Coot
02-19-2005, 07:22 PM
The FFI, or Norwegian Defense Research Institute (http://rapporter.ffi.no/Default.asp?english), is the (http://www.mil.no/felles/ffi/start/English/):
prime institution responsible for defence-related research in Norway. The Establishment is also the chief adviser on defence-related science and technology to the Ministry of Defence and the Norwegian Armed Forces’ military organization.
The FFI has an unclassified report (http://rapporter.ffi.no/rapporter/2005/00376.pdf), culled from various sources, that makes an excellent case for the connections between malcontented European muslims and and various terrorist organizations.
As the report is pretty straight forward and without inuendo, I'll quote some excerpts.
At first glance, the slaying of the filmmaker looked like a spontaneous, religiously motivated murder trigged by the release of his provocative short film. However, investigations have revealed that the assassin belonged to a more or less organized group of individuals subscribing to radical Islamism, and supporting al-Qaida’s ideology of global jihad against the United States and its allies. Political assassinations were also conceived of and planned in these circles. The following analysis outlines and discusses the information about the murder case currently available in open sources. Pieces of information that seemed uncertain and/or inaccurate were consulted upon with an informed Dutch intelligence official, in order to increase the reliability of facts upon which this analysis is based. The hypothesis generated from the mass of information about the case surveyed thus far is that the slaying of Theo Van Gogh was an act of global jihad, following the new patterns of Islamist terrorism in Western Europe, and cannot be reduced to the deed of a religious fanatic who was acting on his own.
This analysis finds that the motivations for the attack appear to be more ideological-political in response to the escalation in the conflict between radical Islamists and the US, Israel and their European allies, than cultural-religious, generated from a provocative short film about the treatment of Muslim women. The release of the short film affected the selection of Van Gogh by the terrorists because it made him visible as a potential target. The paper argues that it is highly plausible that the killer was motivated by the jihadist notion that Muslims in Holland and around the globe are under attack as part of the “global war on terrorism”. The assassination occurred in the context of an escalation in the conflict in Iraq, and intensified counter-terrorism efforts against radical Islamists in the Netherlands.
The Van Gogh case, it seems, reveals patterns of recruitment, motivations and modus operandi similar to those addressed in the report “Jihad in Europe”, released by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment in April 2004.
The following patterns are typical of the Islamist terrorist cases revealed after 2000, and will be addressed in more detail below. First, the target selection and the method of assassination do represent commonly used tactical means for radical Islamists associated with al-Qaida. Secondly, the assassin, Muhammad Bouyeri, belonged to a semi-organized multinational radical Islamist milieu consisting mainly of second-generation immigrants to Holland from North African countries.
This group operated mainly in the Netherlands, but also across state boundaries, and maintained international jihadist contacts. Individuals in the group have been linked to terrorist activities in other European countries, and in Morocco. Investigations have revealed that they planned assassinations of politicians in the Netherlands as well as in Portugal. Thirdly, the presumed assassin, Muhammad Bouyeri, has been described as a bright and integrated second-generation immigrant to the Netherlands, who was recruited to militancy by Islamist radicals in his European home country. Fourthly, a survey of Bouyeri’s background indicates that he was drawn towards militancy after the September 11 attacks, after his mother died from cancer, and after he failed to fulfill his ambition of establishing a youth centre for immigrants in his hometown.
The pattern of pre-recruitment personal crises and failed ambitions is also a familiar feature in several terrorist conspiracies unravelled in the Western Muslim Diasporas of Europe and the US.
Finally, the available information about the Van Gogh case strongly suggests that motivations for the murder may have involved grievances related to the US-led invasion of Iraq. There is evidence that Bouyeri was very supportive of the Sunni Islamist resistance in Iraq. In addition, two men belonging to the same radical Islamist milieu as Bouyeri in Holland are suspected of involvement in plans to assassinate the former Portuguese prime minister during the 2004 European soccer championship in Portugal. Both Portugal and the Netherlands have deployed troops to Iraq. It should also be noted that the murder coincided with the mobilization of coalition forces for the recapture of the stronghold of Islamist resistance in Iraq, Fallujah.
The report goes on to demonstrate connections between Moroccan Islamist groups in multiple European nations, Morocco and even a discernible link between the Hofstad network and al zarqawi in Iraq. It's a fairly long read, with its information culled from multiple open sources, but it is a dot connector.
prime institution responsible for defence-related research in Norway. The Establishment is also the chief adviser on defence-related science and technology to the Ministry of Defence and the Norwegian Armed Forces’ military organization.
The FFI has an unclassified report (http://rapporter.ffi.no/rapporter/2005/00376.pdf), culled from various sources, that makes an excellent case for the connections between malcontented European muslims and and various terrorist organizations.
As the report is pretty straight forward and without inuendo, I'll quote some excerpts.
At first glance, the slaying of the filmmaker looked like a spontaneous, religiously motivated murder trigged by the release of his provocative short film. However, investigations have revealed that the assassin belonged to a more or less organized group of individuals subscribing to radical Islamism, and supporting al-Qaida’s ideology of global jihad against the United States and its allies. Political assassinations were also conceived of and planned in these circles. The following analysis outlines and discusses the information about the murder case currently available in open sources. Pieces of information that seemed uncertain and/or inaccurate were consulted upon with an informed Dutch intelligence official, in order to increase the reliability of facts upon which this analysis is based. The hypothesis generated from the mass of information about the case surveyed thus far is that the slaying of Theo Van Gogh was an act of global jihad, following the new patterns of Islamist terrorism in Western Europe, and cannot be reduced to the deed of a religious fanatic who was acting on his own.
This analysis finds that the motivations for the attack appear to be more ideological-political in response to the escalation in the conflict between radical Islamists and the US, Israel and their European allies, than cultural-religious, generated from a provocative short film about the treatment of Muslim women. The release of the short film affected the selection of Van Gogh by the terrorists because it made him visible as a potential target. The paper argues that it is highly plausible that the killer was motivated by the jihadist notion that Muslims in Holland and around the globe are under attack as part of the “global war on terrorism”. The assassination occurred in the context of an escalation in the conflict in Iraq, and intensified counter-terrorism efforts against radical Islamists in the Netherlands.
The Van Gogh case, it seems, reveals patterns of recruitment, motivations and modus operandi similar to those addressed in the report “Jihad in Europe”, released by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment in April 2004.
The following patterns are typical of the Islamist terrorist cases revealed after 2000, and will be addressed in more detail below. First, the target selection and the method of assassination do represent commonly used tactical means for radical Islamists associated with al-Qaida. Secondly, the assassin, Muhammad Bouyeri, belonged to a semi-organized multinational radical Islamist milieu consisting mainly of second-generation immigrants to Holland from North African countries.
This group operated mainly in the Netherlands, but also across state boundaries, and maintained international jihadist contacts. Individuals in the group have been linked to terrorist activities in other European countries, and in Morocco. Investigations have revealed that they planned assassinations of politicians in the Netherlands as well as in Portugal. Thirdly, the presumed assassin, Muhammad Bouyeri, has been described as a bright and integrated second-generation immigrant to the Netherlands, who was recruited to militancy by Islamist radicals in his European home country. Fourthly, a survey of Bouyeri’s background indicates that he was drawn towards militancy after the September 11 attacks, after his mother died from cancer, and after he failed to fulfill his ambition of establishing a youth centre for immigrants in his hometown.
The pattern of pre-recruitment personal crises and failed ambitions is also a familiar feature in several terrorist conspiracies unravelled in the Western Muslim Diasporas of Europe and the US.
Finally, the available information about the Van Gogh case strongly suggests that motivations for the murder may have involved grievances related to the US-led invasion of Iraq. There is evidence that Bouyeri was very supportive of the Sunni Islamist resistance in Iraq. In addition, two men belonging to the same radical Islamist milieu as Bouyeri in Holland are suspected of involvement in plans to assassinate the former Portuguese prime minister during the 2004 European soccer championship in Portugal. Both Portugal and the Netherlands have deployed troops to Iraq. It should also be noted that the murder coincided with the mobilization of coalition forces for the recapture of the stronghold of Islamist resistance in Iraq, Fallujah.
The report goes on to demonstrate connections between Moroccan Islamist groups in multiple European nations, Morocco and even a discernible link between the Hofstad network and al zarqawi in Iraq. It's a fairly long read, with its information culled from multiple open sources, but it is a dot connector.