Dutch play catch & release with 12 Somali non-terrorists

[Mark Gobell]

Dutch detain 12 Somalis on terror suspicions

AP foreign, Saturday December 25 2010

ARTHUR MAX

Associated Press= AMSTERDAM (AP) — Dutch police have arrested 12 Somali men in the key port city of Rotterdam on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack, the public prosecutor said Saturday.

The men, aged 19 to 48, were detained Friday on a tip from the intelligence services that they were planning an attack shortly in the Netherlands. There was no immediate information on the alleged target, but Rotterdam is Europe's biggest port and a hub of maritime commerce, with huge oil and gas storage facilities and dozens of massive docks.

European officials stepped up security around the holidays this year after a Nigerian man in 2009 left Amsterdam airport on Christmas Day and allegedly tried to blow up a plane over Detroit with explosives taped to his underwear.

There also have been growing holiday security concerns in Europe following a suicide bombing in Sweden and attacks on two embassies this week in Rome.

Dutch police searched an Internet cafe, four houses and two motel rooms in the Rotterdam area, prosecutors said Saturday. No weapons or explosives were found. Six of the suspects lived in Rotterdam, five had no permanent residence and one came from Denmark, they said.

Asked how serious the threat was, a senior prosecutor said the intelligence tip warranted action. "It's uncertain whether we escaped from an attack. What we did is take away the threat that was formed by these people," Gerrit van der Burg said on national NOS television.

Prosecutors must bring the suspects before a judge by Tuesday or release them.

The Dutch National Terrorism Coordinator left the terrorist alert level unchanged following the arrests, indicating the likelihood of an attack was "limited."

Dutch intelligence services reportedly have been closely watching the growing Somali community in the Netherlands. One U.S. citizen of Somali extraction is under arrest and is fighting extradition to the U.S., suspected of supplying money to the al-Shabab insurgent group for weapons and to finance trips for potential recruits. The U.S. State Department considers al-Shabab a terror group with links to al-Qaida.

Heightened nervousness of a holiday terrorist attack has led to mistakes in the past. Three months ago, police arrested two Yemenis traveling from the U.S. on a request from U.S. law enforcement agencies who feared they were conducting a dry run for a terrorist attack. They were released two days later for lack of any evidence of a crime.

Last year, 24-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who had studied in London, boarded a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit from Amsterdam. He is accused of trying to blow up the flight, and a judge in a federal court in Detroit has entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.

On Thursday, anarchists sent mail bombs to the Chilean and Swiss embassies in Rome, injuring two mail employees. A top Italian security official said the attackers wanted to avenge blows by those countries against their movement.

Last Monday, 12 men were arrested in Britain in the largest counterterrorism raid there in nearly two years. The men — whose ages ranged from 17 to 28 — were arrested in London, Cardiff, Stoke-on-Trent and Birmingham. At least five were of Bangladeshi origin.

Security officials said a large-scale terror attack was aimed at British landmarks and public spaces. Lord Carlile, the U.K. government's independent watchdog for terror, said the alleged plot appeared significant and involved several British cities, but he did not identify the targets.

Police removed computers from the suspects' homes and have up to 28 days to either charge the men or release them.

French officials, meanwhile, have ordered plainclothes police patrols in key tourist sites for the holidays, including an extra 6,000 more police for New Year's Eve.

Europe has been the target of numerous terror plots by Islamist militants. The deadliest was the 2004 Madrid train bombings, when shrapnel-filled bombs killed 191 people and wounded about 1,800. A year later, suicide bombers killed 52 commuters in London on three subway trains and a bus.

In 2006, U.S. and British intelligence officials thwarted one of the largest terror plots yet, a plan to explode nearly a dozen trans-Atlantic plane.

[Mark Gobell]

Rotterdam: Dutch police arrest 12 Somali terror suspects

Agence France Presse, Updated: December 25, 2010 19:45 IST

The Hague: Twelve Somalis suspected of involvement in terrorist activities have been arrested in the Dutch port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands prosecution service said on Saturday.

A statement said the arrests were made late on Friday following a tip-off by Dutch intelligence that a number of Somalis were planning an attack in the Netherlands relatively soon.

The arrested Somalis were aged between 19 and 48, the statement said. Six lived in Rotterdam, five had no known address and one was a Danish resident, the statement said.

A shop and four houses were searched in Rotterdam and two motel rooms in the southern town of Gilze-Rijen, but no weapons or explosives were found, prosecutors said.

[Mark Gobell]

12 suspected terrorists held in Rotterdam

Published on 25 December 2010 - 5:11pm

Dutch police say 12 Somali men have been arrested in Rotterdam on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities. Officers raided a telephone shop, four homes in Rotterdam and two rooms in a motel in Gilze-Rijen in the south of the Netherlands.

The men aged from 19 to 48 were picked up by the anti-terrorism squad (DSI) on Friday evening. Six of them live in Rotterdam, five are of no fixed abode and one man lives in Denmark.

Intelligence information

The police investigation and subsequent arrests were the result of information issued by the Dutch intelligence agency (AIVD) on Friday afternoon. The National Counter-terrorism Coordinator (NCTb) Erik Akerboom was kept informed of developments.

Recent statements by the NCTb have suggested the level of alert for terrorist attack in the Netherlands might be raised. A spokeswoman says the latest arrests have neutralised the threat and that the present ‘limited’ level of alert will remain in force.

Taliban may be targeting the Netherlands

The leaders of both the Pakistani and Afghan branches of the Taliban have recently warned that the Netherlands could be the target of an attack. The threat has also been made in other countries and on the English-language Jihadist web magazine, Inspire.

Mr Akerboom says that “the Jihardists view the Netherlands as a legitimate target because of what they see as discrimination against Muslims and blasphemy against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.”

[Mark Gobell]

Dutch free 5 of 12 Somalis suspected of terrorism

Reuters

Dutch prosecutors said on Sunday that five out of a group of 12 Somalis who were detained just before Christmas on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack had been released for lack of evidence.

The men were arrested in Rotterdam on Friday, suspected of planning an attack in the Netherlands in the near term.

No further details of the plan have been released.

The prosecutors' office said in a statement that the seven other Somalis were still being held.

:Ends:

Tut tut.

Perhaps the Dutch require 28, 42 or 90 day detention in order that the evidence can be fabricated, I mean, the intelligence can be converted into evidence ?

[Mark Gobell]

Boringly predictable.