The World Turned Upside Down Don't that beat all. When the blog Dutch Report reported that two parliamentary representatives, Ayaan Hir...
The World Turned Upside Down
Don't that beat all. When the blog Dutch
Report reported that two parliamentary representatives, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and
Geert Wilders had been kept in prison cells to protect them against Islamic
death threats, I refused at first to believe it. The Dutch Report is in
English and since I could not read the source documents directly, the report
seemed too unlikely to be true. But the more I read, even in translation, the
less it seemed like a parody. For example:
Parliamentary chairman Weisglas now says he is “shocked by the
disinterested reactions” in parliament after the protest of representatives
Hirsi Ali and Wilders. ”I think the parliamentary members accept it way to
easy that a colleague, has to sleep for months in a prison cell”. He
describes it as a “disgrace” and “a pathetic show” that Wilders is in
prison to protect him against terrorism. Weisglas says he has this weekend
made it “very clear” to the government that the two representatives should
be able to live in normal circumstances. ...
Security expert Hans Salman says in NRC newspaper that he nearly couldn’t
believe the news: “Wilders? In a prison?”. With his company International
Security Partners (ISP) he often works for families who need personal
protection.... He was also involved in the protection of the Turkeys
ambassador, who was under threat of the ultra nationalistic Turkeys Gray
Wolves. ... “This is asking for trouble” he says and continues with: “Every
body knows that nobody can endure something like this.”.
Former Amsterdam police commissioner and security expert Kees Sietsma
... says, Hirsi Ali and Wilders are right to say that in countries like
Israel, the United States, Spain and Italy, the living addresses of people
under threat are not secret. ... Arie Duijdam of Interseco, the biggest
personnel protection firm in The Netherlands also thinks there are other
alternatives.
But Reuters provided collateral confirmation. The article Threatened
Dutch MP Reveals Living on Navy Base says:
NRC Handelsblad said Ayaan Hirsi Ali had revealed her secret residence on a
navy base to protest against the circumstances of her hiding. ... The
newspaper said Hirsi Ali was living on a heavily guarded navy base in
Amsterdam, while anti-immigration populist Geert Wilders, whose life has also
been threatened, was sleeping in a prison cell in the central Dutch town of
Zeist.
Expatica
reports that the accommodations weren't the equivalent of a BOQ or any such,
but a real jail cell.
Wilders is also an outspoken critic of the Islamic faith, calling for an
end to immigration of Muslims to the Netherlands. He is also opposed to Turkey
accession to the EU. He has been living at Camp Zeist for some time, which was
formerly used to house the two Libyan suspects of the Lockerbie bombing. It
now houses arrested immigrants and normal detainees. Wilders has been told he
will be staying at the jail — and sleeping in a jail cell — until at least
September when he will be given his own living space.
The complaints of the Dutch parliamentary representatives were greeted with
dismay. The revelation, it was said, would put the base in danger of attack. Hirsi
Ali 'put guards in danger' says:
22 February 2005 Amsterdam — MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali placed not only herself
and right-winger Geert Wilders, but also their bodyguards and other officials,
in danger by revealing the location of her safe house, Justice Minister Piet
Hein Donner said on Tuesday.
The description involuntarily recalled the classic scene in the original Terminator
movie where an unstoppable android kills all the cops in a station house to
reach its designated target. Camp
Zeist -- the secure location in question -- was used to hold the Lockerbie
bombers, and is, if anything, somewhat more formidable that the garden variety
station house. No one wants to put things to the proof. According to the Dutch
Report, members of the press are asking why Hirsi Ali simply doesn't quit
politics to avoid further unpleasantness.
The press and other parliamentary members, some even of her own liberal (VVD)
party have attacked Hirsi Ali in the past and suggested that her work as
representative is under pressure and said she could better stop.
That would solve the problem for sure, but what happens if Europe is
threatened by more than a handful of Islamic terrorists? What to do for an
encore?
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