Tyrants Never Learn!

Prof. Tim Congdon, an economist of 40 years in public policy studies has published an analysis of Britain's position in the EU. He brought the matter down to two essentials: 1. the continental collective state culture versus liberty philosophy rooted in individualism prevailing in the Anglo-Saxon world, and 2. the relative costs versus the benefits. The second question boiling down to the question: ‘Do we want a centralist, top down, federal state or a free trade club of independent nations?’

Is the Palace Coup Against Geert Wilders Failing?

Continued from part 2: "The Palace Coup Against Geert Wilders, Round 2"

Background
Slowly but surely it's becoming apparent how the Dutch establishment, commonly referred to as 'the regents', led by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix and her chief advisors, are neutralizing the election results in which the Right wing liberal party (VVD) and Islam critic, Geert Wilders (PVV) emerged as winners.

But tactical errors have been made, primarily by the Left's major protagonist, Labor leader and multicultural aficionado, Job Cohen, the former Mayor of Amsterdam. After having explored and rejected the initial plan to form a grand coalition with three Leftist parties, Cohen insisted talks to go ahead to explore the possibilities of a Rightist cabinet.

He did so for the sole reason, that as long as the possibility was unexplored, it remained a serious option that could be exploited in negotiations. Cohen should have taken his profits long before then. All else - including heading a Leftist coalition as Prime Minister - proved many bridges too far. So the leaders of the Christian Democrats (CDA) and the Center-Right Liberal party (VVD) started unofficial talks last week with Geert Wilders, the Eurosceptic Islam critic.

- Caption: Leftist whiners by Coontje - 

As was to be expected, the parties found common ground in an anti-Keynesian approach to the economy, fiscal and social responsibility and free enterprise with less rules and regulations. They informed the Queen's emissary, Ruud Lubbers this weekend that formal negotiations will be starting as of Monday with the view of forging a minority government, supported in Parliament by Wilders' PVV Party.

The Left almost immediately exploded in a combination of whining, theatrical drama and ferocious attack, framed around matters of statecraft and the immorality and unconstitutionality of Islam criticism. Epithets like a 'Rightist coup', and a 'minority dictatorship' aren't shunned. A Parliamentary debate is on the role for Wednesday in the presence of Lubbers, and some are calling for parallel talks between Leftist parties

So, here we have bigotted Leftists who've never had any qualms about ripping into hereditary royalty and who - for decades - have been ridiculing Christianity without merci! The same hypocrites are now holloring about the 'sacrilege of a Holy Book' (meaning the Koran) and the Queen's orders being dissed in favor of the primacy of Parliamentary politics. So far the whining.

The second line of attack is far more insidious. It is framed around Wilders attack on Islam that is - they allege - infringing on the constitutional rule of law. It touches the non-discrimination article, as well as the freedom of conscience and expression. In the postmodern approach, Islam is a religion or an ideology like any other and should be respected as such (except Christinity of course, which is uniquely evil). Inconvenient realities and historical and scriptorial evidence to the contrary, is typically ignored and evaded.

In truth, any ideology - and that includes religion - should never be elevated above critique like Islam is trying to accomplish. It's cover for the lack of individual responsibility in the Umma, who's core activity is the institutional discrimination of kaffirs, or infidels, unbelievers, the Dar-El-Harb or the eparchy of war (only in submission to Islam is peace).

But the Left has been showing its totalitarian roots lately by positioning all opposition morally beyond the pale! This, dear readers, is the stuff of tyranny and mob rule.

Let's have a look at this invective today in the Leftist media bulwark De Volkskrant. "Black Friday", by the self-styled historian Jan Dirk Snel is anything, if not theatrical. The title is in reference to the news announced yesterday of the formal negotiations between the three Rightist parties. Get this drama:

"Friday July 30 2010 is already known as Black Friday. It is beyond doubt the blackest day in Dutch history since May 4, 1945 [sic] (although we don't know yet what's ahead). It is the day in which some Dutch political parties have infringed upon a basic principle.

The main gist is this: Wilders should be dealt with like the Communists were. Not only is Wilders crossing a constitutional line, but so are the two party leaders who've accepted his 'abject ideas' implicitly by entering into talks with Wilders. Apparently Leftists do understand the notion that negotiating with an immoral party renders one complicit. I wish they'd remember that next time when they advocate talking to the Islamofascists of Iran and their proxies in Syria, Turkey, Venezuela and Palestine, to name but a few.

Point is, Wilders isn't an immoral party but one which defends Western values against the onslaughts of an intolerant, supremacist ideology. In this repect the historian's subconscious mistake that Friday was the worst day since the country was liberated from Nazi occupation is telling, because indeed, the same people would have defended Nazism as well as "an ideology like any other"; Chamberlain thought so too when he negotiated the Munich Agreement with Corporal Hitler.

Enough said on the basic intellectual dishonesty of the Leftist argument and the obnoxious moralistic tone by which they are already whipping up hatred in their base. Some are planning action as we speak and are calling for the three party leaders to be tried for ... what? I'm not sure, but give them a day or so and they'll have reinstored the crime of sedition.

Those who support the Right are not buying it any more. It's rhetoric, drama, narrative, Sorelian myth-making, Marxist dialectic, and all the other sophistry we've been hearing from the anti Western, counter Enlightenment totalitarians since the days of Kant and Hegel. Looks like we're done at last.

The next few weeks will be crucial for fundamental change in the Netherlands, a country that has been ruled by Leftist regents for donkey years. About one thing we can be sure: opposition will be no less fierce and toxic than the stuff we've come to know as Bush Derangement Syndrome. No method or tactic will be left untried. The end justifies the means: the enemy deserves it!

Related

- Wall Street Journal: "Center-Right Parties Enter Talks For Minority Dutch Govt"
- Canadian Press: "Talks on forming new centrist ruling Dutch coalition collapse amid policy disagreements"

The Palace Coup Against Geert Wilders, Round Two

Continued from Part I: "How the Dutch Establishment Defused Wilders".

Background
Slowly but surely it's becoming apparent how the Dutch establishment, commonly referred to as 'the regents', led by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix and her chief advisors, are neutralizing the election results in which the right wing liberal party (VVD) and Islam critic, Geert Wilders (PVV) emerged as winners.

A majority right wing coalition with the Christian Democrates (CDA) was initially indicated. But the CDA were the major losers in this election and assumed the role of modest bystander. The CDA sports a vocal left wing, as well as a host of transnational progressivist elder statesmen. All vehemently oppose Wilders, whom they view of as a morally repugnant populist.

- Caption: regents of the Amsterdam orphanage by Cornelis Troost (1729) - 

They view Islam as perhaps a slightly petulant, adolescent form of Christianity. Their refusal to participate in a coalition with the Wilders party is entirely based on a narrative that covers their refusal to deal with the unwelcome truth about the Islamic ideology.

The initiative to form a coalition for the moment rests with the largest party in Parliament, the right wing Liberal party, VVD led by the nation's most elligible bachelor, Mark Rutte. But Socialists are already beating the drum of "biggest party's having first choice isn't a right, but a custom: now move over for our man to have a go at political musical chairs".

The first round in Operation Defuse Wilders consisted in the all powerful Vice President of the Council of State, 'Vice Roy' Herman Tjeenk Willink (in truth an ordinary career socialist), being appointed king maker. But the modus operandi in this palace coup proved a bit too obvious. Her Majesty is currently speaking softly of being sorry that some of her wayward subjects got the feeling of deliberately being side lined.

- Caption: Right wing Liberal party (VVD) leader, Mark Rutte -

This notion was underscored by a short sentence in Tjeenk Willink's advice to the Queen that the Minister's countersignature on Parliamentary Bills could be withheld if "the principles of the democratic rule of law, the international position of the Netherlands, or basic financial policies are at stake". This effectively sidelines any  initiatives that might prove embarrassing to the official transnational progresssivist agenda.

In round two of this operation to de-fang Wilders, Her Majesty once again threw advice of political leaders to the four corners of the wind and appointed as second king maker, this time Ruud Lubbers, a personal confidant, elder statesman, and former UN High Commissioner for Refugees, who was summarily compelled to relinquish that post for infamously groping an American feminazi.

Even the Socialist leader is pressing to please investigate the possibilities of a Rightist government, for the simple reason that it hasn't proved untenable and is therefore still an unexplored option. Wilders is going to have his fangs drawn once and forgood.

The Lubbers M.O. is two pronged. The official line is, we'll talk to all parties, all options are open, dispelling the 'conspiracy theory' that Wilders was purposefully side tracked, in itself proof positive of the progressivists' disdain for the people's intelligence.

- Caption: Queen Beatrix purturbed by the view of Mark Rutte becoming PM, by Ruben L. Oppenheimer - 

At the same time Lubbers is distancing himself from exploring a Right wing coalition on the ground that one option is a minority coalition, the so called Danish option, which is formally not part of his assignment. He can play this game under the cover of the knowledge that his own party (CDA) prefers a center government with the Liberals and the Socialists. But Lubbers' own party leader will be left holding the smoking gun that killed the chances of a center right Government.

While the establishment might succeed in neutralizing Wilders and the Freedom Party it will not survive this operation without seriously soiling itself. It comes at the price of having its often touted democratic credentials exposed as vacuous. It's now clear for all to see that the regent class may have its differences in degrees, but as soon as an outsider asserts itself and starts forming a potential threat to the traditional disbursement of power and jobs, the ruling class sticks together.

This meritocratic nomenklatura is steeped in history and has its wellies firmly planted in Dutch polder clay and in circles of water management. It is a cabal which has its tentacles in government, politics, big corporations, pension funds, unions, employers associations and professional self-governing organizations, transnational progressivists with interests in Europe and the UN, including environmental and philanthropic NGOs.

The political landscape isn't atomized as they claim, it's merely laid bare that the country is and always has been a biotope for reactionary Hegelians and crypto Counter Enlightenment operatives.

Update

Leaders of the CDA and VVD have been caught dining last night. Just as I started a twaction (action on Twitter) to encourage the CDA along with an email campaign, the news broke that almost all CDA parliamentarians have given their blessings to the talks.  It also turned out that the segment of the party that most morally condemns Wilders as the second coming of Adolf Hitler, is heavily involved in Leftist causes that receives millions of euros in state subsidies. This one I like particularly: a former chairwomen is receiving 2 million as Head of the Twin City Association Netherlands-Nicaragua!

- Part I: "How the Dutch Establishment Defused Wilders"

How the Dutch Establishment Defused Geert Wilders

Slowly but surely it's becoming clear how the Dutch elite, commonly referred to as 'the regents', led by Her Majesty and her chief advisor, the all powerful Vice President of the Council of State, 'Vice Roy' Herman Tjeenk Willink (in truth an ordinary socialist, career politician), have neutralized the election results in which the right wing liberal party (VVD) and Islam critic, Geert Wilders emerged as winners.

A majority right wing coalition with the Christian Democrates (CDA) was initially indicated, probably with the support of two minor Christian parties. But the CDA were the major losers in this election and assumed the role of modest bystander.

The CDA sports a vocal left wing, as well as a host of transnational progressivist elderly statesmen, of which Ruud Lubbers is a prime specimen. All vehemently oppose the Wilders agenda. The party declined to participate in talks. Seen in current light, this was probably part of the strategy.

- Caption: 'Vice Roy' Herman Tjeenk Willink -

Labour leader, Job Cohen had been spreading memes even before the elections that the Wilders agenda is "touching the edges of the rule of law". Which is a chutzpah, considering it's the postmodern 'regents' in the Justice Dept., the judiciary and in the multicultural, red/green cabal that is appointing them, that are a clear and present danger to the rule of law. Present story is a typical example of their anti-democratic, authoritarian mindset.

But facts and reality are irrelevant to these people. They are obsessed with their own subjective reality, the narrative they've constructed in which Wilders is a fascist and an enemy of the rule of law. This also helps explain, that while Public Prosecutors declined to procecute Wilders for "group offence" (insulting Muslims), a special anti-discrimination Court found reason to go after him nonetheless.

The socialist 'Vice Roy' is playing a central role in the controlled detonation of the Wilders explosive device. The key to this drama was recently discovered by a republican blogger (Hat Tip: Naar De Knoppen). An article entitled "The Constitutional Coup of State" on weblog ProRepublica states:

The answer lies in the last sentence of para C1 of Tjeenk Willink's advice to Mrs Van Amsberg (Her Majesty's common name). On the basis of this advice the head of state ordered Messrs Rosenthal (the Liberal party negotiator) and Wallage (the Labour negotiator) to form a government with the parties referred to as Paars+*.

The secret is summed up in one short sentence: 'The countersignature on Parliamentary initatives are to be refused if the principles of the democratic rule of law, the international position of the Netherlands, or basic financial policies are at stake.

The Government can decline signing a Bill into law, even if it has the support of the majority in Parliament.(...) >>>

*Paars+ consists of a political immorality, enough to make Ayn Rand spin in her grave. It consists of the right wing Liberal VVD, Labour, and 2 more junior, red/green left wing parties. It's a horror cabinet in which the leftist bloc can easily neutralize the rightist austerity agenda.

The author of the article is obviously a fierce critic of 'Mrs Van Amsberg' and the cabal surrounding Her Majesty. He or she is asserting that "just about every subject" is covered by the three conditions summed up in the advice. I beg to differ. This is clearly a device solely meant to neutralize Wildersian initiatives.

The "principles of the democratic rule of law" is referring to international treaties and human rights covenants. Wilders wants to deport criminal immigrants and possible also citizens of foreign descend. He has also proposed an immigration moratorium for Muslim countries.

"The Internatonal position of the Netherlands" is in reference to recent threats by Jordan to prosecute Wilders and demands for explanations from other Muslim entities (my suspicion is the powerful OIC is also playing a role in the current prosecution of Geert Wilders). Dutch exporters in the private sector have also been quick to ditch liberty for sausages and dairy produce.

The final condition, where "basic financial policies are at stake" is even more sinister. Is there a Keynesian cabal as well at work, meant to undermine the right wing austerity program? Just what is going on here?

This isn't over. Not by a long chalk!

Related

- Hudson New York: "Dutch Establishment Rejects Election Results", by Thomas Landen

Related (Dutch)

- "Hoe Lang Hebben We Nog?"
- "De Wisseltruc van Job Cohen"
- "Regenten Demonteren Rechtse Bom"
- "Grassroots Verzet Tegen Paars+"
- "De Oorverdovende Dissonantie in het CDA"
- "Links Ontspoort Bijna Helemaal"
- "Nederland Stemt: Zweven Tussen Vrijheid en Statisme"
- "Inderdaad. Een Gevaar Voor de Rechtsstaat"

The Left and Their Unique Selling Point

The new Dutch Labour leader, Job Cohen (Nohen) who just sustained a disastrous mock Obama (Nobama) launch, showed us yesterday how desperately out of touch the Left really is.

Enjoying a public holiday every five years on May 5, the commemoration of liberation in World War II, Cohen just proposed to turn it into an annual affair. Just what we need, another public holiday! With the economy tanking, talk of raising the state pension age to 67, the European Union on the brink, and a Euro that just plummeted to a staggering 1,04% against the dollar, the lowest mark in over a year, the Left is calling for an extra day off the job!

- Caption: protesting Greece's austerity measures in a country with little welfare fat on the bones - 

The desperate situation in Greece is entirely on the plate of the unions and their limitless appetites, and the weak back Governments that were unwilling or unable to perform 'a Maggy'. Today it's make or break, and even now they do not seem to get it. But apparently, neither do we.

Needless to say, the unions and other socialistic parties were soon aboard Cohen's proposal. So this sad piece of ill concealed bribery is how Labour proposes to win the general elections next month! Desperate indeed ... and completely out of touch with reality. This just proves they're too irresponsible to govern and too out of touch to drag the country out of the economic quagmire.

Even more infuriating is, that Cohen is said to launch this idea out of 'respect' for liberty and the freedom of expression. As the former mayor of Amsterdam, Cohen enjoyed quite a few afternoons having 'tea summits' with Moroccan hooligans and other n'ver-do-wells, wont to terrorize entire neighbourhoods out of its indigenous populations.

This is how Cohen, the multiculturalist, proposes to 'keep the country together". As for the freedom of expression, don't provoke him! - before you know it he's triggered his own version of Brown's 'bigotgate'.

The man has no concept of the word Liberty! To the Left, liberty means freedom not to live under the collectivist Right's jackboot (as opposed to the collectivist Left's jackboot). To them, negative rights, the essence of true liberty, mean "neglection by the state". After all, it's now apparently the duty of politicians to offer the population "hope and consolation". Government has now in actual fact usurped the role of the God head: statism is no longer an abstraction, but a real state of mind.

Even more desperate is the British Labour Party, starting with Gordon Brown. The entire Left has abandoned them and jumped on to Nick Clegg's LibDem bandwaggon. The Labour Party doesn't stand a chance. Of course the state-run media would never, ever paint the Conservatives as a genuine alternative.

Current cohort of media workers do not even know anymore what Conservatism stands for. It's quite some time since I've heard a practicing journalist explain the details of the political philosophy, let alone provide a level playing field. The sole meme emanating from the lamestreamers is, "this is public enemy number one".

Labour has been in power in Britain for the last thirteen years; how it is then, that "the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer"? Chatter has it, that the gap has become ever wider so that it's quite necessary to vote in ... more Labour.

As an explanation it is implied that somehow this feature is inherent in British class society. But the truth is, this is happening in every country, city and borough that is ruled by Leftists.

When are people going to catch on to this racket?

The Left is it's own unique selling point. Obama conveyed the notion correctly ... we are the people we've been waiting for ... vote Labour so as to mitigate our own policies!

Related articles

Washington Times: "Greek lawmakers pass austerity bill"

Related dossiers

- "Doing a Maggy"
- "Money & Economy"
- "London Calling"
- "Socialist Causes Explained"

How to Put Development Aid to Work

"The Price of a Bad Conscience"

by Arend Jan Boekestijn (original post in Dutch)

A comedy of errors. Time: one Saturday in the year 2009. Setting: the palace of President Kagame of Rwanda. Characters: President Kagame of Rwanda and Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation Bert Koenders. Subject: Koenders' wish to save the development cooperation with Rwanda and Kagame's wish to severe all ties with the Netherlands.

Koenders has had better times. Lumbered with a predecessor's feelings of guilt  - why didn't we stop the genocide? - Koenders finds himself caught up in a relationship with the victims of that tragic event. But regretably they aren't angels either. Kagame and his good, old buddy Museveni of Uganda have effortlessly swapped  the role of victims for the one of perpetrators.  In the war in Eastern Congo five times as many people lost their lives as in the genocides of Rwanda and Darfur combined. Small wonder tax payers and politicians in the Netherlands, the UK and Sweden are questioning the ongoing need to subsidize Kagame.

Couldn't Koenders' predecessors have seen this coming? Not quite. Politicians aren't clairvoyants. Should the victims have been left to fend for themselves?

It's much more interesting to draw lessons from the demise. Why did the Netherlands, the UK and the US believe that they could control Kagame? The answer is astonishingly simple. Our Governments are guilty of an unhistorical approach to the Rwandan question.

For proper comprehension one must study the new approach laid out by Nobel Prize Laureate and Economic Historian Douglass C. North in cooperation J.J. Wallis, S.B. Webb and B.R. Weingast in a World Bank Paper (4359), suitably entitled 'Limited Access Orders in the Developing World: a new approach to the problems of Development'. Development aid workers of all countries, pay attention now: you are on the verge of experiencing a paradigm shift.

North et al. posit that societies will develop various strategies of reducing violence; and how they are coping is of great influence on their potential for growth and development. Elite infighting has negative economic effects on everyone. In primitive societies of hunter gatherers there's a distinct lack of specialization, but an abundance of violence. That's a drag on a man in the long run.

One needs to give it a rest every once in a while; a good night's sleep in indispensable to that effect. This is how 'primitive societies' develop into' limited access societies'; violence is brought under control by violence specialists contracting not to use force against each other.

How do they do this? There's a measure of stability as long as the division of the spoils is reflecting the balance of power; vassals may be thrown a trinket or two. As long as the elite is able to keep up this system there's no reason for conflict. That was the way in Tudor England and Carolingian France, and so it is in African Rwanda.

Kagame is the leader of the Tutsi elite; not only do they consistently exclude Hutus (the odd Kabinet member notwithstanding), they also exclude their own fellow peasant Tutsis. Rwanda is a special kind of limited access society. Half of the Kigali budget consists of foreign aid. That is pleasant for the elite. Besides - enabled by sympathetic local Tutsi populations - the elite is also moonlighting in looting the minerals from the neighboring mines in Eastern Congo. That's not bad either.

At this point representatives of Western, open societies are arriving on the scene in order to pay off their bad consciences with development aid. Open societies are much more pleasant places to live in than societies with limited access. The rule of law enables fair competition for economic and political power. This ensures the production of wealth.

And what do the representatives of open societies tell those they've come to help in limited access societies? Be like us. Concentrate on good governance and democracy, and all will be well.

Limited access elitists can't believe what they're hearing. Democracy? You must be joking! That may well endanger their position and that can never be the natural order of things. No wonder Kagame is tapping phones, has spies everywhere, and is manipulating the elections.

Nevertheless, Rwanda is developing, is building schools, roads, hospitals and does not have more than its fair share of corruption, at least on the national level. But it comes at the price of freedom. There isn't any. It's a dictatorship by a Tutsi elite propped up with our money. It's the result of unhistorical thinking. Rudimentary awareness of our own feudal history might have giving us reason for pause.

Word has it that this unholy concoction of African autocrats, donor money and Congolese incompetence is on the verge of collapse. The English, Swedish and Dutch Parliaments are reconsidering their position. The Rwandese elite is well aware of the critical UN report on Kagame's involvement in atrocities in Eastern Congo and that it is jeopardizing the free flow of donor money.

Kagame hastened to clinch a deal with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): he would arrest Nkunda, if Kabila would deal with the Hutu perpetrators of the genocide.What a masterly coup. Kagame of course wouldn't dream of extraditing Nkunda to the DRC or the International Criminal Court (ICC); his powerplay in the Eastern Congo would come to light.

The deal gave Nkunda's successors the option of continuing the profitable mineral looting. Rwandan customs statistics indicate the country is exporting tons of minerals of foreign origin. It's a great deal!

Yet the equilibrium has become fragile. Grease is dripping from the political system: mineral prices have plummeted, donor funds may well dry up. Even Kagame's most loyal allies are getting nervous: French and Spanish indictments name Kagame himself as having shot down the Presidential airplane that led to the genocide. The elite's privileges are no longer reflecting the shifting balance of power.

Kagame's recent sneer that he doesn't need the Dutch aid, and that it never led to anything positive, is baloney. In reality Kagame needs Koenders as much as he needs Louis Michel, Lord Malloch-Brown and Obama. The question is, why would tax payers want to subsidize an African dictator? To what moral avail? Let's hope Koenders will remember that at dinner in Kagame's spy-bug ridden Presidential palace.

When the entire power edifice comes crashing down to earth and new atrocities ensue, will somebody recognize that unhistorical, Western makeability illusions aren't always a blessing? And will we, like in 1994, look the other way?

Also by this author:

- "De Prijs van een Slecht Geweten", book only available in Dutch (via Van Stockum)
- "Losing the War is Not an Option", part I of a series on "Afghanistan: the Road to Nationhood"

Related:

- "The Perversion of Developent Aid" (dossier)
- Angelina Jolie's journal "Ripples of Genocide" (site)

How Dutch Thrift Thwarted Islamic Christmas Terror Plot

Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad has sat down in Miami with Jasper Schuringa, the man who jumped and subdued the Muslim terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on Christmas Day flight NW253. Here's a short translation.

"As I jumped him I saw the fear in his eyes"

He's still shocked about what happened. "It was truly a bizarre experience. But I'm thankful I'm alive." He felt rage as he jumped the Muslim terrorist. "I was so angry he wanted to kill all these people. Together with another person I dragged him to the front of the plane. There I tore up his clothes to see if he was hiding any more explosives. I even checked his shoes. The passengers on the plane got a second chance and I didn't want to waste it."

He realizes if Umar had it his way, he'd be dead by now. "I was seated quite close to him; had he succeeded I wouldn't even have been aware of what happened. But for passengers in the front and in the back of the plane it would have been hell. They would have crashed and burnt alive. I can't understand why somebody would want to do such a thing. All those children! Why should you want to kill them? I saw the fear in Umar's eyes as I jumped him: apparently he does have feelings."

"Umar thought he was already in Heaven ... then he saw me"

He's exhausted. He hasn't had a rest since his name jumped to the front pages of the newspapers. He watches as CNN shows the remains of Umar's underwear. "Are those his knickers?" he asks. "I touched those!" The bandages have been removed from his hands, but the wounds are still visible. He got that when he doused the fire.

He looks relaxed, but his eyes are red from lack of sleep. I haven't had the time to go out with friends or grab a beer. My phone nearly exploded. He makes clear he hasn't been paid for interviews. Not a penny. Only recently it dawned on him how close to death he's been. "Only Saturday I learnt the amount of explosives were sufficient to blow us all up. Later I heard Umar acted on behalf of Al Qaeda. Then it dawned on me what had happened. Wow!"

He believes he isn't  traumatized psychologically. "I'm surprised myself. I was quite calm in the plane, and also afterwards. It's said you break down once adrenaline levels normalize. So I expected to collapse once I'd arrived in Miami, but no, I'm still standing. The film maker recalls the moment, just before landing in Detroit. He heard a thudding noise and somebody screamed "fire". Next to me sat a pilot. We looked at each other and realized, this isn't good. I looked at Umar. A normal person gets up on his feet when his chair's on fire, but not him. Then I knew. This is a terrorist attack."

He jumped six chairs and two aisles to the left hand side of the plane and grabbed him. "I had to yank hard to rip the explosives from his body. In the meantime I tried to douse the fire. How I knew what to do? I didn't. Perhaps I'd seen it done in a movie."

It's almost as if the Frisian knew what was coming. Eight years ago he wrote the film script 'Destination Amsterdam' that eerily resembles what happened on Christmas Day. "It's about a suicide bomber plotting to kill a politician at Amsterdam Airport. But the bomb fails to explode. Like Umar's. He thought he was already in Heaven ... but then he saw me."

After landing at Detroit Schuringa was interrogated extensively by the FBI. They wanted to keep me there even longer, but he demanded to continue his trip to Miami. "I'd worked so hard the last couple of days. I just wanted to take a break and see my girl friend."

The shoes and clothes he'd been wearing were confiscated for forensic purposes. FBI agents quickly bought him clothes from a golfshop at the airport. "I looked like a clown! The pants were too large and they'd bought me weird slippers I refused to wear." Bare footed he trotted to his connecting flight. No, he isn't afraid of flying. "What are  the odds of this happening again?"

He isn't aware of the commotion he has caused in his homeland. He frowns at the word 'statue'; he doesn't think he's a hero. "I was at the right place, at the right time, that's all there's to it. Besides, I wasn't alone - others helped too." All the attention takes some getting used to. "I'm a fairly reticent person. It's rather strange that all of a sudden everyone knows who I am."

Another paper - De Telegraaf - reported this morning Schuringa has been moved to an FBI safehouse in Miami.Unlike the Dutch National Counter Terrorism Coordinator, who advised no extra precautions were necessary for thwarting Al Qaeda, the FBI isn't taking any chances.

Proverbial Dutch frugality may have saved the day. In the article his parents relate how their son originally planned to fly a day earlier. But the Christmas Day ticket was much cheaper, so he took that flight.

Earlier posts on this subject:

- "The Case of the Undocumented Crotch Bomber"
- "Christmas Cracker Turns Man-Made Disaster Escape"

Related:

- Telegraph: "Detroit terror attack: A murderous ideology tolerated for too long" - Telegraph View: Jihadist Islamism is comparable to Nazism in many respects. The British public realises this; so do the intelligence services. Hat Tip: American Power
- BBC: "Obama to receive reports on plane bomb security lapses"
- WSJ: "Court Freed Somali Plane Suspect"
- NY Daily News: "White House attacks Cheney over his accusations that administration is soft on terror", by Catey Hill

The Case of the Undocumented Crotch Bomber

On the minor matter of the crotch bomber's missing passport, this just in from The Washington Times:

"Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab reportedly boarded the aircraft by impersonating a Sudanese refugee who did not have a passport, a ruse officials in Amsterdam apparently accepted. It is certain that al Qaeda had tested this method at Amsterdam before."

Neither that, or the fact that he didn't carry any luggage triggered an alert in the ever intrepid Amsterdam Airport security personnel.

Regarding the case of the missing passport, this has been going on for donkey's years. The first thing refugees bound for the Netherlands do after boarding a plane, is flush their passport through the toilet. It's a "known issue".

This act of sabotage makes it possible to stretch the admission process into years, if not decades. It exponentially improves the chance of some Leftist Government proclaiming a general pardon on asylum seekers on the grounds of  "prolonged and inhumane process".

In the past there have been attempts to shift the responsibility to the airlines, but judging by the case of the Islamic crotch bomber we can see the problem still hasn't been resolved to any satisfaction. It's now caught up in the vital matter of international security and counter terrorism.

While citizens may be fined or worse for not carrying identification, Leftist politicians are of the opinion it's inhumane to send refugees back to some hell hole in the horn of Africa just because - through a fault of their own - they're unable to identify themselves. That is, unless the party political affiliation is another than their own; in such case you may well become the target of the national blood sport.

Some may remember the case of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, currently a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, formerly MP in the Dutch Parliament for the right-wing Liberal VVD party. She was forced to give up her seat (bad auto translation, original article) when it transpired her real name was Hirsi Magan.

While this is emphatically not a case of a missing passport, it does illustrate refugees may have reason to conceal their identity. Hirsi Ali was on the way to her unknown fiance in Canada, when in transit she decided to elope from the arranged marriage.

There's also news on the 'naked' body scans, and why they're not yet deployed on Amsterdam Airport. While it's true that the technically advanced apparatus is very expensive, indeed almost prohibitively so, it would appear the employment of security implements has now been outsourced to the European level! The European Commission is still pondering privacy considerations.

Several news outlets are reporting a mysterious “well-dressed Indian man” tried to intervene on Abdulmutallab’s behalf and browbeat an airline employee in to overlooking the fact that the wanna-be martyr lacked a passport. Intelligence want to know "who's this mysterious Indian".

Perhaps they're profiling a South Asian, maybe a Pakistani or a Sri Lankan. I'm sure he wasn't among the chorus of Amsterdam Airport security personnel, festively cheering and applauding the man-made disaster of 9/11 when that happened.

Update: DutchNews are reporting on a press conference held by the relevant Minister: strings are being pulled and full body scanners will be put to good use shortly. Until such time body searches will be carried out manually. Also: she denied the crotch bomber wasn't carrying a passport. We've put the matter to consideration of a law-and-order absolutist MP. No doubt to be continued. More on NRC.

Earlier posts:

- "Christmas Cracker Turns Man-Made Disaster Escape"

Related (updating throughout):

- BBC: "US aware 'Nigerian' prepared for terror attack"
- Mediaite: "Echoes Of 9/11? Gov. Had Plenty Of Warning About Christmas Day Attack"
- Washington Times: "EDITORIAL: Christmas day's recycled terrorists" - Releases from Gitmo are coming back to haunt us"
- TransWorldNews: "Somali Man Suspected of Attempting to Carry Explosives onto Plane"
- NRC: "Controversial scanners will be used on Amsterdam-US flights"
- CBS: "U.S. Intel Lapses Helped Abdulmutallab" - CBS News Exclusive: CIA Had Info on Person of Interest Dubbed "The Nigerian" in August But Officials Failed to Connect Dots

Christmas Cracker Turns Man-Made Disaster Escape

A young Amsterdam entrepreneur has become the toast of the town. The 32 year old partner in a media company, Jasper Schuringa grabbed hold of the Nigerianse Muslim terrorist Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab (23) and narrowly averted a Christmas man-made terror disaster over Detroit.

Northwest Airlines Airbus flight NW-253 from Amsterdam to Detroit carrying 278 passengers, was on approach to Detroit, just lowering the landing gear, when a Nigerian male passenger attempted to ignite a powdery substance attached to his legs.

Al Qaeda's perverted wish to cause maximum harm may have helped the situation. Had the Nigerian succeeded in triggering an explosion in midair, the casualty rate would have been hundred percent. But the terrorist waited until approach to Detroit, in the hope of causing also casualties on the ground.

Schuringa watched Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab trying to set his underpants on fire. He looked him in the eye, jumped him and held him subdued until landing. Schuringa was also hurt in the assault. His parents are so proud of him. A friend, Kasem Challiou was contacted by Schuringa after the event; he has told the press the jihadist was covered in explosives. Delta Airlines initially mentioned  something concerning firecrackers. American authorities later officially declared it a major terrorist man-made disaster thwarted.

In an interview with CNN (below) Schuringa says not to have hesitated for a second. Which is a small miracle given the advice Dutch citizens get from their authorities, never to act on impulse but always to call in the experts: the nanny state at its most insidious. Not so Schuringa: "I didn't give it a thought", he said. "I just wanted to save the plane".

Just 20 minutes prior to the landing in Detroit the Nigerian grabbed a powdery substance, mixed it with a fluid and set fire to it. A series of minor explosions followed. He claims to have acted on the orders of Al Qaeda.

What stands out in the affair is the rank incompetence all round: the general security situation failed, as well as - luckily - the terrorist, son of a prominent, wealthy family in Abuja. Engineering colleges in London and a terror crash course in Yemen, to no avail. The amount of explosives, a semtex component, is said to have been sufficient in quantity, but Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab didn't manage to ignite it.

The Border Police and the National Anti Terror Coordinator in Amsterdam are baffled. The FBI have also arrived on the scene, aghast how the panty bomber could stroll around the airport for three hours, carrying the explosives along in a bag.

Elsevier Magazine is reporting that security at Amsterdam Airport is wanting. The article claims officials are often barely trained. Pentrite is invisible to current detection apparatus. But it can be detected by 'naked scanners'. More accurately called "millimeter wave scans", these devizes are currently undergoing trials at Amsterdam Airport.

- Caption: ABC: "EXCLUSIVE: Photos of the Northwest Airlines Bomb - Accused Bomber Abdulmutallab's Underwear, Explosive Packet and Detonator" - 

Passengers say to have hardly been searched. Security officials might have wanted to search Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, had they been aware who he was. He is among the 550,000 names in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database (TIDE). Smaller watch lists trigger additional airport screening, but intelligence officials said there wasn't enough information to move Abdulmutallab into those categories. He was put on the database only after the US visa had already been issued.

! Update Dec. 29: on the matter of the missing passport, this just in from The Washington Times: "Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab reportedly boarded the aircraft by impersonating a Sudanese refugee who did not have a passport, a ruse officials in Amsterdam apparently accepted. It is certain that al Qaeda had tested this method at Amsterdam before." Well, this has been going on for donkey's years. The first thing refugees do after boarding a plane is to flush their passport through the toilet. It's a "known issue". (Read "The Case of the Undocumented Crotch Bomber".

Rand Simberg, a recovering aerospace engineer and a consultant in space commercialization, space tourism and Internet security, writing yesterday on Pajamas brings a few politically incorrect suggestions to bear how the general security situation might be improved.



Related:


! Newser: "Ex Gitmo Inmates Linked to Bomb - Al Qaeda Leaders Did Art Therapy, Were Freed in Saudi Arabia"
- IBD: "Yes, Janet, There Is A 'War On Terror'"
- RedState: "Seven Things Wrong With The Anti-Terrorism Policies of the TSA"
! Mediaite: "Possible Link Between Northwest Airlines Terrorist And Fort Hood Shooter?", by Glynnis MacNicol
- NRC: "Unused body scan could have revealed explosive powder"
- MEF: "The System "Worked Really Very, Very Smoothly" in Detroit?", by Daniel Pipes
- FoxNews: "Al Qaeda Claims Responsibility for Attempted Bombing of U.S. Plane"
- NewsMax: "Foiled Terror Attack Should Be Wake-Up Call"
- NewsMax: "Napolitano Concedes Airline Security System Failed"

Continued in "The Case of the Undocumented Crotch Bomber

A Sinister Gathering in the City of Light Bulbs

Today in the southern Dutch town of Eindhoven - original seat of the Philips light bulb emporium - a five day international convention of Islamists is kicking off. It's keeping domestic and international secret services off the Christmas pudding. Authorities fear the gathering will be used to raise funds for international jihad.

The meeting is organized by the Al Waqf al Islami Foundation, also based in Eindhoven. Venue is the Al Furqan Mosque, listed as radical and under continued observation by the AIVD Intelligence Service. At least one board member has been connected in the past with fund raising for Al Qaeda.

Intelligence services are primarily interested in the goings-on in the periphery of the conclave. But a spokesman of the Al Waqf Foundation has declined to take any responsibility for what happens outside the mosque. He said discussions will center on Muslim affairs, but that the convention is open to anyone.

Among the key note speakers are renowned Islamic scholars from all over the world. One of them, a Saudi imam, is blacklisted in his country for his radical views.

The Council's theme is also suspect: "Challenges concerning the integration of Muslims in the Netherlands". Intelligence say it is cover for the actual agenda: raising funds for terrorist operations and the prevention of Muslim integration.

De Telegraaf newspaper is reporting that Dutch imams who support integration have unanimously condemned the convention. "An imam who lives and works in Saudi Arabia has a completely different life experience and frame of reference than one who lives in the Netherlands".

"If one poses the question if his wife is allowed to drive a car, the answer will be no, as it would be in Saudi Arabia. And that would stand in the way of integration", one source is reported as saying. "These kinds of Councils frustrate the good intentions of Dutch imams".

For what that is worth.

Related: 

- "Philips Communist Recommendation"

- "In Defense of Liberty"

- "The Jihad Project"

- "Stop Islamization of Europe"

- "Eurabia"

- "Apostating Islam"

The Turkish Capacity for Chutzpah

In a recent entry on the Articles file "In Defense of Liberty" we brought up the matter of a Dutch Parliamentary delegation headed for Turkey running into trouble, because the Turkish Government refused to meet with Geert Wilders, a member of the party. It's just become official and to his honor, the Socialist leader of the group has cancelled the tour altogether.

The Turkish Government kindly confirmed for us a number of 'preconceptions' we are allegedly laboring under. For one, true to tradition and in a fit of psychological projection, they're blaming the other party. Secondly, that they are not mature enough to join the EU. The Muslim sense for solidarity trumps objectivity every time. And get this! It's not them who are intolerant, but Wilders, the xenophobes, the Dutch, the Swiss, the Islamophobes, the fascists!

The Erdogan Government's top EU negotiator Egemen Bagis just commented on the Swiss anti minaret plebiscite. (N.B. Switzerland is not an EU member state.) He's advising rich muzzlemen to remove their pots of gold from Swiss banking paradise and place them on Turkish halal banks: that'll make the Alpine fascists see the error of their intolerance!

He went on to state that Turkey easily meets the EU requirement of respecting minorities. Yeah, ask the Greeks, the Armenians, the Assyrians, the Kurds, or any other former subject of the Ottoman Empire or of the current secular state! Your jaw hitting the pavement yet? There's more where that came from.

Yassin Musharbash writing in Germany's Der Spiegel makes an argument which truly defies all logic. He's asserting that the rationality behind the often heard demand for Islamo-Christian reciprocity is bizarre! (By the way, has anyone heard anything of late about the Pope's talks with 138 Muslim clerics?)

- Caption: Head uncovered, Patriarch Athenagoras prays before the overturned altar table of the destroyed Panagia Church in Belgratkapi. (Photo by Demetrios Kaloumenos) - Hat Tip: My Greek Odyssey -

It's false equivalence, says Yassin Musharbash in his Spiegel article, because ... as we all know ... Christians in Muslim countries are indigenous, while Muslims in Christian countries are not! Makes all the difference, right?! Of all false arguments this one fairly takes the cake!

Specifically noteworthy from a revisionist view point is:

"As Islam spread from Saudi Arabia, the number of Christians dropped as many people converted to the new religion. Forced conversions were the exception; many sought the tax benefits that came with being Muslim. Today, of course -- primarily on account of massive exoduses -- there are relatively few Christians in the Arab and Muslim world, perhaps only a few percent. Even Bethlehem no longer has a Christian majority.

Let me translate that for you. As Mohammed's conquering hordes swept through Christian lands, Christians heartily and voluntarily converted to the new "religion of peace". The choice of death, conversion or jizyah never came into it. (It's the first time I've seen it described as a "tax benefit".) The entire arrangement was so successful that said converts - again entirely of their own free will - exited Muslim conquered lands en masse. That's why there are now only few Christians left in the Arab world, including Bethlehem and quite a few other locations in the Dar-Al-Islam ...

Turks truly are the champion producers of chutzpah. It fairly takes your breath away.

Of Eurocratic Musical Chairs, a Nasty Rumor and Rather Good Spoof

While a thriller of a race is on in New York's 23rd District as well as in a few other constituencies in the US, Europe is showing the world how real statists operate. Obama c.s., while very promising in the field of collectivism and intrigue, they are as yet small-time tinkerers when it comes to constructing a solid edifice of total state.

Talk of the town of Brussels the last few days is Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, or JPB, as he is affectionately known to his Christian Democratic followers.

While Czech President Vaclav Klaus is dealing with ratifying the Treaty of Lisbon (the 'Constitution' that dares not speak its name) as best he can for his country, securing a few opt outs that less euroskeptic nations will have to forego, the Euro machinery has kicked in to appoint the new 'Government' as is required under the agreement.

- Caption: spoof of JPB as Harry Potter - 

While it goes without saying that no messy, direct democracy is involved here as in NY23, there is a power sharing mechanism in play by which the largest party in Parliament delivers the chairperson or 'President', the second largest the 'Foreign Minister', and so on, and so forth.

Another completely obscure and byzantine, post-democratic mechanism governs power sharing between various sub collectives: large versus small countries, North vs South, and new against old Europe (please don't ask!). Individualism is anathema in Europe, almost is much as patriotism.

The balance of power in the Europarliament is currently held by the Christian Democrats assembled in the European People's Party.  (The British Tories notably detached themselves recently from this body and became part of the Conservative and Reformist bloc. That Italian PM Berlusconi's party for example is still a member of the EPP goes to show that all is rather relative here!)

Although theories abound, this is the obvious reason why British Socialist Tony Blair has dropped out of the race for the 'Presidency'. One rumor has it that Blair is too much associated with the Bush era: with the fresh Obama across the pond we need fresh Europeans at home to go with it, or so the nasty reasoning goes.

The buzz around Europe today, is that UK Foreign Minister David Miliband (also of Labor extraction) is a contender for Europe's first real 'Foreign Minister' (unsure at their stage if these titles should be 'ironized' or not, given the awkward status of the 'Constitution'). Miliband has far left credentials and for some reason, triggers the same warning signals in me as Rahm Emanuel.

Should JPB be appointed Europe's first 'President' the Netherlands might well face a political crisis of sorts. Although there's no constitutional reason for new elections, this may well prove the way to go. Support for the sitting cabinet is dwindling; swathes of the electorate will not be at all sad to see the colorless JPB go after he's sat as PM to four consecutive, equally colorless Governments of variations in grey.

A much more exciting prospect is the buzz involving the candidacy of Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, former President of Latvia. A Liberty loving woman for first President of Europe ... now that's a novel idea even a staunch euroskeptic like myself might warm to, but ... nah ... we can't have too many libertarian influences ruling Euroland.

EUX.TV: "EU Seeks Council President - Eurinfo Report"



The opposition puts it into perspective:



Related dossiers:

- "Building the State of Europe"
- "The Treaty of Lisbon"
- "Neototalitarianism"

- "Hegel's Legacy"
- "Leviathan's Birth Certificate: Analysis of the Lisbon Treaty"

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 ...

Geert Wilders: Persona Non Grata in Britain

Sit down for this one.

On behalf of the British Government, her Majesty's ambassador to the Netherlands has served Dutch MP Geert Wilders today with a letter, declaring him persona non grata in UK.

Wilders is due on Thursday for a screening of his short film "Fitna" on the invitation of Lord Malcolm Pearson, member of the House of Lords for the euroskeptic UK Independence Party.

Wilders will be arrested on entering the U.K. The official ground for Wilders' banning is "endangering community harmony and therefore the public safety".

Wilders: "Great Britain is sacrificing the freedom of speech. You would expect something like this to happen in a country like Saudi Arabia, but not in Great Britain. This cowardly act by the British government is a disgrace. I was invited by a British member of parliament."

The Dutch Foreign Minister as well the House Speaker have protested the British Government's decision.

The British Labour Government have nothing to say for themselves, declining to "comment on individual cases". (At the moment of publishing we are anxiously awaiting tonight's broadcast of News Night - forget it: story has been buried by the BBC).

The invitation is actually an extension of an earlier request. The screening at the Lords had originally been planned for January 29 , but was postponed because Lord Nazi Ahmed, a Muslim member of the House of Lords (Labour), had threatened to take 10,000 Muslims to the streets to physically prevent Wilders from entering the House.

Lord Malcolm denies the postponement was in reaction to the threats. If Wilders doesn't show or gets arrested, screening of "Fitna" will take place nevertheless. Also on the program is a 1999 production called "Kill or be Killed", an even more "inflammatory" document than Wilders' indictment of the Koran. Afterwards a panel discussion will be held with Muslim scholars.

Wilders meanwhile, is pondering to travel any way and dare the British to throw him in jail the moment he presents himself at Heathrow airport.

In case you're wondering how things could have come this far, watch this (no, your eyes are not deceiving you: this is the proud Metropolitan police force being chased through the streets of London by demonstrating thugs).



Contribute here to Wilders' legal fund.

Read more on the case on the site of the International Free Press Society.

You can Digg It here.

- Filed on Articles in "In Defense of Liberty" -