Belgian intelligence agencies refused to cooperate with the United States

Reuters: after Paris attacks, Belgian intelligence agencies refused to cooperate with the United States
WORLD NEWS
BY: ADMIN |
Март 24 2016 12:01

In the period between the series of terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13 and explosions in Brussels on March 22, American intelligence attempted cooperation with the secret services of Belgium to combat terrorism. However, the Belgians refused to work with their American counterparts, citing the employment.

Shortly after the Paris terrorist attacks, a senior us official in the sphere of combating terrorism, traveling in Europe, wanted to visit Brussels to get more information about the investigation, according to Reuters. When the U.S. tried to organize meetings, the Belgian partners have not welcomed the initiative, said people familiar with the situation American officials. The Belgians considered the period after the attacks in Paris failed for contacts with foreign colleagues because they were too busy with the investigation, told the news Agency on condition of anonymity.

Belgian officials have declined to comment on the information. The refusal of Brussels from the collaboration was only one reason for the growing disappointment with the U.S. behaviour of Belgium on the background of aggravation of the threat posed by Islamic state (terrorist group forbidden in the Russian Federation), notes Reuters.

— IG has prepared 400 fighters for attacks in Europe

Some U.S. official said that cooperation with Belgium in the field of security is preventing the provision of the Brussels fragmentary data and significant differences in willingness of different agencies to work with other countries, even if it is on nearby allies.

When U.S. intelligence is trying to contact the Belgian agencies for information, often American intelligence agencies are struggling to figure out which Agency or part has the necessary information, told Reuters a source in the government of the United States.

At the same time, some U.S. officials in the field of counter-terrorism believe that between the United States and Belgium (and other European countries) there is a significant cultural gap. Europeans are more strongly committed to the principle of inviolability of private life. This often prevents information sharing between intelligence agencies or delays the provision of data, for example, the movements of the citizens. In the USA the admission of intelligence agencies like the information is perceived as a matter of course, notes Reuters.

After the attacks of 11 September 2001 the US radically changed the principles of their anti-terrorist agencies. The «wall» between law enforcement and intelligence bodies were broken, new structures — the national intelligence service and the national center for combating terrorism. Belgium, by contrast, is a «patchwork state», where a split between the Francophone and Dutch-speaking language.

Belgium does not disclose the exact number of employees in its security and intelligence services, but experts in this field claim that the country is experiencing a deficit of resources compared to other European States. «Add to this the problem of two languages (French and Flemish), the lack of Arabic-speaking and poor coordination between national and local authorities, and you will get huge mismatch between threat and response,» said a former CIA officer and former White house adviser Bruce Riedel, currently working at the Brookings Institute.

On the eve of a senior intelligence officer U.S. compared employees of Belgian security services with «children». Methods of intelligence in Belgium it is called «horse radish». Washington is unhappy that warning US about the threat of terrorist attacks did not save the Belgians from the tragedy.
In this case, after the Paris attacks, Belgium proposed to dramatically increase the budget of the security sector. The government promised to increase by 2.5 thousand people, the number of staff of the Federal police who are involved in the most major crimes. The Belgian authorities also argue that in January 2015 prevented a large-scale attack. In the monitoring Committee for security and intelligence of Belgium recognized the need to cooperate with the United States, but recall that «the big powers are guarded by their security forces very closely».

Meanwhile, among all European countries in Belgium per capita is the highest number of fighters who travel to fight in Syria, despite all the efforts of the security services. «They got behind the ball and will pay a terrible price,» said Adam Schiff, a senior Democrat on the Committee on intelligence of the house of representatives of the U.S. Congress. In turn, state Department spokesman mark Toner said: «I will not say that Belgium was caught off guard or didn’t realize. You know, we work, we work with Belgium in close cooperation».

Concern that security and intelligence small European country is overloaded and that their cooperation with the allies is not enough, re-emerged after a series of attacks in Brussels on 22 March. Two explosions thundered at the international airport in Brussels on Tuesday around 08:00 local time. The third explosion occurred in the subway at the station «Malbec». Responsibility for the attack took on terrorist group «Islamic state».

According to the latest data, from the explosion 31 people died and another 300 were injured of varying severity.