Thursday, December 11, 2008

Belgium police report Al Qaeda plot? Questions

From Skynews - - -

Police in Belgium have arrested 14 suspected al Qaeda members, including one who is believed to have been about to commit a suicide attack.

The arrests were made during 16 raids in Brussels, as European Union leaders gathered for a summit there, and one in Liege.

"We don't know where the suicide attack was to take place," federal prosecutor Johan Delmulle said.

"It could have been an operation in Pakistan or Afghanistan, but it can't be ruled out that Belgium or Europe could have been the target."

One of the suspects had "received the green light to carry out an operation from which he was not expected to come back," Mr Delmulle quoted investigators as saying.

The man "had said goodbye to his loved ones, because he wanted to enter paradise with a clear conscience", he added.

"This information, linked to the fact that a European summit is getting under way at this moment in Brussels, left us no choice but to take action today."

The inquiry is described as "the most important" anti-terrorism operation in Belgium.
It is linked to a Belgian Islamist group involved in training as well as fighting on the Pakistan-Afghan border, the federal prosecutor's office said.

The year-long investigation "probably prevented plans for an attack from being carried out in Brussels," last year, it added.

There has been no change to security arrangements for the summit, an EU spokesman said.

Comments:

There’s been “no change to security arrangements for the summit?”

Who believes that?

Sky News doesn’t say anything further about its report “the federal prosecutor’s office” said a “ year-long investigation ‘probably prevented plans for an attack from being carried out in Brussels,” last year.

My questions, which I’m sure many of you are asking yourselves: What are the details of the ‘probably prevented” attack last year?

Will Belguim authorities say more about whether “probably prevent[ing]” an Al Qaeda attack last year did or did not tip off AQ that Belguim authorities were on to them?

You'd think it would, wouldn't you?

There’s a lot to learn about this story.

Here’s the link to the Sky News story in case it updates at the same URL, but I pasted in this post the entire story there now.

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