Another Letter from Stephen Whittle of the Heretical 2

VDARE

May 18, 2009

 

A mutual acquaintance of mine and the "Heretical 2"– writer Stephen Whittle (pen name Luke O'Farrell), and his publisher, Simon Sheppard–recently forwarded to me the letter below from Whittle.

 

   I wrote in July and September 2008 about this pair, who had been convicted in July in England of thought crimes, specifically of "publishing racially inflammatory written material" on the Internet, and who fled the UK for the U.S., a country previously known–as England once was–as a haven for free speech. Upon their arrival, they immediately notified the authorities that they were seeking political asylum.

   Their Web site, The Heretical Press, is not even hosted in the UK, but in Torrance, California. Whittle has persuasively argued that, based on English jurists' expansive reading of their hate crime statues, VDARE.com writers could be arrested on hate crime charges, should they ever so much as change planes in England.

0800006408

c/o Santa Ana Jail

P.O. Box 22003

Santa Ana, CA 92701

5th April, 2009

 

Dear ………,

 

Well, that's it: judge Rose Peters has firmly rejected our claim for asylum and there seems no point in appealing and waiting many more months for more judges to do the same. The government attorney, one Michelle Myers, conceded that we were credible witnesses, but otherwise was a fine example of the creeping Europeanization of the U.S. Her "rebuttal" to our claims consisted of a report on the European Community's efforts to coordinate a crackdown on hate in all media, i.e. say only what Big Mother likes or go to jail. She orally argued that as U.S. Asylum laws were designed to protect refugees and we criticized refugees, we could not possibly be protected under said laws. The judge then announced she would make a written decision and I knew all hope was gone.

 

A further grotesque touch was the judge's reference to Britain's "legitimate laws" against free speech. About two years ago, apparently she granted asylum to an IRA man who had shot two policemen dead, ruling that his imprisonment under Britain's (presumably illegitimate) laws against murder would amount to political persecution. I've seen America's future, and it's Euro-communism. We've belatedly had a request from the LA Times for an interview, but even if that materializes [it didn't] it will come too late.

 

Thanks for your support over the past nine months and I hope you and your country's future is good in at least the medium term. The short term does not look good anywhere in the West.

 

All best,

 

Stephen Whittle

 

N.S.: My acquaintance wrote last month,

 

The situation is grim for Whittle and Sheppard. They never had much support materialize, which could have made a difference, especially in an appeal, where funding is so important. I wrote to Stephen today and quoted Yogi Berra, "It ain't over 'til it's over," in urging him to reconsider an appeal. It's unfathomable to me that he and Simon could spend the next couple of years in jail for the writings on their site.

 

Your writings on this case have, I believe, been the most high-profile to appear, and as one who has corresponded with Whittle for nine months (averaging almost a letter a month), I appreciate what you've done—and I know he does too.

 

   The American MSM have ignored Sheppard and Whittle, who could be deported any day now to the UK, where Sheppard was convicted on January 8 in absentia of yet another five charges regarding:

·         publishing racially inflammatory material;

·         distributing racially inflammatory material;

·         possessing racially inflammatory material with a view to distribution.

 

   [Two guilty of inciting racial hatred against Jews, Crown Prosecution Service, January 8, 2009.]

 

   The legal language sounds like something out of a prosecution of drug lords. The two have yet to be sentenced, but could be sent to prison for as many as seven years.

 

   In a separate article, I will show Sheppard and Whittle's significance for the debate on the hate crime bill, HR 1913, which was passed by the House on April 29, and which will now be taken up by the Senate as S. 909.