Article taken from Expatica.com

Theo van Gogh murder was terrorist attack : Killer pictured below was leader of Hofstadgroep, newly designated as terrorist organisation.

ISecurity services failed to access Mohammed Bouyeri as significant threat - Killer warned Dutch of "blood and revenge"

Breaking news from Holland shows that Theo van Gogh's killer was in fact one of the leading figures in the Hofstadgroep. The Dutch secret service claimed that Mohammed Bouyeri did not fit their profile of a radical because he 'had not undergone training abroad'.

A search of Mohammed Bouyeri's house revealed beheading, mutilation, stoning and torture videos. Police also found sheep bloodstains in the house, which were left over from the slaughter of sheep which group members had used as 'practice' for the murder of Theo van Gogh.

Although it was known that several members of the Hofstadgroep group had been connected to Mohammed Bouyeri, the killer who shot and nearly decapitated Theo van Gogh on November 2, 2004, Dutch authorities treated the case as criminal. Today they declared that 'what started as a normal group of friends turned into an extremist group...' and in an unprecedented step the head of the Dutch Secret Service Sybrand Van Hulst, appeared on television and admitted that the AIVD had failed to assess Bouyeri as a serious terrorist threat.

Last week Dutch officials announced that the killer had help, and now Mohammed Bouyeri is being considered the head of a terror network which the Ministry of Public Affairs has now officially declared to be a terrorist organisation .

The significance of the designation of the Hofstadgroep as a terrorist entity means that the case will now be prosecuted as a terror attack and not as a criminal act. The Dutch Secret Services for their part, announced this week that they are pessimistic about winning the war on terrorism and cited the fact that young Turkish Muslims, who had hitherto been considered 'moderate Muslims' were becoming increasingly more radicalised. http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/585

The Dutch security service AIVD has admitted that in hindsight, it wrongly assessed the threat posed by Mohammed B., the man arrested for the brutal murder Theo van Gogh. The confession was made by an AIVD spokesman, a statement prompted by the security service's deputy chief, Theo Bot, who had suggested the same. Bot said on the KRO television programme 'Reporter' that having to identify that an error was made is enough to make the AIVD "sick". "Because you have, it appears in hindsight, simply incorrectly assessed someone," he said.