The confrontation in the Dutch city erupted about 2:45 a.m. when anti-terror police raided an apartment house in search of three extremists in a crackdown on Islamic networks that was launched after the slaying last week of filmmaker Theo van Gogh.

The suspects inside responded by hurling at least one hand grenade that wounded four police officers, two seriously, and barricading themselves in the apartment. They shouted at police: "We will decapitate you!" The two were among more than 100 suspected militants who had been monitored for some time by police in the Netherlands. One of the suspects was a Dutch convert to Islam who had been detained last year and released, according to a law enforcement official. …

As the standoff dragged on, hundreds of well-armed police flooded the working-class neighborhood, evacuating a street and deploying armored vehicles. The airspace over the city was temporarily closed. As dusk fell, special-weapons units stormed the building and captured the two suspects after firing shots that wounded the convert in the shoulder. But a careful search continued Wednesday night because police believed another suspect might be inside and were wary of booby traps. Another suspect related to the investigation was arrested in the city of Utrecht. Four suspects also were arrested in Amsterdam and one in Amersfoort.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...f11nov11.story

The consequences of long ignoring the problem of radical Islam and its violent proclivities are now becoming clear, so clear that even those Dutch who would prefer not to see it are beginning to do so. The same process will inexorably follow in other countries.

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"...quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est." [...a sword never kills anybody; it's a tool in the killer's hand.]
(from Lucius Annaeus Seneca, "the Younger," circa 4 BC-65 AD

I see the arrest of Islamists as a good sign; it shows that the police are doing their job, even if the press do play it up as though there is a gigantic terrorist network throughout the country ready to kill everyone.

I won't be digging my bunker yet.

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"I see no reason why...there should not arise a United States of Europe" Winston Churchill, 1946

A newly declassified U.S. intelligence report details the plans of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist network to establish itself in Chechnya because the Russian enclave is "unreachable by strikes from the West."

The Defense Intelligence Agency Intelligence Information Report [pdf file] was obtained by the public interest group Judicial Watch Oct. 30 through a Freedom of Information Act request made nearly four years ago regarding the Clinton administration's decision in 1998 to bomb the al Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan and suspected al-Qaida terrorist training camps in the area of Khost, Afghanistan."This report provides a deeply disturbing 'snapshot' of what the U.S. intelligence community knew about the activities of bin Laden and his associates back in 1998," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

"The global scope and rabid fanaticism of these Islamist terrorists is spelled out in no uncertain terms, including their intense interest in WMDs," Fitton said. "Documents such as these give the American people some idea of the terror threat facing the West."

http://www.judicialwatch.org/cases/102/dia.pdf

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"...quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est." [...a sword never kills anybody; it's a tool in the killer's hand.]
(from Lucius Annaeus Seneca, "the Younger," circa 4 BC-65 AD

I saw a very interesting programme on terrorism a while back. In it, one of the 'experts' said that "an attack on Britain is only a matter of time. With the IRA, we had guys on the inside, we knew who most of their operatives were, and they still managed to hit us. With Al-Qaeda, we have no insiders, we don't know how many there are nor where they are. It is only a matter of time before there is a major terrorist attack in Britain."

In hindsight, what a load of trash. If Al-Qaeda are so rabidly trying to attack Britain (and they have every reason for wanting to) why haven't they already?

Theres not a lot stopping them, considering the crap security at the Houses of Parliament, from bringing the country to a standstill.

Our railways (apparently) are shockingly dangerous and the tracks are disintegrating (despite all the evidence pointing to the contrary). If 15 year old yobs can walk along a line and through sticks at passing trains, why can't Al-Qaeda put a bomb on the rails that a train will pick up and carry to, lets say, Paddington station?

Why have they not put a so-called 'dirty-bomb' in the air conditioning of an NHS hospital? They employ cleaning staff with few background checks or knowledge of actually how to clean a hosptial with medical waste.

Why have we not had at least one, even low-level attack by Al-Qaeda on our country? I cannot feel that the AL-Qaeda threat is ever so slightly over exaggerated.

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"I see no reason why...there should not arise a United States of Europe" Winston Churchill, 1946

They are probably waiting to launch "The big one". They are not going to waste their time doing small scale attacks, they want to do something that is going to destroy a country like Britain or the US.

Their operation was vastly disrupted whether people want to admit it or not. They are having to adapt, reevaluate and reorganize. Untill they do, they cant mount anything as major as the article states. Given time they will be very able to.

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"...quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est." [...a sword never kills anybody; it's a tool in the killer's hand.]
(from Lucius Annaeus Seneca, "the Younger," circa 4 BC-65 AD

So what happened to all the "independent cells working seperatley to each other" stuff then? Just because Mr Boss-Man is sitting in a mountian in Afghanistan twiddling his thumbs doesn't mean that all the rest of them can't be bombing and killing all over the place.

"The Big One" has come and gone. They found out that they can't destroy a country if all the information and stuff is stored on the internet and/or networks. I am very critical of the ability of Al-Qaeda to operate in western countries unless allowed to.

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"I see no reason why...there should not arise a United States of Europe" Winston Churchill, 1946

did not say it could. Disrupt does not mean stopped stone cold. How many massive attacks killing thousands have happened lately??

Yes and no. They were thwarted from such by Britain a few weeks agao so they are still planning but the ability to execute is difficult. They are planing and executting small scale things to keep the presure on and to discredit thei appoinents.

And this pc insanity{no profiling no looking for obvious terrorist exetra} is why they can.

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"...quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est." [...a sword never kills anybody; it's a tool in the killer's hand.]
(from Lucius Annaeus Seneca, "the Younger," circa 4 BC-65 AD