A Little Report
Mo (translation by Blossom, photos by latinos locos)
17 Nov. 2002

Civilian Inspection at the Naval Base at Amsterdam

On Saturday, 16 November, the Kattenburg Naval Base in Amsterdam was paid a visit by about eighty civilian inspectors, who wanted to determine by their inspection the extent to which the base was cooperating in the preparations for the attack on Iraq. The eavesdropping center on the base (including “compartmentalized” decoding units, who have to translate and decode tapped information without knowing where it originates or for whom it is intended) was a matter of particular interest to the civilian inspectors. They saw it as their right and duty to determine what is being done, in their and your name, by the Netherlands navy by way of war preparations.

The inspectors had announced their arrival at the base in advance, but found nevertheless that the gate was closed to them. A uniformed personage in an imposing big white cap gave the inspectors a hearing for a while but would not respond to any of their questions about the activities on the base. Meanwhile some of the inspectors climbed their ladders so that they could see over the high doors of the gate. Shortly thereafter they removed themselves to another part of the wall to see what they could see from another perspective. While this was going on, the maritime division of the inspection in a Kameleon-type boat contended on the water with the police. Thanks to sly maneuvers, two inspectors managed to disembark on base terrain. Unfortunately the inspectors were soon overpowered by the military police. One of them was released hours later with a citation for a fine of 28 euros for trespassing. The other (who refused to give her name) was not released until the following day, having been charged with “destruction” and enjoined to appear before the police magistrate in Amsterdam on 27 May. The inspectors have no intention of paying any fines, since they believe that they have every right to enter military terrain.

Another inspector was dragged into a minibus by four military police because she supposedly was using a little set of pincers to fumble with the barbed wire of the fence. The auxiliary officer considered that inconsequential and let the civilian inspector go.

In the meantime, the little boat, albeit with fewer crew members, was thoroughly absorbed in an entertaining cat-and-mouse game with two unwieldy boats of the water police. To the great displeasure of the latter, the civilian inspectors succeeded in repeatedly coming alongside the police boats in the water and posing to their crews “tedious” questions from the questionnaire that the inspectors had brought with them.

The inspection ended with a hilarious telephone conversation with the gatekeepers of the base. The civilian inspectors had reconvened at the main gate, this time to ask for information regarding the arrested inspectors. They were told that they would have to telephone the base. They did so immediately as one of the inspectors on a ladder, who was holding a microphone (capable of wireless transmission to a loudspeaker installation) and who could see what was going on in the guardhouse, gave his fellow inspectors a loud report of the otherwise unenlightening telephone conversation.

After a call to come to the next civilian inspection at Volkel as soon as an attack on Iraq takes place, the Amsterdam inspection came to a militant close.

More to follow.