Thanks a lot, Portugal!

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-11-16 03:51pm

For Fucking Lacking the Balls to do the right thing

Dutch radical Islamic group planned Euro 2004 attack in Portugal: police

LISBON (AFP) - Three members of an extremist Dutch Islamic group were arrested and deported from Portugal just before the Euro 2004 football championship in June on suspicion of planning an attack, the former head of Portugal's police force said in comments published.

The men were arrested June 11 in Oporto, one day before the northern Portuguese city hosted the opening match of the championship, Adelino Salvado told the Portuguese daily Diario de Noticias.

The Dutch interior ministry last week identified the three as belonging to the so-called Hofstad group, which has been linked to the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh earlier this month.

Salvado said he suspected the group wanted to target former prime minister Jose Manuel Barroso, who resigned in July to become the next head of the European Commission (news - web sites), as well as other international figures who were in Oporto for Euro 2004 opening festivities.

The three men possessed a second-hand car with Dutch licence plates which had been bought in the name of van Gogh's alleged killer, Mohammed Bouyeri, and had made daily withdrawals of small amounts of cash from a bank at the airport.

Among the three men was El Fahtni Noreddine, a Moroccan national who at one point shared a flat in Amsterdam with Bouyeri, who holds both Moroccan and Dutch citizenship, he added.

"All the signs suggested they were preparing something," Salvado said.

Salvado said he telephoned Barroso directly and prevented the prime minister from leaving his hotel on June 11 as a safety precaution while extra security measures were put in place.

"I could not take a chance, everything indicated they were preparing an attack, and I could never sleep if I did nothing to prevent it," said Salvado, who stepped down in August.

Jose Luis Arnaut, the then deputy prime minister, represented Barroso at a gala dinner held that night in Oporto which was also attended by the president of the European Parliament at the time, Ireland's Pat Cox.

A spokesman for Barroso, a vocal supporter of the US-led invasion of Iraq (news - web sites), said at the time that the prime minister had canceled his appearance at the event because the nation was in official mourning for the death two days earlier of veteran politician Antonio Sousa Franco.

Oporto Mayor Rui Rio said in a television interview Monday he received on the afternoon of June 11 a call from Barroso, who explained the situation and offered him the choice of continuing or canceling the dinner.

"Can you imagine what kind of signal it would have sent on the eve of Euro 2004 if I had cancelled the dinner for security reasons," said Rio.

Police officials were not immediately available Monday for comment.

Portuguese police detained the three men along with 12 other young Arab men of various nationalities after receiving a warning from Dutch intelligence about the presence of potentially dangerous individuals in Portugal.

Eight of those detained were subsequently released.

The remaining seven, which included the three men later identified as being part of the Hofstad group, were brought before a court and were deported as illegal immigrants.

Dutch intelligence informed Portuguese police that Noreddine had written a will saying he was prepared to die for Islamic jihad, or holy war, Salvado said.

A similar letter was found in Bouyeri's pocket after he was arrested in a shoot-out with police November 2, shortly after Van Gogh died of gunshot wounds and a slit throat.

Dutch authorities have carried out more than a dozen arrests of young Muslims on terrorism charges since the murder of Van Gogh, whose most recent film was critical of the place of women in Islam.

Portugal mounted an unprecedented security operation for the three-week European football finals, the largest sports event worldwide after the Olympics and the football World Cup.

Among the measures adopted was the reimposition of border controls with neighbouring Spain and the use of NATO (news - web sites) surveillance planes during the event.

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So Portugal simply passed the Buck and merely deported them,
allowing them to later go on and kill an innocent man in the Netherlands.

With "allies" like this, no wonder the ROP (TM) is so dangerous.

Lord Sander · Post by **Lord Sander** » 2004-11-16 05:56pm

Certainly nice of them to give us back our terrorists

Warspite · Post by **Warspite** » 2004-11-16 06:22pm

Innocent until proven guilty, Shep.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2004-11-16 06:34pm

Warspite wrote:Innocent until proven guilty, Shep.

Looks like there's enough evidence listed in that article to proclaim their guilt to me.

Warspite · Post by **Warspite** » 2004-11-16 06:57pm

Cpl Kendall wrote:
Warspite wrote:Innocent until proven guilty, Shep.
Looks like there's enough evidence listed in that article to proclaim their guilt to me.

Perhaps I didn't explained myself better, sorry, but I was responding to Shep's reaction that it was Portugal's fault for the death of the filmmaker.

The terrorist was arrested in Oporto following a lead from the Dutch, since he didn't commit any crime in-country, then he got shipped back to where he came. The fact that the Dutch failed in their responsabilities, has no bear on the effectiveness of the Portuguese judicial system, or in the application of the Portuguese Code of Laws (particularly, 5 months after!).

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2004-11-16 07:00pm

Warspite wrote:
Perhaps I didn't explained myself better, sorry, but I was responding to Shep's reaction that it was Portugal's fault for the death of the filmmaker.

Understood.

The terrorist was arrested in Oporto following a lead from the Dutch, since he didn't commit any crime in-country, then he got shipped back to where he came. The fact that the Dutch failed in their responsabilities, has no bear on the effectiveness of the Portuguese judicial system, or in the application of the Portuguese Code of Laws (particularly, 5 months after!).

I don't really see how Portugal did anything wrong, they acted in accordanace with their laws. I am curious as to how the Dutch failed though.

Post by **Colonel Olrik** » 2004-11-16 07:10pm

Shep, deportation to the origin country is I believe SOP in these situations. What would you have us done? Detain them indefinitely with no charges in a near shore island? You're 30 years too late for that, we're not a dictatorship anymore. Blame the dutch for not keeping them under surveillance.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-11-16 07:47pm

But when you arrest someone, like Portugal did, it indicates there's a lot
of damning evidence. You know, unless Portugal is now a fascist dictatorship
with a secret police that arrests people on no evidence.

Post by **Colonel Olrik** » 2004-11-17 06:17am

MKSheppard wrote:But when you arrest someone, like Portugal did, it indicates there's a lot
of damning evidence. You know, unless Portugal is now a fascist dictatorship
with a secret police that arrests people on no evidence.

During the Euro the Schengen accords were suspended in Portugal, meaning EU nationals (and they were all dutch) could be prevented from entering the territory - borders closed. They were arrested and deported as illegal aliens after the authorities were tipped of their undesirability status. Deporting aliens is legal, holding them forever with no concrete evidence is not. Are you seriously suggesting that if the dutch had hard evidence against the guys that they'd have still been let go? and that the dutch authorities couldn't have got them as soon as they returned to the country, in either case?