CIA protecting US soldiers in the Netherlands
2007/07/19 filed under /newsThe 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?
