Comment: Expect more of these operations in Europe in the next few weeks and months. In most cases, these kinds of operations are centered on going after groups whom the authorities were already well aware of. The reason for the raids is to appease the public that "something is being done" in the wake of the Paris attacks and to keep people afraid and willing to accept draconian surveillance laws.
At least two people were killed when Belgian counter-terrorist police raided an apartment used by suspected Islamist radicals on Thursday, local media said, describing a coordinated, national operation related to last week's attacks in Paris.
Judiciary officials confirmed only that a counter-terrorism operation took place near the centre of Verviers, a town in the east of the country between the city of Liege and the German border. They plan a news briefing at 8 p.m. (2.00 p.m. EST).
Public radio RTBF, which reported a number of other police actions in and around Brussels, said there were no casualties among the security forces. Two unidentified people were killed and a third seriously wounded. Several others were detained.
Earlier, prosecutors said they had detained a man in Belgium whom they suspected of supplying weaponry to Amedy Coulibaly, killer of four people at a Paris Jewish grocery last week.
In a report that could not be immediately confirmed, the Web site of La Meuse newspaper quoted an unidentified police officer saying: "We've averted a Belgian Charlie Hebdo."
Comment: That's always a nice claim to make, it makes for a good quote in the papers. It's quite convenient for the authorities to say that after they've completed their raids and without anything actually happening that would prove that to be true. It seems more than anything that this was done to keep the fear of the public high that there are still "Muslim radicals" operating in Europe so as to keep justifying the encroaching surveillance and security laws that are being touted around the EU as the way to solve the "terrorist problem".
Comment: One would think that this level of hypocrisy is enough to make even the most ardent authoritarian follower wake up. However, history shows it not to be the case.
We can only hope that at such a late stage in the game, the insane machinations of the Western elite have become transparent enough for the average person to figure it out, if they choose to do so. We should not give up on spreading the light of truth in any way we can (without being locked up). And be sure to check out Sebastian Haffner's excellent book, Defying Hitler.