His blog gave me the creeps from the get-go, but since we’ve defended Islamists, why not this guy? After all, and again, we’re not defending any particular blogger’s ideas, but the notion that governments should keep their hands off of their citizens, even if and especially when, what they say is unpopular. Anyone who defends a group like the BNP is useless, and, speaking as an American, we’ve got our quota of those, and home-grown to boot. So, although the British government should grow a pair and not use Malaysia as its model (arresting people to avoid “ethnic strife”), the U.S. has zero obligation to him. If Lionheart is a “crusader” as his iconography suggests he believes himself to be, he should probably suck it up, go home and change his country. That’s a “crusade” we can support.

***

A British blogger who goes by the name Lionheart has written that he has been informed of his imminent arrest on charges of incitement.

I am currently out of the Country and on my return home to England I am going to be arrested by British detectives on suspicion of Stirring up Racial Hatred by displaying written material” contrary to sections 18(1) and 27(3) of the Public Order Act 1986.

Lionheart’s primary topic is the threat he believes is posed to Britain by Muslims in his country and the actions of his government toward them.

Here is the letter he said was received from Ian Holden of the Bedford U.K. police department on January 3.

The offence that I need to arrest you for is “Stir up Racial Hatred by displaying written material” contrary to sections 18(1) and 27(3) of the Public Order Act 1986.

You will be arrested on SUSPICION of the offence. You would only be charged following a full investigation based on all the relevant facts and CPS consent.

Paul I will see you on the 19/02/08 when I will tell you everything that you need to know. Due to being out of the office for six weeks I will not have access to my email as of tomorrow 04/01/08.

Ian

New laws going into effect today in the United Kingdom make it a crime to refuse to decrypt almost any encrypted data requested by authorities as part of a criminal or terror investigation. Individuals who are believed to have the cryptographic keys necessary for such decryption will face up to 5 years in prison for failing to comply with police or military orders to hand over either the cryptographic keys, or the data in a decrypted form.

Murray was removed from his post as Ambassador in 2004. He maintains the reason for his dismissal was his public complaint that Uzbekistan’s democracy was no such thing and the country’s human rights record was wretched, despite its utility as a staging area in the War on Terror.

(Murray) recently had his personal blogging site — as well as a number of sites not owned by him and on the same server, taken down by his U.K. hosting company due to pressure from Schillings, a high-powered London Law firm, on behalf of Uzbeki Alisher Usmanov - the latest Russian billionaire to move to the United Kingdom. Usmanov’s lawyers have gone after the host of Murray’s site rather than Craig Murray himself.

Murray’s host was Fasthosts, who pulled the blog last week, according to Bowles. I have sent inquiries to both the hosting company and the attorneys and will update if they respond.

More on this from the Guardian. A number of other users of this host seem also to have been effected, including the website of Tory candidate for London mayor, Boris Johnson, and the blog of Bob Piper, a Labour councilor in Sandwell, Birmingham.