Westland New Post

Westland New Post (WNP, also known as "Westland National Socialistische Ordnung") was a Belgian neo-Nazi organization founded in March 1981 by Paul Latinus and members of the "Front de la Jeunesse" (FJ). The "Front de la Jeunesse" was later in 1983 convicted for being a private militia.

WNP would disappear in 1984, its leader Paul Latinus was found dead in his home in April of that year, and the other members came into a conflict.

Pastorale murders

Marcel Barbier, a WNP member, was convicted in May 1987 for a gruesome double murder in the "la rue de la Pastorale" in Anderlecht on February 18, 1982. One of the victims, Mr. Alphonse Vandermeulen, had been married to Barbier's current girlfriend, Mme. Marcelle Gobert. The police would interrogate both Barbier and his girlfriend, and searched both their homes, but no arrests were made. The police investigation into the murders was without success until August 16, 1983, when a violent incident occurred at Barbier's home in Sint-Gillis. Barbier will be arrested, and when the police searched his home they would find confidential NATO material, various weapons and neo-Nazi material. It also turned out that Barbier was a former member of the Front de la Jeunesse, and was currently a member of neo-Nazi organization named "Chevalerie teutonique". Barbier was convicted and jailed for this violent incident, but the investigation into the Pastorale murders continued.

During the interrogation of Barbier, the police found out about Westland New Post, although it was later revealed this organization was already known to the Belgian State Security Service, with an agent (albeit on his own initiative) already infiltrating the organization at the end of 1981, but the intelligence service did not communicate what it knew to the police or judiciary services. The police then investigated the WNP members to find out whether it was a private militia. Paul Latinus told the police that Barbier and another WNP member were behind the murders. Latinus had helped Barbier getting rid of the murder weapon and other relevant evidence. Barbier would be the only person convicted for this murder, although other WNP members were suspect.

NATO documents

During the investigation of the incident at Barbier's home, the police found confidential NATO documents. Barbier told the police they were not his, but the possession of another WNP member, Michel Libert. Michel Libert worked as a military volunteer at the NATO Transmission Centre in Evere. Latinus, leader of WNP, was interrogated multiple times by the police and would confess to the stealing of confidential NATO documents. Security at the Centre was not high, and Libert delivered the documents to Latinus, who later published some of the material in the two editions of the WNP "Althing" magazine, which was delivered among others to military personnel. Latinus told the police that this was on behalf of his 'American superiors', to wake up the military command at NATO that leaks were happening, with only material on the Soviet Union being published in the "Althing". Later it turned out more WNP members worked at the NATO Transmission Centre, and would deliver material, via Libert, to Latinus.

WNP and the Belgian State Security Service

Westland New Post was infiltrated by an agent of the Belgian State Security Service, Christian Smets. Smets already knew Paul Latinus, and Latinus previously worked as informant on "extreme left" for State Security himself, and was also an agent for some American intelligence service. Latinus himself tried to become an agent of State Security, successfully passing the first exam, but he escaped to Chile in January 1981 when the magazine "Pour" published an article that said that Latinus was an "extreme-rightist" infiltrating "extreme left" organizations. Latinus then returned to Belgium somewhat later, when he founded WNP with Marcel Barbier and Michel Libert.

In the organizational structure of WNP, Christian Smets was responsible for operational details, and taught the members about surveillance and intelligence gathering. One exercise of Smets supposedly took place just before the Pastorale murders, where members of WNP were given the task to shadow what later turned out to be one of the murder victims. Smets himself in later parliamentary testimony denied this proposition by former WNP members, but admitted giving intelligence exercises.

The last contacts between Smets and WNP occurred in June 1982, when Smets was internally transferred to the sector Brussels, becoming responsible for VIP protection (among those protected Jean Gol, a justice minister). Latinus at this time would stop being an informant for State Security, but Michel Libert would continue his relationship. According to Libert, Smets would have written an article in the anti-communist "Nouvel Europe Magazine" in March 1983, on if the "State Security prepares an extreme-right coup d'état?" Shortly after the Barbier incident Libert's relations to State Security would be severed, and the responsible group of State Security would be put off the case WNP.

Latinus suicide

The Belgian police found the dead body of Paul Latinus in the evening of April 24, 1984, at the home of Latinus' girlfriend in Court-Saint-Etienne, after her notification. The police found Latinus lying on the floor of a basement, with strangulation marks around his neck, but no other signs of violence or disorder. They found a telephone cord that was cut. The girlfriend of Latinus would explain to police that she found him hanging that evening in the basement when she came home from a bar, and that she cut the line between Latinus' head and the ceiling.

The body would be removed for burial, but the next day an investigative judge would command a search of the home on order of the investigative judge researching the Pastorale murders. The girlfriend was again interrogated, and told the police that Latinus had a file "Pinon", that had information on certain 'partouzes' of high-placed functionaries, involving minors. She had burned the file however, but did show it to a local acquaintance. An autopsy was made that same day on the body of Latinus. The acquaintance that might have more information on the case was later found to had moved to Spain, before the Latinus suicide, but he was not further investigated.

During the investigation into the dead of Latinus, several WNP members would find it hard to believe to Latinus could commit suicide, that he never spoke about that, and that he had no reason to commit such an act. They found it more plausible that Latinus suicide was really a camouflaged murder, because Latinus had a lot of compromising information on other people. Ballastic tests were carried out in the basement in the winter of 1985, to check against the weight of Latinus, to see if the cord wasn't supposed to snap. Nothing conclusive came from this though, and an analysis of a certain quick strangulation method was also not found to be in agreement with the marks on Latinus's neck. The investigative team found no reason to continue the investigation, and thus the case Latinus was closed in the autumn of 1986. The remains of Latinus were excavated in 1998 though, when the investigate team of the Nijvel gang, the "cell-Jumet", tried to find out if the DNA of Latinus could be brought into connection with the Brabant massacre, but no positive results were found.

Trivia

The characters that form the abbreviation of Westland New Post, "W.N.P.", each are the next character in the alphabet to "V", "M", and "O", that form the abbreviation of the Vlaamse Militanten Orde, another Belgian far right group, that was on trial (and was later outlawed) as a private militia at the time when the Westland New Post was established.

ee also

* Communist Combatant Cells
* Nijvel gang

References

* nl_icon cite web|title=Parliamentary investigation into the Nijvel gang|url=http://www.dekamer.be/kvvcr/showpage.cfm?section=flwb&language=fr&rightmenu=right&cfm=/site/wwwcfm/flwb/flwbn.cfm?lang=N&legislat=49&dossierID=0573|authors=Belgian Chamber|date=1997
* nl_icon cite web|title=Parliamentary investigation into Gladio (report)|url=http://www.senate.be/lexdocs/S0523/S05231297.pdf|authors=Belgian Senate|date=1991|format=PDF
* nl_icon cite web|title=Parliamentary investigation into banditism|url=http://www.dekamer.be/kvvcr/showpage.cfm?section=flwb&language=fr&rightmenu=right&cfm=/site/wwwcfm/flwb/flwbn.cfm?lang=F&legislat=47&dossierID=0059|authors=Belgian Chamber|date=1990
* nl_icon cite web|title=Parliamentary investigation into private militias (report)|url=http://www.senate.be/lexdocs/S0611/S06110269.pdf|authors=Belgian Senate|date=1981|format=PDF