The controversial British Sharia preacher Haitham Al Haddad gave "covert" lessons at the Cornelius Haga Lyceum in Amsterdam, newspaper NRC reported on Friday based on a confidential official message that intelligence service AIVD sent to mayor Femke Halsema of Amsterdam in January.
The message also says that other radical Islamic people were also involved in the school and that the school management funded a Chechen terrorist movement, according to the newspaper.
The tram doors wouldn't immediately open after a man opened fire on a tram on 24 Oktoberplein in Utrecht at around 10:45 a.m. on Monday morning, according to one witness. Multiple people were injured. Journalists at the scene report seeing a body covered by a sheet, according to NOS. Though the authorities have not yet confirmed whether anyone was killed.
The Dutch authorities are looking for one suspect following a possible terrorist attack in Utrecht on Monday morning, Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, head of the national coordinator for counterterrorism and security NCTV, said in a press conference on Monday afternoon. He added that it can not be ruled out that more people were involved.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte is very worried by a possible terrorist attack in Utrecht on Monday morning. "Very disturbing news', he said to NOS as he was heading back to his office to meet with a crisis team that has been gathered. The national coordinator for counter terrorism and security NCTV increased the threat level for the province of Utrecht to 5, the highest threat level, until at least 6:00 p.m.
A group of Islamic organizations issued a joint call on the board of Cornelius Haga Lyceum to resign. The want the administrators to take responsibility for the controversy that arose around the Amsterdam secondary school last week, AD reports.
A man arrested in Heerlen on Saturday, shortly before PVV leader Geert Wilders started handing out flyers there, was armed with an ax and two knives, the national coordinator for counterterrorism and security NCTV confirmed to NOS after Wilders tweeted about it.
Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security, intelligence service AIVD and national coordinator for counterterrorism and security NCTV have major concerns about Islamic school Cornelius Haga Lyceum in Amsterdam. In a letter to parliament and Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema, they wrote that there are indications that the board of the school has been in contact with a terrorist group for years, RTL Nieus reports.
There are still jihadists who are making plans to commit an attack in the Netherlands, the national coordinator for counter terrorism and security NCTV said in its latest threat assessment. The chance of an attack in the Netherlands remains real, and the threat level is therefore still at 4 on a scale of 5, NOS reports.
Twenty Dutch municipalities will receive a total of 7 million euros to strengthen their approach to fighting radicalization. Ministers Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security and Wouter Koolmees of Social Affairs divided the amount among municipalities who submitted plans to prevent radicalization and manage people who have been radicalized, the Telegraaf reports.
The largest amount, 1 million euros, is going to the municipality of The Hague. Utrecht is getting over 900 thousand euros, and Rotterdam over 850 thousand euros.
Dutch society has been pressured by the revival of right-wing extremism over the past years, the National Coordinator for Counter-terrorism and Security said in a new report published on Monday. The Coordinator looked into right-wing extremist violence in Western Europe and the historical and international context of right-wing extremism in the Netherlands, NU.nl reports.
Although the jihadist threat changed over he past months, the threat in the Netherlands remains substantial at 4 on a scale of 5, the national coordinator for counter terrorism and security NCTV said on Monday. That means that there is a real probability of an attack in the Netherlands, but there are no concrete indications that one is being planned, ANP reports.
Dutch security services remain concerned by elements of an ultra-conservative orthodoxical Salafist movement in the Netherlands, the AIVD announced Thursday. Despite this, the agency along with counter-terrorism office NCTV said it saw no evidence of ISIS operatives using refugee status to sneak into the Netherlands and wreak havoc.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Bert Koenders has revoked the visas of three Muslim preachers who were scheduled to speak at a benefit in Rijswijk on 8 March. This was supposedly done because these imams are "hate preachers." It is not clear exactly who these imams are.
A suicide bombing in Iraq is the work of a Dutch jihadist, SITE Intelligence Group tweeted on Wednesday.
A new threat issued by a group claiming affiliation with ISIS names Amsterdam amongst several potential high-profile targets. Titled “Lone Wolves”, the Arabic-language piece seems to promote the use of dirty bombs with the statement, “You will feel it when Cesium-131 spreads down the streets and train stations of Russia, Boston, Dallas, Virginia and Amsterdam.”
Prime Minister Mark Rutte tried to allay fears that the Netherlands is not prepared to deal with domestic terrorism following a meeting of the Dutch Cabinet on Friday. “While we cannot guarantee that no attacks will take place, the police, security offices and the [National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism] have done everything reasonable to prevent this,” he said at a press conference.
The number of Dutch jihadists is much higher than the government reports, according to ISIS expert Pieter Van Ostaeyen, former military intelligence analyst Ronald Sandee and the Dutch jihadists themselves.
Following an attack on the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte quickly notified the public that his country will support France as it deals with the fallout from the attack. Two armed, masked gunmen with rapid-fire weaponry and a rocket launcher initiated an assault on the office Wednesday leaving 12 dead, including two police officers, and at least nine injured.
A mother from Maastricht has single-handedly rescued her daughter from the Syrian city of Raqqa. Raqqa is regarded as the capital city of the caliphate of the terrorist organization Islamic State (ISIS).
Dutch people are careless when using a work laptop, tablet or smartphone on a public WiFi network. Many people seem unaware of the risks. One in three employees even sometimes leave their device unattended.
Extra security is on display today at Jewish historical locations, institutions and sites of worship across Noord and Zuid Holland. In addition to the police monitoring of locations in Amsterdam, Dick Schoof, National Coordinator of Counterterrorism and Safety (NCTV), said security will also be stepped up in the Hague and Rotterdam.
The threat that Dutch nationals will be kidnapped and held hostage abroad is rising, and Dutch people abroad have been told to be extra vigilant for terrorist acts. The Dutch counter-terrorism co-ordinator NCTV's Dick Schoof advises that people in volatile countries in the Middle-East, Asia and Africa have to be extra careful, the NOS reports.
After a video appeared on Facebook in which a Dutch jihadist in Syria calls on his "brothers in The Netherlands and Belgium" to take action, Dutch intelligence services sounded the alarm. Dick Schoof of the National counter-terrorism unit NCTV says that the threat level "remains substantial", the NOS reports.
A team of the Regional Crime squad in The Hague arrested a 32 year old man and a 24 year old woman in Germany for various offenses. This was done in cooperation with the German authorities on behalf or the Public Prosecutor in The Hague. Both of these suspects are residents of The Hague.
