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11/1 Jurists want to stay in Oudemanhuispoort

8/2 Mayor’s portrait

8/2 Websites for social cohesion

7/2 Spreading tourism proceeds with difficulty

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6/2 Zuideramstel opens new office on Sabbath

5/2 The truth about integration

4/2 Wilders has little support on Amsterdam

3/2 Elite involved in neighbourhood

2/2 Johnnie Walker avoids taxes in Amsterdam

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31/1 Wooden rowing boats to disappear from Amstel

31/1 ZeeburgTV launched

27/1 Privacy activists to mess up loyalty card system

27/1 A few were still coughing, but that was an act

27/1 Chrisis in de Baarsjes

26/1 Youth have positive view of districts

24/1 Action groups call for Carmel and Jaffa boycott

24/1 PvdA members dismiss plan for districts

23/1 KLM takes on crisis with new uniform

23/1 District office not squatted

21/1 Merge districts

20/1 Closing squat bar Vrankrijk not necessary

20/1 Cleaners welcome new Schiphol director

18/1 Palestine at the Jewish Historical Museum

18/1 What is the right size for a district?

17/1 PvdA Oost against fewer districts

16/1 Committee: 7 districts by 2010

15/1 Soldiers may attend Afghanistan debate after all

15/1 Bait bike leads to arrest

14/1 Youth for Christ to republish vacancies

13/1 Paintings of the Zuidas

13/1 New Youth for Christ contoversy

11/1 Social cohesion initiative raises eyebrows

10/1 Fewer districts in 2010

10/1 Zuidas: People feel that we are losers

9/1 Fun on the ice - but not for all

9/1 Supermarket coupon fraud thwarted

9/1 I Amsterdam must remain exclusive

8/1 Use term Apartheid in every discussion

8/1 No city kiosk in Amsterdam yet

7/1 Snow

7/1 Fatima Elatik to run Zeeburg

7/1 Municipal managers to return to shop floor

4/1 Police: take photo of strange people

3/1 Gaza protest criticises politicians

1/1 Thousands to protest against attacks on Gaza

1/1 Mustapha Laboui leaves district council

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‘RAF planned Leidseplein assassination’

22 June 2007 - In 1977, sharpshooters and special forces were deployed to prevent German Chancellor Willy Brandt's assassination by the Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF). He was attending a meeting at the Marriott Hotel presided by then PM Joop den Uyl, the Nova TV-programme reports.

It was known that the RAF has used the Netherlands to escape police surveillance in Germany, but secret documents reveal that they have been much more active here than previously assumed.

They had a hiding place at Baden Powellweg 217 in Amsterdam West. This house would have been used to coordinate the abduction of the chairman of the employers' organisation and former Nazi Hanns-Martin Schleyer.

During a Socialist summit at the Marriott hotel, five armed RAF members would have been present at the nearby Roemer Visscher Hotel. However, an attack was prevented.

While Germany responded to the RAF by curtailing civil rights, Den Uyl insisted that it is unacceptable to use the ‘methods of the police state’.

Source: Nova

BACKGROUND 23 June 2007 - In 2004, former Secret Service official Frits Hoekstra published a book entitled ‘In dienst van de BVD’, which includes a discussion of RAF activities in Amsterdam. He estimates that five to six RAF-terrorists were staying in the capital.

One of their objectives was to buy arms, in which they were assisted by the Dutch Red Youth. “In their code language, they spoke of ‘books’ when they meant pistols or revolvers. Because they were or pretended to be students, telephone conversations about supplying, distributing or loaning books were not out of the ordinary”.

According to Hoekstra, it was Dutch policy to keep terrorist plans secret as much as possible. “Secrecy ... undoubtedly contributed to a more balanced response to this phenomenon, not swayed by the political issues of the day”.

In the early 1970s, the RAF would have considered Amsterdam a safe place to rest. From 1975 this changed as a result of more effective Secret Service actions, according to Hoekstra.

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