http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4594303,00.html

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - Police arrested eight more suspected
Islamic radicals Wednesday in the slaying of a Dutch filmmaker who
criticized Muslim customs. Lawmakers questioned why authorities hadn't
kept tabs on the alleged killer, who had a record of violent crime and
contacts with a group under surveillance.

The arrests were made in the 24 hours since Theo van Gogh was slain
while cycling down an Amsterdam street Tuesday - believed to be the 
first Islamic terrorist attack in the Netherlands. 

Six of the detainees are of Moroccan ancestry, one is Algerian and the
last has dual Spanish-Moroccan nationality, prosecution spokeswoman
Dop Kruimel said. The eight are in addition to the suspect arrested
minutes after the slaying, a 26-year-old Amsterdam resident of
Moroccan origin.

Their ethnic identities raised questions of links to the March 11
train bombings that killed 191 people in Madrid, Spain. Twenty-nine
suspects, mostly Moroccans, have been charged in those attacks; others
arrested were of Algerian, Spanish, Tunisian and Egyptian origin.

The Netherlands has arrested more than 40 terrorism suspects since the
Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, including many accused of
providing logistical support for groups linked to al-Qaida. Muslim
youths are thought to have been recruited here, and experts believe a
number of cells in the Netherlands provide funding to foreign
terrorist cells. 

The country is home to 3 million first- or second-generation
immigrants, almost 20 percent of the 16 million population. There are
about 300,000 Moroccan nationals in the Netherlands.

Kruimel said five of the suspects, whose identities were not released,
were detained and released during an October 2003 investigation into a
potential terrorist threat.

``They were previously known to us,'' Kruimel said. ``As of now only
one suspect is being held for Van Gogh's murder, but the investigation
will determine if others may have been connected.''

The Dutch have reacted with outrage to the killing of the filmmaker,
testing the nation's famed tolerance and straining already tense
relations with the Muslim immigrant population.

Mainstream Dutch Muslim groups condemned the killing. A number of
mosques were closed Tuesday night for fear of vandalism, and political
figures were given additional police protection.

Newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported that conservative politician Ayan
Hirsi Ali, who wrote the script for Van Gogh's latest provocative
movie criticizing the treatment of women under Islam, received a death
threat in an e-mail Wednesday that read ``You're next.''

The Justice Ministry said the suspect in the murder of the 47-year-old
filmmaker - a distant relative of painter Vincent Van Gogh - is a
Muslim radical associated with Islamic fundamentalists on a terrorist
watch list.

Interior Minister Johan Remkes confirmed that the suspect was known to
have associated with a group of 150 radicals who are watched day and
night by the Dutch secret service for fear they may commit a terrorist
act.

The suspect himself was not on that watch list. Authorities didn't
release his name, and Dutch media identified him only as Mohammed B.

The suspect had contacts with Samir Azzouz, an 18-year-old Moroccan
immigrant accused of plotting terrorist attacks against Dutch targets,
NOS Dutch television reported.

Members of parliament called for an emergency debate on why the
alleged killer - who police say had a record of violent crime - hadn't
been stopped.

``Is this a murder, or is this a terrorist attack?'' said Jozias van
Aartsen, leader of the conservative VVD party. ``The facts must come
out very, very quickly.''

Van Gogh released a fictional film in August about the mistreatment of
Muslim women. In the film, women were shown naked with texts from the
Quran scrawled on their bodies.

Police and eyewitnesses said the attacker shot Van Gogh, stabbed him,
cut his throat with one knife, and pinned a note to his chest with
another.

The note is said to have contained texts from the Quran in Arabic,
though police would not confirm this. According to NRC Handelsblad,
the note called for an Islamic holy war, or jihad.

Van Gogh's killing, which came two years after the murder of populist
anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn in 2002, stirred outrage and
fears that Dutch people will no longer feel free to speak their minds.

Immigration minister Rita Verdonk told 20,000 Dutch who flocked to
Amsterdam's central square for a noisy wake Tuesday night that ``we
won't take this.''

In the past two years, the government has passed a series of laws
cracking down on violent crime, which is often blamed on immigrants;
expanding prosecutors' wiretapping powers to thwart would-be
terrorists; and restricting further immigration.

Verdonk called an emergency meeting with leaders of Muslim groups to
discuss how to avoid confrontations, and Prime Minister Jan Peter
Balkenende appealed for calm.

``At moments like this, people's prejudices come out,'' said Masite
Halici, a young Dutch woman of Turkish ancestry who came to lay a rose
where Van Gogh was killed.

``They are angry, fearful, grieving. But this is not about Muslims or
non-Muslims. This is about people being able to say what they
think.'' 








------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
$9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/TySplB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

--------------------------
Want to discuss this topic?  Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
--------------------------
Brooks Isoldi, editor
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

http://www.intellnet.org

  Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Subscribe:    [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  Unsubscribe:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]


*** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been 
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence 
Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have 
expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to 
advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their 
activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and 
other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes 
only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as 
provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this 
copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must 
obtain permission from the copyright owner.
For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    [EMAIL PROTECTED]

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
 



Reply via email to