abdeslam
Brahim Abdeslam and Salah Abdeslam
Belgian police are in hot water after a watchdog report accused authorities of failing to place the Abdeslam brothers under adequate surveillance despite the fact that it was known since 2014 that the would-be Paris attackers were preparing an "irreversible act."

The report, presented to Belgian lawmakers and seen by a number of publications, says the police had information on the brothers' radicalization, their relation to the would-be mastermind of Paris attacks Abdelhamid Abaaoud, and their apparent intention to perpetrate some kind of a terror act since at least the middle of 2014.

Additionally, the police found out in January 2015 that both Salah and Brahim Abdelslam intended to go to Syria, according to Le Soir newspaper. They had been questioned in relation to this. However, when the Belgian prosecutor requested to wiretap the brother's phone calls, the idea was reportedly turned down due to "lack of resources."


Comment: Turned down why? Similar events happened in the U.S. in 2000/2001 when two of the alleged 9/11 hijackers traveled to the States (al-Mihdhar and al-Hazmi). The CIA's Alec Station knew they had ties to al-Qaeda (including the 1998 African embassy bombings and the attack on the USS Cole), yet blocked agents from passing information about them to the FBI when they entered the U.S. The most likely reason? They were already being surveilled, most likely by a friendly foreign intelligence service, or the CIA itself. FBI surveillance would have messed up their plans, which were deliberately allowed to continue, or worse, directly facilitated by CIA.


In February Belgian police came into possession of computers, USB sticks and information on brother's telephone activity, but still made no use of it, "not even after Paris, or very recently," the report said, according to Politico.

The anti-terror unit of the Belgian police failed to put information on the brothers into the central database since they were not sure which brother could be linked to terrorists, which is rather doubtful, the report argues, as the names of both brothers living in the Molenbeek neighborhood in Brussels were already there.

"Nothing was done with the dossiers after the drafting of the transcript [containing information about the pair]. Consequently, up until the attacks in Paris nothing happened," the report says.

In April the police decided that the brothers' case did not require further investigation and dropped it.

The watchdog blames what happened on officers' sloppiness, lack of resources and poor guidelines that would explain how to deal with classified information.

Brahim Abdeslam was one of the suicide bombers who blew himself up during the Paris attacks in November that claimed lives of 130 people. His brother, Salah, arranged logistics and was also planning to blow himself up having a change of heart at the last minute. He was captured in Belgium on March 18 after a four-month manhunt, just four days before a series of deadly terror attacks hit Brussels.


Comment: Here's what Salah's lawyers had to say about him recently:
"I think Salah Abdeslam is of capital importance to this investigation. I would even say he is worth gold. He cooperates, he communicates," Mary said in an interview with the Liberation newspaper.

Assessing his interaction with the jihadist, the Belgian attorney described his departing client as being a "little moron from Molenbeek, more a follower than a leader. He has the intelligence of an empty ashtray."

Mary said that Abdeslam's perception of reality was an example of the "GTA generation," "who thinks he lives in a video game."

According to the lawyer, the suspect was radicalized over the internet, as the jihadist had no clue about the Koran and the radical interpretation of the holy book's verses.

"I asked him if he had read the Koran, and he replied that he had looked up what it meant on the Internet," Mary said. "A year and a half ago he was clubbing in Amsterdam. The only explanation I can find is that it was internet propaganda that gave the impression that Muslims were unfairly treated."
...
But for now, the suspect's fate lies in the hands of his French lawyer Frank Berton while the 26-year-old is being held in isolation at the Fleury-Merogis prison complex outside of Paris.

"He told me naturally that he has things to say and he will say them. He wants to talk," Berton told BFMTV. "What counts and what matters for us as his lawyers is simply that he gets a fair trial, that he is sentenced for things he did and not things that he didn't do. That's vital because he is the sole survivor."

So far Abdeslam has confessed to his defense team that he had arranged logistics for the November 13 attacks in Paris and was planning to blow himself up at the stadium before having a change of heart at the last minute.