“The flaws in the European system are multiple. The Paris and Brussels attacks should never have happened. I don’t know what we are waiting for. Do we have to wait for hundreds of deaths?”
Jean-Louis Bruguiere — Former French investigating magistrate in charge of counter-terrorism affairs
June 6 2017 — Since January 2015, an unprecedented wave of terror attacks has overwhelmed Europe’s defenses. That month, attacks against Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris left 17 people dead. On November 13th in Paris, ISIS attacked multiple targets, killing 130 people. Four months later, suicide bombings killed 32 in Brussels. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
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“What do Molenbeek’s failures reveal about the deep dysfunction in the Belgian state? That Molenbeek has been allowed to become a breeding-ground for jihadism says some damning things about formal and informal structures in Belgium, and in particular Brussels.”
Belgium is a Failed State – POLITICO
UPDATE (June 6 2021) — First thing first. Let me remind you that the Brussels Green Party (ECOLO) was instrumental in obtaining the release of Oussama Atar from an Iraqi jail. Today, we know that Atar masterminded the Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks.
And just last week, Green Party Minister Alain Maron argued that Muslim women should be allowed to wear the veil in the Belgian administrations.
The ‘good minister’ has not yet articulated which veils should be authorized: hijab, niqab, chador, shayla, al-amira, khimar, burka, or all of those?
Belgian politician and doctor Georges Dallemagne is the only elected Belgian official who had the courage to ask hard questions about the role of the Belgian deep State in the Oussama Atar scandal.
RELATED POST: 5 Years Ago — Remembering the Brussels Attacks (March 22, 2016)
Years later, Georges Dallemagne is once again the only Belgian politician who has both the brain to understand this new crisis and the courage to explain it clearly.
Here are the exact words of Georges Dallemagne.
“If the veil was only the claim of an affirmation or a religion, it would not pose a problem. However, the veil is also a political, radical claim. These people do not want our model of society. They do not share our values, and they sure do not want to fight for these values.” (May 29 2021)
Well said. Very well said. Absurdity does not go to infinity…
END of UPDATE
“A jihadi loves a vacuum. Belgium as a state, and Belgium as the heart of the European Union are as close to a vacuum as Europe offers these days.”
The Islamic State of Molenbeek (New York Times — April 11 2016)
In interviews, some on camera with FRONTLINE, counter-terror veterans in Europe and the United States outlined systemic problems they said they had warned political leaders about for years.
The list includes:
Weak and uncoordinated enforcement of Europe’s international borders, a situation aggravated by the chaotic influx of refugees from Syria.
Differences in laws and security cultures that hamper intelligence-sharing and law enforcement cooperation among nations.
Fragmented and incomplete databases, and the lack of a universal database of terror suspects effectively used and supplied by all European nations.
Short prison sentences for terrorism and violent crime that have freed ex-convicts to play prominent roles in the jihad.
Limited resources and support for security forces in some nations, such as Belgium and Greece — a weakness that terrorists have studied and exploited.
“While the government has acknowledged that hundreds of Belgians have gone to fight with ISIS or for other groups in the Syrian civil war, Pieter Van Ostaeyen, an independent researcher, calculated in October (2015) that 516 Belgians had fought in Iraq or Syria, far higher than the government’s figures. Based on his numbers, Belgium has contributed more fighters per capita to the fight in the Levant than any other European country.”
David A. Graham — The Atlantic (November 2015)
Terror in Europe — About Sebastian Rotella
ProPublica reporter Sebastian Rotella has been covering terrorism for two decades.
Years before the attacks, he was already reporting on some of the jihadists who would go on to strike Europe and the counter-terror officials trying to stop them.
In this film, he sits down with the men and women on the inside of the fight against al Qaeda and ISIS.
They revealed the missteps and systemic breakdowns that allowed known terrorists to hit the heart of Europe, how the problems persist today and the unprecedented threat the continent faces.
REFERENCES
How Europe Left Itself Open to Terrorism — Frontline
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How Europe Left Itself Open to Terrorism
Three Years Ago — How Europe Left Itself Open to Terrorism
Four Years Ago — How Europe Left Itself Open to Terrorism [UPDATE — And it is only getting worse!]
Intel Today 