Muslim mole panics Dutch secret service

THE Dutch secret service has been infiltrated by an Islamic extremist linked to the killer of Theo van Gogh, the Dutch film-maker whose murder has accelerated Holland’s transformation from one of Europe’s most tolerant countries into a society increasingly polarised by fears about immigration.

Intelligence sources said last week that a mole working for a terrorist group codenamed the “Hofstad cell” had been arrested on suspicion of relaying information collected by the authorities to its members.

The disclosure has compounded the embarrassment of the security services, which have admitted they were watching Mohammed Bouyeri, the 26-year-old Dutch-born Moroccan charged with van Gogh’s murder, from August 2002.

They ended their surveillance less than two weeks before Bouyeri allegedly shot the film director six times as he cycled down an Amsterdam street, then butchered him with a knife.

The murder — apparently provoked by the 47-year-old van Gogh’s outspoken attacks on radical Islam, including a film depicting Koranic verses on a naked female back to represent the supposed oppression of women — has been followed by what Jan Peter Balkenende, the prime minister, called “a maelstrom of violence”.

There have been more than 20 arson attacks on mosques, churches and schools — the latest early yesterday on a mosque in the southeastern village of Helden. The spiral of attack and counterattack has shattered the image of Dutch society as one that cherishes consensus and abhors conflict.

Jozias van Aartsen, the parliamentary Speaker, warned yesterday: “Jihad has come to the Netherlands.”

Several politicians — including Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a liberal MP of Somali origin and van Gogh’s co-producer — were forced into hiding after death threats from Islamic extremists, and a poll revealed that 40% of the Dutch now hope their 900,000 Muslim neighbours no longer feel at home. Some 80% want tougher policies against immigrants.

Like its counterparts in Britain, the Dutch secret service recruited Muslims and Arabic speakers after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America. Among them was a man named only as Outmar Ben A, a Dutch-born Moroccan taken on last year. Intelligence officials believe he was the mole. He was arrested in September and has been charged with supplying documents showing what the security services knew about the cell.

The documents included a file on one of the cell’s alleged leaders, Samir Azzouz, an associate of Bouyeri, who has been charged with planning attacks on the Dutch parliament, Schipol airport and a nuclear reactor.

The material was unearthed during a search of Bouyeri’s home after the murder. Bouyeri, who has refused to co-operate with interrogators, featured in numerous intelligence reports that linked him with suspected terrorists. One of them was believed to have been involved in the Casablanca bombings that killed 43 people in May last year.

Police records have revealed growing concern over the young man’s desire to take part in jihad. “Bouyeri appears to be becoming increasingly radical, has changed his behaviour in a short time and now shouts out Koranic texts,” said one report.

In October last year, anti-terrorist police raided a number of buildings, including Bouyeri’s flat. But despite finding a “jihad martyr’s will” that suggested he was planning a suicide operation, they released him without charge.

He was heard afterwards boasting to another suspect whose phone had been tapped that he had removed apparently incriminating documents before the raid. Bouyeri’s own phone was tapped from July until October 21. Thirteen days later, wearing a jacket several sizes too large, he hunted down his victim with two butcher’s knives and a pistol.

Since the early 1950s, when thousands of people from the former Dutch colony of Indonesia moved to the Indian quarter of Amsterdam where van Gogh was killed, the district has been at the heart of a multicultural experiment now deemed to have failed.

The willingness of the Dutch to welcome immigrants has been under growing strain since the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Turks and Moroccans in the late 1960s and 1970s. Unlike their predecessors, they did not speak Dutch and appeared less able — or willing — to integrate, living increasingly in separate communities.

Tensions came to a head two years ago with the rise of Pim Fortuyn, a rightwinger assassinated on the eve of elections that turned his followers into a powerful political force.

Although Fortuyn’s party faded after his death, Balkenende’s government has taken a strict line on immigration and has begun deporting 26,000 rejected asylum seekers.

During a heated debate in parliament last week there were calls to go further by shutting radical mosques, forcing all imams to have lessons in the Dutch language and culture and making it easier to close down websites inciting racial hatred.

The popular mood has continued to shift sharply against immigrants amid anxiety expressed by Frits Bolkestein, the outgoing Dutch European commissioner, that Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht will have non-European majorities within two generations.

Mohammed, he noted, was already the most common first name registered in Amsterdam.

Even older Dutch citizens, once the most tolerant, now favour radical change. “It doesn’t surprise me that youngsters are going out attacking mosques,” said a newsagent in the street where van Gogh died.

Cino Karakik, 19, a Turk whose family owns the bakery across the street, has watched a stream of people arriving to lay wreaths. “They look at me as if to say, ‘Yeah, he’s one of them’,” said Karakik. “People are looking to make trouble.”

Such tensions are valuable to politicians vying for Fortuyn’s mantle. Among them is Geert Wilders, a right-wing MP whose popularity has soared since the secret service revealed that he was on an Islamic extremists’ death list.

Guarded by armed police, he is now campaigning for an end to immigration and has drawn up a list of 200 Islamic extremists to be deported or incarcerated. “We can’t just leave it to the intelligence services to play this impossible game of trying to get every single piece of evidence needed for a judge to put them behind bars,” he said.

A Muslim MAY NOT work for infidels against fellow Muslims, and remain a Muslim in good standing. I would not be surprised if most of their Muslim recruits are moles.

Another attack in this country, and I'll be seeking advice from gun-savvy Freepers as to what they recommend as a handgun and how to go about getting legal authority to carry it. Their wish for martydom will be my pleasure before they run my life.

The facts of life are that if you wait for another attack before getting one, you won't be able to. The shelves will be bare of all the good models, because lots of other people will have had the same idea. Plus you might find yourself in the same position of LA residents during the LA riots, where the local government suspended all sales of guns and ammo during the state of emergency

The time to get one is now.

If you don't have a firearm, the best all-around gun is a shotgun. You can get a good one from Remington or Mossberg for $200 - $300, lower used.

For a first handgun, most people recommend you start with a revolver.

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