Shortly after last November’s attacks on Paris by a Brussels-based Islamic State cell, a top U.S. counter-terrorism official traveling in Europe wanted to visit Brussels to learn more about the investigation.
When the official tried to arrange meetings, however, his Belgian counterparts were not welcoming, according to U.S. officials familiar with the events. The Belgians indicated it was a bad time to speak to foreign officials as they were too busy with the investigation, said the officials, who asked not to be identified.
Belgian officials declined to comment on the incident.
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Vincent Kessler/Reuters Several U.S. officials also say that security cooperation has been hampered by Brussels’ patchy intelligence-sharing and some agencies’ unwillingness to work with foreign countries.
Belgium put the capital Brussels on maximum security alert on Saturday, shutting the metro and warning people to avoid crowds because of a “serious and imminent” threat of coordinated, multiple attacks by militants.
A week after the Paris bombings and shootings carried out by Islamic State militants, of whom one suspect from Brussels is at large and said by police to be highly dangerous, Brussels was placed on the top level “four” in the government’s threat scale after a meeting of top ministers, police and security services.
Soldiers were on guard in parts of Brussels, including at the institutions of the European Union headquartered in the city. Brussels is also home to the headquarters of NATO.
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France has identified all 129 people killed in Friday’s deadly attacks in Paris, officials said on Wednesday, though they didn’t release any names.
People from at least 15 countries were killed in the attacks. At least 100 families traveled to France to identify the bodies.
Details have slowly begun to emerge about the identities of those who lost their lives, among them a 23-year-old design student from America. Many of the those killed or injured were young people hailing from around the globe, with victims from countries including Spain, Sweden, Portugal, Belgium, Mexico and Chile.
To launch the high quality TV channel TNT in Belgium we placed a big red push button on an average Flemish square of an average Flemish town. A sign with the text “Push to add drama” invited people to use the button. And then we waited…
Two Belgian brothers who were born deaf and were slowly going blind chose to end their lives the way they began them: together. The dual deaths of the identical twins last month marked the first reported double euthanasia of twins worldwide.
Marc and Eddy Verbessem, 45, were inseparable during their lives, the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws reports. Suffering from an incurable illness, the pair shared a room in their parental home before studying shoe repair and moving in together in a small apartment.
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Image: Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
Lives cut short!
James' World 2 