Tag Archives: NL
25 April 2014
The Dutch Minister of Defence, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, maintains that the Netherlands does not facilitate illegal liquidations with drones by the United States and that the Dutch government has no indications that information gathered by the Dutch military intelligence agency (MIVD) was used for acts that violate international law. The statement by Hennis-Plasschaert is a reaction to the claim by former drone pilot, Brandon Bryant, that it is ‘unthinkable’ that the Dutch intelligence concerning Somalia has not been used by the US to conduct targeted killings of presumed terrorists. (more…)
Source: Volkskrant | Hennis herhaalt: Nederland werkt niet mee aan illegale drone-aanvallen
Source: NRC | ‘Nederland levert metadata voor Amerikaanse aanvallen met drones’
10 April 2014
The New York Times reports that Britain has increasingly invoked its power to strip citizens of their British citizenship. Furthermore, Prime Minister David Cameron’s government is promoting legislation that would increase this power to revoke citizenship, as a result of concerns that British Muslims traveling to fight in Syria will pose a threat upon their return to Britain. Britain is one of the few countries, including Israel, which can revoke citizenship of dual nationals, if suspected or convicted of terrorist offenses. However, the proposed legislation would expand such practice to naturalised citizens that have no other nationality, resulting in the statelessness of that person. Home Secretary Theresa May stated that citizenship is a ‘privilege, not a right.’ The purpose of this power is to disrupt the terrorist threat and other countries are taking note. For example, in Canada there is a bill before parliament including some deprivation powers. Additionally, Australia and the Netherlands are also considering such legislation. (more…)
Source: The New York Times | Britain Increasingly Invokes Power to Disown Its Citizens
3 April 2014
The exchange of information between Dutch intelligence services and the United States National Security Agency (NSA) is no longer taking place entirely outside the public eye. After a graph published in German news magazine Der Spiegel in August 2013 initially seemed to suggest that the NSA had intercepted 1.8 million records of metadata from Dutch phone calls in the period of December 2012 to January 2013, it became clear this February that Dutch intelligence services had gathered these records themselves, and had subsequently shared them with the NSA. This information consisted of metadata records gathered in the context of anti-terrorism and military operations abroad.
A substantial share of Dutch intelligence efforts is directed towards Somalia, and millions of Somali phone calls have been intercepted from both the Dutch town of Burum and Dutch navy ship HMS Rotterdam. The Netherlands has been collecting this information in order to support the Dutch contribution to the navy missions combating piracy in the Gulf of Aden. The (meta)data is shared with the NSA (who do not have access to Somali telephone traffic) and in return the US has provided the Netherlands with technical support needed to intercept local telephone traffic from the HMS Rotterdam.[1] (more…)
11 March 2014
On 10 March 2014, the heads of state of Caribbean nations unanimously adopted a 10-point plan requesting reparations from European states for the continuing suffering caused by the Atlantic slave trade. Sir Hilary Beckles, the chair of the reparations task force, insisted that the main objective of the plan was not money, but to enter into a dialogue with former slave-trading nations including the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France, Spain and Portugal. (more…)
Source: The Guardian | Caribbean nations prepare demand for slavery reparations
Source: The Washington Post | Caribbean adopts plan to seek slavery reparations
26 February 2014
On 24 February 2014 the members of the Caribbean’s political and economic body Caricom met in order to discuss their campaign for reparation by former slave-owning nations in Europe – principally the UK, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The claim is channelled through the UN Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which can be employed as a forum for negotiation according to Caricom. If no agreement is concluded, however, the Caribbean leaders will take their claim to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). (more…)
Source: The Guardian | UK sternly resists paying reparations for slave trade atrocities and injustices