Belgian prosecutor’s office denies terrorist track in murder of guard at nuclear center
©
Eric Vidal / Reuters
RT,
26
March, 2016
The
murder of a security guard at a nuclear research center located near
the Belgian city of Charleroi two days after Brussels attack is not
linked to any terrorist activity, prosecutor says dispelling earlier
media reports.
The
Charleroi prosecutor's office in charge of the case "formally
denied" any
link between the murder of Didier Prospero, a security guard from the
G4S international security firm, who worked at the National Institute
of radioelements (IRE ELiT) in the town of Fleurus not far from
Charleroi, and any planned terror attack, the Belga news agency
reported, citing the Charleroi prosecutor.
The
prosecutor also denied earlier media reports that Prospero’s access
badge was stolen, Belga reports.
RT
Brussels terrorists targeted nuke plants, changed plans after Abdeslam's arrest – report http://on.rt.com/780p
Prospero
was found dead in the bathroom at his home in Froidchapelle by his
three children as they returned from school on Thursday. He was shot
four times and his dog was also killed. He was in charge of security
at the IRE ELiT that specializes in production of radiochemical and
radiopharmaceutical products as well as in radioactivity analysis.
The
case is being handled by criminal investigators while anti-terror
specialists are not involved, Belga reports. According to the local
Derniere Heure newspaper, the investigation is working on two tracks:
a burglary gone wrong and a crime related to the personal affairs of
the victim.
In
the meantime, officials from the Belgian Electrabel energy company
that runs the neighboring Charleroi nuclear power plant stated that
its personnel is not affected by the incident.
"No
personnel of Electrabel or one of its sub-contractors working on
sites was murdered this week," a
company official said as quoted by the Derniere Heure. The company
representative also stressed that authorization needed to get access
to the nuclear site is issued by the National Security Authority and,
in case of death, all clearances are immediately removed.
Earlier
on Thursday, Derniere Heure reported that Prospero was a member of a
nuclear power plant staff and that his security pass was stolen.
Computer with #Brussels suicide bomber’s note found in trash can http://on.rt.com/77y7
The
paper also recently reported that Brussels suicide bombers Khalid and
Ibrahim El Bakraoui were planning attacks on Belgian nuclear power
stations and that the arrest of Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam had
accelerated the plans of the terrorists.
The
brothers reportedly planted a hidden camera in front of the home of
the director of the Belgian nuclear research program. The footage
with “dozens
of hours” of
the movements of Belgium's nuclear boss was seized during an
anti-terrorist raid in the apartment of another suspect belonging to
the same terror cell, Mohammed Bakkali.
Similar
information, but without the names of Brussels suicide bombers was
published in DH in February.
Belgium
is on high alert following the deadly Brussels attacks. On Tuesday,
Brussels was rocked by twin blasts at the city’s Zaventem Airport
and an explosion at the Maalbeek Metro station, just meters away from
key EU buildings, less than an hour later.
Shortly
after the deadly Brussels attacks, personnel from Belgium’s two
nuclear power stations in Doel and in Tihange were promptly
evacuated. DH also reported that soldiers have been seen at both
sites in recent weeks.
"Dirty Bomb" Fears Rise As Belgian Nuclear Facilities Seen As Vulnerable To ISIS Attacks
Update:
Electrabel says none of its staff or subcontractors were killed, but
did say Belgian nuclear sites are under "special protection."
“Electrabel
deplores that its sites are being used regularly this week to
illustrate articles without any link to the company or its 5,000
workers," a statement reads.
*
* *
Hours
after brothers Khalid and Ibrahim El-Bakraoui and two other men (one
of whom may or may not have been bombmaker Najim Laachraoui)
detonated explosives-laden vests and luggage at the Brussels airport
and metro murdering nearly two dozen people and wounding scores more,
we were alarmed but not entirely surprised to seeBelgium
evacuate the Tihange nuclear power plant.
We
say we weren’t entirely surprised because way back on November 30,
a raid on an Auvelais home rented by Mohamed Bakkali - who was
arrested four days earlier and may have used the residence to shelter
the Paris attackers including the supposed leader of the Brussels
cell Abdelhamid Abaaoud - turned up an hours-long (some reports had
suggested it was a mere 10 minutes long, an apparently incorrect
assessment) s
“A
small video camera stashed in a row of bushes silently recorded
the comings and goings of the family of a Brussels-area man with an
important scientific pedigree last
year, producing a detailed chronology of the family’s
movements,” Foreign
Policy wrote,
late last month. “At one point, two
men came under cover of darkness to retrieve the camera,
before driving away with their headlamps off, a separate surveillance
camera in the area revealed later.”
If,
as some suspect, those two men were the Bakraoui brothers, it would
suggest that the Brussels cell which is now well on its way to going
down in jihadist lore as the most “successful” sleeper cell in
the history of radical Islam, was in
the advanced stages of trying to procure the materials needed to
build a dirty bomb.
Belgian
lawmakers were beside themselves when they learned of the video, as
it was apparently kept secret for months. “Your services possessed
this videotape since Nov. 30, and the nuclear control agency was
informed immediately,” said Jean-Marc Nollet, a Parliament member
from Ecolo, told interior minister, Jan Jambon. “So I don’t
understand how you could have been in possession of this video since
Nov. 30, but on Jan. 13, when I questioned you on this, you answered,
‘There is no specific threat to the nuclear facilities.’”
We
don’t really understand that either, but we imagine Belgian
authorities will be discussing the issue quite a bit in the weeks and
months ahead because it’s now emerged that on Thursday, Didier
Prospero was shot and killed while walking his dog in Charleroi
(about an hour drive from Brussels). Why should you care about
Didier? Well,because
he is (or “was”) a security guard at Tihange. His security pass
was stolen as he lay dying.
“The
murder was completely ignored and was committed on Thursday night in
the judicial district of Charleroi,” Derniere Heure reported. “A
security guard, accompanied by his dog, was shot in the early
evening. His badge was stolen.” Electrabel
has since denied that any of its staff were killed and is urging the
media to avoid "creating confusion" with what it says are
"false reports."
The
badge itself was immediately deactivated. It’s as yet unclear
whether this is connected to Belgian jihadists, but it would
certainly be difficult to write it off as a coincidence. Well, it
would be difficult to write it off as a coincidence unless you are a
Belgian prosecutor. In that case it would be easy. ""A
terrorist track is not considered in the case," the Charleroi
prosecutor's office told
TASS on
Saturday.
Meanwhile,
the mainstream media is beginning to sound the alarm bells on the
threat to Belgium’s nuclear infrastructure. Here, for instance,
is The
New York Times:
The investigation into this week’s deadly attacks in Brussels has prompted worries that the Islamic State is seeking to attack, infiltrate or sabotage nuclear installations or obtain nuclear or radioactive material. This is especially worrying in a country with a history of security lapses at its nuclear facilities, a weak intelligence apparatus and a deeply rooted terrorist network.
On Friday, the authorities stripped security badges from several workers at one of two plants where all nonessential employees had been sent home hours after the attacks at the Brussels airport and one of the city’s busiest subway stations three days earlier. Video footage of a top official at another Belgian nuclear facility was discovered last year in the apartment of a suspected militant linked to the extremists who unleashed the horror in Paris in November.
Asked on Thursday at a London think tank whether there was a danger of the Islamic State’s obtaining a nuclear weapon, the British defense secretary, Michael Fallon, said that “was a new and emerging threat.”
While the prospect that terrorists can obtain enough highly enriched uranium and then turn it into a nuclear fission bomb seems far-fetched to many experts, they say the fabrication of some kind of dirty bomb from radioactive waste or byproducts is more conceivable. There are a variety of other risks involving Belgium’s facilities, including that terrorists somehow shut down the privately operated plants, which provide nearly half of Belgium’s power.
The fears at the nuclear power plants are of “an accident in which someone explodes a bomb inside the plant,” said Sébastien Berg, the spokesman for Belgium’s federal agency for nuclear control. “The other danger is that they fly something into the plant from outside.” That could stop the cooling process of the used fuel, Mr. Berg explained, and in turn shut down the plant.
The revelation of the video surveillance footage was the first evidence that the Islamic State has a focused interest in nuclear material. But Belgium’s nuclear facilities have long had a worrying track record of breaches, prompting warnings from Washington and other foreign capitals.
Some of these are relatively minor: The Belgian nuclear agency’s computer system was hacked this year and shut down briefly. In 2013, two individuals managed to scale the fence at Belgium’s research reactor in the city of Mol, break into a laboratory and steal equipment.
Others are far more disconcerting. In 2012, two employees at the nuclear plant in Doel quit to join jihadists in Syria, and eventually transferred their allegiances to the Islamic State. Both men fought in a brigade that included dozens of Belgians, including Abdelhamid Abaaoud, considered the on-the-ground leader of the Paris attacks.
One of these men is believed to have died fighting in Syria, but the other was convicted of terror-related offenses in Belgium in 2014, and released from prison last year, according to Pieter Van Oestaeyen, a researcher who tracks Belgium’s jihadist networks. It is not known whether they communicated information about their former workplace to their Islamic State comrades.
The
reference there is to Ilyass Boughalab, a 26-year old Moroccan man
who worked at Doel before travelling to Syria. After passing a
background check in 2009 he was given a job inspecting welds. He had
access to highly secure areas of the reactor. He was, according to
employer AIB-Vincotte, an efficient employee whose work was
“flawless.”
One
can only assume that Boughalab discussed his time workinig at Doel
with other members of Islamic State and it seems entirely likely that
someone in the organization would have conveyed his specialized
experience up the chain of command. It's easy to imagine that he may
very well have met with more senitor members of the group if they
indeed learned about his employment history.
Whatever
the case, it's fairly clear that there are any number of ways for
jihadists to exploit Belgium's notoriously lax nuclear security
apparatus and although one would think that the more straightforward
approach would be to simply bomb the facilities or have an insider
sabotage something, the threat of a dirty bomb is quite real. We'll
close with a short quote from Laura Holgate, the National
Security Council’s senior director for weapons of mass destruction:
"I'm
surprised it hasn't happened yet."
*
* *
As
an aside, Belgian authorities have identified the third suspect in
the airport bombings. The man is one Faycal Cheffou, a freelance
journalist. He was reportedly detained outside the prosecutor's
office with two other men on Thursday in the sweeping raids that led
to 6 arrests.
The latest report from Britain's channel four
Belgian prosecutor files terror charges against 3 men
A
masked Belgian police officer © Vincent Kessler / Reuters
RT,
26
March, 2016
Three
men have been charged with terrorist activities, the Belgian
prosecutor said, adding that one of them identified only as Faycal C,
was seen in security footage in Brussels’ Zaventem Airport, along
with Brussels attackers shortly before the blasts.
Faycal
C was charged with participation in terrorist groups, terrorist
killings and attempted terrorist killings, the prosecutor said.
Two
other men, identified as Aboubakar A and Rabah N, were also charged
with terrorist activities and membership of a terrorist group. Rabah
N was also wanted in connection with a recent Paris raid when police
said they foiled a terrorist attack.
A
man identified as Abderamane A., who was arrested on Friday after
being shot in the leg at a tram stop in Brussels’ Schaerbeek
district, will be detained for an additional 24 hours, the prosecutor
said.
The
man was arrested Thursday, the prosecutor said, adding that police
searched the suspect’s house but didn’t find any explosives or
weapons.
RTL
cited police sources who said that the man fled Brussels’ Zaventem
Airport shortly after the attacks and he was seen in the Schaerbeek
area of Brussels nearly two hours after the bombings.
Faycal
C was seen standing next to Khalid El Bakraoui, one of the suicide
bombers in security footage in Brussels’ Zaventem Airport prior to
the attacks.
According
to Le Soir newspaper, his name was Faycal Cheffou. Brussels mayor
Yvan Mayeur told Le Soir that Cheffou was a journalist and called him
“dangerous,” adding that the suspect had been previously detained
at a park, where he had been trying to convince asylum seekers to
become radical extremists.
Cheffou
was identified by a taxi driver who drove the suspect Tuesday
morning, Le Soir reported.
Belgian
authorities urged that a march to show solidarity in the wake of the
Brussels attacks, which was scheduled for Sunday, be postponed due to
security reasons, RTBF reported, citing Brussels’ mayor and
Belgium’s interior minister. Organizers of the “March Against
Fear” later called off the event.
“We
totally agree with the authorities’ request to delay this plan for
a later date. We in turn ask citizens not to come to Brussels this
Sunday,” said march organizer Emmanuel Foulon, as quoted by
Reuters.
On
Tuesday, the Belgian capital was rocked by twin blasts at the city’s
Zaventem Airport and an explosion at the Maalbeek Metro station, just
meters away from key EU buildings, less than an hour later.
Belgian
prosecutor identified two suicide bombers as brothers Khalid and
Ibrahim El Bakraoui. According to Belgium’s RTBF public
broadcaster, both brothers, residents of the capital, were known to
police for links to organized crime, but not for terrorism.
The
third suspect in the Brussels airport attack was reported by Belgian
media as Najim Laachraoui. Born on May 18, 1991, he is a native of
Schaerbeek, a municipality located in the Brussels-Capital Region of
Belgium.
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