Explosions at EU building and Brussels airport

[icytea]

Interesting reading material. However, when comparing the numbers there seem to be only 25 mass shootings in the US in the period 2009-2015, while the site I quoted gives 330 mass shootings for the year 2015 alone. Both sites use the same definitions for mass shootings but another framework. I wish there would be a decent study available at some point. I do agree that a comparrison on inper-capita basis would give a far bether comparison on a global scale.

I thought something didn't look right

 

[pool_hustler]

FBI warned Dutch police about Brussels terrorists before attacks

http://nypost.com/2016/03/29/fbi-warned-dutch-police-about-brussels-terrorists-before-attacks/

 

[GodsEmbryo]

FBI warned Dutch police about Brussels terrorists before attacks

http://nypost.com/2016/03/29/fbi-warned-dutch-police-about-brussels-terrorists-before-attacks/

Already kind of old news I'm afraid...

FBI info came from the Belgians

March 29, 2016

Six days before the Brussels attacks America's Federal Bureau of Investigation provided the Dutch authorities with information about the criminal and extremist background of Ibrahim and Khalid El Bakraoui, the two brothers who acted as suicide bombers in the Brussels attacks.

The Dutch justice minister Ard van der Steur told the Dutch parliament that the Belgian and Dutch police services had discussed the matter on 17 March, five days before the attacks.

The Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte has meanwhile insisted that the information from the FBI originally came from the Belgian authorities and therefore there was no need to discuss the matter with Brussels.

The Dutch premier Mark Rutte told the Dutch parliament: "On 16 March the FBI reported to us what they learnt from the Belgians. That's why we didn't share it with the Belgians. A day or two later there is a regular consultation with Belgium. All sorts of matters are discussed. The two figures (the suicide bombers, the El Bakraoui brothers) are mentioned, but the Belgians apparently shared the information with the FBI, because the FBI says that the Belgians put these people on the wanted list." [...]

source: http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/News/1.2614718

Should Dutch have shared information after all?

March 30, 2016

There has been an unexpected twist in the saga of the information about the criminal background of the El Bakraoui brothers, the suicide bombers at Zaventem and Maalbeek metro station.

The Dutch justice minister Van der Steur now says that the information that was not shared with the Belgian authorities came from the New York police department. Earlier the Dutch premier Mark Rutte insisted that the information came from the FBI and had originally come from the Belgian authorities meaning that it was not necessary to share this information with the Belgians.

Questions are now being raised about whether or not this information from the Intelligence Division of the New York police department should have been shared with Belgium.

The information was sent to the Netherlands without mentioning the source and this is why the Dutch authorities initially thought it came from the FBI. The Dutch justice minister has still to establish why the New York police department sent to information to the Netherlands.

Source: http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/News/1.2615347

One thing is certain, Europe really needs some kind of unified system where information easily can be shared.