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The internet has become a powerful catalyst for international violent jihad, according to a new report from the Dutch security service AIVD.

AMSTERDAM — Shots were fired as police raided a building on the Moerweg in The Hague on Friday. Dutch parliament buildings hermetically sealed by police Witnesses reported seeing masked men with automatic weapons entering a flat complex on Moerweg which has been sealed off by the police. Radio 1 News was told of people hearing gunfire. The police in The Hague have declined to comment at this stage about the reports. A spokesperson would only say police operations are taking place at several locations in the city. She would also not confirm that a raid was carried out at a...

AMSTERDAM — Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk is moving to deport three Muslim clerics because of accusations they represent a threat to public order and national security. The three imams will be declared undesirable aliens and two of them will have their residence permits cancelled, the first such action has been taken against clerics. In the third imam's case, an application for an extension of a residence permit will be refused. The Dutch security service AIVD said one of the imams originates from Bosnia and a second comes from Kenya. The origin of the third imam was not released, newspaper De...

According to security services, a Dutch chemist is suspected to have been involved with the banned weapons program of Saddam Hussein. It is the 60 year old Frans van A. from Den Helder. This was reported by the newspaper 'De Telegraaf' on Saturday. Van A. is probebly hiding in Baghdad, heavily guarded by the Iraqi Republican Guards. He has been under surveillance by the Dutch security service AIVD for several years. According to the AIVD, it is an 'unique situation', because Van A. is one of the few foreigners that has intensive contacts to the regime of Saddam Hussein. Also...

Suspect in Van Gogh Murder Case has Contacts with Islamic Fundamentalists Amsterdam - The 26-year-old suspect witnesses say murdered Theo van Gogh, 47, on the Linneausstraat in Amsterdam Tuesday the 2nd of November, was, says Ministers Piet Donner at Justice and Johan Remkes at Internal Affairs, associated with a group of Islamic extremists who were under surveillance by the General Intelligence and Investigation Agency (Aivd). This contact, say the Ministers, makes it plausible the holder of a Dutch and Moroccan passport acted on grounds of a "radical Islamic conviction". The man appeared only incidentally in the investigation conducted by the...

Young Muslims in the Netherlands are being recruited for armed terrorism missions against Western targets, the Dutch secret service warned today. In a note to parliament, the agency – known by its Dutch acronym AIVD - repeated its November 2002 warning that recruits are active in the Netherlands. “It’s known that some stayed in a training camp. Others are involved in supporting Islamic terrorism-related activities like arranging money and passports,” the agency said. “Still others are in turn trying to win over other potential recruits.” Since the terror attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, 17 terrorism suspects...

10 Mar 2004 18:55:06 GMT Dutch worried about Islamic extremist recruitment AMSTERDAM, March 10 (Reuters) - Wars in Iraq and Chechnya, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and alienation of immigrants are helping Islamic extremists find willing Dutch recruits for "holy struggle", the Dutch secret service said on Wednesday. In a report prepared for parliament and published on its website, the Dutch secret service, AIVD, said it saw an increase in the recruitment of young Muslims, some of them minors. It estimates "a few dozen" are willing to engage in violence. "Young Muslims in the Netherlands are attracted to these radical ideas and...