Anti-terror operation in Belgium

[Deleted]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30840160

Two people have been killed in an anti-terror operation in eastern Belgium, local officials say.

A third person was wounded in the raid in the town of Verviers, according to Belgian TV. Several arrests were made.

A source in the mayor's office told AFP news agency that "an operation is under way". Another official said the raid was "jihadist-related".

Unconfirmed reports said raids were also taking place in Brussels and elsewhere in Belgium.

In Verviers, witnesses reported hearing heavy gunfire for several minutes and at least three explosions.

The area around the train station has been cordoned off and reports on social media say there is a heavy police presence in the town centre.

Media reports suggested those targeted were suspected jihadists who had returned from Syria.

Verviers is in the province of Liege and has a population of about 56,000.

The incident comes a week after attacks in neighbouring France that killed 17 people.

Belgian media has reported that some of the weapons used in the attacks in Paris were bought near the Midi train station in Brussels.

The attacks - on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a kosher market and police - have heightened security fears in several European countries.

In May last year, four people were killed inside the Jewish museum in Brussels by a Frenchman of Algerian descent.

This is still ongoing and I will update as and when more info is posted.

[Tradewind]

Awww, I wanted to make Bruges jokes. But nooooo, it had to be some other town.

[ringpriest]

And meanwhile, here in the good old "Land of the Free" the FBI has valiantly stopped another one of its own terror plots:

"Unemployed Ohio man allegedly planned bomb-and-shoot attack on U.S. Capitol"

Authorities say Cornell, who ostensibly tweeted under the name Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah, hatched a simple scheme. It was similar to the Paris attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, but at a key location -- the U.S. Capitol, said a criminal complaint filed by an FBI agent.

The plan: Set off pipe bombs to put lawmakers and employees in panicked flight and then gun them down with an assault rifle as they ran across his path and that of an accomplice, Special Agent T.A. Staderman wrote.

Cornell was ready to go, the agent said.

He had made preparations with a partner. He had researched bomb-making instructions and by Wednesday, Cornell had bought two M-15 rifles with 600 rounds of ammunition. Maybe the FBI could buy their terrorist a bus ticket?

But the man Cornell believed was his partner was actually an FBI informant, a man in trouble with the law who worked with the agency to improve his legal standing.

When they found out Cornell had the weapons, authorities made their move before Cornell could make his. A law enforcement official told CNN that there was never any danger to lawmakers.

"Ready to go", except for the small problem of being unemployed in Ohio, 500 miles from his "target", and not actually having the explosives his plan needed. This is just one more in a long string of "terrorists" who are nothing more than idiots aided and abetted by the US government in order to scare the voting public.
"Terrorist Plots, Hatched by the F.B.I."
"Government agents 'directly involved' in most high-profile US terror plots"
"How the FBI is creating terrorists" A damning new report suggests the bureau facilitates and sometimes even invents its targets' willingness to act.

It's become quite clear who is actually trying to terrify American voters.

Infracted

[Deleted]

Here's the article from VRT (Flemish publicly funded news) with video.

http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/binnenland/1.2209594

The article says it where 3 people returning from fighting in Syria who had prepared for a terrorist attack, this is why fast action was required. Luckely the 3 individuals where being observed by Staatsveiligheid.

According to RTBF (The Wallonian publicly funded news) the Police is controling the known radical enviroments but their would be no sign of an imminent terrorist attack.

[MerinPally]

It's become quite clear who is actually trying to terrify American voters.

Just once I'd like to see you post something that isn't "And look what the USA is doing, aren't we terrible!"

It's almost as annoying as Cryban at this point. We get it, you don't like the USA. There is a world out there and other things go on. If you want to neurotically focus on something that everyone knows is happening anyway, on some personal crusade to achieve... god knows what, then sure. But this is about Belgium and to a lesser extent, the recent attacks in France/

[Tradewind]

I thought this was about Belgium.

[Deleted]

And meanwhile, here in the good old "Land of the Free" the FBI has valiantly stopped another one of its own terror plots:

"Unemployed Ohio man allegedly planned bomb-and-shoot attack on U.S. Capitol"


"Ready to go", except for the small problem of being unemployed in Ohio, 500 miles from his "target", and not actually having the explosives his plan needed. This is just one more in a long string of "terrorists" who are nothing more than idiots aided and abetted by the US government in order to scare the voting public.
"Terrorist Plots, Hatched by the F.B.I."
"Government agents 'directly involved' in most high-profile US terror plots"
"How the FBI is creating terrorists" A damning new report suggests the bureau facilitates and sometimes even invents its targets' willingness to act.

It's become quite clear who is actually trying to terrify American voters.

Make your own thread for your conspiracy theories.

[Deleted]

The police is giving a press conference atm, I'll update asap.

Watching the live press conference now

http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/vi...ream/1.1346266

Its in 3 languages first Dutch, then French then English

- No innocent/officer deaths, 2 suspects death after they opened fire on a special unit, 1 is only wounded and has been taken into custody
- A terrorist on imporant targets has supposedly been prevented by swift action of the Federal police department and the anti-terror forces
- The threat level has temporarily been raised to 3 (on a scale of 4)
- About 10 searches have been warranted spread acros the town of Verviers, Molenbeek and Brussels. It was during these searches that 3 suspects opened fire with automatic weapons on the security forces.

Important: For the time being there appears to be no connection with the attacks in Paris

This is about all the information that can be given atm, next conference will be tommorow at 11am.

[ringpriest]

Just once I'd like to see you post something that isn't "And look what the USA is doing, aren't we terrible!"

It's almost as annoying as Cryban at this point. We get it, you don't like the USA. There is a world out there and other things go on. If you want to neurotically focus on something that everyone knows is happening anyway, on some personal crusade to achieve... god knows what, then sure. But this is about Belgium and to a lesser extent, the recent attacks in France/

Make your own thread for your conspiracy theories.

But then I'd be denying you the opportunity to make off-topic posts yourselves. Seriously, MMO-champ does have both Ignore and PM functionality. (Personally, I'd find it unusable without them.) Posting to whine and say "so-and-so's post is offtopic!" while contributing nothing yourself is pretty much the height of hypocrisy.

I threw my post into this thread because I thought the contrast between the two operations was interesting. Belgian law enforcement (which is to the best of my understanding far more restrained than that of the US) had a violent clash with what was, by all appearances, a very real and immediate threat. The much more openly "paranoid" US establishment, by contrast, didn't have a real threat and was forced to (as it very often does) manufacture one; it almost looks like some sort of bizzare "me-too"ism on the part of the FBI. (That I didn't make my intent to contrast explicitly clear is on me, for making the assumption that it was. Mea culpa.)

And while you're certainly free to say you don't find my post to be topical, it is completely inaccurate to deride as "conspiracy theory" something so amply documented by both The Guardian and the New York Times, among other quite reputable journalistic sources. It is, of course, a conspiracy, just a well-documented and public one. Responses that do attempt to dismiss what is quite clearly happening right in front of everyone is a good part of why I keep making what MerinPally percieves as "anti-American" posts, although as I've repeatedly tried to make clear I'm quite fond of America, I just don't like where its government has gone over the last decade and a half very much.

In Belgium (and tragically so recently in Paris, and elsewhere in Europe), there is a very real threat from terrorist criminals that has been, by and large, treated somewhat reasonably (although, after the Paris attacks that unfortunately shows signs of changing, which is doubtless what the terrorists wanted). In the US, due to different demographics and patters of immigration, that threat does not exist to any similar degree, yet our government keeps pretending it does, to the overall great detriment of our country.