Brussels

Submitted by Justin Raimondo via AntiWar.com,

The vicious attack on the Brussels airport and metro underscores the futility of focusing on the Syrian “Caliphate” as the epicenter of terrorism: as I’ve been saying in this space since 2001, the snake has no head. Both al-Qaeda and now ISIS are protean entities with a vast geographical spread, and what the Brussels attack – and, before it, the Paris attack – show is that they have successfully colonized Europe.

An expert in nuclear security has told the a Russian news agency that the Brussels terrorists were probably searching for radioactive isotopes for dirty bomb production rather than planning a terrorist act at a nuclear power plant Tass reports: “The terrorist group that committed the terrorist acts in Paris and Brussels showed interest in the Belgian nuclear facilities most probably for the purpose of gaining access to highly radioactive isotopes for creating a radiological explosive device, the so-called dirty bomb, rather than exploding a nuclear power plant,” the expert said.

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Belgian riot police used water cannon on shaven headed right wing protestors at a temporary shrine honoring the victims of the Brussels attacks. Hundreds of people had assembled at the Place de la Bourse to peacefully remember the 31 victims of Tuesday’s terror attacks, when hundreds of men, some wearing masks and balaclavas, barged to the centre and hijacked the peaceful rally. Some members of the group were seen making Nazi salutes confronting ethnic minority groups and throwing flares.

The three bombers involved in the March 22 Brussels attack were well known to Western intelligence agencies, and two of them had previously been detained by authorities for violent crimes.  Brothers Brahim and Khalid El Bakraoui were imprisoned in 2010 and 2011 for a police shooting using AK-47s during a holdup. More worryingly the elder brother, Brahim El Bakraoui, had been deported from Turkey in 2015 for “terrorist activity” – and Ankara had attempted to warn authorities about the danger he posed to the EU.