Thread: Possible Xmas attack by Al Qaeda in Brussels, Belgium

http://news.smh.com.au/belgium-tightens ... -1ik0.html

Belgian police boosted security in Brussels on Friday amid fears of a
possible Christmas attack after they foiled a suspected plan to free
an Al-Qaeda sympathiser from prison.

Justice officials said that 14 suspected Islamists had been arrested
in a swoop linked to the plan, which allegedly was to include the use
of weapons and explosives.

"An attack could be being prepared," Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt
warned, citing "elements" of information gathered by a team set up to
coordinate Belgium's security services.

Security was tightened "in busy public places", such as the capital's
underground metro system, railway stations and the international
airport, as well as at Christmas markets and in shopping districts.

The interior ministry said that around 100 extra personnel had been
put on duty, and that other "discreet" security steps used on
occasions like European Union summits would be taken.

Patrols of two and three officers were immediately noticed on the
underground and in trains, with extra attention being paid to
unattended baggage.

The security measures will remain in place until January 2.

Earlier, an interior ministry official announced the adoption of the
"security measures after the discovery, during a police raid, of plans
for a prison breakout."

"The justice authorities did not want to take any risk and wanted to
foil any possible attack," said the official, Alain Lefevre, but he
underlined: "At the moment there is no indication that an attack is
being prepared."

Officials said the aim was to free Nizar Trabelsi, 37, who was
sentenced in 2004 to 10 years jail for planning, with other militants,
an attack on a military base in Belgium where US nuclear missiles are
thought to be stationed.

He was arrested on September 13, 2001, two days after the attacks in
New York and Washington, in a Brussels apartment in possession of a
list of chemicals which could be used to make powerful explosives.

Once a professional footballer, Trabelsi became a disciple of Osama
bin Laden after they met in Afghanistan. In a television interview in
November 2002, Trabelsi pledged "filial love" for the Al-Qaeda chief.

Belgium's federal prosecutor's office has requested that the 14
suspects be charged with "taking part in the activities of a terrorist
group", spokeswoman Lieve Pellens said.

"Because it cannot be ruled out that this group could make other plans
and because the threat level is generally higher at this time of year,
the federal prosecutors office and the investigating judge decided not
to take any risks and to act against this group in the widest possible
manner," she said.

Those arrested "have an extreme vision of Islam and were preparing a
prison breakout with weapons and explosives," said Pellens.

Lefevre urged people "to remain vigilant in Brussels", but added:
"There is no reason for panic."

Belgium has never been a target for attacks in the past, but it has
served as an unwitting rear-base for militants.

In 2003, a group of suspected members of a radical Moroccan Islamic
group went on trial on suspicion of links to the Madrid train bombings
and a series of attacks in Casablanca.

Two days before the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States,
Afghan opposition leader Ahmad Shah Masood was killed in a suicide
bombing involving a man with a Belgian passport posing as a
journalist.

Those arrested on Friday include Malika el Aroud, the widow of one of
Masood's killers, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office said, adding
that she was already the object of investigations

Hell, I'm expecting one HERE...