XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: dthomas@zazzle.com   
      
   Harriet Harman has been forced to deny supporting paedophilia   
   after she admitted that a prominent child sex group was allowed   
   to join a civil liberties organisation she helped run in the   
   1970s.   
      
   Miss Harman, Labour's deputy leader, said she and her husband   
   Jack Dromey, also a frontbench Labour MP, were the victims of a   
   "politically-motivated smear campaign" by the Daily Mail   
   newspaper.   
      
   Miss Harman condemned the "horrific allegations" and issued a   
   detailed rebuttal, to claims that the couple and Patricia   
   Hewitt, a former Blairite Cabinet minister, had supported the   
   now-defunct Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE).   
      
   Miss Harman and Mr Dromey broke their week of silence following   
   a series of articles which alleged they were 'apologists for   
   paedophilia' while officials at the National Council for Civil   
   Liberties - known today as the campaign group Liberty - in the   
   1970s.   
      
   The Council controversially granted "affiliate" status to the   
   Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) in 1975, and put PIE's   
   founded Tom O'Carroll on one of the Council's working groups.   
      
   Miss Harman was the Council's legal officer from 1978 to 1982,   
   while Mr Dromey sat on its executive committee from 1970 to   
   1979. Miss Hewitt was the council's general secretary from 1974   
   to 1983.   
      
   Crucially Miss Harman admitted that the council had allowed PIE   
   to join the Council as an affiliate "on payment of a fee" one of   
   nearly 1,000 such bodies.   
      
   She said that while she "was aware that because NCCL opposed   
   censorship and supported gay rights, paedophiles had sought to   
   exploit that and use NCCL as a vehicle to make their arguments.   
      
   "But by the time I came to work for NCCL this vile organisation   
   had already been vigorously challenged within the organisation.   
   Jack Dromey was instrumental in that challenge when he took over   
   the chair of NCCL in 1976."   
      
   Miss Harman denied that she had ever supported lowering the age   
   of consent to 10, scrapping the law on incest, or sought to   
   water down the law on child pornography.   
      
   The row developing between Miss Harman and the newspaper has   
   echoes of the fall-out between the Labour high command and the   
   Daily Mail last year, when the newspaper claimed that Ed   
   Miliband's Marxist father Ralph had "hated" Britain.   
      
   Aides close to Mr Miliband briefed that he was "extremely angry"   
   and had "reached boiling point about what they described as the   
   Mail's "smear by innuendo" following a series of front page   
   stories over recent days.   
      
   One aide said: "This has very much to be seen in the light of   
   what the Daily Mail did in the Ralph Miliband row. They smeared   
   by innuendo and by association then and they are smearing by   
   innuendo and association now."   
      
   She added: "This is not the first time the Daily Mail has made   
   this horrible and untrue allegation. And, this is not the first   
   time the Daily Mail has attacked me.   
      
   "I sincerely hope people won't believe these smears - I suspect   
   even the Daily Mail doesn't believe them to be true.   
      
   "But given the seriousness and the aggression with which the   
   Daily Mail are pursuing me, I feel that I need to put the facts   
   in the public domain."   
      
   In a separate statement, Mr Dromey - a shadow home affairs   
   spokesman - said the allegations were "beneath contempt".   
      
   He said: "Sexual abuse of children is evil and I have always   
   viewed paedophiles and any group associated with them as evil."   
      
   Miss Hewitt declined to comment.   
      
   STATEMENT BY HARRIET HARMAN   
      
   In recent days I have been the subject of a politically-   
   motivated smear campaign by the Daily Mail.   
      
   They have accused me of being an apologist for child sex abuse,   
   of supporting a vile paedophile organisation, of having a   
   relaxed attitude to paedophilia and of watering down child   
   pornography laws. These are horrific allegations and I strongly   
   deny them all of them.   
      
   This is not the first time the Daily Mail has made this horrible   
   and untrue allegation. And, this is not the first time the Daily   
   Mail has attacked me. The editor and proprietor of the Daily   
   Mail are entitled to their political views and they are of   
   course entitled to oppose what I stand for but they are not   
   entitled to use their newspaper to smear me with innuendo   
   because they disagree with me politically and hate my values.   
      
   I sincerely hope people won't believe these smears - I suspect   
   even the Daily Mail doesn't believe them to be true. But given   
   the seriousness and the aggression with which the Daily Mail are   
   pursuing me, I feel that I need to put the facts in the public   
   domain.   
      
   1. Allegation that I supported the lowering of the age of   
   consent to 10   
   This is not true. I supported the equalisation of the age of   
   consent (as set out in the National Council for Civil Liberties   
   document "priorities and strategy for the executive committee   
   June 1981") by making the age of consent the same for homosexual   
   as well as for heterosexual sex.   
      
   2. Allegation that I opposed the law on incest   
   This is not true. The document they refer to was written by NCCL   
   in 1976 before I started to work there.   
      
   3. Allegation that I was seeking to water down a proposed ban on   
   child pornography.   
   This is not true. I supported the Protection of Children Bill   
   1978. At the start of the document it makes clear that "The NCCL   
   deplores the exploitation of children whether in the form of use   
   in commercial pornography or as victims of sexual assaults".   
      
   The submission argued for some amendments to guard against   
   unintended consequences including:   
   - Parents being criminalised for taking pictures of their   
   children on the beach or in the bath   
   - The use of pictures in sex education being criminalised   
   - We also proposed that the definition of indecent was too wide   
   and instead proposed "obscene" as indecent was very broadly   
   defined and could include Page 3 of the Sun.   
      
   The Mail have tried to make me guilty by way of guilt by   
   association.   
      
   NCCL was an organisation which anyone could apply to join and   
   indeed any organisation could apply to be "an affiliate" on   
   payment of a fee. When I was at NCCL there were around 6,000   
   members and nearly 1,000 affiliated organisations of which PIE   
   (Paedophile Information Exchange) was one.   
      
   Members and affiliates decided the organisation's policy at the   
   AGM from year to year. I was aware that because NCCL opposed   
   censorship and supported gay rights, paedophiles had sought to   
   exploit that and use NCCL as a vehicle to make their arguments.   
      
   But by the time I came to work for NCCL this vile organisation   
   had already been vigorously challenged within the organisation.   
      
   Jack Dromey was instrumental in that challenge when he took over   
   the chair of NCCL in 1976.   
      
   The reason I decided to go to work for NCCL was because I   
   actively supported the work they had done and in particular the   
   work of their women's rights committee on the Equal Pay Act, on   
   the introduction of the Sex Discrimination Act and for greater   
   protection of victims of domestic violence and against race   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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