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I liked how they introduced her, like "her mother died in an insane asylum thinking she was Queen Victoria" and my thought was, I like where I think this is going. I was not disappointed.

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Paris attacks thread

Started by Cain, November 14, 2015, 04:38:03 PM

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Cain

And...the backlash.

Two explosions at Brussels airport have killed at least 13 people.  Suspected suicide attack.  And a further bombing has taken place at a metro station near some EU buildings.

Just woken up, going to get something to drink, and watch some footage.

LMNO

Attacking the Belgians is almost unsportsmanlike.

Cain

Oh, I don't know.  I know Belgium doesn't have reputation outside of Europe, but, well...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brabant_killers#Official_complicity

QuoteThe Belgian "stay-behind" network SDRA8 (Gladio) — operating as a secret branch of the Belgian military service was suggested by some to have links to the gang. Some units of the stay behind network were made up of members of the Belgian Gendarmerie. One theory was that the communist threat in Western Europe was taken as justifying Operation Gladio being activated. However, the Belgian parliamentary inquiry into Gladio found no substantive evidence that Gladio was involved in any terrorist acts or that criminal groups had infiltrated the stay-behind network.[5][6] The Belgian Gendarmerie were abolished in reforms that came as a result of a perceived lack of satisfactory performance in the Brabant killers case, and that of Marc Dutroux.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_stay-behind_network

QuoteIn 1950, the assassination of Julien Lahaut, chairman of the Communist Party of Belgium (PCB) had doubtless both a national and international signification, in which Gladio's influence has been suspected.[19] Repeated requests have been made in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives for an investigation into Lahaut's death. Only recently it has become known that François Goossens, a Leopoldist, was his killer.

QuoteA September 10, 1973, note from the Belgian Brigade de Surveillance et de Renseignement intelligence agency described the organization of a coup d'état by certain "financial networks and far-right organizations", naming among others Emile Lecerf, boss of the Nouvelle Europe magazine (NEM) and political godfather of Francis Dossogne (future leader of far-right Front de la Jeunesse - FJ) and Paul Latinus, founder of the Westland New Post extremist group, in which Gladio's influence has been suspected, although ultimately never proved in justice. Paul Latinus would escape to Pinochet's Chile for a few months in 1981, before "committing suicide" in 1984. On the other hand, Emile Lecerf was also a member of the Jeune Europe far-right group.

QuoteIn 1996, Le Soir newspaper caused a public uproar by revealing the existence of a classified document, dated August 1995, and titled "Plan de base de la défense militaire du territoire" ("Base plan of the military defense of the territory"). The newspaper quoted some passages of what it called a "racist plan": "Many communities of immigrants have settled themselves in large agglomerations. If these population groups should reach a position of strong disagreement with Belgian politics, they could launch actions destined to counteract these policies or to make their concerns known [...] We consider that there exists no open threat in Belgium [...] But there is a clandestine threat with a permanent character" (French: "Nombre de communautés immigrées se sont fixées dans les grandes agglomérations. Si ces groupes de population devaient entrer clairement en désaccord avec la politique belge, ils pourraient déclencher des actions visant à contrarier cette politique ou visant à faire connaître leur mécontentements (...) Nous considérons qu'il n'existe aucune menace ouverte en Belgique (...) Mais il existe bien une menace clandestine avec un caractère permanent" - sic).

The dissolved SDRA-8 had been replaced by the "Commandement territorial interforces" (CTI), a military intelligence agency organized by provinces and essentially composed of about a thousand reserve officers. Its goal was to infiltrate civil society and find informants, with the mission to be especially concerned by the "immigrant communities which represented a permanent clandestine threat". According to Le Soir, if the CTI is not closely linked to the military agency Service Général du Renseignement et de la Sécurité (SGRS), then it is "nothing else than a new structure of military intelligence... particularly suspicious of anything that is foreign to it".[23][24] Defense minister Poncelet replied in the Belgian Senate that the plan was only an internal draft proposal, which was never approved by the military command or the defense minister himself.[25]

Belgium is a place where people mysteriously die with distressing frequency and no credible explanations are made.

Quite frankly, I was surprised Abdeslam was captured alive.

LMNO

That's more mysterious than I had imagined.  Thanks for that!

Cain

There's a whole ton of political corruption there as well.  Belgium is racing Italy for the position of EU's very own Florida.

However, speaking seriously for a minute, Belgian security services are overwhelmed by the jihadist situation there.  I'm not entirely sure how it got so bad...but it's compounded by a Belgian bureaucracy that makes intelligence sharing difficult.