longshot
11-04-2004, 03:18 PM
The following article is from the NYtimes.
I figure you are all too lazy to register, so I posted it here.
PARIS, Nov. 3 - The police arrested eight men suspected of being Islamic militants on Wednesday in connection with the killing of a Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, Dutch officials said.
The authorities said the men ranged in age from 19 to 27 and six of them were Moroccan, one was Algerian and one had dual Moroccan and Spanish citizenship. They would not identify the men or release more details.
The officials said the suspect in the case, who had not been identified, had ties to Islamic militants and had visited the apartments of the eight men arrested Wednesday. They said they believed the man had "acted from a radical Islamic conviction."
Mr. van Gogh, a grandson of Vincent van Gogh's brother, Theo, was an outspoken opponent of Islamic extremism and recently received death threats after the broadcast of his short film, "Submission," which criticized mistreatment of Muslim women. He was shot and stabbed on an Amsterdam street early on Tuesday.
The suspect, a Dutch and Moroccan national, was arrested shortly after the killing, following an exchange of fire in which he and a police officer were wounded.
Throughout the day on Tuesday the police said the suspect had no previous police record. But around midnight, the justice minister, Jan Hein Donner, and the interior minister, Johan Remkes, announced that the man was in fact known to the Intelligence Service.
"He moved on the periphery of a group of Muslim militants but he was not part of the hard core of the group," Mr. Remkes said.
In a joint letter to Parliament dated Wednesday, the ministers said that although the suspect's name appeared to be linked to others under investigation, there was no sign that he was planning acts of violence. They said they were still investigating "whether he operated on his own or had help from others in preparing and carrying out his act."
The letter further said: "Given what is known now there are serious considerations that the suspect acted from a radical Islamic conviction." The ministers said investigators were still analyzing a message in Arabic found on the body of the victim and additional written material the suspect was carrying when he was arrested.
In their letter the ministers also said that government officials and Islamic groups had held extensive meetings on Tuesday afternoon to discuss how to fight extremism. The ministers said great efforts had to be made to avoid clashes between opposing groups. To that end, they said they had written to mayors and town councils urging them to engage in discussions with local Muslim groups.
A spokesman for the Intelligence Service, Miranda Havinga, said Wednesday in a telephone interview that for the time being no further information about the suspect and his circle would be disclosed "in order not to hamper the ongoing investigations."
In June and July, the police, acting on information from the Intelligence Service, arrested five Islamic militants, one of them an 18-year-old Moroccan, Samir Azzouz, who was found to have in his home floor plans of the country's only nuclear power plant, Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam, the Parliament, the Defense Ministry and several other public buildings in The Hague.
At the time, the government issued a security alert, offering explanations several weeks later. Until Tuesday, there had been no Islamic-linked violence on Dutch soil. The spokesman for the Intelligence Service said Wednesday that almost 40 people had been arrested over the last several years on suspicion of planning acts of terrorism or recruiting militants.
Few militants are among the close to one million Muslim immigrants or their descendants in the Netherlands, a government report published in August said. But it said that "small groups of young Muslims, mainly of North African origin, have appeared susceptible to radical views."
Militant recruiters focus their efforts on young, jobless or alienated men, a government official said in an earlier interview. An official of the Justice Ministry said more than 150 people suspected of being militants were under investigation.
Several Dutch newspapers, quoting unnamed police sources, reported Wednesday that the suspect in the killing had ties to Samir Azzouz, who has been arraigned on charges of planning violence and is still in prison awaiting trial.
The spokesman at the Intelligence Service declined to comment on the presumed ties.
In its report issued in August, the Intelligence Service said some Islamic extremist cells had been set up in the Netherlands, in part because of the openness of the society and the country's central location in Europe, which has attracted other forms of organized crime as well.
The fear is that the killing may incite right-wing groups to attack immigrants, something that has occurred elsewhere in Europe but has rarely occurred in the Netherlands.
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I figure you are all too lazy to register, so I posted it here.
PARIS, Nov. 3 - The police arrested eight men suspected of being Islamic militants on Wednesday in connection with the killing of a Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, Dutch officials said.
The authorities said the men ranged in age from 19 to 27 and six of them were Moroccan, one was Algerian and one had dual Moroccan and Spanish citizenship. They would not identify the men or release more details.
The officials said the suspect in the case, who had not been identified, had ties to Islamic militants and had visited the apartments of the eight men arrested Wednesday. They said they believed the man had "acted from a radical Islamic conviction."
Mr. van Gogh, a grandson of Vincent van Gogh's brother, Theo, was an outspoken opponent of Islamic extremism and recently received death threats after the broadcast of his short film, "Submission," which criticized mistreatment of Muslim women. He was shot and stabbed on an Amsterdam street early on Tuesday.
The suspect, a Dutch and Moroccan national, was arrested shortly after the killing, following an exchange of fire in which he and a police officer were wounded.
Throughout the day on Tuesday the police said the suspect had no previous police record. But around midnight, the justice minister, Jan Hein Donner, and the interior minister, Johan Remkes, announced that the man was in fact known to the Intelligence Service.
"He moved on the periphery of a group of Muslim militants but he was not part of the hard core of the group," Mr. Remkes said.
In a joint letter to Parliament dated Wednesday, the ministers said that although the suspect's name appeared to be linked to others under investigation, there was no sign that he was planning acts of violence. They said they were still investigating "whether he operated on his own or had help from others in preparing and carrying out his act."
The letter further said: "Given what is known now there are serious considerations that the suspect acted from a radical Islamic conviction." The ministers said investigators were still analyzing a message in Arabic found on the body of the victim and additional written material the suspect was carrying when he was arrested.
In their letter the ministers also said that government officials and Islamic groups had held extensive meetings on Tuesday afternoon to discuss how to fight extremism. The ministers said great efforts had to be made to avoid clashes between opposing groups. To that end, they said they had written to mayors and town councils urging them to engage in discussions with local Muslim groups.
A spokesman for the Intelligence Service, Miranda Havinga, said Wednesday in a telephone interview that for the time being no further information about the suspect and his circle would be disclosed "in order not to hamper the ongoing investigations."
In June and July, the police, acting on information from the Intelligence Service, arrested five Islamic militants, one of them an 18-year-old Moroccan, Samir Azzouz, who was found to have in his home floor plans of the country's only nuclear power plant, Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam, the Parliament, the Defense Ministry and several other public buildings in The Hague.
At the time, the government issued a security alert, offering explanations several weeks later. Until Tuesday, there had been no Islamic-linked violence on Dutch soil. The spokesman for the Intelligence Service said Wednesday that almost 40 people had been arrested over the last several years on suspicion of planning acts of terrorism or recruiting militants.
Few militants are among the close to one million Muslim immigrants or their descendants in the Netherlands, a government report published in August said. But it said that "small groups of young Muslims, mainly of North African origin, have appeared susceptible to radical views."
Militant recruiters focus their efforts on young, jobless or alienated men, a government official said in an earlier interview. An official of the Justice Ministry said more than 150 people suspected of being militants were under investigation.
Several Dutch newspapers, quoting unnamed police sources, reported Wednesday that the suspect in the killing had ties to Samir Azzouz, who has been arraigned on charges of planning violence and is still in prison awaiting trial.
The spokesman at the Intelligence Service declined to comment on the presumed ties.
In its report issued in August, the Intelligence Service said some Islamic extremist cells had been set up in the Netherlands, in part because of the openness of the society and the country's central location in Europe, which has attracted other forms of organized crime as well.
The fear is that the killing may incite right-wing groups to attack immigrants, something that has occurred elsewhere in Europe but has rarely occurred in the Netherlands.
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