The Dutch have their own Islamophobic in actor/politician Geert Wilders. Wilders is part of the group I had described earlier in my diary – Fear Inc: Funding Islamophobia in America:
- “The report, ‘Fear Inc: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America,’ demonstrates that a small group of
self-proclaimed experts (Frank Gaffney, David Yerushalmi, Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, and Steve Emerson) backed
by a host of foundations and donors (many of which also fund the lobby) have put Islamophobia on the map.”
They are backed by funds from pro-Israel power brokers and have a direct access to most politicians and organizations in Israel. These persons advocate a far-right wing policy to remove all Palestians from occupied territories and dump them in Jordan. Of course the territories are called “disputed” by the liberal Jewish groups and Jewish bible land of Judea and Samaria by the settler colonies.
The Dutch are experiencing a lethal backlash from Islamophobic policy. Today the national center for counterterrorism upped the threat level to HIGH. Already fighting in Syria, 100 Dutch nationals who joined the jihad of the banned Al-Nusra Front. In an equal proportion to the US population, that would be a contingent 2,000 citizens joining the ranks of Islamists.
Dutch Muslims are fighting holy wars, mainly in Syria
(Dutch News) – Up to 100 Dutch Muslims are currently fighting in Syria and other countries such as Afghanistan and Somalia, Nos television reported on Tuesday, quoting confidential sources.
This means the Netherlands is one of the biggest suppliers of European jihadist fighters, the broadcaster says, adding that most of them are members of the extremist Al Nusra movement which wants to create an Islamic state in Syria. In the US, the organisation is listed as a terrorist movement.
The fighters are in their 20s but some are in their 30s and have left wives and children behind in the Netherlands, the broadcaster says.
British, Danes
Hundreds of European nationals are known to be fighting in Syria and last week two Danish nationals were killed in fighting. Earlier, Dutch photographer Jeroen Oerlemans was captured by British extremists.
The Dutch counter-terrorism body NCTV is due to publish its latest assessment of the terrorist threat in the Netherlands, which is currently officially `limited’. In December the organisation said the situation in Syria is proving a draw to young Dutch jihadists but that only a `small group’ were involved.
The broadcaster’s sources, however, say this group is now much larger. In November three radical Muslims who planned to travel to Syria to take part in `armed jihad’ were arrested in Rotterdam.
More below the fold …
Netherlands alarmed over Islamist extremists
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Hurriyet) – The Dutch government raised its terror threat yesterday amid concerns that Dutch citizens traveling to Syria to fight in the civil war could return battle-hardened, traumatized and further radicalized.
The government cited the threat posed by jihadist fighters returning from Syria, where rebels are battling government forces, and signs of increasing radicalization among Dutch youth as key reasons for lifting its threat level from “limited” to “substantial.” The level is now the second-highest on the four-step scale, just below “critical.”
“The chance of an attack in the Netherlands or against Dutch interests abroad has risen,” the country’s National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism said in a statement. Counterterrorism chief Dick Schoof said nearly 100 people had traveled from the Netherlands to Africa and the Middle East, mainly to Syria, to fight and warned that it was not just a Dutch problem.
“These jihadist travelers can return to the Netherlands highly radicalized, traumatized and with a strong desire to commit violence, thus posing a significant threat to this country.”
Government terror experts also say political upheaval in North Africa and the Mideast were giving terror networks room to grow. He said several fighters had already returned to the Netherlands and were being monitored.
Schoof said Dutch intelligence and law enforcement agencies were working with other European allies to contain the threat. More intelligence staff are monitoring “jihadist travelers” and police are stepping up efforts to tackle radicalization in Dutch towns and cities.
WASHINGTON (WSJ)–The Central Intelligence Agency is ramping up support to elite Iraqi antiterrorism units to better fight al Qaeda affiliates, amid alarm in Washington about spillover from the civil war in neighboring Syria, according to U.S. officials.
The stepped-up mission expands a covert U.S. presence on the edges of the two-year-old Syrian conflict, at a time of American concerns about the growing power of extremists in the Syrian rebellion.
In a series of secret decisions from 2011 to late 2012, the White House directed the CIA to provide support to Iraq’s Counterterrorism Service, or CTS, a force that reports directly to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, officials said.
The CIA has since ramped up its work with the CTS–taking control of a mission long run by the U.S. military, according to administration and defense officials. For years, U.S. special-operations forces worked with CTS against al Qaeda in Iraq. But the military’s role has dwindled since U.S. troops pulled out of the country at the end of 2011.
- With Official Wink And Nod, Young Saudis Join Syria’s Rebels
- Push by Saudi Clerics for an Islamic State in Al-Sham (Syria)