EUROPEAN NATIONS DID NOT LEARN FROM OUR 9/11 ATTACKS

…The start of the Brussels Memorial to those killed by the terrorists.

 

The European Union has serious long-term issues with their Muslim communities.

 

It is amazing what happened in Brussels 15 years after the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers.  The Belgium’s apparently didn’t choose to learn anything from those attacks in America.  In Brussels, they have 6 different police organizations and they seldom talk with each other or share their surveillance data.  In fact, one reporter from Belgium has said they don’t “share” any info.  They “trade” info only if they can get something in return.

 

When Americans say they are concerned that what is going on in Europe could happen here, fortunately the US intelligence operations are not in the poor shape that Europe is in today.  Their terrorist threat comes not just from the terrorist’s Middle Eastern base of operations directly into Europe, but they also come from the domestic Belgium Muslim community.  These local Muslims are isolated and estranged from an already fractured society.  Belgium is a country of two languages, Flemish and French, so communicating can be difficult.  Hundreds of their local Muslims have traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State, and scores have returned in what is felt to be a systematic effort by the terrorists to wage war from inside Europe.

 

In the US, as it was in San Bernardino, an attack will more likely come from home-grown American Muslim extremists.  Hundreds of disaffected Muslims in Europe, living in their own segregated communities with 40% unemployment, the young male Muslims are giving their lives to a bigger, more religious purpose and to make a name for themselves by being a suicide bomber in the name of Allah.

 

In the US, the authorities have only seen about a hundred Americans that have gone to the Middle East and returned to the states.  And these individuals are currently under US surveillance.  In Europe, there are hundreds of these individuals and these countries do not have the sophisticated technology for keeping track of each one.

 

Efforts to combine intelligence across the European Union have totally failed, even when it comes to something as simple as having a common border watch list. With all of the open borders of the Union’s nations, until they control those borders with some kind of travel process, nothing will change.  Brussel’s troubled and largely Muslim Molenbeek district is just one of many similar Muslim districts across Western Europe. Governments are at odds over simple basic questions, from how freely to accept asylum seekers from Syria to whether mass electronic surveillance is even a possible counterterrorism measure.

 

When the US was first attacked, we were at least able to go into Afghanistan with a large military force to find and attempt to eliminate the enemy.  Europe does not have that option.  Europe really has to rely on a US led coalition to hopefully eliminate the Islamic State.  And with a president like Barack Obama, who has stiffly resisted suggestions that the military campaign be accelerated, that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

 

A central European counterterrorism agency with operational authority to share information and manage threats should be established as soon as possible.  Europe’s politicians should set aside concerns about allowing US intelligence agencies to use its unique electronic capabilities to identify the threats without violating the privacy of the individuals. Belgium, where the terrorists have made their base, must expand its security forces and break down the barriers among them.  The six Brussel police operations need to agree to share all in terrorist data and information.

 

The bigger problem is in dealing with the isolated Muslim communities and their poverty and unemployment.

 

That issue in Belgium, France and several other countries has been dodged and mismanaged for years. The remedies need to start with the provision of jobs and then extended to better education, community policing and the combating of both pro- and anti-Muslim extremists.

 

Unfortunately, most European governments continue to avoid heading in the right direction.

 

The British, will soon be holding an ill-advised referendum in June on whether to leave the European Union.  These latest Brussels attacks have now been seized on by the British pro-exit forces.

 

In addition, France is having a largely symbolic debate about whether to “denationalize” its dual citizens. Poland and other Eastern European nations are citing Brussels as a pretext to reject thousands of Muslim asylum seekers.

 

Of course, Donald Trump’s isolationist stance makes it all that much more dangerous

 

The United States has vital interests in Europe’s survival as a prosperous and democratic union of nations.  Europe could use America’s help in coordinating counterterrorism operations.  But it also needs more aggressive actions to reduce the Islamic State’s bases in the Middle East.

 

Hopefully, President Obama will reconsider increasing the pace of US operations.  Especially given the potential cost to Europe in having more delays to something of such a dire need.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016