Guardian Unlimited ive arrested for racist boasts in television exposé of BNP

Five men were arrested yesterday after an undercover television documentary featured British National party activists admitting racist violence and harassment. Detectives are questioning the men, including a BNP candidate in last month's council elections in Bradford, about race-hate, public order and firearms offences. They were taken to separate police stations in West Yorkshire, after raids yesterday in Bradford and the nearby town of Keighley. The arrests follow scrutiny of the hour-long BBC documentary, Secret Agent, broadcast last Thursday. The men were later freed on bail pending further inquiries. They all featured in BNP meetings secretly filmed by reporter Jason Gwynne, who infiltrated the party with the help of a renegade former organiser in Bradford. The BNP won four seats on the local council last month after targeting Keighley and effectively taking over an "anti-paedophile" group which made allegations about teenage girls and British Asian pimps. The programme filmed one party member, Steve Barkham, describing how he kicked and punched a British Asian man for racist pleasure during the Bradford riots in 2001. Activists also admitted spraying dog faeces into Asian restaurants and wanting to shoot Muslims or blow up a mosque. The film recorded the BNP's leader, Nick Griffin, a Cambridge graduate who has tried to make the party "respectable", on the lines of the French National Front led by Jean-Marie Le Pen. Mr Griffin was shown describing Islam as a "wicked" religion which was a threat to white children.