Via 10news.dk, translated by Roni from NRC:
The intelligence service AIVD cannot follow jihadists properly in the Netherlands due to financial cuts and a “new dynamic” in the jihad movement. According to the AIVD memorandum that will appear next week, the jihad movement is more elusive and dangerous “than ever before.” So say, today, sources close to the Ministry of Home Affairs in NRC Handelsblad.
AIVD teams are already overloaded with tracking “travelers” who fight alongside jihadists in Syria and Iraq, ones who are planning to do so, or who have already returned. If additional cuts continue, as Minister Plasterk (home affairs, Socialist Party PvdA) plans, the service will be compelled to drop more “essential functions,” which is already the case, and may be forced to remove complete “jihad teams.” “We do what is necessary,” said a spokesman of the AIVD, who refused to give any further details about ongoing operations.
“AIVD has a huge capacity problem”
Safety expert Rob de Wijk, director of the Center for Strategic Studies in The Hague, says that the AIVD encounters a “huge capacity problem in following jihadism.” That is, according to him, this problem has recently “exploded,” and is now taking place “outside established structures, such as mosques.” It is impossible to follow all those who are involved. “Therefore, the AIVD’s capacity must be strengthened,” said De Wijk.
According to him, politicians relate to jihadism with a “remarkable lack of seriousness.” “Ministers say it’s not as bad as it looks. But the situation is not easy.”
CDA (Christian Democrat Party) leader Sybrand Buma today accused the government in Volkskrant (one of the leading Newspapers in the Netherlands) about the threat of jihadism. He called their approach to the threat of jihadism “naive.” He viewed the returning ISIS fighters as “the biggest security problem.” He wants the intelligence services — the AIVD and the military service MIVD – together to receive 50 million euros more than they do now. For quite some time, The Freedom Party (PVV — the party of Geert Wilders) has demanded that the cuts be implemented.