The Dutch 911 ?

[Mark Gobell]

Pim Fortuyn was a Dutch politician who was murdered in 2002.

Fortuyn was an outspoken critic of the liberal Dutch coalition system of government, a thorn in the side of the established political cartel.

As the leader of the Leefbaar Nederland party, he gave a press interview on February 9th 2002, 1 month and 9 days into the year (19), where he advocated the abolition of the 1st article of the Dutch constitution that forbids discrimination and also demanded an end to further Muslim immigration. He was dismissed as party leader the next day.

Encouraged by his friend and film maker, Theo van Gogh, he immediately started his own political party on February 11th called Lijst Pim Fortuyn, to contest the upcoming local elections and Parliamentary election on May 15th.

He campaigned on populist issues such as immigration quotas, asserting that Muslims could not assimilate as Dutch citizens, prompting fierce national debate about immigration, freedom of speech and discrimination.

In Rotterdam, on March 6th, when his new party was only 3 weeks and 3 days old (33), Fortuyn’s party shocked the political establishment by winning 17 of the 45 seats, taking control of the city council by standing on an anti immigration platform in the Netherlands second largest city and home turf of the left since 1945.

On May 6th 2002, 9 days before the general election, Pim Fortuyn gave a radio interview at a studio in Hilversum. As he left the building, he was assassinated by a lone nut gunman who shot him in the back several times.

His murder and the issues he raised dominated the election and as a result, Fortuyn’s party went on to win 26 seats from a standing start, making the LPF the joint second largest party in Parliament.

The Dutch animal rights and environmental activist, Volkert van der Graaf was arrested near the scene of the murder after being chased by witnesses.

Almost immediately, claims were being made about Graaf’s possible links to Al Qaeda and to the murder of civil servant and environmentalist Chris Van der Werken who was also shot in the back in 1996, weeks after he had claimed that Graaf had threatened to kill him.

In custody, Graaf was held in strict isolation. He was not allowed to have newspapers, use the telephone or receive visits. He was monitored by CCTV camera with his cell light switched on all day. On the advice of his lawyers, Graaf refused to co-operate with the police.

The police presented their evidence at the first pre-trial hearing held on August 9th 2002, 3 months and 3 days after the murder. (33)

On September 3rd, 3 weeks and 3 days after the first court hearing (33), 119 days after the murder and 119 days before the year end, police arrested his girlfriend and mother of their child, in connection with substances that were allegedly found in their garage after a second police search of their home. Defence lawyers accused the police of making the arrest to pressurise Graaf into making a statement.

9 weeks later on November 4th a second court hearing decided to send Graaf for psychiatric evaluation to begin in January 2003.

On November 23rd, 19 days after learning he was going to be sent to the psychiatric institute, and 1 month and 9 days before the end of the year (19), the prosecution announced that Graaf had confessed to the crime.

He was sent for psychiatric evaluation on January 6th 2003 and after 66 days he was returned to prison. He was judged to be mentally capable of being held accountable for the crime. Graaf pleaded guilty on the fist day of his trial on March 27th 2003.

19 days later on April 15th he was convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Both the defence and prosecution appealed the sentence. On July 18th the appeal court confirmed the original sentence delivered 3 months and 3 days earlier. (33)

911 days after Pim Fortuyn was murdered, his friend and supporter, Theo van Gogh was also murdered, in Amsterdam on November 11th 2004, in true Dutch style, whilst riding his bike.

Mohammed Bouyeri shot van Gogh eight times at point blank range, then slit his throat. He then stabbed him with a knife and used another to pin a five page message to his body, addressed to the politician and outspoken critic of Islam, Mrs. Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

9 days later and 1 month an 19 days before the year’s end, on November 11th Bouyeri was charged with murder. He was convicted on July 26th 2005 and sentenced to life without parole.

Hirsi Ali had written the screenplay for a 10 minute film made by Theo van Gogh, called Submission. The film dealt with issues such as the mistreatment of Muslim women, portraying a Muslim woman having been raped by a relative, as Hirsi Ali had been herself. The film featured naked Muslim women with verses from the Koran written on their skin.

The film was first broadcast on Dutch TV on August 29th 2004. 9 weeks and 1 day later, Theo van Gogh was dead.

Van Gogh’s murder occurred 1 year, 9 months and 11 days after Hirsi Ali was elected on January 22nd 2003. (1911)

9 days after van Gogh’s murder, his film, Submission was shown in Denmark on November 11th 2004, 1 month and 19 days before the year’s end. (119)

On September 30th 2005, 10 months and 19 days later (119) and the 333rd day of Theo van Gogh’s murder, the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten published the cartoons that would ignite tensions in many European Muslim communities throughout Europe.

Interestingly Hirsi Ali was one of several writers and academics who co-authored a letter entitled, MANIFESTO: Together facing the new totalitarianism, in response to the reaction provoked by the Jyllands Posten cartoon controversy.

On May 2006, Hirsi Ali’s Dutch citizenship was called into question which eventually prompted her resignation from Parliament on May 16th 2006, 3 years, 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days after being elected. (3333)

Hirsi Ali is now a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, the neo-con think tank, where her fellow fellow Frederick W. Kagan recently authored the policy document that resulted in the recent troop surge in Iraq.

Are the murders of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh linked ?