British anarchists are using the Internet network to link up with international terrorist groups and co-ordinate the disruption of schools, looting of shops and attacks on multinational firms.
Police chiefs have asked the Special Branch to investigate after discovering anarchist cells circulating hundreds of computer files of seditious information. They included guides to looting shops, infiltrating government departments, sabotaging telecommunications systems and the making of bombs, weapons and drugs.
Many of the files were obtained from terrorist groups, including The Sons of Glendower in Wales, Direct Action in France, and the Anti Imperialist Cell (AIC), a German anarcho-terrorist group responsible for a wave of bombings and shootings last year. The Royal Ulster Constabulary is studying links to outlawed loyalist paramilitary groups.
Detectives are alarmed by the increasing sophistication of the anarchist groups. They have arrested a Scottish man - the first UK arrest for allegedly encouraging violence using a computer - and plan to question several others for suspected public order and fraud offences. "Anarchists now represent a significant threat" said one officer.
The anarchist campaign was launched at a conference entitled Anarchy in the U.K. held in London last October. It began with a call to arms by Ian Bone, of the extremist Class War organisation, who said violence was the only way to overthrow the state.
Members of tyhe 350-strong audience were also encouraged to liaise on the Internet by ***********, a computer programmer. He told them to use special directories run by anarchists; some are booby trapped with viruses that attack the computers of unauthorised intruders. He claimed last week that he disapproved of violence. However, as an editor of Spunk, the biggest anarcho-computing directory in Britain, has has distributed files that include advice on "How to overthrow the government", by robbing banks, disabling police vehicles, stealing documents and inciting readers to arm themselves. One of his groups contacts is an AIC cell in lower Saxony, which boasts of carrying out a shooting at the metalworkers' union offices in Cologne in November 1994. Other files on the network report how bombs were placed at the offices of polticial parties in Dusseldorf and Bremen last June. German police are still investigating the incidents.
Heavens, whose files also include advice on the manufacture of explosive devices, claimed his aim was to create a "meaningful democracy".
Many of the anarchist files are on a special directory that is overseen by ***************, a student at City University in London. It is used by cells from London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford and Bristol, who regularly update their material. ******* could not be contacted this weekend.
Police discovered the groups were singling out schoolchildren as targets. One printout, entitled "81 ways to trash your school", and circulating among Scottish pupils, encourages readers to burn down school buildings using simple incendiary devices made of cigarettes.
It also directed pupils to carry out citizen's arrests on staff and take part in dirty protests and riots.
The technical resources and computer skills of the anarchists have surprised police and experts. "We have been amazed at the level of organisation of these extremist groups who have appeared on the Internet in a short amount of time", said Simon Hill, editor of Computing magazine, the trade journal.
Detectives investigating one anarchist cell found activists had hacked into credit card computers, stealing thousands of pounds. "Other groups we came across have the knowhow to take out the phone network for the equivalent of an entire state in America" said Craig Dure, of Lothian and Borders Police. The files also reveal how anarchists plan to hijack the green movement.
Phreak, a group based in London, has drawn up a detailed plan of attacks on construction companies across Britain. One file reports a raid on the Snowdonia offices of the ARC, the building firm, causing 10,000 pounds of damage to the company's computer system. "We wiped out months of work" claimed the author.
The anarchists have invited sympathisers from abroad to join in attacks on the British economy. Dutch anarchists plan regular looting trips to London, asking British contacts for legal advice and addresses of suitable stores. A notice for a future expedition advised: "Shopping is fun when everything is free".
Chris Smith, Labour's heritage spokesman, said the findings showed the need for international agreements to ban groups preaching violence from the information superhighway. "Current laws were framed in the age of print. We need a new framework of rules for the age of electronic communication."
Additional reporting by Iain Martin and Peter Warren.