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Program announcement
"Al
Qaeda's New Front"
To Air: 25 January 2005 at 21:00EST
Station: PBS Frontline
Mosques burn and a filmmaker is murdered in a culture clash between
Muslims and Christians in the Netherlands. A series of bombs tear apart four
commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people and wounding 1,800. Al Qaeda
terrorist cells are uncovered in the U.K., Germany, Italy, and Spain.
FRONTLINE investigates the new front in the war on terror: Europe. Now home
to 20 million Muslims—which some call "Eurabia"—the continent is a challenge
to intelligence services on both sides of the Atlantic, exacerbated by
political divisions over the Iraq War.
Following the broadcast, visit
FRONTLINE's
Web site for more on this report, including:
· A country-by-country breakdown of terrorist activity in Europe;
· A comparison of European and American approaches to fighting terrorism;
· Why radical salafist and takfir Islamic ideologies are taking root among
some European Muslims;
· A closer look at the current understanding of Al Qaeda and how it
operates;
· Plus, interviews with European and U.S. counterterrorism officials; a
teacher's guide; streaming video of the full show; and more.
-- Reference:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/front/
Jan 15, 2005
U.S., EU Security Depends on Collective Fight
Against Terrorism
Secretary Ridge addresses European Policy Centre in Brussels
BELGIUM: Security for both the United States and the European Union depends on
collective action in the fight against terrorism, U.S. Secretary of Homeland
Security Tom Ridge said January 13 at the European Policy Centre in Brussels,
Belgium.
Ridge announced that the United States will establish a full-time attache from
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to the European Union. “This new
position is not only symbolic of our commitment to increased cooperation, but,
by having a direct link between the Secretary and negotiating partners across
Europe, it will allow for constant communication on an operational level,” he
said.
In addition to reviewing security advances since DHS began formal outreach to
the European community in 2002 – such as the Container Security Initiative -
Ridge said he has learned some valuable lessons.
For example, during the holiday period of 2003, when some international flights
to the United States were canceled because of terrorist threats, DHS had been
dealing directly with the airlines; however, they discovered that “there was a
more effective way to deal with threats to international aviation …. the primary
means of communication must be from government to government.”
“It was an experience that reinforced our understanding of the value and
necessity of the international partnerships we'd been working diligently to
build,” Ridge said. Looking ahead, he cited the need for greater information
sharing between nations and the utilization of more advanced technologies, and
he called for common international biometrics standards.
Ridge noted approvingly the recent establishment in the United States of a
registered traveler program that enables individuals to provide biometric and
biographic information voluntarily, as well as the launching of the first
international pilot of this program at Schipol Airport in the Netherlands on
January 13. The registered traveler program enables participating travelers to
move more quickly through customs checkpoints. -- Soiurce: US DoS
ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE
REPORT
Saturday, January 01, 2005
Vol. 11, No. 001
Dutch Intelligence Warns Extreme Islamists
Radicalizing European Muslim Population
THE NETHERLANDS: The Dutch intelligence agency,
known by the acronym AIVD, warned in a report last
week that radical Islamic ideology is spreading to
thousands of Dutch Muslims through Internet web
sites and online chat rooms.
The threat was outlined in a report on domestic
Islamists prepared by the Home Affairs Ministry. It
follows the murder in November of filmmaker Theo van
Gogh, who was shot and killed in Amsterdam and left
with a note warning "infidel nonbelievers."
The 60-page intelligence report identified eight
sources of radical Islamist organizations, including
Salafist mosques and an Islamist underground
movement that advocates jihad, or holy war.
"Europe and the Netherlands have been confronted
with extreme violence," the report stated, noting
the van Gough murder and the March bombings of
trains in Madrid.
"Recruitment of mainly non-native Dutch youths for
armed radical Islamic holy war is more a trend than
an incident. Simply, the international shift (to
radicalization) has clearly impacted the Dutch
situation."
Online recruitment has made it more difficult for
authorities to track the problem, the report said.
"Especially the youth have found their way to web
sites of radical Islamic spiritual leaders," it
said. "These web sites increasingly contribute to
the radicalization of Muslim communities in the
Netherlands."
In addition to terrorists and radicals, the report
warned that nonviolent "Dawa" movements are
promoting radical Islamic ideologies.
Europe has 20 million Muslims, and many radical
leftist groups have joined forces with the Islamic
radicals. -- Source: Geostrategy-Direct, Week of
January 4, 2005, Compiled by Bill Gertz (also of
Washington Times)
ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE
REPORT
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Vol. 10, No. 345
Pizza courier 'targeted' Amsterdam sex zone
AMSTERDAM — Justice authorities arrested a Moroccan
man last month after receiving a tip-off that
Islamic extremists were allegedly planning an attack
on the Red Light District in Amsterdam, it was
reported on Friday.
The pizza-delivery courier allegedly conducted
reconnaissance of the capital's prostitution zone
while riding through the area during work hours on
his scooter. He was arrested on 5 November.
Newspaper De Telegraaf described him as a "radical
Moroccan pizza deliverer".
The National Detectives Unit was alerted to the
supposed attack plan by three anonymous emails, the
first of which was received on 14 September. Emails
dated 27 September and 11 October gave further
details of the suspects and addresses.
The emails warned that "terrorists in Amsterdam
East" were plotting an attack on the Wallen area in
Amsterdam, De Telegraaf reported. Muslim extremists,
the paper said, were allegedly furious at the lack
of morals in the prostitution zone.
Justice authorities took the tips very seriously and
arrested the pizza deliverer at the Nasr mosque in
the Celebesstraat in Amsterdam East. The man has
been identified as a 20-year-old Amsterdam resident
of Moroccan descent, Bilal L., alias Abu Qataadah.
L. was allegedly in contact with Syrian Redouan al-Issa,
the fugitive leader of the terror network
Hofstadgroep (Main City Group). The Syrian was an
illegal immigrant in the Netherlands and gave Koran
lessons in the home of Mohammed B., the suspected
murderer of filmmaker Theo van Gogh. B. is also a
member of the Main City Group.
The emails claimed the Syrian was involved in the
plans to attack the Red Light District, while
another target was the Dutch Parliament in The
Hague. L. is alleged to have bought equipment needed
to carry out the attack.
It is possible that L. was in contact with Jason W.,
one of the two suspects arrested in a stand-off with
police in The Hague on 10 November. The detective
unit involved in the investigation claims the group
around L. regularly met at the Aboe Bakr mosque in
Almere.
ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE
REPORT
Monday, November 15, 2004
Vol. 10, No. 318
Battle Against
Terrorism is Truely World-Wide Endeavour;
Islamic Militancy Rising?
WORLDWIDE: The same day Dutch mourners gathered
outside a crematorium for a final goodbye to slain
filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, police on the other side of
the world made a horrific discovery in a hut: the
decapitated body of a Thai laborer.
The two events — in settings as different as tidy
and prosperous Holland and a tropical rubber
plantation in southern Thailand — bear similarities
that suggest new flash points in the global struggle
against radical Islam.
A note impaled on Van Gogh's body by the alleged
Muslim killer threatened further attacks against
Dutch politicians in the name of Islam. The body of
the 60-year-old Buddhist worker in Thailand also was
found last week with a message: "More will be
killed" in revenge for the deaths of 85 Muslim
protesters last month in a region with a mounting
Islamic insurgency.
"The fault lines are growing," said Fawaz Gerges, a
professor of Middle Eastern and International
Affairs at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville,
N.Y. "It's not just between the Muslims and
non-Muslims. It's also within Islam itself. It's a
battle between moderate Muslims and extremist forces
that threaten to hijack Islam."
The most recent hot spots zigzag around the atlas —
from Liberia in West Africa to the Netherlands to
Southeast Asia. They join a growing roster of places
already feeling the strains of religious conflict
and terrorism along the edges of the Islamic world —
regions as diverse as Chechnya, Nigeria, Spain,
Central Asia and the Philippines. Even China is
worried about separatist sentiment in its vast and
mostly Muslim western province of Xinjiang.
"The militant voices on the street are gaining
credibility in more and more places," said Gerges.
"That's a worrisome trend."
Part of the reason, many Islamic experts say, can be
traced to global communications that forge common
points of reference such as al-Qaida leader Osama
bin Laden's defiance or the guerrilla attacks on
U.S. forces in Iraq. But even more powerful rallying
cries come from firebrand imams and opinion-shapers:
that Islam is under threat and it's the duty of
followers to take a stand.
"We are seeing more tears in the fabric between
Muslims and non-Muslims," said Mohammad Khalil, who
researches Islam and modern society at the Middle
East Institute in Washington. "In too many minds,
violence has replaced dialogue; calls for separation
have replaced efforts at coexistence. These are not
good signs."
-- Reference:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,138553,00.html
ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE
REPORT
Sunday, November 14, 2004
Vol. 10, No. 317
Thirteen Arrested Men are Member of "Hofstad
Netwerk"
NETHERLANDS: Dutch authorities are saying the 13
young Muslims detained on terrorism charges after
the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh are members of
a radical Islamic group that Dutch intelligence
calls the "Hofstad Netwerk." The uncovered cell,
composed mostly of young Dutch Muslims of North
African descent, has links to militant networks in
Spain and Belgium. The Dutch Interior Ministry has
reported that several members of the group have
traveled to Pakistan for training and its members
were under the influence of their 43-year-old Syrian
spiritual leader, Redouan al-Issar, for many years.
Al-Issar, who also goes by the name Abu Kaled, has
disappeared.
ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE
REPORT
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Vol. 10, No. 313
Raid in The Hague Results in Arrest of Three
Terror Suspects
THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS: Special forces stormed a
house in The Hague on Wednesday, ending a 15-hour
standoff in which one suspect and three police
officers were wounded, authorities said. Two
suspected terrorists were arrested in the raid and a
third was detained in another city, the Associated
Press and ABCNews reported.
The standoff began when special forces tried to
storm the house but aborted the effort after the
three officers were injured by an explosive booby
trap and a hand grenade that was thrown at them,
Police Chief Gerard Bouwman said. It ended with a
second raid by black-masked special forces shortly
before dark. Police sealed off the area while they
searched the building for explosives.
Bouwman said two suspects were arrested in the
standoff. A third was detained in the city of
Utrecht in a related investigation, according to the
national prosecutor's office. One of the officers
was seriously wounded, Bouwman said.
During the siege, several city blocks were cordoned
off in a mostly immigrant neighborhood near The
Hague's Holland Spoor train station and residents
were taken by bus to a school.
Police snipers were posted on nearby rooftops,
helicopters hovered overhead and at least a dozen
SWAT teams stood ready on standby. Eight to 10
gunshots rang out at one point. A bare-chested man,
handcuffed and blindfolded, was seen being carried
from the house on a stretcher. Police spokesman Jan
van den Braak confirmed that one suspect was shot in
the shoulder.
Witness Irma Heijmans said on national television
she saw two young men one who appeared to be wounded
escorted from the building by police. An Associated
Press reporter saw video of a wounded man being
arrested and taken away by ambulance.
Tensions have been high in the Netherlands since Van
Gogh's murder in Amsterdam eight days ago, with more
than a dozen arson attacks against churches and
mosques. An Islamic school in Eindhoven was bombed
Monday night, and another in Uden was burned down
Tuesday. No injuries were reported. Van Gogh had
received death threats after the release of his most
recent movie about the treatment of women under
Islam.
Six suspects, believed to be members of a radical
Islamic terrorist group, are in police custody in
connection with the Van Gogh murder, including the
alleged killer, 26-year-old Mohammed Bouyeri, who
holds dual Dutch and Moroccan citizenship.
Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende interrupted a
parliamentary debate on the European Union to
discuss the country's crisis. "Extremism is reaching
the roots of our democracy," he said. "We cannot let
ourselves be blinded by people who seek to drag us
into a spiral of violence.
ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE
REPORT
Monday, November 08, 2004
Vol. 10, No. 311
Radical Right
Retaliation For Killing of Author in Netherlands;
Explosion At Islamic School
NETHERLANDS: An explosion damaged the entrance
of an Islamic school in the southern Dutch town of
Eindhoven on Monday, police said, the latest attack
on a Muslim institution following the killing of a
filmmaker.
Police said they were investigating the cause of the
blast, which took place at 0230 GMT, but it followed
a series of violent incidents against Muslim
institutes since last Tuesday's killing of filmmaker
Theo Van Gogh, who was critical of Islam.
Alexander Sakkers, mayor of Eindhoven, told NOS
television that the "idiotic" attack should not
raise tension between groups of the population.
At the weekend, mosques in the city of Rotterdam and
the towns of Breda and Huizen were attacked, though
not badly damaged, in response to Tuesday's murder
of Theo Van Gogh, who was critical of Islam.
Police detained a 24-year-old man on suspicion of
setting fire to the mosque in Rotterdam on Sunday
morning. Only the door was damaged. Pamphlets
insulting Islam and showing pictures of pigs heads
were plastered on another mosque in Rotterdam.
In Amsterdam, a center for immigrants was daubed
with red paint. A Dutch-Moroccan man, suspected of
being an Islamic militant, was charged with Van
Gogh's murder on Friday.
Early on Friday, several fires broke out at a mosque
in the central town of Utrecht. Police said they
suspected arson.
Far-right protesters have marched in Amsterdam and
Rotterdam to express their anger at Van Gogh's
killing, while the government has urged calm amid
fears of retaliation in a country where hostility
toward foreigners is on the rise.
ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE
REPORT
Sunday, November 07, 2004
Vol. 10, No. 310
Netherlands Receives
Threats in Letter Found on Body of Murdered
Filmmaker;
European Politicians Finally Seem to be Able to
Understand their Vulnerability
THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS: The Dutch government
yesterday vowed tough measures against what a
leading politician called "the arrival of jihad in
the Netherlands" after a death threat to a Dutch
lawmaker was found spiked with a knife to the body
of a slain filmmaker by his radical Muslim attacker.
A five-page letter released Thursday night by the
justice minister forced political leaders —
including Amsterdam's Jewish mayor and members of
parliament — to take on bodyguards.
The document, attached to the body of filmmaker Theo
van Gogh, was titled "An Open Letter to [Aayan]
Hirsi Ali," referring to a Somali-born member of
parliament. She had scripted Mr.. van Gogh's latest
film, "Submission," which criticized the treatment
of women under Islam. Miss Hirsi Ali, who calls
herself an ex-Muslim, has subsequently gone into
hiding.
"Death, Ms. Hirsi Ali, is the common theme of all
that exists. You and the rest of the cosmos cannot
escape this truth," the letter said. "There will
come a day when one soul cannot help another soul. A
day that goes paired with terrible tortures, ...
when the unjust will press horrible screams from
their lungs.
"Screams, Ms. Hirsi Ali, that will cause chills to
run down a person's back, and make the hairs on
their heads stand straight up. People will be drunk
with fear, while they are not drunken. Fear will
fill the air on the Great Day," the letter said.
"I know definitely that you, Oh America, will go
down. I know definitely that you, Oh Europe, will go
down. I know definitely that you, Oh Netherlands,
will go down. I know definitely that you, Oh Hirsi
Ali, will go down," it said.
Deputy Prime Minister Gerrit Zalm agreed with
comments by other politicians who called Mr.. van
Gogh's slaying a declaration of Islamic jihad, or
"holy war."
"We are not going to tolerate this. We are going to
ratchet up the fight against this sort of
terrorism," he said. "The increase in radicalization
is worse than we had thought."
ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE
REPORT
Friday, November 05, 2004
Vol. 10, No. 308
Threat Letter Found on Body of Slain Filmmaker
THE HAGUE, Netherlands: A letter left on the
body of a Dutch filmmmaker murdered in Amsterdam
contained death threats against a politician and was
signed by a suspected terrorist group, the justice
minister said Thursday, as police pressed an
investigation into radical Islamic groups.
Dutch authorities have arrested nine men - eight of
Moroccan - all believed tied to Islamic militant
groups, in Tuesday's shooting and stabbing of Theo
van Gogh. Authorities have said they are
investigating possible links between the suspects
and international terrorist groups, including those
responsible for the Casablanca bombings in May last
year.
Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner said Thursday the
note contained a "direct warning" to the film's
screenwriter, Ayaan Hirst Ali, a Somali-born
lawmaker who has outraged fellow Muslims by
criticizing Islamic customs and the failure of
Muslim families to adopt Dutch ways. She had been
under police protection before the slaying. Van Gogh
received death threats after the film was released
in August.
Donner said the way the 5-page letter "was presented
indicates that it is not from one person, but a
movement." The letter, which was addressed to Ali,
said "I know definitely that you, Hirsi Ali, will go
down." It was signed "Saifu Deen al Muwahhied."
The chief suspect, who has been identified only as
Mohammed B., 26, holds dual Dutch-Moroccan
nationality. He was arrested after being wounded in
the leg during a shootout with police shortly after
the slaying and was to appear before a judge Friday,
when prosecutors said they would file charges. It
was not clear what charges the other eight suspects
would face.
ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE
REPORT
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Vol. 10, No. 232
Madrid Bombing
Suspect Arrested in Netherlands
SOURCE: Reuters (www.reuters.com)
THE NETHERLANDS: Dutch police have arrested a
man they suspect may have been involved in the March
11 Madrid train bombings, prosecutors said. Police
searched two
homes in the southern town of Roosendaal near the
Belgian border, after receiving information that one
or several people suspected of involvement in the
attacks were in the Netherlands, the prosecutors
said in a statement.
"We are currently verifying the person's identity.
We are still not sure if he is the one wanted
by the Spanish police," said a spokesman for the
regional prosecutors office. He declined to give
further details about the suspect.
Eight other people were also detained with one held
on drug-related charges. The other seven were turned
over to immigration authorities. Islamic militants
acting in the name of Al Qaeda are suspected of
having carried out the attacks on four Madrid
commuter trains that
killed 191 people on March 11.
(1)
Get the whole story from the Overseas Security
Advisory Council, click here: http://www.ds-osac.org/news/story.cfm?contentID=23197
(may
require registration)
(2) Analysis: © EmergencyNet News Service, 2005.
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