An American talk show shock jock is to sue the British Government after it banned him from Britain (it doesn't take a lot for an American to sue). This is despite the fact that he has never before even tried to visit Britain.
Michael Savage branded Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, whose job it is to decide who is allowed and who isn't allowed to enter the country, a "lunatic" and a "witch."
Savage is on a list of 22 hardliners banned from entering the UK. The list includes Islamists, a neo-Nazi, a homophobe and two skinhead gang members.
Coming from a country which once refused harmless British pop star Cat Stevens (who became Muslim and now calls himself Yusuf Islam) entry just for having a Muslim name, this Mr Savage needs to be quiet.
Jacqui Smith's latest disaster: Banned U.S. shock jock never even tried to visit Britain - now he's suing
By James Slack and Nicola Boden
06th May 2009
Daily Mail
An American radio talkshow shock jock has vowed to sue the Government after being included on a list of Britain's 'least wanted'.
Michael Savage, who has up to 10 million listeners, branded Home Secretary Jacqui Smith a 'lunatic' and a 'witch' after being named alongside hate preachers and a member of Hamas.
The presenter is furious at being put on the list of 22 hardliners banned from entering the UK because the Home Office claims they have fostered extremism or hatred.
He says he had not been planning to travel to Britain anyway and has now called on his millions of listeners to boycott the country.
Mr Savage added: 'It's interesting to me that here I am a talk show host, who does not advocate violence, who advocates patriotic traditional values – borders, language, culture – who is now on a list banned in England.
Enlarge
Furious: Radio host Michael Savage wants to sue the Government for defamation after being included on the list of people banned from the UK
'What does that say about the government of England? It says more about them than it says about me.'
The list has turned into another humiliating gaffe for the Home Secretary after officials were forced to admit not all the fanatics, like Mr Savage, wanted to come to the UK.
It has emerged their names were placed on it simply on the off-chance they may decide to visit.
At least two - teenage skinheads Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky - have no chance of boarding a plane to Britain since they are currently serving ten years in a Russian jail for leading a gang which committed 20 racially-motivated murders.
Challenged to say how many on the banned list had been planning to visit Britain, a Home Office spokesman said today: 'I do not have that information.'
Mr Savage declared: 'I have been banned from Great Britain. I had not planned on going there, I had not been there in over 25 years.
'When I woke up this morning I just thought I could not be true. The point is that today it is me, tomorrow it will be somebody else.'
Using his show The Savage Nation, which is broadcast on more than 350 U.S. radio stations, to attack the ban, he called Miss Smith a 'witch'.
'For her to link me up with skinheads who are killing people in Russia, to put me in league with mass murderers who kill Jews on buses, is defamation,' he claimed.
'I thought this was a joke or a mistake. How could they put Michael Savage in the same league with mass murderers when I have never avowed violence? As a result of this, I am going to sue.'
He added: 'When has this witch heard my show, since it's not syndicated in England?'
MIKE SAVAGE
ON ISLAM: 'You know, when I see a woman walking around with a burqa, I see a Nazi.'
He has called the Koran 'a book of hate' and added that some Muslims, at least, 'need deportation'.
ON AUTISM: He referred to the rise in diagnosis of autism as 'a racket' designed to get disability payments for 'poorer families who have found a new way to be parasites on the government'.
'You know what autism is? I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 per cent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out.'
ON SWINE FLU: 'Make no mistake about it: Illegal aliens (immigrants) are the carriers of the new strain of human-swine avian flu from Mexico'
Mark Stephens, of the London law firm Finers Stephens Innocent, said he would have a very good case.
'The people on the list who have been banned are supposed to be advocating extreme violence and so to put him into that category is clearly defamatory,' he told the Times.
'His views, such as those on homosexuals, may be offensive but that is another thing entirely. The Home Secretary appears not to have appreciated the difference between tolerance and defamation.'
Mr Savage, real name Michael Weiner, even argued that Miss Smith had put his life in danger.
‘She has painted a target on my back, linking me with people who are in prison for killing people,’ he said. ‘Does she not think people might hunt me down?’
The Home Office claims the DJ has caused great offence with his hardline views on immigration, Islam, rape and autism.
Miss Smith said the list was aimed at naming and shaming extremists and to demonstrate behaviour the Government will not tolerate.
But the move appears to have backfired spectacularly at a time when her job is already hanging by a thread after a string of expense scandals.
Despite Mr Savage's trenchant views, rival broadcasters have leapt to his defence and even civil libertarians and the Council for American-Islamic Relations have spoken out against the ban.
'As a host who witnessed first hand the hate speech not only tolerated but encouraged by the UK, I am appalled and amused at the suggestion that Michael Savage is banned from the UK for his speech,' Rusty Humphries of Talk Radio Network said.
'Thank God we broke away from that cowardly country.'
Broadcaster Lars Larson added: 'I often disagree with the way that Michael Savage says things. I think he's often rude and crude unnecessarily. But isn't that precisely the point?
'That is exactly the kind of speech the founders of our country meant to protect with the First Amendment.
'And it should send a cold chill through the heart of any man who loves freedom when he asks himself, "whose ideas and speech will be banned by government next".'
Jameel Jaffer, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the move showed countries were prepared to 'use their borders as a weapon of censorship'.
'While some of these people may express views that others find disagreeable, often the cure is worse than the disease,' said Mr Jaffer. 'It also deprives the citizens of that country of their ability to hear dissenting views.'
Legal experts said today Mr Savage may have a strong case to sue the Home Secretary over the ban.
Mark Stephens, of the London law firm Finers Stephens Innocent, said: 'The people on the list who have been banned are supposed to be advocating extreme violence and so to put him into that category is clearly defamatory.
'His views, such as those on homosexuals, may be offensive but that is another thing entirely. The Home Secretary appears not to have appreciated the difference between tolerance and defamation.'
The effectiveness of the ban has also been questioned because by targeting the presenter, he has been drawn to the attention of millions around the world who can access his opinions online.
Ibrahim Hooper from the Council for American-Islamic Relations said it would just give the presenter a bigger audience.
'As a matter of principle, we don't support such bans. They tend to be selective, in that only popular speech is allowed and unpopular speech is not allowed,' he said.
'Usually, these types of things (the ban) just give people like this publicity. I don't think Savage will be too upset. It will give him something to talk about on his show for the next six months.'
'Witch': Jacqui Smith today. She insists it is right to exclude Mr Savage because of his hardline views
Explaining his reaction on his radio show, Mr Savage at first appeared amused.
He poked poked fun at British food and the state of people's teeth: 'My first thought was, damn, there goes the summer trip where I planned to have my dental work done.
'My second thought was, darn, there goes my visit to the restaurants of England for their great cuisine,' he said.
But then he turned on 'this lunatic' Jacqui Smith.
More damagingly for Britain as a whole, he also called on his 'eight to 10 million listeners' to cancel their trips to England and stop buying English products.
'I don't know what they make there any more, but whatever they make, I suggest you don't buy it,' he said. 'If they want to play hardball, we'll play hardball.'
The Home Secretary insisted this morning that including Mr Savage on the list was right because he fell into the category of people who can 'foment hatred'.
His extreme views and the way he expresses them 'is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence' if he was allowed into the UK, she claimed.
'Coming to this country is a privilege,' she said.'If you can't live by the rules that we live by, the standards and the values that we live by, we should exclude you.'
Those banned included Hamas MP Yunis Al-Astal and 'hate' preachers Wadgy Abd El Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim, Abdullah Qadri Al Ahdal, Safwat Hijazi and Amir Siddique.
'For her (Jacqui Smith) to link me up with skinheads who are killing people in Russia, to put me in league with mass murderers who kill Jews on buses, is defamation.
'I thought this was a joke or a mistake. When has this witch heard my show, since it's not syndicated in England?'
Also barred were murderer and Hezbollah terrorist Samir Al Quntar, Kashmiri terror group leader Nasr Javed and Islamic activist Abdul Ali Musa, who claims 9/11 was a Jewish conspiracy.
White supremacists - including former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard Stephen Donald Black and neo-Nazi Erich Gliebe - were also targeted, alongside American Baptist pastor Fred Waldron Phelps Snr and his daughter Shirley.
Miss Smith said: 'It's important that people understand the sorts of values and sorts of standards that we have here, the fact that it's a privilege to come, and the sort of things that mean you won't be welcome in this country.'
But Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling argued: 'What we need from the Government is not the gimmick of a name and shame list but a consistent strategy on who can and can't come into the country.'
Anti-extremist groups welcomed the Home Secretary's actions, which follow years of criticism that the Government had been too willing to let in fanatics - including Islamic preachers of hate.
The exclusion of Black, who has been pictured alongside BNP leader Nick Griffin, was praised by the anti-fascist group Searchlight.
It said: 'The preachers of division and hate have no place here.'
But even here, concerns have been raised about freedom of speech and the ever growing power of the law as well as a ban's effectiveness.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari of the Muslim Council of Britain said: 'What the Government appears to be doing instead is creating a sort of pre-crime.
'We would also ask how effective the Government's measures will be when it is a fact that a person's images and speech can easily be broadcast across borders via the internet.'
The remaining six names of those banned since October last year were kept secret in the interests of national security.
WHILE MIKE SAVAGE IS BANNED, HERE ARE SOME OF THOSE ALLOWED TO STAY IN THIS COUNTRY:
Abu Qatada
Osama Bin Laden's top man in the UK. He is in jail fighting an attempt to extradite him to Jordan on terrorism charges.
Learco Chindamo
The 28-year-old, who killed headmaster Stephen Lawrence in 1995, is free to stay in the UK after lawyers claimed that deportation to Italy would 'breach his right to a family life'.
Ahsan Sabri
A Pakistani illegal immigrant who killed a young writer by driving into her at 60mph, he cannot be deported due to his human right to a family life. Sabri, who had been driving uninsured and unlicenced had married a British woman.
Caliph Ali Asmar
Iraqui Kurd asylum seeker jailed for two years for unlawful wounding. After serving eight months he was released and went on to rape a woman and stab a love rival. He is now in jail indefinitely.
Gary Glitter
Real name Paul Gadd, he served almost three years in prison in Vietnam for sex crimes involving two young girls. The former pop star, who returned to the UK in August, also served two months in jail in 1999 for possessing child pornography.
Dr Philip Nitschke
The euthanasia activist was dubbed 'Dr Death' after bringing the first of his suicide workshops to the UK yesterday. Nitschke has helped four people die in his native Australia, but in the UK assisted suicide is illegal with a maximum punishment of 14 years in prison.
AND HERE ARE THOSE EXCLUDED FROM THE UK SINCE OCTOBER:
Yunis Al Astal
Extremist preacher. Banned because he is considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour, including justifying or glorifying terrorist violence.
Wadgy Abd El Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim
Extremist preacher and a prolific speaker and writer. Considered to be attempting to provoke others to commit terrorist acts.
Erich Gliebe
Ran record label Resistance Records for neo-Nazi bands and leader of American neo-Nazi group.
Shirley Phelps-Roper
Daughter of Fred Phelps and also banned for homophobic views.
Artur Ryno
Former leader of violent Russian skinhead gang which committed 20 racially motivated murders. Currently in jail.
Pavel Skachevsky
Another former leader of violent Russian skinhead gang currently in jail. Gang beat migrants and posted videos of attacks on internet.
Abdullah Qadri Al Ahdal - an extremist preacher. Banned because he is considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour, including justifying or glorifying terrorist violence.
Mike Guzovsky - leader of a violent Jewish extremist group and actively involved with military training camps.
Safwat Hijazi - extremist preacher who makes television broadcasts. Considered to be glorifying terrorist violence.
Nasr Javed - senior Lashkar-e-Taiba operative, the group said to be behind the Mumbai attacks in November.
Amir Siddique - extremist preacher. Banned because his considered to be fomenting terrorist violence.
dailymail.co.uk
Michael Savage branded Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, whose job it is to decide who is allowed and who isn't allowed to enter the country, a "lunatic" and a "witch."
Savage is on a list of 22 hardliners banned from entering the UK. The list includes Islamists, a neo-Nazi, a homophobe and two skinhead gang members.
Coming from a country which once refused harmless British pop star Cat Stevens (who became Muslim and now calls himself Yusuf Islam) entry just for having a Muslim name, this Mr Savage needs to be quiet.
Jacqui Smith's latest disaster: Banned U.S. shock jock never even tried to visit Britain - now he's suing
By James Slack and Nicola Boden
06th May 2009
Daily Mail
An American radio talkshow shock jock has vowed to sue the Government after being included on a list of Britain's 'least wanted'.
Michael Savage, who has up to 10 million listeners, branded Home Secretary Jacqui Smith a 'lunatic' and a 'witch' after being named alongside hate preachers and a member of Hamas.
The presenter is furious at being put on the list of 22 hardliners banned from entering the UK because the Home Office claims they have fostered extremism or hatred.
He says he had not been planning to travel to Britain anyway and has now called on his millions of listeners to boycott the country.
Mr Savage added: 'It's interesting to me that here I am a talk show host, who does not advocate violence, who advocates patriotic traditional values – borders, language, culture – who is now on a list banned in England.
Enlarge
Furious: Radio host Michael Savage wants to sue the Government for defamation after being included on the list of people banned from the UK'What does that say about the government of England? It says more about them than it says about me.'
The list has turned into another humiliating gaffe for the Home Secretary after officials were forced to admit not all the fanatics, like Mr Savage, wanted to come to the UK.
It has emerged their names were placed on it simply on the off-chance they may decide to visit.
At least two - teenage skinheads Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky - have no chance of boarding a plane to Britain since they are currently serving ten years in a Russian jail for leading a gang which committed 20 racially-motivated murders.
Challenged to say how many on the banned list had been planning to visit Britain, a Home Office spokesman said today: 'I do not have that information.'
Mr Savage declared: 'I have been banned from Great Britain. I had not planned on going there, I had not been there in over 25 years.
'When I woke up this morning I just thought I could not be true. The point is that today it is me, tomorrow it will be somebody else.'
Using his show The Savage Nation, which is broadcast on more than 350 U.S. radio stations, to attack the ban, he called Miss Smith a 'witch'.
'For her to link me up with skinheads who are killing people in Russia, to put me in league with mass murderers who kill Jews on buses, is defamation,' he claimed.
'I thought this was a joke or a mistake. How could they put Michael Savage in the same league with mass murderers when I have never avowed violence? As a result of this, I am going to sue.'
He added: 'When has this witch heard my show, since it's not syndicated in England?'
MIKE SAVAGE
ON ISLAM: 'You know, when I see a woman walking around with a burqa, I see a Nazi.'
He has called the Koran 'a book of hate' and added that some Muslims, at least, 'need deportation'.
ON AUTISM: He referred to the rise in diagnosis of autism as 'a racket' designed to get disability payments for 'poorer families who have found a new way to be parasites on the government'.
'You know what autism is? I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 per cent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out.'
ON SWINE FLU: 'Make no mistake about it: Illegal aliens (immigrants) are the carriers of the new strain of human-swine avian flu from Mexico'
Mark Stephens, of the London law firm Finers Stephens Innocent, said he would have a very good case.
'The people on the list who have been banned are supposed to be advocating extreme violence and so to put him into that category is clearly defamatory,' he told the Times.
'His views, such as those on homosexuals, may be offensive but that is another thing entirely. The Home Secretary appears not to have appreciated the difference between tolerance and defamation.'
Mr Savage, real name Michael Weiner, even argued that Miss Smith had put his life in danger.
‘She has painted a target on my back, linking me with people who are in prison for killing people,’ he said. ‘Does she not think people might hunt me down?’
The Home Office claims the DJ has caused great offence with his hardline views on immigration, Islam, rape and autism.
Miss Smith said the list was aimed at naming and shaming extremists and to demonstrate behaviour the Government will not tolerate.
But the move appears to have backfired spectacularly at a time when her job is already hanging by a thread after a string of expense scandals.
Despite Mr Savage's trenchant views, rival broadcasters have leapt to his defence and even civil libertarians and the Council for American-Islamic Relations have spoken out against the ban.
'As a host who witnessed first hand the hate speech not only tolerated but encouraged by the UK, I am appalled and amused at the suggestion that Michael Savage is banned from the UK for his speech,' Rusty Humphries of Talk Radio Network said.
'Thank God we broke away from that cowardly country.'
Broadcaster Lars Larson added: 'I often disagree with the way that Michael Savage says things. I think he's often rude and crude unnecessarily. But isn't that precisely the point?
'That is exactly the kind of speech the founders of our country meant to protect with the First Amendment.
'And it should send a cold chill through the heart of any man who loves freedom when he asks himself, "whose ideas and speech will be banned by government next".'
Jameel Jaffer, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the move showed countries were prepared to 'use their borders as a weapon of censorship'.
'While some of these people may express views that others find disagreeable, often the cure is worse than the disease,' said Mr Jaffer. 'It also deprives the citizens of that country of their ability to hear dissenting views.'
Legal experts said today Mr Savage may have a strong case to sue the Home Secretary over the ban.
Mark Stephens, of the London law firm Finers Stephens Innocent, said: 'The people on the list who have been banned are supposed to be advocating extreme violence and so to put him into that category is clearly defamatory.
'His views, such as those on homosexuals, may be offensive but that is another thing entirely. The Home Secretary appears not to have appreciated the difference between tolerance and defamation.'
The effectiveness of the ban has also been questioned because by targeting the presenter, he has been drawn to the attention of millions around the world who can access his opinions online.
Ibrahim Hooper from the Council for American-Islamic Relations said it would just give the presenter a bigger audience.
'As a matter of principle, we don't support such bans. They tend to be selective, in that only popular speech is allowed and unpopular speech is not allowed,' he said.
'Usually, these types of things (the ban) just give people like this publicity. I don't think Savage will be too upset. It will give him something to talk about on his show for the next six months.'
'Witch': Jacqui Smith today. She insists it is right to exclude Mr Savage because of his hardline views
Explaining his reaction on his radio show, Mr Savage at first appeared amused.
He poked poked fun at British food and the state of people's teeth: 'My first thought was, damn, there goes the summer trip where I planned to have my dental work done.
'My second thought was, darn, there goes my visit to the restaurants of England for their great cuisine,' he said.
But then he turned on 'this lunatic' Jacqui Smith.
More damagingly for Britain as a whole, he also called on his 'eight to 10 million listeners' to cancel their trips to England and stop buying English products.
'I don't know what they make there any more, but whatever they make, I suggest you don't buy it,' he said. 'If they want to play hardball, we'll play hardball.'
The Home Secretary insisted this morning that including Mr Savage on the list was right because he fell into the category of people who can 'foment hatred'.
His extreme views and the way he expresses them 'is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence' if he was allowed into the UK, she claimed.
'Coming to this country is a privilege,' she said.'If you can't live by the rules that we live by, the standards and the values that we live by, we should exclude you.'
Those banned included Hamas MP Yunis Al-Astal and 'hate' preachers Wadgy Abd El Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim, Abdullah Qadri Al Ahdal, Safwat Hijazi and Amir Siddique.
'For her (Jacqui Smith) to link me up with skinheads who are killing people in Russia, to put me in league with mass murderers who kill Jews on buses, is defamation.
'I thought this was a joke or a mistake. When has this witch heard my show, since it's not syndicated in England?'
Also barred were murderer and Hezbollah terrorist Samir Al Quntar, Kashmiri terror group leader Nasr Javed and Islamic activist Abdul Ali Musa, who claims 9/11 was a Jewish conspiracy.
White supremacists - including former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard Stephen Donald Black and neo-Nazi Erich Gliebe - were also targeted, alongside American Baptist pastor Fred Waldron Phelps Snr and his daughter Shirley.
Miss Smith said: 'It's important that people understand the sorts of values and sorts of standards that we have here, the fact that it's a privilege to come, and the sort of things that mean you won't be welcome in this country.'
But Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling argued: 'What we need from the Government is not the gimmick of a name and shame list but a consistent strategy on who can and can't come into the country.'
Anti-extremist groups welcomed the Home Secretary's actions, which follow years of criticism that the Government had been too willing to let in fanatics - including Islamic preachers of hate.
The exclusion of Black, who has been pictured alongside BNP leader Nick Griffin, was praised by the anti-fascist group Searchlight.
It said: 'The preachers of division and hate have no place here.'
But even here, concerns have been raised about freedom of speech and the ever growing power of the law as well as a ban's effectiveness.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari of the Muslim Council of Britain said: 'What the Government appears to be doing instead is creating a sort of pre-crime.
'We would also ask how effective the Government's measures will be when it is a fact that a person's images and speech can easily be broadcast across borders via the internet.'
The remaining six names of those banned since October last year were kept secret in the interests of national security.
WHILE MIKE SAVAGE IS BANNED, HERE ARE SOME OF THOSE ALLOWED TO STAY IN THIS COUNTRY:
Abu Qatada
Osama Bin Laden's top man in the UK. He is in jail fighting an attempt to extradite him to Jordan on terrorism charges.
Learco Chindamo
The 28-year-old, who killed headmaster Stephen Lawrence in 1995, is free to stay in the UK after lawyers claimed that deportation to Italy would 'breach his right to a family life'.
Ahsan Sabri
A Pakistani illegal immigrant who killed a young writer by driving into her at 60mph, he cannot be deported due to his human right to a family life. Sabri, who had been driving uninsured and unlicenced had married a British woman.
Caliph Ali Asmar
Iraqui Kurd asylum seeker jailed for two years for unlawful wounding. After serving eight months he was released and went on to rape a woman and stab a love rival. He is now in jail indefinitely.
Gary Glitter
Real name Paul Gadd, he served almost three years in prison in Vietnam for sex crimes involving two young girls. The former pop star, who returned to the UK in August, also served two months in jail in 1999 for possessing child pornography.
Dr Philip Nitschke
The euthanasia activist was dubbed 'Dr Death' after bringing the first of his suicide workshops to the UK yesterday. Nitschke has helped four people die in his native Australia, but in the UK assisted suicide is illegal with a maximum punishment of 14 years in prison.
AND HERE ARE THOSE EXCLUDED FROM THE UK SINCE OCTOBER:
Yunis Al Astal
Extremist preacher. Banned because he is considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour, including justifying or glorifying terrorist violence.
Wadgy Abd El Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim
Extremist preacher and a prolific speaker and writer. Considered to be attempting to provoke others to commit terrorist acts.
Erich Gliebe
Ran record label Resistance Records for neo-Nazi bands and leader of American neo-Nazi group.
Shirley Phelps-Roper
Daughter of Fred Phelps and also banned for homophobic views.
Artur Ryno
Former leader of violent Russian skinhead gang which committed 20 racially motivated murders. Currently in jail.
Pavel Skachevsky
Another former leader of violent Russian skinhead gang currently in jail. Gang beat migrants and posted videos of attacks on internet.
Abdullah Qadri Al Ahdal - an extremist preacher. Banned because he is considered to be engaging in unacceptable behaviour, including justifying or glorifying terrorist violence.
Mike Guzovsky - leader of a violent Jewish extremist group and actively involved with military training camps.
Safwat Hijazi - extremist preacher who makes television broadcasts. Considered to be glorifying terrorist violence.
Nasr Javed - senior Lashkar-e-Taiba operative, the group said to be behind the Mumbai attacks in November.
Amir Siddique - extremist preacher. Banned because his considered to be fomenting terrorist violence.
dailymail.co.uk
