Peter R. De Vries

(fmg2001)

By now, people interested in such things are aware a Dutch crime reporter is saying he has "solved" the mystery of the Natalee Holloway disappearance. Peter R. de Vries will air his show Sunday night.

To me, "solved" would mean finding a body, living or dead, and, if dead, evidence demonstrating how she died.

Or, as I posted earlier, a credible confession as to how she died.

Dutch websites are buzzing with rumors that what PRDV has is some kind of confession. It's unclear whether it's of any value in a court case.

http://www.vkmag.com/galleries/gallery_joran_is_de_dader/

I won't repeat the libel that's on that website, but there it is.

On Dutch television show "Pauw & Witteman," Friday, Joran van der Sloot said he was innocent, but admitted confessing to a friend that she died while they were having sex and that he and a friend dumped her body in the ocean afterward. But he said this, too, was a lie.

Strange lie.

I will observe several things about Peter R. De Vries, known here as a real-life "Tintin."

1) Judging by his TV appearances, he's very confident he has something big.
2) He has broken major stories in the past ("Mabelgate"), and solved cold cases, including murders.
3) Like Tintin, PRDV has his own moral code. In the U.S., it's a crime to videotape somebody in a private place without their knowledge and permission. However, he said on TV yesterday his evidence is admissible in court. (How would he know?)
4) PRDV is fallible. Not only in the way that everybody is fallible, but as in, he has wrongly accused people of crimes in the past. To his credit, he's admitted it when he's wrong.



More on Sunday

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Fatherhood, again

Since this is a semi-public diary, it's also a semi-private diary. To quote Tweedledee (or was it Tweedledum?): that's logic!

And in that spirit, dear readers, I present to you one of the first known photographs of my daughter, A. Zola Sterling, born Monday.

Long may she run!

When I was registering her birth this afternoon, I received the following package from the city of Amsterdam; one can never begin too early with city marketing, apparently.



After the more: a Dutch-only joke.



De vrouw achter de balie gaf mij het pakketje aan en zei "voor de nieuwe inburger."

Freudian slip?
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Stop the Islamization of Europe! And Clowns.

The "Stop the Islamization of Europe" movement got a permit to hold a demonstration on the Dam on Saturday, and journalists outnumbered the demonstrators by a factor of about 5-1.



You see, international media smell a "Danish Cartoon" controversy in the making if right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders' film about the Quran is as explosive as he hopes _ and the Dutch government fears _ it is.

Of course, intrepid pudgy American reporters were on the scene.

On one side of the Dam, the "Stop Islamization"-ists attracted quite a crowd of reporters and police. Here's me trying to understand their point of view:



(looking across police lines)

On the other side, behind a row of horse-mounted police officers, were the people protesting the protesters. This young man's message was clear:

("All Racists Out Of The Country")

Got that straight? Now, the third party in the mix was a bunch of clowns.



To try to give an idea of the layout, I climbed a light post. Unfortunately the clowns had changed location, but I think this still gives a fair overview. I label the participants "Fascists, Leftists and Clowns," just as a kind of shorthand:


More pictures, including hot clown action, after the "More"


This guy was convinced Geert Wilders should go to jail for hate speech. He had kind of a Malcolm X vibe.

Some other objects of interest:

Here's a young woman (I think it was a woman!) wearing a burka. The number of women who actually wear burkas normally in the Netherlands has been estimated at less than 100, so you would be tempted to say, either her presence was an incredible coincidence, or she may have intentionally put it on today to make a point. I remark without further judgment that she was wearing jeans underneath.

Nice photo, no?

Here are some undercover cops. See how seamlessly they blend in?



Here is Ehsan Jami. He said he just happened to be walking by...

He also had a subtle security guard (far left), who looked capable of kicking some fairly major ass if the need arose.

I'd post a clip of Jami talking, but he was speaking Dutch. Also noteworthy: I believe the woman who was interviewing him is Metje Blaak, head of the prostitute's labor union. I have no idea what she was doing with a cameraman and microphone, but I'm curious to find out. She asked Jami a sneaky "one last question" _ namely, whether he had a girlfriend or not. Jami gave a roundabout 'no.'

There were a few heated discussions, but no fights. Except among clowns...


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