Free Republic

MSTERDAM, Nov. 6 - Five days after a Dutch-Moroccan man killed the outspoken filmmaker Theo van Gogh in broad daylight here, intelligence officials say they are investigating a possible international dimension to what many people see as the country's first Islamic terrorist attack. While intelligence officials caution that there is no evidence to prove that the suspect in Mr. Van Gogh's killing was part of a larger organization, they have focused on his past association with people who are suspected of plotting bombings and may have links to terrorist networks abroad. "There are links to the transnational Al Qaeda network,"...

The government vowed tough measures yesterday against what a leading politician called ''the arrival of jihad in the Netherlands"

AMSTERDAM — Police are reportedly investigating a possible connection between the man suspected of killing Dutch filmmaker and columnist Theo van Gogh and the terror network al-Qaeda. The Netherlands-born suspect — identified as Mohammed B., 26, holding Dutch and Moroccan nationality — also had contact with eight other men arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of terrorist activities. The arrests were made as police raided B.'s house in Marianne Philipsstraat in Amsterdam-Slotermeer and four other homes in the Dutch capital on Wednesday. Police seized computers, videos and literature. The men are suspected of being part of a criminal gang, but it...

Dutch police have arrested a Muslim extremist who was sentenced on Monday to six years in prison in absentia. The 29-year-old French citizen Jerome Courtailler, a convert to Islam, turned himself in to police on Thursday. A court in The Hague had found him guilty of planning to attack the US embassy in Paris. Three other Muslim extremists also received jail sentences. It was the first time that a Dutch court has sentenced Muslim extremists on charges of terrorism.

According to transcripts of tapped telephone conversations by a key suspect in the Madrid bombings, the Netherlands is a potential target for al-Qaeda. The 33-year-old alleged terrorist was arrested in Italy on Tuesday. In the partially published transcripts, he reportedly names two terrorist cells that are preparing a strike in the Netherlands. One of those cells, he says later, fell apart. A potential terrorist attack on Dutch soil – it's a threat which both the Hague government and domestic intelligence have been taking seriously for quite some time. In this year's annual report, the Dutch Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD)...

Dutch Muslims Growing Tired of Hostile Climate THE HAGUE, 27 October 2003 ­— On the eve of the holy month of Ramadan many Dutch Muslims are worried about the increasingly hostile climate toward Islam in the traditionally tolerant Netherlands. After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the Netherlands was one of the European countries with the highest increase reported in verbal or physical attacks on Muslims or Islamic symbols, according to a United Nations report on human rights. The meteoric rise of rightwing populist politician Pim Fortuyn, who called Islam “backward” in 2002, marked a polarization...

The DA office suspects that 150 moslims in the Netherlands followed a divingcourse. These persons are possibly connected to the jihad, the holy war against enemies of islam. Threat Spokesman De Bruin of the national prosecuters office of the DA said that the case is investigated at this moment. Earlier foreign minister Remkes wrote a letter to the Tweede Kamer (highest Dutch government body) that the threat of islamic terroristic attacks does not decrease. Recent developments indicate that there is a lot happening in the Netherlands in the area of fighting terrorism. Thursday 12 man were indicted in the court...

Two of the pilots who flew into the WTC, Atta en Al-Shehhi, were possibly prepared for their suicide-mission on September 11 2001 in the Al Fourqaan mosque in Eindhoven, a city in the Netherlands. A AIVD (Dutch security service) spokesman confirms the investigation, that was published in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. The AIVD thinks it is too early to confirm the information published in the newspaper. 'We have the case under investigation', is the only thing the spokesman says. The Al Fourqaan mosque, located in the Otterstraat, was earlier linked to training jihadwarrios. It is the first time...