Brussels attacks blindside authorities, suggest intelligence failure
Belgium may have just raised its terror alert threat to the highest level for the first time ever after the airport and metro bomb attacks, March 22, 2016. But it's been a country on edge — on high alert — since the Paris attacks in November 2015.
For four months Belgian police had been looking for the last remaining fugitive, allegedly the only surviving member of the terrorist team responsible for the attack on Paris But in searching for one man, critics say they missed the network that surrounded him.
There was some confusion that police did arrest a suspect but reports now say that is not correct and police are still looking for suspects in the Brussels explosions which killed at least 30 people and leaving 200 injured, many critically. ISIS has claimed responsibility.
To some the multiple, coordinated attacks in Belgium represent a major intelligence failure. Citics say authorities don't reallyunderstand the threat they are facing, arguing it's not a capacity problem, but a competency problem.
Guests in this segment:
- Ester Juddah, freelance reporter based in Brussels.
- Evegenia Gvozdeva is with European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center in Brussels.
- Clint Watts, former FBI special agent in counter terrorism and the Robert A. Fox Fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute,
- Loretta Napoleoni, author of The Islamist Phoenix.
This segment was produced by The Current's Lara O'Brien, Catherine Kalbfleisch and Vanessa Greco.