Here's a news item which didn't seem to make it to prime time: two of the suspects arrested in Holland's recent anti-terrorist sweep were Dutch Americans:

THE NETHERLANDS: REPORT SAYS 2 TERROR SUSPECTS ARE DUTCH-AMERICANS Two brothers arrested in antiterrorism raids on Wednesday are Dutch-American converts to Islam, NOS television reported. Five other people were arrested in the raids in a continuing investigation into a network that appears to be linked to Islamic extremists in Morocco and Spain. It is not yet clear whether they are connected to six suspects in custody for the murder of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh on Nov. 2. Craig S. Smith

Terrorism is all about family values

Two of the seven terrorism suspects that were apprehended yesterday, turn out to be brothers.

Yeah, I got a warm fuzzy feeling too.

What's more, they're not Moroccans. They're Dutch Americans, both from Amersfoort. Their father is an American soldier based in Europe. Their mother is Dutch. The oldest of the two is names Jason W. He is 19 years old and, according to some sources, converted to Islam five years ago. Another source states he converted at the age of 13, which at least isn't contradictory. At that time, he got a new name: Abu Mujahied Amrik, according to shock blog GeenStijl. Jason left a goodbye note for his parents in Dutch. It is mainly rethorical drivel, although one sentence intrigues me: he begs his mother not to erect another altar like the last time.

Jason was arrested in The Hague yesterday and got hurt. This probably means he's the guy that didn't follow police orders. Yesterday it was reported that one of the suspects was subsequently shot in his shoulder. GeenStijl has a really small picture of Jason here. His brother Jermaine is 17. He was arrested in Amersfoort.

Jason had finished VWO (the highest level of secondary school in the Netherlands) and had started his university studies. As with Mohammed B., who was also well educated, and as with many of the hijackers during the 9-11 attacks, this goes to show we are not dealing with mindless drones, but misguided ones.

It would be foolish to underestimate them.

The only reason I stumbled across this was because I was fascinated by the dyed blonde "liberal right winger" in today's Internet news, and I googled the guy. It's hard to ascertain his politics (is he a Dutch Zell Miller?), but what if he's more along the lines of a pissed off libertarian than the Nazi he's being made out to be?

Will we ever be told?

Go figure. Anyway, here's the Drudge-linked story on Geert Wilders:

Wilders split with the free-market coalition partner Liberal Party two months ago because it backed the candidacy of predominantly Muslim Turkey for the European Union.

He formed his own conservative party, the Wilders Group, which has one seat in the 150-member parliament. But a recent poll suggested his anti-immigrant message was reverberating through the electorate, and he would win 24 seats if elections were held today -- up from 19 seats before Van Gogh's murder.

Wilders said that without swift, bold action, Islamic fundamentalism will topple the country's democratic system.

"The Netherlands has been too tolerant to intolerant people for too long," he said. "We should not import a retarded political Islamic society to our country. There is nothing to be ashamed of to say this. It's not Islam. I speak out against the facts."

.....Wilders said closing the borders isn't enough. Newcomers should be forced to integrate.

"If in a mosque there is recruitment for jihad, it's not a house of prayer, it's a house of war. If it's not a house of prayer, it should be closed down," he said.

Wilders, known for his radical positions and peroxide-blond hair, has been a member of parliament since 1998. He was born and educated in the southern city Venlo, near the German border.

"I'm very tough on radical Islam. I have the toughest ideas on beating this problem and I'm proud of it. I say nothing wrong. I'm no racist, no anti-Islamist," he said.

Why does it always have to be about sex?

Anyway, the religious views upsetting Wilders include throwing homosexuals off buildings, mutilating the genitals of young girls, and a rule that women who lie deserve 100 blows. Lovely. (Hardly what Dr. Laura would call tough love....)

As I said before, freedom of religion is one thing. But cutting out bleeding hearts is another.

So cut it out!

Unless you think opposing such butchery is right wing.

MORE: Once again, here's Bat Ye'or, author of Islam and Dhimmitude: Where Civilizations Collide:

The war against a global jihadist terrorism can be won only if the civilized world is united against barbarity. Until now European democracies supported Arafat, the initiator of jihadist terrorism, hostage-taking and Islamikazes. The war will be won if we name it, if we face it, if we recognize that it obeys specific rules of Islamic war that are not ours; and if democracies and Muslim modernists stop justifying these acts against other countries. The policy of collusion and support for terrorists in order to gain self-protection is a delusion.

MORE: Here's an unsettling piece on Dutch anti-Semitism -- old and new. Just who's calling who fascist, anyway?