LOCAL POLICE SHOULD NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR QUESTIONING TERRORISTS

….The Brussels, Belgium, Memorial to the latest terrorist attacks.

 

The Brussel Police really blew it in dealing with the captured terrorist, Salah Abdeslam.

 

First, I have to make it clear that I have never been in either law enforcement or with the CIA. 

 

However, I have been writing about terrorists and the hunt for terrorist since I began writing articles after the 2001, 9/11 attacks in Manhattan and on the Pentagon.

 

But I have now been shaking my head in disbelief when I read how the Belgium officials handled the capture and interrogation of the Paris / Brussels terrorist, Salah Abdeslam. 

 

First, we now know that Abdeslam was not interrogated at all in the first 24 hours of his capture.  And why was that?  “He seemed very tired and his wounded leg had been operated on the day before,” a senior Belgian security official had told Politico.

 

The CIA regularly uses sleep deprivation as a highly effective interrogation tools. But apparently for the Belgian Police, a terrorist’s exhaustion is a reason to stop their questioning.

 

It also seems that when they did interrogate Abdeslam, they only did it for two hours and they did not ask him about his knowledge of any future plots.  Yes, I am being totally serious.

 

Salah Abdeslam was the logistics chief for the Brussels-based terrorist cell that carried out both the Paris and Brussels bombings.

 

According to the New York Times, “He was the fixer, renting cars, finding apartments, picking people up and dropping them off.”

 

Instead of being grilled and questioned after he was captured, he was instead provided a lawyer, he was told he had the right to remain silent and they put him into the normal Belgian criminal-justice system.  He might as well have been a car thief or a purse snatcher, not a home-grown terrorist responsible for killing hundreds of innocent citizens.

 

In addition, during that 2 hours of interrogation, he was not asked to identify the other members of his cell, which safe houses were used, how they communicated, how they moved money and picked travel routes, and most important, what other targets they had selected.

 

And what was the result of this lack of pursuing better results?

 

Four days later, this same terrorist cell moved up their schedule and carried out the bombings in the Brussels Airport and Subway that killed 35 people, including at least four Americans, while injuring hundreds more.

 

When Abdeslam was captured, they had also found unused detonators and various weapons in the safe house with his fingerprints. But they didn’t even ask him where they were planning to use these devices..

 

Abdeslam’s treatment as a regular criminal by regular law enforcement organizations is a perfect example of why this activity should not be performed by these civil organizations.

 

The CIA has known for decades that high-value terrorist criminals need to be dealt with differently than the run-of-the-mill criminals.

 

Right from the start, the officials made it clear that he was not required to rat-out on his terrorist associates.  No sir, he was told he had the right to remain silent.

 

Now, don’t get me wrong, neither torture nor Donald Trump’s “Waterboarding” needed to be used.

 

But it has been shown that the CIA’s has experienced that two-thirds of detainees cooperate without any enhanced interrogation techniques at all. The experience of their secretly disappearing into detention with no idea where they are, and with no lawyer present, is usually enough to start them talking.

 

It was ridiculous that the Belgium officials held multiple news conferences where they bragged about his arrest and boasted how well he was cooperating.

 

We should never have heard about Abdeslam’s capture until after he had been thoroughly interrogated.  When it was first announced, this was most likely why the Brussel’s attack came only days after the capture.  The other cell members must have assumed that Abdeslam would be questioned and that he might give away their  location.  So, of course, they would want to do as much harm as possible before they were found out.

 

The Islamic State has since released a video featuring two terrorists, apparently Belgian nationals, that were celebrating the Brussels attacks from inside Iraq.  One of them looked directly into the camera and declared, “This is just the beginning of your nightmare.”

 

If all the legal authorities don’t take a different approach to dealing with terrorists, this statement from the terrorists will become a true reality.

 

Copyright G.Ater 2016