Global Dispatches: Netherlands?Terrorists’ Wish List

According to a WikiLeaks cable, the Dutch city of Beverwijk contains an undersea telecommunications cable between the United States and Europe.
Global Dispatches: Netherlands?Terrorists’ Wish List
Peter Valk
12/9/2010
Updated:
11/15/2011

[xtypo_dropcap]A[/xtypo_dropcap]part from bargain hunting in the bazaar, I never could have imagined a terrorist would take an interest in the Dutch city of Beverwijk. And probably they didn’t until WikiLeaks published a “secret” location list.

On the list we find Beverwijk identified as a “critical infrastructure and key resources” and “whose loss could critically impact the public health, economic security, and/or national and homeland security of the United States.”

It turns out that Beverwijk, besides being home to one of the biggest indoor markets in Europe, is an important intersection for an undersea telecommunications cable between the United States and Europe. The other two potential Dutch targets on the list are the fishing village Katwijk, also for its undersea cable, and the port of Rotterdam.

I have to admit that I initially thought that these confidential and secret documents were rather interesting and could even give insight into the murky world of diplomacy. I hoped, for example, that the horrific human rights abuses in China would be brought into the open through unfiltered statements from American Embassy staff in Beijing. So far this has proved to be wishful thinking.

Even if the documents don’t provide any insight, I thought it could be entertaining to hear comments about the world’s leaders through the eyes of American diplomats.

Of the 250,000 documents, or cables, that WikiLeaks will publish online—drop-by-drop—there are 3,021 originating from the U.S. Embassy in The Hague. From the few Dutch cables published so far we learned there are 20 nuclear devices stored in the Netherlands. The Dutch used aid money as a means to pressure Third World countries into a deal at the climate conference in Copenhagen, which was strongly denied by former Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation Bert Koenders. And last but not least, that former Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Verhagen went to drink a cup of tea at the American Embassy in The Hague, when he wasn’t an appointed minister yet.

“Of course it is very interesting what those diplomats write. But it does do damage to diplomatic interactions. It is going to be very hard to communicate in a normal manner when all is out on the streets,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was quoted as saying by Dutch media in a reaction to the WikiLeaks publication.

Indeed, curiosity kills the cat.

The latest cable isn’t informative and not even entertaining. In fact, it is a boring memo that upsets governments and instills fear in the minds of people. Dutch people now, and especially those in the vicinity of Beverwijk, call cable 09STATE15113 a “terrorists’ wish list.”

A WikiLeaks spokesperson defended the publication saying that a simple search on Google might get the same results. So I stepped in the shoes of the would-be terrorist and Googled the words “Atlantic Crossing-1 (AC-1) undersea cable landing Beverwijk”(assuming I knew about its existence) and only got links to newspaper articles and comments related to the WikiLeaks document.

It is true that a would-be terrorist doesn’t need a list to find a target, but do we need to help them find one in case they don’t have inspiration?

Peter Valk is a tea expert who has extensively travelled in Asia, interrupted by odd jobs and a short spell of studying anthropology in the Netherlands. In his travels, he steeped himself in Asian culture, learned Chinese, met his wife and found his passion. He has been in tea business over seven years, selling Chinese tea and giving workshops on Chinese tea and culture. Currently, he is living in the Netherlands where he is busily but mostly happily making up for his travel time.
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