Posted on 11/21/2015 4:36:32 AM PST by EBH
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel declined to give the reason why the authorities raised the alert level but told a news conference the government would review the security situation on Sunday afternoon.
The metro system would remain closed until then, in line with the recommendation of the crisis center, he said.
The crisis center website said it was calling on local authorities to cancel large events, urge people to avoid crowds, postpone soccer matches, close the Brussels metro for the weekend and stepping up the military and police presence.
Suspected militant Salah Abdeslam, 26, returned home to Brussels from Paris after the attacks, when his elder brother Brahim blew himself up at a cafe.
Fears of the risk he still poses prompted the cancellation last week of an international friendly soccer match in Brussels against Spain. The crisis center said weekend games in the top two professional divisions should now be postponed.
The alert level for the whole country was raised following the Paris attacks to level three out of four, implying a "possible or probable" threat. Previously, only certain sites, such as the U.S. embassy, were at level three.
Belgium, and its capital in particular, have been at the center of investigations into the Paris attacks - which included suicide bombers targeting a France-Germany soccer match - after the links to Brussels emerged. Three people detained in Brussels are facing terrorism charges.
French authorities have said the attacks were planned in Brussels by a local man, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 28, who fought for Islamic State in Syria and was killed in the siege of an apartment in the Paris suburb of St. Denis on Wednesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Really. Well, I guess their fears are pretty well founded then. When I read about the closing of the Metro, a chemical weapon attack (in an enclosed space) was the first thing I thought of.
pfft ...
BBC:
12:57
The American envoy to the international coalition fighting the so-called Islamic State group says the Paris attacks have galvanised world opinion and military efforts will intensify in response.
Brett McGurk told the BBC that Kurdish and Arab groups in northern Syria were preparing to advance with the help of US special operations troops. He said the aim was to isolate the IS stronghold of Raqqa.
“We’re cutting [them] off, we’re going to isolate it and we’re going to suffocate and ultimately strangle them,” he said.
facebook:
U.S. European Command (EUCOM)
33 mins . Edited .
TRAVEL RESTRICTION: U.S. European Command (EUCOM) issued a travel restriction to #Brussels for the next 72 hours. This
restriction applies to all DoD elements and personnel which include military personnel, DoD civilian employees, contractors, and command-sponsored dependents/family members currently outside Belgium. For those already in Brussels, everyone is to shelter in place and remain at home.
We will share information and updates as they come. - United States Army Europe - USAREUR, U.S. Marine Forces Europe and Africa, U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa, U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. Sixth Fleet
Keep an eye on this one. He has been on the job since Oct.23rd
And now all of those very bad folks got to walk to Europe and meet up with their buddies in Belgium and other Muslim strongholds.
Inevitable result of globalism.....the most motivated, evil entities will win.
Massive response. And therein lies the problem with what we’re facing. The jihadis scream “bomb” and “allah u akhbar” into a cellphone and we spend millions on defensive measures. Net cost to them: a cellphone.
livius wrote:
” I would suspect there’s also some fear that these groups have gotten their hands on some chemical weapons and managed to smuggle in enough to do damage. The goal of ISIS in many of its attacks was to capture chemical weapons stocks or at least the raw ingredients.”
Your concerns are real.
excepted from long UK Telegraph live article:
...Security stepped up around water supply sites amid reports of stolen biohazard suits from Paris hospital
[ from other sources, the number of bio-hazard boots and gloves was three time greater than the fill suits. Could be that full boxes were snatched without regard to a target quantity or...some other purpose. ]
Paris has stepped up security at key water supply sites to the capital following warnings by the prime minister that the country could not rule out “chemical or biological weapons†in the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks on the French capital.
The higher security comes amid reports of a worrying unexplained theft of chemical and biological protective suits at a top Paris hospital, write Henry Samuel and David Chazan.
“Chemicals” were also among an “arsenal” reportedly discovered by police in a flat in Molenbeek outside Brussels, from where the Paris strikes are thought to have been planned and prepared.
Eau de Paris, the capital’s state-run water company, has banned access to six sensitive sites to all but key personnel....
more at source link
Guardian:
Paris police have extended a ban on demonstrations and other gatherings in the region, shutting down plans for a major protest at next week’s UN climate conference.
The French capital’s police department issued a statement on Saturday saying the ban is being extended to 30 November because of “the current context,†including a nationwide state of emergency that’s been extended for three months, AP reports.
The department notes extra security concerns around the arrival of more than 100 heads of state for the U.N. climate conference that starts in a week. The march by environmental groups was scheduled for 29 November, but has been cancelled.
Police are requiring all major concert venues to install special security measures.
Do they think this will stop that fringe element? Can't imagine it. France and Paris are going to be a real mess.
Muslims aren't the problem, though - the problem is muslims!!! wait, what did I just write?
Expect this to be the everyday norm as long as Obama and Soros remain in power.
Now, add the most “recent” 45 years of battles across Israel, Europe and the US and the world as the Muslim terrorists continue their attacks.
But!
Today’s Muslim’s armed BY the KGB FOR the KGB’s interests ever since Egypt and Lebanon and Syria and Palestine were receiving AK-47’s after WWII. They have been fighting the Communist’s proxy wars against the West since 1919.
But today, now the Muslim religious fanatics are out-of-control of the KGB and their western enablers, Russia has finally recognized THEY need to fight back against the devil they spawned and armed years ago.
Afganistan? Back in the early 80’s when Russia/USSR invaded to conquest the area? They thought they (USSR) were simply going to take over ground (a country) not a “religious tribe” of 6th century barbarians who cannot be cowed like Polish, East Germans, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakian republic, or Hungarian civilizations.
Chemical weapons in Syria or Iraq, no way. We have been fed that line of BS since 2003.
IMO, they went somewhere.
Evil, like water, follows the path of least resistance.
Brussels in Belgium is considered the de facto capital of the European Union.
Reminds me of the old sci movie “them”. Yeah, perhaps they get the original hive but what of those who escaped and are breeding a host of followers elsewhere? Wipe em all out I say and use Trump’s list as a starting place.
“The march by environmental groups was scheduled for 29 November, but has been cancelled.”
Cancelled why? Have they outlawed using bait??
Yes, they definitely went somewhere, and ISIS knows it, which is why they are known to be trying to recover them. But of course since we can’t admit that they exist, because somehow that might be perceived as supporting GWB, it’s a little hard for us to stop them...
Particularly alarming is the part in the above article about the theft of the biohazard suits, though. I wonder what they’ve managed to get ahold of. Whatever it is, they don’t want to be affected by it.
Let’s see if the current chain in command remains in place.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/22/new-u-s-czar-for-anti-isis-fight-will-inherit-job-from-hell/
McGurk worked closely with Allen, and the two men have similar views about how to confront the Islamic State. Unfortunately for the diplomat, McGurk will also be confronted with the same dilemmas and obstacles that Allen faced.
Unlike some czars from previous campaigns, McGurk will continue to be based in the State Department, not the White House, and will not be a member of the president’s National Security Council. That means he, like Allen, will have to defer to U.S. military commanders and won’t have the power to force changes to a strategy that is currently struggling in its stated goal of defeating the armed group.
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