Dutch authorities claim to have foiled at least one terrorist attack on home soil in the last 12 months, and 2005 also saw the start of the largest trial of terrorist suspects ever held in the Netherlands. The case against members of a terrorist network codenamed the ‘Hofstad’ group recently began and is expected to continue until at least February 2006. The Hague has also been working hard to broaden anti-terrorist measures giving more powers to police by adapting legislation already on the books.

At first glance, 2005 was a fairly quiet year after the shocking murder of film director and columnist Theo van Gogh in 2004 – described by Dutch Deputy Prime Minister Gerrit Zalm as a terrorist act. However, not a single reassuring word was heard from the authorities. On the contrary, time and again, officials repeated the statement – from AIVD Dutch intelligence service chief Sybrand van Hulst – that there was ‘no prospect of winning’ the fight against terrorism.

Substantial risk
Another chilling warning was the government’s comment that a growing number of young Muslims, including women and ‘highly educated’ followers, are being drawn to radical forms of Islam. There’s still apparently a ‘substantial’ risk of fresh attacks, and there’s been official confirmation that 10 to 20 terrorist networks are active in the Netherlands, some of them homegrown, others with ties to international organisations.

This last statement is interesting because ’10 to 20′ sounds like a very generous estimate. Presumably, the authorities have far more accurate intelligence on the number of networks active in the Netherlands, but are being intentionally vague to confuse the terrorists about which groups have already been infiltrated.

Connections abroad
Also, the authorities are no longer mentioning the names of terrorist groups. However, the name of the Moroccan group GICM (Moroccan Islamic Combat Group) keeps cropping up in the media. Some reports suggest that the Hofstad Group is in fact an extension of GICM. Another name that makes a regular appearance in the media is the Algerian organization GSPC (Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat). Some of these networks are said to have Chechen and Iraqi connections.

Beefing up operations
Meanwhile, the intelligence services have been overhauled, including more personnel for the AIVD and the regional intelligence services of the Netherlands’ 25 police forces. An ‘eavesdropping centre’ is being built in the town of Burum in the northern province of Friesland, complete with 22 dish antennas monitoring all telephone and internet communications. A new government service, the National Signals Intelligence Organisation, has been created to run the centre for the benefit of the AIVD and its military counterpart MIVD.

Targeting the intelligence service
The authorities say that the arrest of Hofstad group member Nouredine el-Fatmi prevented a terrorist attack allegedly aimed at MP’s Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Geert Wilders. More arrests followed in October; this time including the Netherlands’ most often detained suspected terrorist Samir Azzouz, who was earlier released due to a lack of evidence. He’s accused of planning attacks on the Israeli national airline El Al, various politicians and the AIVD headquarters.

Muslim extremism in the Netherlands is for the most part following the same pattern as in other countries, but targeting the AIVD is unusual, few radical Islamic networks in this part of the world have their country’s intelligence services high on their list of targets.

And finally, on a slightly more optimistic note, the authorities believe terrorists in the Netherlands are unlikely to use weapons of mass destruction. However, the National Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism in his most recent report told parliament that the consequences of such an attack would be ‘extremely serious’.