Amsterdam Escapes Major Terrorist Attack (update)

Amsterdam has been in the thralls all day of an aborted terrorist attack. Very early this morning police received an anonymous call from Brussels, perhaps from remorseful cell members, that "three men" were planning a major assault with the purpose of "causing maximum damages".

The target may have been the Amsterdam Arena football stadium, Pathé movie theater, Heineken Music Hall, an adjacent shopping mall or an Ikea outlet. The police, by closing down the premises, or preventing them from opening in the first place, effectively preempted the operation. A suicide attack may have been intended. The authorities at this point do not fully disclose information.

Intensive police and intelligence investigations are under way in four different locations in Amsterdam. Under arrest are seven Moroccans with criminal records, all Netherlands passport holders. Their ages range from 19 to 64, six males and one female. The police doesn't rule out further arrests. The explosives have not been found and the alleged bombers may be still at large.

The date is highly symbolic. Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of the Madrid train bombings, commemorated yesterday in absence of any royals or Government representatives. One of those arrested in Amsterdam today is a family member of one of the Madrid bombers. Intelligence experts mention the existence of an Madrid-Barcelona-Netherlands axis.

Terror alert levels are almost permanently substantial in the Netherlands, but for the country as a whole the level has not been elevated because of the aborted attack.

Those who commonly downplay the terror threat for multicultural purposes have been proved wrong once again. The Government Minister who just resigned a few weeks ago amidst a fire storm of problems with her own Labor party, tonight once again expressed the nature of her deluded policies of inverted morality: if there are serious problems with the Moroccan community in a small provincial town, the police's under-staffing is blamed for it.

The Association of Moroccans in the Netherlands have expressed shock that their community will once again be subjected to a negative publicity, with which Geert Wilders of course will only make hay. His poll numbers have just reached new record levels.

Update:

At this stage the case seems to have collapsed. The seven suspects in custody have been released, no explosives have been found. The only one who might be able to shed light is the person who placed the anonymous call from Brussels: on the loose allegedly are still three men in a bus, ready to render assistance in a supposed terrorist attack.

This is bad. The authorities may not have had another choice in the matter, but false alarms have the tendency to devalue the seriousness of such threats!

Up in arms: the suspects' lawyers, the multicultural media in full force, and the Moroccan 'community'. The complaint: lumping! And rage, rage that the community has once again become 'the victim' of negative perception. . Will be continued, no doubt ...