The 4day march is an annual four day event (the name kind of gives that
away) in the Netherlands. This joyful happening attracts visitors from
all over the globe. People from many countries come to the city of Nijmegen
to walk ... and walk ... and walk.
For years, soldiers from many countries walk this route too. Recently,
however, the Dutch daily newspaper Algemeen
Dagblad reported about armed CIA and
DIA presence. These secret service officials were walking along
to protect the 65 participating US soldiers. The 936 British and
1713 Dutch troops do leave security to the Dutch authorities.
The Netherlands, a sovereign state, clearly does not allow foreign armed
forces within its' borders, yet for the US officials, an exception seems
to be in place, according to the news paper's internal sources in the
Ministry of Justice.
Not long after the article was posted, an online news website
(nu.nl) posted
an article
with the response of the Ministry of Justice. The spokesman claims to have
no knowledge of the presence of CIA/DIA officials, nor does he deny it.
He tells us the US indeed has to ask permission first, which clearly never
arrived at the ministry. The request for an investigation was dismissed
by a simple "we've already investigated it".
Investigations, especially from government bodies, take a long time, yet
in this case, the Ministry of Justice was able to investigate this delicate
matter within hours. Leaving me with the thought that at most the ambassador
was questioned briefly. Unfortunately, the results and facts of this
investigation are nowhere to be found.
I might be biased, but the investigative qualities of this body
aren't the greatest. The invasion of airplanes by CIA planes to
Balkan CIA prisons was never really caught and I can probably
list numerous accounts of such incompetence.
After these news paper entries, the media has completely moved along. Either
no one cares about this grave invasion by US officials, or there is really
nothing more to report. I however do not like the deafening silence and called
upon my political party to get more information. Hopefully they will succeed,
but seeing the recent trend of unsolved mysteries (like blocked investigations
to the real reason why the Dutch participated in the war on Iraq), I doubt
they will be able to do much.
Let's see if I myself, as a concerned citizen, can pry some
information out of the Ministry of Justice or the US embassy.
Hopefully to be continued!
Update: I just emailed the Ministry of
Justice, asking for the findings and conclusions of the investigation. The
part that is still unclear to me is that they cannot deny CIA presence,
nor confirm it. What did they investigate then?
