This image represents the picture you get by reading the headlines and articles published in the two main newspapers in Sweden – Aftonbladet and Expressen over the last 4 days – large gangs of Nazi hooligans conducted mass attacks on immigrant children. [The picture is from Germany, not Sweden]

This evolves around an alleged “mass attack on migrants” by “neo-Nazis” at the Stockholm railway station last Friday as reported in Swedish state media.

On the 29th of January Aftonbladet, Sweden’s largest newspaper, published an article where they stated:

“A witness tells Aftonbladet that a large group of black-clad and masked persons attacked people who looked like they were foreigners. The police states that the men are soccer hooligans from different “firms” who have united.”

“Police present at the scene confirms for Aftonbladet that 40-50 persons around 9 pm attacked people who were at the Plattan at that time.”

The article also includes footage which claims to show hooligans chasing and beating up refugee children.

The “facts” in this article are based on one witness and a video and an unnamed source from the police.

However, later in the article a named policeman is quoted:

“The reports that the hooligans – who usually fight for rival clubs in Stockholm – have attacked people who looked like foreigners is something Nylén [police officer being interviewed] doesn’t know anything about.

– It is not clear. At the present moment no reports to the police have been filed about maltreatment outside of the one person currently arrested, and he attacked a police officer.

The person according to the police hit an officer in the face but was later released but is still suspected for violence against an officer and violent resistance. Another person is suspected for crime against the knife law, as the person was carrying brass knuckles.”

What about that video? See for yourself:

http://tv.aftonbladet.se/abtv/articles/107697?service=embedded&autoplay=false

A viewing of the video show no “attacks upon migrants” at all. As the Vestmanlands Läns Tidning (VLT) newspaper reported, all that the video shows is policemen chasing the leaflet distributors.

In one or two scenes, the policemen can be seen hitting the leaflet distributors with batons. In other words, the only “violence” shown in this video is that of the police against whites distributing leaflets—and there is nothing at all showing “neo-Nazi attacks upon children refugees.”

What does the official report from the police state?

“On Friday evening, police received information that several people were planning to be in central Stockholm to reveal [with leaflets] the link between unaccompanied refugee children and crime.

These leaflets were handed out by black-clad people with headbands and armbands of an unknown color.”

“It is not possible to conclude that the people who gathered in central Stockholm belong to any particular grouping”

Towe Hägg, information officer at the Stockholm police headquarters, told the liberal Vestmanlands Läns Tidning (VLT) newspaper that “none of the police patrols who were present during Friday evening have reported any incidents of abuse or assaults.”

Asked about the claims that there had been “mass attacks” on “migrant children,” Hägg said that “if there had been any, we have not been notified of them, and we would urge people to make such reports so that we could get to know about them.”

On the 30th of January Aftonbladet publishes an article with its one witness who gives an interview. This single witness alleged that he had been slapped in the face by one person at the escalators at the railway station. He also said that the person who had slapped him, had called him a “f***king racist.”

This incident was not reported to the police.

So where are the facts and evidence outside of one witness and one video which shows no violence against migrants for Aftonbladets claims of a “mass attack by neo-Nazis and football hooligans upon children refugees”? The police’s own statements and published reports say nothing of the sort the media is claiming.

Aftonbladet’s original article from the 29th got translated into English and have been republished all over the world.

For example, the UK’s Evening Standard newspaper ran the story with a headline reading “Masked mob rampage through Stockholm train station ‘looking to attack refugee children.’”

The Evening Standard went on to add som poetic license of its own, quoting Stockholm police spokesperson Towe Hägg as saying that the men “gathered with the purpose of attacking refugee children.”

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) repeated the message of mass attacks in an article headlined “Sweden masked gang ‘targeted migrants‘ in Stockholm,” and said that “Up to 100 masked men, dressed in black, gathered in central Stockholm to attack people from immigrant backgrounds.”

The BBC went on to add that “witnesses said the men physically attacked people they believed were foreigners,” but then admitted that “However, police have not confirmed these reports.”

The Middle East Eye (MEE) news service claimed that “neo-Nazis” were behind these fictitious attacks.”

In a headline titled “Neo-Nazis blamed for refugee attacks in Sweden’s Stockholm,” the MEE claimed that “Dozens of masked men believed to belong to neo-Nazi gangs carried out a number of assaults on migrants in Stockholm overnight amid rising tension over immigration, Swedish police said Saturday.”

Of course, the Swedish police never said any such thing. In fact, as their official statement specifically said, they could not link any group to the events.

The Daily Mail ran the Aftonbladet story under the headline “’Hundreds-strong’ mob of masked men rampage through Stockholm station beating up refugee children in revenge attack for female asylum centre worker killed by Somali ‘boy.’”

The astonishing claim is completely unsupported by any of the facts.

And so it went in newspapers all around the world – The International Business Times, The Independent, India Times, Telegraph, Morocco World News, Malay Mail, Deutsche Welle, Russia Today, Mirror, Times of Israel, Yahoo, etc, etc.

By the 31st of January some major newspapers started correcting its news however, like the New York Times admitted that there were “no reports of migrants having been attacked,” but still claimed that it had referenced “Swedish authorities” – they said: “scores of masked men dressed in black, some carrying wooden weapons, descended on the center of Stockholm . . . to beat and terrorize young migrants.”

No “Swedish authorities”—and certainly not the Swedish police—made any such claims. The New York Times got its information from Aftonbladet and other articles published in Swedish media.

In its coverage, the Washington Post was also more reticent in its coverage, claiming only in its headline that “Masked men threaten to attack refugee children in Stockholm,” and that the “Swedish news site the Local, as well as the British paper the Independent, reported that the men physically attacked refugees on Friday, but there was no official confirmation for this as of Saturday.”

The La Nueva Televisora del Sur claimed that the “neo Nazi Swedish Resistance Movement” had issued a formal statement claiming that “it was behind a wave of violence in Stockholm targeting homeless refugee children.”

The “Swedish Resistance Movement” (in Swedish: Nordiska Motståndsrörelsen) made no such claim.

The Nordiska Motståndsrörelsen article (which is referenced in the del Sur) makes no claim whatsoever that it is responsible for the alleged attacks, and all the controlled media stories which say that they have, are outright lies.

In Sweden later on the 31st of January the second largest newspaper Expressen comes out with an editorial from Mona Sahlin who heads a group in the government to fight extremism. With no more hard facts and evidence than what was reported in Aftonbladet she claims:

“What we are now seeing is no immigration-critical opinion. They are no government-critical group. They are not men who want to protect women.

They are ideologically driven extremists. They are Nazis. They are men who hate women och immigrants.

It is they who likes violence and hates democracy.

They are cowardly beasts.”

Later the same day, the 31st, several other witnesses come forward to Expressen and reports:

“Witness tell how they yelled racist hate words to dark-skinned people and called security guards who protected the victims for “traitors”.

– I was so afraid that they would knife people, the witness Gunay Asadova, who collapsed in shock.”

On the 1st of Februari Björn Wiman writes an editorial in Dagens Nyheter and reports:

“The events over the weekend in Stockholm warns for what could happen when parliamentary populism and right-wing extreme hooliganism go hand in hand.”

He continues the article by drawing parallels with Nazi Germany in the 30’s.

On the same day but back to Aftonbladet, the chief editor of the cultural section, Åsa Lindeborg, writes an editorial where she states:

“How can we signify the men who drag around Stockholm city to beat up foreigners and commies?

… A more correct word is Freikorps [free corps], paramilitary fascists or point blank Blackshirts; these are groupings who employ violence in an ideological war.”

So the combined message in state media is that over the weekend in Stockholm we have experienced a coordinated effort by hundreds of fascists, Nazis, racists and violent hooligans to attack immigrants and refugees in conjunction with a racist People’s Demonstration [Folkets demonstration] comprised of right-wing extremists and Nazis.

What do we actually know outside of media, a mobile video showing police chasing after hooded men handing out fliers and the witnesses they quote?

One person arrested on Friday for beating a police. Zero filed reports to the police on violence against immigrants. Three arrested Polish persons for maltreatment after the People’s Demonstration the next day. Later released.

All arrangers of the People’s Demonstration have publicly taken a clear stand against any form of extremism, violence or Nazism.

No further information available on any publicly available police records.

No other mobile video recordings or even photos of mass attacks on immigrants have emerged on media or social media.

Can it be that our state media is not telling the truth?