C L O S E R

Protected: Ik ben de man uit Barcelona, Spanje en Andalusi�

Posted on November 5th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

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Protected: Nogmaals een jaar na…Tussen Shaytan en Shaytan

Posted on November 2nd, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, My Research.

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Protected: C L O S E R – E�n jaar na…

Posted on November 1st, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Some personal considerations.

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Protected: de Volkskrant – Saleh B. verdacht van terreur

Posted on November 1st, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

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Bestuurskundigen blikken terug op debat na moord op Theo van Gogh – Nieuws en Agenda – Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA)

Posted on October 30th, 2005 by .
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues.

Bestuurskundigen blikken terug op debat na moord op Theo van Gogh – Nieuws en Agenda – Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA)
Bestuurskundigen blikken terug op debat na moord op Theo van Gogh

Op 2 november is het precies een jaar geleden dat Nederland werd opgeschrikt door de brute moord op Theo van Gogh. In de daaropvolgende dagen werden moskee�n in brand gestoken, verklaarde minister Zalm de oorlog aan het moslimextremisme en kwamen buitenlandse journalisten in groten getale naar Amsterdam om de trouble in paradise van dichtbij te bekijken. Nu de rook is opgetrokken, blijkt echter dat de discussie zich anders heeft ontwikkeld dan men op het eerste gezicht zou verwachten.

Dat blijkt uit de resultaten van het onderzoek naar het mediadebat volgend op de moord van Theo van Gogh, die de politicologen Maarten Hajer en Justus Uitermark zullen presenteren op woensdagmiddag 2 november. In hun presentatie komen bovendien de verschillende strategie�n aan bod die Amsterdamse politici hebben gebruikt om zich staande te houden in dat debat – en het zeer wisselende succes daarvan.

Na afloop van de presentatie is er een borrel, en kunnen ge�nteresseerden een informatiemarkt bezoeken over de de master Bestuur en beleid en de gelijknamige specialisatierichting binnen de bachelor Politicologie. Informatie over de master Bestuur en beleid is te vinden via de verwijzing onder aan deze pagina.

De bijeenkomst zal plaatsvinden in de Oudemanhuispoort 4-6 en om 13.00 uur beginnen. Voor meer informatie en aanmelding: Wytske Versteeg, w.b.versteeg@uva.nl.

Woensdag 2 november 2005, 13:00 – 15:00 uur

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Protected: NRC Handelsblad – Lid terreurgroep bleef ongemoeid

Posted on October 28th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, My Research, Religious and Political Radicalization.

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Protected: 1 op de middag: Radicalisering moslimjongeren

Posted on October 28th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, My Research, Religious and Political Radicalization.

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Protected: Vragen over acute terreurdreiging

Posted on October 17th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Misc. News, Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization.

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Seven held in anti-terror raids in the Netherlands

Posted on October 14th, 2005 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Expatica’s Dutch news in English: Seven held in anti-terror raids in the Netherlands

Seven held in anti-terror raids in the Netherlands. The operation was designed to prevent terror attacks. It was ordered by the national detective unit as part of an investigation into a terrorist organisation, a spokesperson for the office of the public prosecutor (OM) said.

The suspects were held in Almere, Amsterdam and The Hague. Six of the suspects are men, aged 18 to 30. The seventh is a 24-year-old woman. One of the men is 19-year-old Samir A., the OM spokesperson said.

Probably his wife Abida is held as well.

A. was cleared by a court earlier this year of charges he was plotting terrorist attacks on a nuclear power station and other key
installations in the Netherlands. He is considered the main suspect in the latest investigation.

Reports received by the Dutch intelligence service AIVD suggested, the OM said, that A. was trying to obtain automatic weapons and explosives.

The national coordinator for countering terrorism has released a press statement as well.

Following the arrest of several individuals suspected of terrorist activities, additional security measures have been put into immediate effect at the recommendation of the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism (NCTb). Information from intelligence services has prompted these measures, which relate to surveillance and protection of specific objects and persons. Some measures will be visible to the public. For instance, the Binnenhof (the parliamentary and governmental complex in The Hague) will be under tighter surveillance. The headquarters of the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) in Leidschendam, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations will also be under tighter surveillance. It is not yet possible to say how long this level of surveillance will be in place. For security reasons, no further information about personal security measures can be provided.

There is no need to raise the general threat level associated with the national terrorist threat assessment. As reported earlier, the current threat level for the Netherlands is substantial, and that level remains unchanged. Nor is there any need to place any of the sectors participating in the Counterterrorism Alert System (Alerteringssysteem Terrorismebestrijding; Atb) on alert, or to raise either of the sectors already at a moderate alert level � Dutch Railways (NS) and Amsterdam�s Schiphol Airport � to a higher level.

At the press conference Dutch ministers Donner (Justice department) and Remkes (Interior) declared they are related to the so called ‘hofstadgroup’. A group that, according to them, has grown and become more autonomous (not really clear what they mean by that but probably that there are few or none international links) and abuse islam for their terrorist activities (a message clearly directed at Muslims and non-muslims in the Netherlands).

UPDATE:
Samir A. is considered the prime suspect. According to the Dutch intelligence and information service (AIVD) he was looking for explosives and automatic weapons and probably preparing an attack on politicians and a governmentbuilding (perhaps the AIVD office).

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President Discusses War on Terror at National Endowment for Democracy

Posted on October 6th, 2005 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues.

US President Bush ‘Discusses War on Terror at National Endowment for Democracy’

In a speech delivered at The National Endowment for Democracy (an organisation for the support of freedom around the world) he discusses the ‘evil of islamic radicalism’ (and the strategies of countering this ‘evil’) and refers to (among other things) at the killing of Van Gogh by Mohammed B.:

The murderous ideology of the Islamic radicals is the great challenge of our new century. Yet, in many ways, this fight resembles the struggle against communism in the last century. Like the ideology of communism, Islamic radicalism is elitist, led by a self-appointed vanguard that presumes to speak for the Muslim masses. Bin Laden says his own role is to tell Muslims, quote, “what is good for them and what is not.” And what this man who grew up in wealth and privilege considers good for poor Muslims is that they become killers and suicide bombers. He assures them that his — that this is the road to paradise — though he never offers to go along for the ride.

Like the ideology of communism, our new enemy teaches that innocent individuals can be sacrificed to serve a political vision. And this explains their cold-blooded contempt for human life. We’ve seen it in the murders of Daniel Pearl, Nicholas Berg, and Margaret Hassan, and many others. In a courtroom in the Netherlands, the killer of Theo Van Gogh turned to the victim’s grieving mother and said, “I do not feel your pain — because I believe you are an infidel.” And in spite of this veneer of religious rhetoric, most of the victims claimed by the militants are fellow Muslims.

When 25 Iraqi children are killed in a bombing, or Iraqi teachers are executed at their school, or hospital workers are killed caring for the wounded, this is murder, pure and simple — the total rejection of justice and honor and morality and religion. These militants are not just the enemies of America, or the enemies of Iraq, they are the enemies of Islam and the enemies of humanity. (Applause.) We have seen this kind of shameless cruelty before, in the heartless zealotry that led to the gulags, and the Cultural Revolution, and the killing fields.

(my italics)

Bush, and I would like to state that here, did not meant (in this speech) that islam is evil:

Some call this evil Islamic radicalism; others, militant Jihadism; still others, Islamo-fascism. Whatever it’s called, this ideology is very different from the religion of Islam. This form of radicalism exploits Islam to serve a violent, political vision: the establishment, by terrorism and subversion and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom. These extremists distort the idea of jihad into a call for terrorist murder against Christians and Jews and Hindus — and also against Muslims from other traditions, who they regard as heretics.
[…]
As we do our part to confront radicalism, we know that the most vital work will be done within the Islamic world, itself. And this work has begun. Many Muslim scholars have already publicly condemned terrorism, often citing Chapter 5, Verse 32 of the Koran, which states that killing an innocent human being is like killing all humanity, and saving the life of one person is like saving all of humanity. After the attacks in London on July the 7th, an imam in the United Arab Emirates declared, “Whoever does such a thing is not a Muslim, nor a religious person.” The time has come for all responsible Islamic leaders to join in denouncing an ideology that exploits Islam for political ends, and defiles a noble faith.

Many people of the Muslim faith are proving their commitment at great personal risk. Everywhere we have engaged the fight against extremism, Muslim allies have stood up and joined the fight, becoming partners in a vital cause. Afghan troops are in combat against Taliban remnants. Iraqi soldiers are sacrificing to defeat al Qaeda in their own country. These brave citizens know the stakes — the survival of their own liberty, the future of their own region, the justice and humanity of their own tradition — and that United States of America is proud to stand beside them. (Applause.)

So now you can applaud 😉

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Protected: De zaak tegen Outman ben A.

Posted on October 6th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues.

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War comes to the heart of Europe

Posted on September 25th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Internal Debates, International Terrorism, Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Public Islam, Religious and Political Radicalization.

An article in Asia Times Online :: Asian News, Business and Economy. by Pepe Escobar that owes much credit to Gilles Kepels book ‘War for Muslim Minds’

The battle over the future of global Islam will be fought and decided in Europe.

Whether or not it is responsible for the attacks on London, the al-Qaeda nebula is now configured as a relentless jihadi recruitment mechanism, profiting from the fact that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has been added to its original mix of extreme Wahhabism and Silicon Valley (which al-Qaeda’s number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, visited in the early 1990s).

In this article the author discusses the concepts of al-wala wal-bara (“loyalty and separation”) that is crucial for understanding Mohammed B. cs ideology.

Whether or not it is responsible for the attacks on London, the al-Qaeda nebula is now configured as a relentless jihadi recruitment mechanism, profiting from the fact that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has been added to its original mix of extreme Wahhabism and Silicon Valley (which al-Qaeda’s number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, visited in the early 1990s).

“Al-Qaeda” is a mutating virus, proliferating secretly in unexpected places. It used to thrive on subterfuge, evasion and deception. Now, the virus is attacking on three fronts. The Internet spreads the lethal, remixed Koran of jihad’s aims and ideology; Iraq has become the university for a new, deadly generation of internationalist jihadis; and Europe is the latest battleground where the new generation is bound to strike. The Euro-jihadi is here to stay.

“Al-Qaeda” is now a metaphor for global, deterritorialized jihad – indeed a “database” (as its original name implies) that strives to represent the microcosm of the whole Islamic umma (community). This is a political war conducted by a revolutionary vanguard. It is also a social war. It is definitely not a religious war. Whether religious war may succeed it depends to a large extent on the Muslim population of Europe, and whether it can isolate the Euro-jihadis.

No one is innocent
The killing of innocents, or massacre of infidels – as in London’s attacks – is not considered terrorism by either Osama bin Laden or Zawahiri: as bin Laden himself has made clear, it is seriously regarded as only a minor reparation for all the crimes committed against Islam since the end of the 600-year-long Ottoman Empire in 1923.

Al-Qaeda may be a revolutionary vanguard, but it is always careful to cloak its war as a war against unbelievers. In December 2002, Zawahiri published a crucial pamphlet in the London daily, al-Quds al-Arabi, widely reproduced on the jihadi Internet. He quoted a Koranic verse to justify the accidental killing of Muslims in attacks against unbelievers: the Muslims should not be there in the first place. Because it is ostensibly a war against unbelievers, al-Qaeda cannot but stress that if Muslims are associated with unbelievers, Islam itself is in danger.

Many clerics used this scholarly doctrine – al-wala wal-bara (“loyalty and separation”, in Arabic) to explain why Baghdad fell to the Mongols in the 13th century, as well as the Spanish Reconquista of Andalusia. Zawahiri used it to legitimize any “collateral damage” by jihad. The measure of Zawahiri’s influence is offered by the new, lethal and even more nihilistic generation of jihadis operating in Iraq: they have no problems justifying the killing of fellow Muslims and innocent Iraqi civilians, because for them these people are “associating with unbelievers”. Zawahiri made it clear in 2002 that any Muslim ally of America was by definition an apostate: “Jihad against Americans, Jews and their allies among the hypocrites and apostates is mandatory on all Muslims.”

The Euro-jihadis
The London investigation followed three leads: the attackers might have come from the Middle East, from Northern Africa, or they could have been British. Now Scotland Yard has established they were four men aged 18 to 30, “cleanskins” – with no criminal record – and British-born, of Pakistani origin. In short: the new, lethal, generation of suicide-bombing Euro-jihadis.

Most EU counter-terrorism analysts in Brussels – indeed, all over Western Europe – are stunned. This is what many had feared for a long time. As for rumors that London was part of a plan hatched by former Iraqi Mukhabarat agents to use British jihadis and thus retaliate inside British territory, EU analysts say they have no evidence – at least not yet – that Ba’athists were involved. But the jihadi component of the Iraqi resistance may well be. EU analysts tell Asia Times Online, “At the moment we have no evidence that former Iraq intelligence was involved, but we are studying the possibility of Zarqawi agents being infiltrated in Britain, or having come to Britain to conduct an operation.”

If “al-Qaeda”, the virus, really did perpetrate the London bombings, it won’t be confronted with the huge public relations problem posed by the Casablanca attack in Morocco. Then, al-Qaeda’s ideology – disseminated by Salafist sheikhs – had contaminated a group of lumpen proletariat Moroccans, who decided to turn their impotence into terrorism. The problem is that only fellow Moroccan Muslims were killed. The attacks on Madrid in March last year – perpetrated by Casablanca-linked Moroccans – was a different story: the victims were scores of “infidel” Europeans. These jihadis were trained by al-Qaeda. The same pattern, according to EU counter-terrorism analysts, may have played itself out in London.

Just as in Madrid, the attack was claimed by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades (which honor the Egyptian Abu Hafs, a former security chief for bin Laden and trainer of Arab Afghans, killed by American bombs in Kandahar in November 2001). Then a communique was sent to the London daily al-Quds al-Arabi. Now a communique has appeared on an Islamist website from Dubai.

Zawahiri’s jihad masterplan, elaborated in 2001, was to conduct selected, spectacular strikes whose powerful reverberation on global TV and the Internet would mobilize the Muslim masses. But Gilles Kepel, professor of Middle East Studies at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, warns that “apart from some narrow and unlikely alliances with intellectuals or black sheep, a few random Islamic bankers, and young, dispossessed bombers, bin Laden has been unable to unify poor urban youth, the Muslim middle classes, and the Islamist intelligentsia into a coalition capable of repeating the only triumphant Islamic revolution the world has ever seen: the one that took place in Iran in 1979”.

After London, this situation may be about to change. Kepel already talks of “the fight for Europe”.

Over 10 million immigrants from Muslim countries now live in Western Europe. Their children were born in Europe, speak one or more European languages, carry EU passports, are well educated and technology-savvy, and are familiar with the maze of European institutions. Internationalist jihadis are fighting to capture the hearts and minds of these 10 million.

EU analysts, among the doom and gloom, agree that tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims are bound to peak, especially in Britain and France. Some parts of Brussels, the capital of Europe, feel like Morocco. Belgium, as well as Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Scandinavia have all tried very hard to carefully calibrate their policies in terms of keeping potential jihadis under a close watch while at the same time integrating their Muslim populations. France has been too harsh; Britain had thought it kept everything under control by monitoring “Londonistan”. Now the battle for Europe has come – a matter of fitna – sedition, disagreement, war in the heart of Islam. Fitna is Islam’s enemy within – and it’s the jihadis new thrust that is provoking the turmoil.

The question facing the jihadis is whether to force the destabilization of national governments – like those of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan – or to go deeper into internationalist jihad. In these terms, “al-Qaeda”, the virus, is not different from any revolutionary vanguard: one is reminded that Stalinists wanted to consolidate the revolution in the USSR, while Trotskyites wanted a permanent, world revolution. Until now, London was a Salafi, and Salafi-jihadi, sanctuary. Now there’s bound to be major repression – and dispersal. “Invisible” Euro-jihadis may be holed up anywhere. The point is not that “al-Qaeda” wants to impose Islam in Europe: what it wants is to impose Wahhabi values in the Arab-Muslim world, and extirpate the West from Muslim lands.

Retaliation
Salafis – closely linked to House of Saud-approved sheikhs – will keep discouraging jihad with a vengeance. They prefer discreet integration. As an example: in France, they did not even protest the law that forbids veiled girls in schools. Sheikh Yousef al-Qardawi – immensely popular because of his al-Jazeera talk show – is against suicide bombing as in September 11 or London, but he approves of jihad in Palestine.

The reverberations of London’s attacks, on the other hand, may embolden more Salafi jihadis in west Yorkshire, Hamburg, Paris or Madrid. Some of these jihadis have been to Bosnia, Pakistan, Chechnya or Iraq and are more than ready to strike in western Europe. Not to mention the new jihadis born in Europe, with clean records, apparently well-socialized, and aged between 18 and 30.

When Zawahiri launched his jihad, one of his basic aims was to punish the West, specifically the Anglo-American sphere. He didn’t foresee that the massive response would include death and destruction in the Middle East, as in Iraq. According to some Middle Eastern media reports, more than 128,000 Iraqis have been killed by the invasion and occupation since March 2003; 55% are believed to be women and children under the age 12. This figure is said to be based on information gathered in Iraqi hospitals and from the families of victims. This is how the Middle East evaluates the occupation. And this is one of the major factors giving jihadis what they see as justification for no-holds-barred retaliation against the West.

This new generation of Euro-jihadis is now turning it all upside down, profiting from widespread revulsion against the Anglo-Americans takeover of Iraq to retaliate as well as advance a Salafi worldview. This could all have been prevented by a very simple move: a real democratic project for the Middle East – before indiscriminate support for every one of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s excesses; before Guantanamo; before Abu Ghraib; before the leveling of Fallujah.

Instead, thanks to Pentagon propaganda regurgitated by corporate media, we now have a cipher, a man nobody is sure even exists – Abu Musab al-Zarqawi – elevated to supernatural status. EU analysts despair: we may be entering the age of one thousand Zarqawis coming from the shadows to haunt not the US, but western Europe. It’s as much a war at the heart of Europe as a war at the heart of Islam.

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Protected: de Volkskrant – Omhelzingen en kussen voor B.

Posted on September 22nd, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization.

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Protected: Laveren tussen de wet en Allah

Posted on September 21st, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Islam in the Netherlands, Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

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Protected: Het verhaal van Martine van den O.

Posted on September 17th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues.

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nu.nl/algemeen | Getuige Hofstadgroep werd voorbereid op martelaarsdood

Posted on September 16th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization.

nu.nl/algemeen | Getuige Hofstadgroep werd voorbereid op martelaarsdood

De getuige is korte tijd getrouwd geweest met verdachte Nouridinne el F. . De politie hield El F. op 22 juni aan, samen met twee andere vrouwen dan de getuige. De ex-vrouw van El F. geeft met haar getuigenis aan dat leden van de groep daadwerkelijk bezig waren met het voorbereiden van aanslagen.

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nu.nl/algemeen | Getuige Hofstadgroep werd voorbereid op martelaarsdood

Posted on September 16th, 2005 by .
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization.

nu.nl/algemeen | Getuige Hofstadgroep werd voorbereid op martelaarsdood

De getuige is korte tijd getrouwd geweest met verdachte Nouridinne el F. . De politie hield El F. op 22 juni aan, samen met twee andere vrouwen dan de getuige. De ex-vrouw van El F. geeft met haar getuigenis aan dat leden van de groep daadwerkelijk bezig waren met het voorbereiden van aanslagen.

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Protected: Rare jongens die Ossenaren?

Posted on September 15th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization.

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Protected: Trouw| De ergste nachtmerrie van Jason W.’s vader

Posted on September 8th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Young Muslims.

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Protected: Trouw| De ergste nachtmerrie van Jason W.’s vader

Posted on September 8th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Young Muslims.

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Protected: Reporter Profiel: Jason & Jermaine

Posted on September 7th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: International Terrorism, Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Young Muslims.

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Protected: de Volkskrant – Vrouwen rond Hofstadgroep worstelen met verhoor

Posted on September 5th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

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Protected: Imams en het Hofstadnetwerk

Posted on September 5th, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization, Young Muslims.

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Trouw- AIVD onderschatte internet

Posted on September 1st, 2005 by .
Categories: International Terrorism, Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues.

In Trouw een interview met Albert Benschop, netsocioloog, die een zeer uitgebreide website heeft over Mohammed B. cs op internet:

Trouw, deVerdieping| dossiers – AIVD onderschatte internet

Ben het niet helemaal met hem eens. Ik denk wel dat de AIVD internet enigszins heeft onderschat (op de wijze die Benschop aangeeft), maar er waren talloze bedreigingen tegen personen in het voorjaar en de zomer van 2004. Uit de stukken van Mohammed B. (in mijn bezit) is niet te lezen dat Theo van Gogh het uiteindelijke doel is; wel dat hij een mogelijk doel is.

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Protected: Haagsche Courant – Verbazing over Martine van den O.

Posted on August 22nd, 2005 by martijn.
Categories: Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization.

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