Molenbeek as Jihadist Eco-System
"[Molenbeek in Belgium represents] a favourable eco-system: an Islamist milieu, and a family milieu [to shelter Salah Abdeslam and to sponsor Tuesday's deadly attacks]."
"It shows that they were in a neighbourhood that can shelter cells for months, because it is a neighbourhood that is favourable to them [the jihadists]."
"The Belgians are too limited [in force numbers and intelligence sharing] to be able to treat several objectives at once."
"After a weekend of mutual congratulations [over Abdeslam's capture] manifestly we didn't see the second wave."
Bernard Squarcini, former head, French internal intelligence
"The mode of action was structured and agreed. That presumes the formation of a cell. And that is what is frightening: that such a cell could not be discovered [by Belgian intelligence]."
Ralf Jager, interior minister, North Rhine-Westphalia
"This shows the limits of the actions you can undertake in a state of emergency. These are time-specific, superficial. But unless you occupy it militarily, you don't hold a town just by circulating police cars."
"We're talking about guerrilla terrorism. And there's a population that's complicit."
Philippe Hayez, former official, French intelligence
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| Passengers leaving a subway train after the explosion at Maelbeek station. European Press Photo Agency |
Ah, from the distance of the border between France and Belgium, neighbours sharing the same concerns, and coincidentally sharing as well the experience of surprise when each has been assaulted through the auspices of a dread foreign terrorist group which exults in lavish bloodshed and its ability to inspire Muslims to mount attacks in their name, find fault with one another's inability to apprehend such attacks before they occur.
The French intelligence agents who failed to identify and arrest those plotting their spectacular coordinated Paris attacks in November of 2015, sniff dismissively about their Belgian counterparts' equal failure to heed advance notice of impending attacks. Each face similar situations; large volumes of immigrants settling in deliberately self-ghettoized suburbs of their capital cities where alienation is bred in the bone, leading to radicalization.
What the West refers to as 'radicalization' is the normalization of Islamic political agendas, written in the Koran and the commentaries alluding to the original structure and advance of 7th Century Islam. Jihad is the major tenet of Islam, an obligation that Muslims faithful to the scriptures they hold to have come directly from Allah through the medium of the Prophet Mohammad's delivery must be honoured.
Martyrdom is held out as the sweetened carrot that leads the faithful to jihad, for in martyrdom lies honour, and only those who are so honoured may anticipate life in the hereafter of Paradise. Europe is now riddled with such enclaves of unbridled contempt for Western and European values and laws. Only Sharia can complement life with the full promise of beneficent Islam, and only jihad is capable of delivering the finished product for the betterment of humankind. Those who disagree are slated to die.
Europe is roiled twofold; by the incursion of refugees and haven seekers attempting to escape the mass dysfunction that exemplifies life under Islam in the Middle East, south Asia and North Africa. Overwhelmed by the desperation of Muslim refugees, Europe is in a turmoil of uncertainty, swamped by the need to address a humanitarian situation that is draining it economically. certain to disrupt its values, heritage and culture, and threatening its unity in the European Union.
The complementary component of Europe's drenching in Islam is the unfolding threats and very real violence being visited upon states which have made themselves vulnerable by their welcome as free democratic societies to people who have chosen their destiny to be incorporated wholly into a totalitarian theocratic political and social order with a militant component that brooks no appeasement.
The latest attacks in Belgium have succeeded in emphasizing the vulnerability of Europe in the wake of the Islamic tsunami that is engulfing it. By hosting large demographics of Muslims within its various states, Europe has designed a future for itself it could not possibly have envisaged, but which has been described as a milieu sympathetic to the rise of terrorism in support of Koranic injunctions to embark on obligatory jihad.
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| Martin Meissner, Associated Press ... People gather for a moment of silence at the Place de la Bourse in Brussels on Wednesday. |
It is entirely within the realm of possibility that with the Belgian raids that had seen Muslims being detained or arrested on the basis of being directly or indirectly connected to a network of terrorism with links to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Belgian authorities believed they might have succeeded in cutting off the octopus's tentacles with a good degree of success. When Abdeslam's capture took place, it must have appeared as though it was time to take a deep breath of self-congratulation.
Yet now and once again the capital of the EU has demonstrated just how vulnerable Europe has become; with eyes wide open they have compromised their own safety and the longevity of their culture and values by the expedient of exercising welcome and compassion in anticipation that they would, out of this exercise in freedom and equality gain productive and loyal citizens. Deeply rooted terrorist networks existing alongside a far larger Muslim community indifferent to their actions is what has resulted.
But when Islam speaks of its collective faithful -- the universal ummah -- it speaks of a cohesive whole. That whole obeys a cultural code of silence wherever the parts exist. Which goes a long way to explaining the failure of intelligence, since without the capability of infiltration by human agency there is no assurance of insider knowledge to forewarn the target of its impending vulnerability to attack.
European citizens who removed themselves abroad to fight for the Islamic State won in the process the knowledge of guerrilla warfare techniques, including bomb-making capabilities and strategies to outfox their targets. An example can be seen in the decision to strike the Brussels airport check-in counter guaranteed to have ample people present circumventing security screening, while enabling maximum impact on casualties and disruption of air travel.
Alain Juillet, a former French intelligence official expressed his opinion that it is irrelevant whether or not the attacks killing 34 and injuring 200 responded to the arrest of Abdeslam, or were independently slated, or accelerated because of fears that Abdeslam would give clues of attacks: "It's not surprising ... We can easily see that Belgium has become a hub [for terrorist activities]."
Labels: Belgium, Immigration, Islamism, Jihad
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, March 24, 2016
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