pamphlet A Well-Oiled Nazi Machine, followed hot on the heels of the 76,429 votes received by the NF in the February 1974 General Election and the death of anti-fascist agitator Kevin Gately at Red Lion Square on June 15. Webster espoused NF innocence, insisting that there were "clear indications" that the organisers of the anti-NF counter-demonstration were "intending to stage a physical confrontation with the NF"  (Martin Webster : Law Relating to Public Order 1980, p.8) -- a claim endorsed by O'Hara himself when he acknowledged that "despite the fact that the NF had not engaged in violence that day, thenceforth they were associated in the public mind with mayhem"  (Lobster No 23, May 1992, p.16).

A Well-Oiled Nazi Machine was well received amongst anti- fascists, and Searchlight the publication was duly relaunched in February 1975 under the editorship of Maurice Ludmer, a one-time journalist for the Communist Party newspaper Morning Star and later a leading figure in the Anti Nazi League.

From "Nazi Underground" to State "Honey Trap"
Within months Searchlight had its first major story exposing Column 88, an alleged neo-Nazi terror group intent on having its members "in places of influence across the whole spectrum of the Right, from the Monday Club to the National Front" (Searchlight May 1975, p.5). In April 1976 C88 hit the national headlines with the exposure of joint military exercises with the Territorial Army; the source of the stories was one Dave Roberts, a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and Searchlight agent. The following month Searchlight boasted of "the many stories that have resulted from Searchlight's research into the extreme right Column 88", further adding that "C88 is a private army. It is illegal. There is no legitimate reason why it should be allowed to continue."  (Searchlight May 1976, p.3-4). O'Hara rightly states that this follows an "established pattern: stories are sold to the media, and then recycled/embroidered in the next month's magazine."  (Searchlight for Beginners, p.3). In 1991 Searchlight still referred to C88 as "the nazi underground paramilitary and intelligence cell" (p.3). This same issue spoke of the role of the SAS and MI6 as "a training arm for guerilla warfare and sabotage" for the British Section of the GLADIO network, the secret NATO anti-Communist organisation, (Searchlight No 187 January 1991, p.3/p.6). By 1995, however, C88 were a "honey trap operation set up by British intelligence", and furthermore were involved in GLADIO  (Searchlight No. 238 April 1995, p.2), and "should not be counted as a genuine far-right or racist group"  (Community Handbook, Sect 2.2-2). A serious about-turn, taken years after it could have any political significance; C88 no longer existed, and Sir George Kennedy-Young was long dead.

O'Hara has long opposed the Searchlight doctrine concerning both the Monday Club and Column 88. O'Hara argues that the Monday Club pamphlet represented an "exaggeration of the political clout of George Kennedy-Young", more so given that he later failed in his attempt to take over the Monday Club in September 1973. With regard to C88, he had already argued that as far as both the National Front and the National Party were concerned the private armies of both C88 and GB75 were seen as reactionary, supportive of the status quo, and "paving the way for communism", (Lobster No 23 June 1992, p.15). Furthermore, "without Searchlight's lurid 1975 coverage and subsequent follow up in April and May 1976, there would not have been any national C88 story."  (Searchlight for Beginners p.3-4).

O'Hara's conjecture makes sense, and his alternative explanation seems hard to refute: "As we now know, the key murky secret state activity of the mid-1970s was MI5's efforts to use the situation in Northern Ireland to their own advantage... MI5 did not make the slightest appearance in either of the Searchlight hyped stories, which is a chilling omission....
Searchlight can thus, in the politically volatile 1970s, be seen as a 'distractor' diverting potentially prying eyes away from what is really going on." (Searchlight for Beginners p.4).

"Special Branch Pimps" and "Errand Boys for the State"
Where O'Hara is at his best is when he kills myths and myth-makers with their own words and with those of their closest comrades. Dave Roberts was first exposed as a Searchlight agent when he was convicted in March 1976 for attempted assault following a failed arson attack on Communist Party premises in Birmingham, which doubtless would have been blamed on C88, as were attacks on left-wing bookshops at that time.

From that time, if not before, Roberts was working for the political police. The following year Unity magazine spoke of tape-recordings and documents obtained by Roberts which had "gone to the authorities"  (Unity No.1 1977, p.7). The following year Roberts himself was calling on the authorities to "arrest leaders of Column 88... ban all marches, meetings and literature", (Forewarned No.2 April 1978, p.11); and Terry Liddle, ex-husband of Searchlight's Daphne Liddle, wrote that Roberts was "reputed to trade information with Special Branch"  (Volya, April 1986, p.6). Not exactly the actions of a revolutionary Stalinist, but then again...

Gerry Gable, who took over the realm of Searchlight editor following the death of Ludmer, is yet another ex-member of the Communist Party. He too first came to the fore in November 1963, during his bungled attempt to burgle the home of historian David Irving. His defence counsel, one Ivan Lawrence QC (later Sir Ivan Lawrence, Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee), commented at the time that Gable had "intended to hand over any documents or books they found to the Special Branch"  (Islington Gazette 17/1/64).

In 1980 the left-wing journal New Statesman exposed Gable as a state asset using his own words from the notorious Gable memorandum, a letter from Gable to London Weekend Television in May 1977. In it Gable boasted of "my top level security service sources" and later confessed that "I have now given the names I have acquired to be checked out by British/French security services"  (Gable to LWT 2/5/77).

By 1986 Gable was providing research back-up to the BBC Panorama programme on 'Maggie's Militant Tendency' which exposed alleged fascist leanings of some Conservative MPs. Gable was quick to boast of how the programme "drew heavily upon Searchlight's own revelations"  (Searchlight No. 130 April 1986, p.2); but with two Conservative MPs taking out a libel action against the BBC and carrying out their own research into Searchlight, he panicked and concocted a story about how they planned to kidnap and murder him. Gable cleverly refrained from naming the MPs, but Private Eye magazine swallowed the story and went one step further in actually naming the MPs allegedly involved, and for their troubles the Eye were successfully sued the following year.(4)

A Conspiracy of "Hit-Lists" and "Death Squads"
The next Searchlight story to come under the O'Hara dissection is the lurid issue of hit-lists of political opponents. Searchlight has long claimed that it was the fascist 'extreme-right' that first published the names and addresses of anti-fascists to be targetted for attack, and supported this theory by exposing the actions of the Young National Front publication Bulldog, and South London News, both of which featured the details of hundreds of anti-fascists. In later years the implication was that Combat 18 continued this fascist technique of intimidation.

O'Hara has debunked this myth, not by laying the blame on anti-fascists, even though it was an anti-fascist publication that did indeed first publish a list of the names and addresses of fascists, but on the Searchlight organisation itself. According to O'Hara it was the publication Forewarned Against Fascism in November 1978 that first "began publishing 'hit-lists'", and that "these lists preceded those produced by fascists", and that the people behind Forewarned were none other than Dave Roberts and Daphne Liddle, (Searchlight for Beginners p.8). Only then, O'Hara suggests, did fascists respond -- but that even then there lay yet another twist.

The nazi publication League Review began featuring informed details on anti-fascists in late 1978, written under the pen-name of Heimdall. From August 1979 League Review began featuring the names and addresses of Anti Nazi League committee members, a body onto which Dave Roberts himself had failed to get elected. O'Hara's supposition is that not only were these people opponents of Roberts, but that "a normally reliable source has suggested that Heimdall was in fact a codename for Roberts"  (Searchlight for Beginners p.9).

Of more concern to O'Hara than the issue of 'hit-lists' themselves is the role played in all this by Forewarned, which whilst "run at arms-length from, but clearly connected to, Searchlight (and their ultimate protectors) proactively took the initiative in pouring petrol on the flames of political violence"  (Searchlight for Beginners p.8).

Sonia Hochfelder first appeared on the political scene when she set up the the diminutive "Communist Party of England : Marxist Leninist", however by late 1974 whilst studying she "jumped ship" and "threw her lot in with the fascists", as well as becoming the girlfriend of one Steve Brady, an Irish-born member of the National Party, a splinter from the NF, (Searchlight for Beginners p.9). The significance of all this to O'Hara is Hochfelder's possible connection, via Brady, with the death squads of the Ulster Volunteer Force, and as such her possible role in the murder of Michael Adamson who was shot by the UVF in March 1975.

O'Hara's evidence rests upon several key facts. Firstly the content of a letter allegedly from Brady to Hochfelder which not only mentions the assassination of Adamson, but also mentions his contact with members of the CPE:ML. Further details of these self same CPE:ML members was then published by Dave McCalden, another Irish-born member of the National Party, in the July issue of Britain First, whilst at the same time the UVF publication Combat described the CPE:ML as the "most violent Communist organisation in the UK" (Combat May 1975). Who better than a past insider, Hochfelder, to have such knowledge of the tiny CPE:ML ?

Hill Street Ruse
Searchlight are not only prone to using Stalinists in order to spread their disinformation on behalf of the State... When Ray Hill returned to England from South Africa and later offered to work for Searchlight it was a godsend for Gable and his masters. Hill, a one-time member of Colin Jordan's National Socialist Movement in the 1960's (before emigrating to South Africa), had all the hallmarks of the perfect State asset. Politically, he had a tumid reputation, but few nazis would shun him; furthermore he is alleged to have fled South Africa under something of a cloud.

On the evening of July 6 1981, a World in Action expose implied that members of the tiny British Democratic Party, a breakaway group from the NF, were involved in gun-running operations. The source of the story was Searchlight, and their asset within the BDP was Hill. Ironically, the gun-runners were alleged to be supplying arms to  American soldiers based in England, a most unlikely clientel for weapons sales!

Yet, as O'Hara points out, it was Hill himself who suggestedto Anthony Reed-Herbert, the leader of the BDP, that the nazi movement operate a "pincer strategy", one offering a "respectable, clean political party" and the other "the capacity for underground activities"  (Ray Hill,The Other Face of Terror,1988, p.98). In reality one luger pistol was purchased and made available to the Americans, and another BDP member was convicted for unlawful possession of another firearm -- as O'Hara quips, "Hardly Iran-Contra!"  (Searchlight for Beginners p.14).

That same month, Searchlight fed a story to the Daily Mirrorabout an alleged neo-nazi plot to bomb the Notting Hill Carnival, which suggested that Special Branch officers had "discovered that the neo-Nazis plotted to set off a suitcase bomb"  (Daily Mirror 21/7/81). Searchlight enhanced the story, claiming that the plot was "intended to leave hundreds dead"  (Searchlight No. 74, August 1981, p.2).

It was of course all a fantasy dreamed up by Gable and his State associates, but both the anti-fascist movement and the media wanted to - or needed to - believe it. Indeed, Richard Thurlow years later still referred to Hill having thwarted the "plot to explode a terrorist bomb" without providing any evidence of any such plans, (Richard Thurlow : Fascism in Britain : A history 1918-1985 p.288, 1987).

O'Hara is not convinced of the existence of any such bomb plot at all. Viewing the activities of a synthesized europe-wide nazi movement, he argued "what is the point of going to great lengths to set up a network of European terror, from which Britain was specifically excluded because of the UK's role as a 'bolt-hole', in order to mess it all up with something like the Notting Hill bomb ?"  (Lobster No. 24 November 1992, p.18).

The Other Side of Deception
Critics of O'Hara tend to argue that both he and his research into the activities of Searchlight are being used by the fascist 'right', because much of his work destroys many of the myths which are used to discredit fascism in Britain. However, O'Hara is quick to point out that the disinformation used by Searchlight against fascism is part of a greater State strategy to attack the political 'left'.

With the growth in political direct action through groups such as Class War, the State decided to attack the Anarchist movement, and Searchlight was an ever-willing accomplice. Class War were very active during the 1984 Miners Strike and staged a "Bash the Rich" march through London in 1985. In the aftermath of the Brixton riots in 1985 a Searchlight-inspired story suggested that Class War was "run by former leading figures in the National Front"  (Guardian 30/9/85); in 1988 Searchlight implied that anarchist squatters in Hackney had been infiltrated by nazis.

The Poll Tax riot in 1990, and the follow-up "Bailiff Day of Action" in July 1991, brought Class War to the fore again. True to form, first Tim Scargill (ex-fascist turned anarchist) was falsely accused of working with the British National Party and Combat 18; and again in October1994 Class War was said to have been "infiltrated by elements of the extreme right" (Evening Standard 12/10/94).

Such disinformation serves the State well; not only does it create suspicion, but the gullible might well approach Searchlight with membership lists requesting that these "experts" peruse their lists for them, looking for known fascist infiltrators!

The Green movement also is frequently targeted by Searchlight. None more so than in the case of Tim Hepple, the State asset who simultaneously infiltrated the fascist 'right' and the green movement (see 'Activists or Agents' in Third Way issue 22, for a detailed account). However, just to briefly reiterate the career of Hepple: "football hooligan... organising race riots (Dewsbury 1989)... infiltrating Left/Green groups... offered Green Anarchist arms... gave them lists of fascist names and addresses"  (Searchlight for Beginners, p.18-19). All sound like a familiar pattern ?

"Let them hate, so long as they fear..."
Unlike Column 88, Combat 18  were a creation of the 'far-right'. Indeed C18 was created as a response to attacks of fascist/nazi meetings by anti-fascists, specifically the attack on a League of St George meeting at Kensington Library in 1991, at which Gable was arrested; and the failure of Chris Marchant/Nick Griffin of the International Third Position to prevent revisionist Fred Leuchter being removed and subsequently deported prior to addressing a meeting organised by David Irving.
O'Hara's analysis of the origin of C18 is similar, and suggests that its founding corps came from "disaffected ex-BM members" (Turning Up The Heat 1994, p.67).

Searchlight repeated their 1970s strategy, the only difference was in the name, Combat 18 instead of Column 88. Firstly Searchlight called for "the investigation of nazi terror groups either to be put into the hands of a special police unit attached to the Police National Intelligence Bureau, or to be handed over to MI5 and MI6"  (Searchlight No. 223, January 1994, p.2). The following year C18 was now a state operation, indeed Searchlight appeared to approve, asserting that "the reasons for MI5 wanting to establish another 'honey trap' on the far right are understanable and possibly justifiable"  (Searchlight No.238, April 1995, p.2).

O'Hara disagrees with the Searchlight hypothesis. Firstly he rightly states that there has been a "plethora of disinformation, emanating from both the Far Right and State connected sources"  (Turning Up The Heat 1994, p.66). Further, he insists that "there is no evidence MI5 created C18"  (Searchlight for Beginners p.25).

Superciliously, C18 had claimed "the police and Searchlight would find it impossible to infiltrate all the cells and monitor the activities of each, or estimate the numbers involved with the movement..."  (Redwatch No.6, 1993, p.2). O'Hara suggests however that there are now to all intents and purposes  two C18s; "C18 is at present run by a leadership who are largely independent of State control." Commenting on the Searchlight change concerning the origins of C18, he suggests that "by lying about the allegiance of the mark-one original leadership Searchlight are facilitating a takeover by real State operatives." To those who might condone this State intervention, O'Hara warns: "Such a takeover would not be undertaken for pacifist purposes"  (Searchlight for Beginners p.25).

O'Hara even dares to suggest that "a recent defector from the team has suggested that in December 1993 Gable's main concern wasn't C18, but my exposure of his activities"  (Searchlight for Beginners p.21).

The Men in the Shadows
It might help the cause of the 'innocents' amongst the Searchlight team if, as O'Hara suggests, they "stepped forward from the shadows. Why shouldn't the readers know full details concerning the younger and expanded team ?" (Searchlight for Beginners p.29). This freedom of information is highly unlikely, as the team is tight-knit and most are indubitably implicit in their relationship with Gable and his controllers.

Given that this is the case, one can only agree in total with O'Hara's closing attack :


The hydra that is the Searchlight organisation (the magazine being merely the public face of such) cannot be reformed or reasoned with, it must be destroyed and replaced, as soon as possible... the answer lies in your hands...
Searchlight for Beginners

Notes :

Searchlight the organisation is split into 3 sections:  Searchlight the magazine, the Searchlight Educational Trust, and Searchlight Information Services. The latter plays a key role in selling stories to the media.

The Evrigenis Report in 1986 led to the Joint Declaration against racism and xenophobia. The second study was in 1990 under the guidance of Glyn Ford MEP, himself a contributor to Searchlight.

A reference to Morris Riley, SIS = Special Intelligence Service.

In spite of this, and in order to keep alive the Gable myth, Gary Murray reiterated the story,  minus the successful libel case, in his book Enemies of the State.

When Charity is Criminal
The Searchlight Educational Trust Exposed
[Note: There are various references to secondary articles on other pages in the following text. These refer to their original location in Final Conflict magazine #20. All the relevant facts follow, although they are not laid out in the same order as they were in the magazine in which some features were inserted amongst others. Issue 20 of Final Conflict which, amongst other things, also contains an interview with Australian National Action, is still available from Final Conflict along with other back issues].

SEARCHLIGHT LIES

Searchlight "clearly works on the notion
that if enough mud is thrown some of it
will eventually stick."
Nationalism Today Issue 41.


IMAGINE, IF YOU will dear reader, that there were a Charity in this country run by criminals and political 'extremists' that published material of a political nature that attacked open, legal and democratic political parties. Wow! Wouldn't that cause a fuss? It would be all over the papers, the Charity Commission would swing into action overnight... but, perhaps not...

Let us add the matter of the Charity's Communist/Zionist so-called "anti-racist" background and maybe, just maybe, the fact that certain strings are pulled by the Jewish Board of Deputies, Special Branch/MI5 and high ranking politicians who just might be Jewish, homosexual, Socialist or a lovely mixture of any of these.

"No! This couldn't happen! Not in democratic Britain" I hear the politically naive cry... but that's exactly what is happening and the Charity concerned is the Searchlight Educational Trust (hereafter: SET) Registered Charity No. 1013880.

But before we go onto the matter of SET, let us first take a look at Searchlight magazine which, as we'll see later is indistinguishable from SET, and some of the charming people behind it:

MRS. SONIA GABLE (SET Secretary):

Mrs. Gable is a former member of the National Party, National Front and League of Saint George (indeed at one stage she had a close relationship with 'Strasserite' Steve Brady of all three of these organisations, and other "nazi" activists - surely taking "infiltration" a bit far?). As well as being the secretary of SET she is also sales/circulation manager of Searchlight magazine. So, she was either a White racialist - in which case is hardly suited to be involved in an "anti racist" Charity such as SET - or a political infiltrator. Being (part) Jewish, one would think she had to be an infiltrator. Not so. Members of the League of St. George knew Miss Hochfelder was a Jewess (she wrote letters in the Feb and June 1978 editions of League Review defending Israel and Jews and condemning anti-Semitism and a Mr. C. Horner of Peterborough wrote a letter in the August 1978 edition attacking her for this). This lends credence to the view expressed by many that Sonia Hochfelder was a "Court Jew" in 'Nationalist' circles. The National Front also had Jewish members and Jewish membership of the BNP caused concern in C18 circles circa. 1993 and reportedly in his recent court case, BNP 'No. 2' Nick Griffin admitted that the BNP has Jewish members - so this is not a new phenomenon.

Should such a known "racist" (or a political operative - an infiltrator is hardly a part-time functionary holding tea parties) be the secretary of a registered Charity which flirts with the political process; especially when one looks at the political and criminal 'background' of her husband (and others) connected with Searchlight magazine and SET?

MR. GERRY GABLE (Editor of political journal Searchlight, shareholder of Searchlight Publishing Ltd., criminal and speaker at SET conferences):

Although not named as such, it is very likely that Mr. Gable is one of the main organisers of SET.

Mr. Gable was a member of the Young Communist League and the Communist Party of Great Britain. He left school at 15 years of age and started as a trainee journalist on the Communist Party's Daily Worker. After a year he left for what became a career as a Communist Party trade union official. He stood for the Communist Party on Thursday the 10th of May 1962 at Northfield Ward, Stamford Hill, North London. (These links remain. In 1986 Searchlight was distributed by 'Central Books Ltd.', a Communist Party front that distributes various Marxist literature). In 1962, after 10 years unbroken membership, he left the Communist Party to "concentrate on anti-fascist work and because the party had begun to adopt an anti-Israel line".

"...There is a man who has been involved to various degrees in the anti-fascist movement for many years now who is known to be a police informer and by his own admission has contacts in the security services... His name is Gerry Gable and his publication is Searchlight."

Black Flag, Autumn 1993.


His type of "anti-fascist work" soon became clear. In November 1963 Mr. Gable was arrested and held at Hornsey police station following a bungled attempt to burgle the home of historian, David Irving. On the 14th of January 1964, Gable admitted breaking into the flat with intent to steal. His associate Manny Carpel (see later) also pleaded guilty. They were both fined £20. Gable was also fined £5 for stealing a GPO pass card.

As editor of Searchlight, Gable is an expert at spreading lies and disinformation (see later evidence re. 'The Gable memorandum', secret state involvement and various incredible smears against individuals and organisations).

Gable is also a Zionist. His son served in the Israeli Defence Force (sic) which has been responsible for some of the worst crimes against unarmed civilians - even women and children (dare we mention the word 'racist' in attacks by 'superior' Jews against dispossessed Arabs?).

HARRY BIDNEY (Searchlight magazine's "hero", pimp, homosexual paedophile and criminal):

The Zionist terror group 'The 62 Group' (supporters of the terrorist Beginite Herut organisation in Israel) was unofficially based in the sordid Limbo Club in Soho. Gable was involved with the criminal '62 Group' and the Limbo Club was managed by Harry Bidney. After his death Bidney was described by Searchlight as an "hero".

In 1977 Bidney was found guilty of eight charges of living off the earnings of prostitutes. In court, Bidney was described as the company secretary of Calderhead Investments, which was headed by David Calderhead, who was jailed for, on his own admission, attempting to procure a 16-year-old boy to commit an act of gross indecency with the predatory homosexual Harry Bidney.

In the March 1997 edition of Searchlight Gerry Gable wrote of his joy at having a 60th birthday surprise party sprung on him by his fellow Searchlight criminals. He listed pimp Harry Bidney as one of just eight "old and dear friends" that had "passed on". But "The evening did not pass without fond memories of you all". How quaint.

DAVE ROBERTS (Editorial board member of Searchlight magazine and criminal):

Roberts joined the editorial board of Searchlight magazine in 1974 and infiltrated political organisations for Searchlight throughout the mid 1970's. Infiltrating some lunatic fringe organisations led him to being convicted at Birmingham Crown Court of conspiring with others to burn down an Asian restaurant. He was only given a suspended sentence, which he later served as a result of a criminal conviction. Despite such events, Roberts continued to work for Searchlight for some years.

Roberts was responsible for one of Searchlight's best-known 'neo-nazi shock' frauds - Column 88 in the 1970's (NB: Searchlight was still pushing the fictitious Column 88 to people without brains in the January 1990 issue - #175) This name has since been used (somewhat bizarrely) by the 'National Socialist Movement' (ex-National Socialist Alliance/C18, Sargent wing), who now publish a journal entitled Column 88.

MANNY CARPEL (Searchlight journalist and criminal):

Arrested alongside Gerry Gable (see above). On top of this, he was convicted the year before of assaulting P.C. William Nield and of having an offensive weapon (a metal butcher's hook). In 1967 he pleaded guilty, with Michael Cohen, of trying to break into a printing works (W.H. Jones Ltd. on 20th July, 1966) with intent to commit a felony and to possessing housebreaking tools by night. Later, when in court for setting light to a printworks in Uckfield, Sussex, and causing more than £50,000 worth of damage (November the 5th, 1980) he described himself as "a freelance journalist working for Searchlight". Despite his previous convictions, Carpel received a mere two and a half year sentence on the 13th of April 1981. (It is highly possible that the Searchlight criminals, under Gable's leadership, are planning to repeat this arson given their request in a recent issue - January 1998 - for all sorts of info on "...a well known printer in Uckfield").

Gerry Gable continues to maintain close links with Carpel.

MAURICE LUDMER (Deceased - former Searchlight editor).

Ludmer was a Communist Party supporter. In 1963 he sponsored a Mrs. O'Brien as Communist Party candidate in Moseley Ward of Birmingham in the local elections. In 1967 he performed a similar service for the Communist Party candidate Mr. Brian M. Chambers. As late as 1986, Elizabeth Ludmer, his wife and shareholder in Searchlight Publishing Ltd., was throwing garden parties for the Socialist Workers Party at her Moseley home.

Ludmer liked to promote violence against legal political meetings and demonstrations. An example of this was a meeting of the Young National Front at the Digbeth Hall in Birmingham in 1978. He was a member of the "steering committee" which whipped up a crowd which went on the rampage. The riot resulted in several police being badly injured and Saturday shoppers being terrorised by hoodlums.

Ludmer was also on the 'steering committee' of the Anti Nazi League in the 1970s. ANAL was then, as it is now, a front for the Socialist Workers Party, but was more of a 'broad front' then, containing people like Ludmer with his Communist Party connections. The 70's ANAL was far more violent than today's version (bear in mind that the 70's SWP/ANAL still contained the Red Action elements - kicked out in 1982 - who went on to form the violent Anti Fascist Action - see 'Searchlight - the Real Extremists', page 12, this issue), no doubt benefiting from Ludmer's love of organised violence against lawful demonstrations and meetings.

Searchlight continues this "proud tradition" by publishing names, addresses, phone numbers and work places of political activists, thus 'setting them up' for attack (see page 15). Great democratic credentials! Interestingly, ANAL seems to belong to the Harry Bidney fan club too. The ANAL and SWP were both based at the same address in Newcastle - above a sex shop!

DAVID EDGAR (Searchlight Publishing Ltd. shareholder ):

This man was also on the editorial board of Marxism Today. He may possibly still be involved with both Searchlight and Marxism Today. This further links Searchlight with open political activities.

MICHAEL COHEN (Searchlight photographer, shareholder in Searchlight

Publishing Ltd and criminal): Also involved and found guilty of the 1963 burglary attempt alongside Gable and Roberts. He also pleaded guilty to the W.H. Jones attempted break-in with Carpel (see above).

GRAEME ATKINSON (Searchlight's European correspondent and criminal):

Atkinson worked for (surprise surprise!) the Communist Party's Morning Star newspaper as its district reporter in Yorkshire and the North East.

When in Sweden he manhandled a young thalidomide victim, Ulf Ranshede, so badly that the Swedish police wanted him for questioning and placed him on official report.

He was convicted and fined together with Searchlight activist Michael Avril Loft of distributing an illegal leaflet during the October 1974 General Election which attacked a legal, political party (looks like SET has had good teachers!).

RAY HILL (Searchlight columnist and criminal):

Criminal: he jumped bail on a duplicate passport two days before he was due in court charged with a £2,000 credit card swindle. He went to South Africa to avoid criminal charges (and joined the South African National Front) and came back to England under a similar cloud. He was also facing charges in connection with the theft of £20,000 from a Masonic organisation called The Sons of England, for which he was secretary.

These events happened during the period when Mr. Hill was a member of various organisations that could be described as Fascist or National Socialist (though some do not fit that description); indeed, when he announced he was a "mole" he was Press Officer for the BNP. "So his "conversion" to 'anti-fascism' and the pay-roll of Searchlight magazine might have seen him change his law-breaking ways?" thinks the political novice.

Unfortunately not. Mr. Hill appeared in Lincoln Crown Court (March 1988) when a Mr. George Lewis was the defendant in the case of indecent assault of young males. In short, Mr. Lewis, who had been jailed in Zimbabwe for sexual offences, was the victim of blackmail by Ray Hill, whom Mr. Lewis claimed - despite working for Searchlight magazine - was still "anti-Jewish". The jury believed Mr. Lewis and he was acquitted.

SEARCHLIGHT VIOLENCE

Despite constantly condemning others for their "criminal" and "violent" past, Searchlight's main 'moles' - Ray Hill and Tim Hepple both fit this bill. Indeed, Gable adheres to the "East End Socialist and Communist tradition of raising hell and, when necessary, fighting on the streets"

Jewish Chronicle 23rd October 1987.


In his column in Searchlight magazine Mr. Hill even referred to Black political activists as "Gucci-outfitted bunches of middle-class wankers" (issue 204, June 1992, page 11). and referred to Louis Farrakhan, the American Black Muslim (Nation of Islam) activist as a "worm". (issue 158 - article 'Farrakhan of Worms' attacked Black activist Lester Lewis for holding anti-Zionist and anti-Freemasonic views; he should of course believe what his masters at Searchlight tell him to). Can such talk be conducent to racial harmony?

Though he no longer regularly appears in Searchlight (due to embarrassment?) Mr. Hill's column did appear for many years after the South African affair and the Lincoln Crown Court episode.

Indeed, Ray Hill's column (Hill Street News) seems to have stopped after 1994. Of four copies of Searchlight we've seen of that year, he had a double page spread in each one, including a centre page spread. Some researchers claim this column was in fact written by others and was a concoction of news and gossip landing on Gable's desk, with Hill giving his name to it. Certainly in recent months another column 'News from the Sewers' has appeared which is a carbon copy of Hill's old column - maybe Searchlight feel there is little difference between Hill and the sewer. We'd tend to agree.

In the April 1994 issue of Searchlight, Gable prints a tribute to Hill: "Well you old sod, ten years later you're still on the team and, with love and respect to you and your family" - get the sick bucket! - "we hope you will be around for at least ten more". Indeed he is. But only just. Hill turned up at the 1997 60th birthday bash of Gable, proving he can still be wheeled out when times get hard.


TIM HEPPLE (Searchlight 'mole' and criminal)

This person is held by Searchlight to be their best example of an infiltrator in the far right. Hepple claims to have been a genuine Nationalist who "saw the error of his ways" and then decided to work for Searchlight. What many people have said is that Hepple in fact worked as an agent provocateur amongst the 'right' and the 'left wing' (BNP, Church of the Creator, Green Anarchist) and is nothing more than a State operative spreading disinformation. (see bibliography at the end of this article).

Whilst working at the BNP's head office in Welling, Hepple claims to have stolen "at least £40 a week" in loose money from incoming mail. (Page 19 of 'A Lie Too Far' - in Hepple's own writing) Is this sort of criminal activity promoted by Searchlight? Given the convictions of those connected with the magazine it seems likely.

THE REAL FACE OF SEARCHLIGHT

In December 1976, Searchlight was described by a stipendiary magistrate, Mr. John Milward, as "scurrilous and disreputable ... What purpose can there be in advertising opponents' meetings except for the purpose of identifying them and creating disorder and violence? This seems to be an attempt to stir up trouble which is to be very strongly deprecated."

Birmingham Post 31/12/76


The above is just the tip of the iceberg - there are numerous other sources available (ranging from trade unionist, journalist, Arab, anarchist etc.) that paint an equally disgusting picture. In short, Searchlight magazine comprises of a criminal gang, involved in political smears against legal political parties. Furthermore, if Searchlight is so opposed to racism, why did it ban, in 1990, a number of Black people from meeting in a London synagogue. It seems strange that such an 'anti-racist' magazine should have no Black or Asian people on its staff.

It also seems hypocritical for Searchlight/SET to constantly be haranguing people involved throughout the political spectrum and in housing associations, business etc. for their "extremist" past, given the past of so many people involved with Searchlight: political extremists, agent provocateurs and criminals with a chequered morality (to say the least!). Pots and kettles spring to mind!

Searchlight magazine is also used to spreading all sorts of lies, fabrications and half-truths. This has resulted in them facing legal action for smears on Conservative politicians and a political researcher; and 'left-wing' shops (e.g. Housemans, near Kings Cross, London) refusing to stock their publication.

BBC TV had to pay out half a million pounds to Tory MPs Gerald Howarth and Neil Hamilton as a result of a libel action over the Panorama programme Maggie's Militant Tendancy (broadcast on the 30th January 1984 and described, not surprisingly, as "commendable" in the editorial of Searchlight issue 115), which used Searchlight's "research material". Indeed, Gerry Gable was its "Associate Producer", and as we'll see later has been called "the man mainly responsible for the programme" by a Labour MP. Searchlight were full of wind over the Panorama programme and were still accusing the Conservatives in their May 1984 edition, no. 107 (Article: 'Can of worms - will the Tories ever wriggle out?' - yes, to the tune of £500,000!).

Against the "right wing" Searchlight is a law unto itself. It fabricates terrorist groups (like Column 88) and builds up groups like the 'Ku Klux Klan' into some huge threat to 'civilisation' and 'democracy' (whilst working with some quite rum organisations themselves - see 'Searchlight - The Real Extremists' on page 12). Indeed, sometimes Searchlight are seen 'building' up one grouping, only to 'knock them down' later and claim the credit for themselves! Quite often the group won't have changed at all.

As well as the usual nonsense against (perceived) 'right wing organisations' Searchlight has also denounced the SWP for its anti-Zionist stance, Right-wing Conservatives for being 'extremists', Black groups (like the Nation of Islam - see double page spread in December 1997 issue for example - and the Black Caucus - later the Anti Racist Alliance) for failing to toe the Searchlight line (how racist!), groups who have outlined Searchlight's role with the Secret State Police (anarchists, socialists etc.) and especially researchers such as Larry O'Hara and Alexander Baron.

There was a great example of the lies Searchlight is constantly making up in its November 1997 issue. Searchlight reprinted a handwritten letter - supposedly written by a group calling itself the Mercian Klan. This letter, according to Searchlight, was sent to the Prime Minister. The letter warned of terror tactics as the BNP had "tried the political way". The scrawled, probably illegal, letter is hardly the sort of thing an underground political agitator would keep a copy of - yet Searchlight had a copy. Perhaps a contact in the government had passed a copy on? How impressive! Or is the answer rather more murky and mundane?

When New Target journal wrote to the Prime Minister, the PM's office totally denied ever receiving such a letter. Yet another Searchlight fabrication! (Searchlight has a "proud tradition" of printing hand-written letters from "political opponents", especially post cards from concentration camps, Croatia and other 'hot spots'. This is a cheap and easy way to defame organisations).

Searchlight reserved some special bile for the 'Campaign Against Racism and Fascism' (CARF) who used to have a section in Searchlight, but realised that Searchlight were following another agenda and had no interest in the facts behind racist attacks. CARF now have their own magazine which reports on racism.

Searchlight also organised a Remembrance Day march (and gathered 150 people!) to oppose 'racists' - and yet no Black groups marched with them. The Palestinian Solidarity Campaign has called Searchlight "sectarian" (Searchlight - Underming Anti-Fascists, Defending Zionism) and printed convincing evidence of Searchlight's refusal to work with left-wing anti-racist, anti-Zionist organisations in Israel and their refusal to denounce the "semi-fascist Tehiya (Renaissance) and Moledet (Transfer) parties in Israel. the PSC also denounce the fact that when covering the German Republikaner and the French Front National, Searchlight fail to mention they are pro-Israel. A dinner was given in honour of Le Pen, hosted by Jacques Torczyner, President of the World Union of General Zionists. Those attending were "all of them leading members of the American Jewish community, including Dr Israel Singer, Executive Director of the World Jewish Congress" (Jewish Chronicle 4th September 1987). The PSC, a highly influential group in Palestinian circles, and the Labour Movement Campaign for Palestine also condemned Searchlight in an 'open letter' in a 1988 issue of the leftist journal Labour Briefing (date unknown).

More illegality: Searchlight, July 1998, reprinted and praised an illegal "Nazis in Worthing" leaflet asking 'anti fascists' to send mail to the 'Flag' NF without stamps on.

The PSC also outline Searchlight's role in attacking Class War in 1985/6 (as they organised a 'Stop the City' campaign - deemed to be 'anti-semitic', does that mean most big Capitalists and bankers are Jews in Searchlight's eyes?). A report said "Despite the leading role of Searchlight magazine in the affair, and despite many approaches to the magazine for evidence, the sum total of material from Searchlight was nil. We are bemused by Searchlight's role in this affair." In the course of the enquiry Gable had admitted to monitoring anarchists (this is years before the Hepple/Scargill Green Anarchist affair).

Whilst FC may not have much in common, or even like, some of the above groups and individuals - the point is that Searchlight's smear tactics are pointed at anyone and anything they disagree with (or presumably are told to attack by their pay-masters!), Left, Right, Centre, Black, White or indifferent. To think of Searchlight as a magazine that only spreads lies about Nationalists is wrong. They are a lie machine in overdrive and regularly involve themselves in attacks on legal political organisations (from the National Front to the Conservative Party to the Anti Racist Alliance).

So we have established that Searchlight magazine has a lot of crooks (we suspect the rest are just waiting to be caught!) and political opportunists behind it - but should that detract from the sterling charitable work being done by SET? You betcha baby!

The fact of the matter is that Searchlight magazine and SET are indistinguishable. If you pick up a copy of Searchlight magazine and scan it for SET adverts, you'll find the terms 'Searchlight' (the magazine) and the Searchlight Educational Trust are interchangeable. For example, in the June 1998 issue of Searchlight, there is an advert on page 14 headed "Get Searchlight's Community Response Handbook Free". This is the booklet produced by SET (which we'll return to later) 'When Hate Comes to Town'. Yet to read the advert, it is produced by "Searchlight". The advert closes "Searchlight would welcome any donations to help further our youth educational work" - again, Searchlight, not SET.

Further proof of this crazy crossover exists in advert for SET in Searchlight (e.g. back cover, February 1998 edition). It opens: "Searchlight has brought together all its 33 years' experience of fighting racism and fascism to produce this unique and comprehensive handbook." No mention of SET there and if it was the Searchlight staff behind the SET booklet - which is obviously the case given the mention of "33 years" - this will explain the very same tactics of lies, fabrications, half-truths and innuendo masked as "research" to fool the gullible, not to mention attacks on legal political organisations - as we shall see later.

But let's go back to the SET advert in the June 1998 edition of Searchlight. On the same page there is an article which attacks the British National Party (BNP) and the National Democratic Party (NDP) - both legal political parties, being attacked in a political magazine.

There is also a strange reluctance for SET's charitable status or its registered number to be included in such adverts. Are the Searchlight team trying to hide their light under a bushel along with their charitable status?

And is it any wonder - for not only are the names SET and Searchlight swopped all over the place, leaving you wondering who's who, but SET and Searchlight share exactly the same address, fax and phone number, which are also shared by 'Trade Union Friends of Searchlight', another front to scam funds.

WHEN HATE COMES TO TOWN

So, let us move onto the SET booklet itself. Although we have not seen a copy ourselves (loath to give £15 to a bunch of criminals, pimps and liars) let us instead look at a complaint made by the Third Way organisation at the end of 1996.

As with the other people Searchlight has attacked and whose material we quote from in this article, no one can accuse us of being in cahoots with Third Way. Indeed, we have often attacked Third Way in print in FC for being overtly pro-homosexual and pro-Zionist. But that makes our use of their complaint against Searchlight all the more believable. On the 15th of October 1996 Mr Patrick Harrington of Third Way sent a complaint to the Charity Commission about SET. This is what Third Way had to say about their complaint:

"The Third Way made a complaint to the Charity Commission against the Searchlight Educational Trust on 15 October 1996. We believe that SET have breached a number of the guidelines laid down by the Charity Commission regarding political campaigning by charities.

"Charities are given special tax exemptions, and our view is that the taxpayer should not have to subsidise political campaigns in which he or she may not believe.

"The issue itself is not new. There were complaints made about Oxfam (FC Ed: re. 'Free Front Line Africa' - anti South African campaign) in the early 1990s, and more recently Prime Minister John Major warned member charities of the Real World Coalition about meddling in politics."

Third Way made some very good complaints against SET, claiming that they broke three key Charity Commission guidelines:

32. A charity whose stated purposes include the advancement of education must not overstep the boundary between education and propaganda in providing balanced information designed to enable people to make up their own mind and providing one-sided information designed to promote a particular point of view.

44. A charity must not provide information which it knows, or ought to know, to be inaccurate, or which has been distorted by selection to support a preconceived position.

46. A charity must not issue material which supports or opposes a particular political party or the government.

From the evidence Third Way gave it was clear that the booklet clearly broke the rules (No. 32) on balanced information as lies were told and Third Way were not asked for their opinion, or the facts concerning their organisation.

One lie that we can comment on, which Third Way tell the Charity Commission is an outright lie, is that the International Third Position (ITP) is a split from Third Way. As the ITP was founded in 1989 and Third Way wasn't founded until 1990, how can this be so? And this is just one example of countless such lies that could be clarified with a little real research. The fact is that Searchlight have repeated this lie on numerous occasions to 'muddy the waters' concerning Third Way and the ITP who are miles apart on matters of tactics, structure, ideology, morality, Race and Zionism. Searchlight want to give readers the impression that Third Way and the ITP are still (in some way) 'chums' or that there is much the same background to the two. "...these creeps were leading lights in the political soldier wing of the National Front before the final split in early 1990 when both groups took on the name Third Way" - Ray Hill, Searchlight March 1991.

In the February 1990 issue, the main article 'Video Nasties' warbled on about the December 1989 released video 'Revolution in Action' produced by 'TP Videos' on why many militants had left the NF, so the March 1991 'story' and every other little 'story' since then is sheer propaganda.

This is just one example of a KNOWN LIE being pushed by Searchlight. SET is continuing this charade, further proving that SET is a useful cover for Searchlight's premeditated lies and political propaganda (still, now that Searchlight are aware of the facts, thanks to the Charity Commission, we can expect them to drop that lie, along with all the others, can't we? And pigs might fly!).

SET also broke the guideline on accuracy (No. 44) and SET later admitted this in a private letter to the Charity Commission ("With one or two small exceptions, the Trust maintains that its account of the 'facts' is correct". Small exceptions? Does that mean lies? And who are they to judge their own "facts"? It seems strange that the Charity Commission would settle for that - but more on that later).

As for the guideline on political parties, SET breaks this umpteen times with its attacks on Third Way, as Mr. Harrington points out, but also with its attacks on the BNP, NF and many other legal bodies. Indeed, FC in its daily e-mail newsletter has asked all these organisations to make complaints to the Charity Commission against SET. We reiterate that request now - not for our own benefit, but for theirs.

So, to anyone looking in on the SET set-up (groan!) it seems obvious that something is wrong. We have:

1. Searchlight full of (to coin a phrase) 'thuggery, buggery, arson and whores'.

2. Searchlight and SET sharing all the same address, fax and phone facilities and key personnel.

3. Searchlight and SET constantly swopping references to each other in the magazine and in SET promotional adverts.

4. Searchlight spreading lies about political opponents - and SET following this same "proud tradition" (sic), including deliberate lies about legal political parties.

So what action have the Charity Commission taken? After the Third Way complaint were SET closed down? Were their assets frozen while an inquiry was undertaken about their role in party politics? No. This is the reply Mr. Simon Haywood of the Charity Commission made to Mr. Harrington of Third Way:

" We cannot easily determine the truth of the statements in "When Hate Comes to Town", but would expect charities as a rule to carefully check the accuracy of any statements or literature they make public. With one or two small exceptions, the Trust maintains that its account of the 'facts' is correct. Where there is some doubt, we do not believe that there has been a deliberate attempt by the charity to mislead the public. However, we have made it clear to them that we would expect particular attention to be paid to the accuracy of the information they use in any future publications. Of course you may wish to consider addressing the charity directly with your concerns about the accuracy of its printed material. "


Whilst this looks all 'fair and square' to the untrained eye - as we've already pointed out, this is allowing SET to be their own judge and jury.


Who says there was no "deliberate attempt to mislead the public" - that's what Searchlight thrive on - ask the Green Anarchists, the Anti Racist Alliance, the BNP, the NF, the NDP, right wing Conservatives, Larry O'Hara, Alexander Baron, historian David Irving, the SWP and all the other people who have been lied about in Searchlight. We use the example of Searchlight as we wish to follow their example and make Searchlight and SET interchangeable terms, as well as their tactics and their personnel's backgrounds.

LIES: In 1987 Searchlight claimed its circulation was 7,250. Benn's Media Directory for 1987 said the circulation was a mere 3,800! Who's lying?



As for contacting SET about such lies - one may as well ask David Koresh (of Waco 'fame') to sit and ask the FBI why they want to come in and chat... prior to being burnt alive! Should someone write in complaint to Searchlight, doubtless their details would appear in Searchlight magazine, their bins would be trawled through, their home might get attacked or burgled and they might just get a visit at their place of work. The Charity Commission must realise that we are dealing with a criminal gang here - not a bunch of flower power hippies opposed to nasty racists. But yet again, it seems that SET are to be the judge, jury and executioner on their own case!

Further into his reply, Mr Haywood says:

"After careful deliberation, whilst we do feel that parts of "When Hate Comes to Town" may go slightly beyond what was intended by the Guidelines, we do not consider that in the context of its work as a whole they constitute a sufficient reason to take punitive action against its trustees.

"Slightly beyond"! It attacks legal political parties! Can you imagine a 'Final Conflict Educational Trust' bringing out a booklet full of lies and half-truths about the Labour Party, Conservative Party and various Communists and Anarchists? We'd be closed down before you could say "conspiracy".

What the Charity Commission is trying to tell Joe Public - that's you and me - is that SET can get tax breaks to bring out literature full of lies and unsubstantiated claims against legal political parties (which we, as members of the public, may support, vote for, or even belong to), which goes against all the supposed rules; and yet because of who they are and their connections, SET are allowed (to all intents and purposes) to be their own judge on the matter and hence get away with it.

It's like someone saying that there was a paedophile who died of AIDS and abused children in his care, yet everything was swept under the carpet by local authorities whilst he was alive as he worked for a local Council and was a strong Labour Party activist (no, we haven't made that case up it happened not very long ago in Hackney, East London with Labour Party activist Mark Trotter) was told "We've had a complaint that you are a paedophile, but if you say you're not then that's fine by us".

SET may think they're off the hook - but we ask all FC readers, including those linked to "democratic, patriotic organisations" or who may be political opponents of SET/Searchlight regardless of their political viewpoint to make a complaint to the Charity Commission regarding SET's attacks on legal political parties and also to carefully scan future SET publications, conferences etc. for any potentially 'useful' material.

That SET have got away with it so far is, like so many of the people behind SET, criminal. Final Conflict has made a complaint against SET which is going through the system now. We urge everyone to apply pressure on the Charity Commission. Even if we can't close SET down (though they should have been a long time ago if certain strings weren't being pulled) let's at the very least make things difficult for them. Complaints about the Searchlight Educational Trust (Reg. No. 1013880) should be sent to: The Charity Commission, St. Alban's House, 57/60 Haymarket, London, SW1Y 4QX, England.

THE MYTH

SEARCHLIGHT - "the scourge of Nazis"? Or crooks, opportunists and worse, prepared to spread lies, and work with anti-Semites and thugs, and attack the "left" as well as the "right" to further their own ends?

Their use of a Black hand is also a bit much - Searchlight have constantly attacked the Black Caucus/Anti Racist Alliance as well as other Black groups. No Blacks or Asians work for Searchlight - surely a case for the draconian equal rights laws?

Gable and Co. love to call Black Nationalists who work with the Third Position and others 'token Blacks' ("fundementalists", "No Buthelezis in Britain") or much worse (how racist!) - an accusation that could well be levelled at Blacks that work with the heavily Jewish and part White, but definitely non-Black and non-Asian Searchlight criminal fraternity!

In its February 1989 issue (no. 164) Searchlight printed a photo of Anwar Ali, "Monday Club official". As more Asians are supporting the Conservatives in key areas like East London, were Searchlight trying to scare Asians like Mr. Ali by printing the photo, which can bring violence to people's doorsteps?


SOME SOURCES AND USEFUL PUBLICATIONS

Hackney Gazette and North London Advertiser 8th May 1962 - Gable stands for Communist Party.

Jewish Chronicle - 3rd September 1963, 26th August 1964 - attempted break-in of W.H. Jones, Carpel's assault on PC Nield and having an offensive weapon.

Evening Standard - 28th November 1963 - Gable and two others bungled burglary on historians home (front page lead story).

Evening Standard - 18th December 1963 - Gable and two others appear at Highgate Magistrates on stolen GPO pass.

Jewish Chronicle - 26th August 1966 - Carpel and Cohen plead guilty to breaking into into print works with intent to commit a felony and to possessing housebreaking implements by night.

Birmingham Post - 31st December 1976 - "Searchlight magazine was yesterday accused by a magistrate of inciting racial violence."

Daily Telegraph - 6th August 1977 - Harry Bidney fined £1,600 after being found guilty of eight charges of living off the earnings of prostitutes.

Guardian - 18th April 1979 - Ray Hill's bail jumping from South Africa.

Jewish Chronicle - 13th July 1979 - Ray Hill sentenced at Leicester Crown Court for attacking Mr. Peter Josephs (a Jew).

Guardian - 25th February 1980 - Maurice Ludmer interview in which he explains why he likes to promote illegal violence against demonstrations by legal political parties.

Focal Point - 30th May 1981 - Carpel jailed for two and a half years, for arson. Gable and Carpel plead guilty to breaking and entering with intent to commit a felony. David Roberts convicted of conspiring to burn down an Asian restaurant.

High Peak Reporter - 26th September 1986 - Atkinson sacked by the Morning Star after failing to disclose approach by the KGB to work for them (front page lead story).

News on Sunday - 24th May 1987 - founder of Searchlight, Reg Freeson, accused of being behind three anonymous press releases sent to Fleet Street designed to smear Ken Livingstone.

The Other Face of Searchlight - Thuggery, Buggery, Arson and Whores by the National Front's Security and Intelligence Dept. 1989.

Searchlight - Undermining Anti-Fascists, Defending Zionism by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (no date - possibly late 80's/early 90's). This is jam-packed full of information.

Before You Take The Searchlight Organisation's Advice on Racial Attacks... by Brixton Black People's Truth in Media Campaign. (No date).

New Target (The Searchlight Victims Support Group). "Searchlight Caught Lying Again" - issue 9, 1998

Black Flag, article - "Security Alert", Autumn 1993.

Direct Action, October 1988. Anti-Searchlight article.

National Front News, issues 85, 87, 88, 92, 101, 107, (Articles 'Exposing the Hatemongers'), 125 (The Russell Press, Searchlight's printers), 126 (Gable tracked down).

Nationalism Today issue 41 (circa 1987/88) - article Gable's Fables.

Lifting the Lid Off the Anti Nazi League by National Front Ex-Servicemen's Association. (1978). Background on extremists behind and lies of "respectable" anti-fascist group. As Searchlight have worked with ANAL and use similar tactics - this is worth reading for background information.

From Ballots to Bombs - The inside story of the National Front's Political Soldiers by Searchlight Publishing Ltd. (1989). For a good laugh at Searchlight's "journalism" - trawling through peoples' bins and three made up people's "tales" full of lies and propaganda.

Northern Star magazine (formerly Leeds Other Paper), #809 21st October 1993. Published from the same address Leeds Anti Fascist Action operate from (address in Searchlight). Contains excuses and lies about anti-BNP demo in which peoples' garden walls were taken apart for missiles to throw by 'anti fascists' (see 'Riot a "Highlight"' - page 15 this issue). It also contains a review of a play in Nottingham about "cottaging" - anonymous sex by homosexuals in public toilets (sounds like more friends of Harry Bidney!). NS (!) also contains a homosexual section which includes a photo of a leather clad homosexual with "marital aids". Good family entertainment. (NS had a hefty plug in the August 1991 issue of Searchlight).

Daily Mail, 16th March, 1984. "Lies, Damn Lies and Panorama" Report on the Searchlight backed "documentary" (sic) Maggie's Militant Tendancy.

Daily Telegraph, 13th March 1985. According to Labour MP Mr Robin Corbett, Gable "was the man mainly responsible for the programme 'Maggies Militant Tendency' which linked Tory Party candidates and members with the National Front." The BBC paid huge libel damages.

A Lie Too Far - Searchlight, Hepple and the Left by L. O'Hara. (Spring 1993).

At War With the Truth - The True Story of Searchlight Agent Tim Hepple by L. O'Hara. (Autumn 1993)

Searchlight On Gerry Gable: Secret State Asset Or Liability? by Alexander Baron.

Searchlight On The BBC by A. Baron.

Zionist Fanatic Exploits Your Suffering by A. Baron.

The Menace Of "Anti-Fascism" by A. Baron. (AFA exposed)

Jew-haters, Black-haters, Violent Criminals, Hypocrites And Liars

Condemned Out Of Their Own Mouths by A. Baron.

Searchlight On A Searchliar by A. Baron.

Searchlight On The "Jewish Chronicle" by A. Baron.

These People Don't Deserve Your Charity by A. Baron. An exposé of the Searchlight Educational Trust.

The Murderers of Christ by A. Baron.

Dave Roberts, An Obitua