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Brussels Bombers Filmed Nuclear Researchers, Hoped To Build A "Dirty Bomb," Expert Says (nbcnews.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NBC News: The brothers behind this week's Brussels bombings also spied on a top nuclear researcher and hoped to build a so-called "dirty bomb," an expert involved in a probe into ISIS threats told NBC News on Thursday. Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui were responsible for planting a hidden camera outside the Belgian researcher's house, according to Claude Moniquet, a French former intelligence official who was hired to investigate potential plots targeting Europe's nuclear sector. This camera produced more than 10 hours of film showing the comings and goings of senior researcher at a Belgian nuclear center and his family. "The terrorist cell ... naively believed they could use him to penetrate a lab to obtain nuclear material to make a dirty bomb," Moniquet, CEO of the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center privacy consultancy said. The researcher worked at a center which stored a "significant portion of the world's supply of radioisotopes," according to the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C. These isotopes are used in hospitals and factories around the world but can also be used to make a so-called "dirty bomb" -- a device that could spread radioactive material across a wide area.
If you need heavy security at each plant, the idea of small plants comes to an end.
I haven't posted on Slashdot in years, but I recently posted something somewhere that I will repost here in reply to you.
It was initially a response to an article written by Roger Simon, titled "Are We Ready for Reality after the Brussels Terror Attacks?".
https://pjmedia.com/diaryofama...
If you want to know how suicidal Western culture is at this point re. Islam, just watch how I get called out as a racist for daring to say these things.
Point is, I agree with everything you said, and I thank you for posting it.
Asian and Western cultures have their differences, but the last thing either society is trying to do to this world is bring into existence some kind of apocalyptic scenario. In my opinion Islam is utterly incompatible with ANY other culture in the long run, and we can blame ourselves all we want because that's safer today, but the problem will never go away until we fight back, and fight to win.
Anyway, here's my repost in its entirety:
Mr. Simon,
I don't know if you will ever read this, regardless, here goes:
I'm with you. I agree with everything you've said in your article, "Are We Ready for Reality after the Brussels Terror Attacks?".
I'm very sure that thousands and thousands and thousands of people from every corner of the globe agree with everything you've said.
I agreed with your conclusions yesterday. I agreed with them last November. I agreed in London, and Madrid, and Beslan, and Mumbai, and of course in New York and Washington.
I've agreed with you each of the 28,025 times the website thereligionofpeace.com has documented an attack that has occurred in the name of Islam world-wide SINCE 9/11.
I agreed with you when Sadat was murdered. I agreed with you when people fell from the sky over Lockerbie.
I agreed with you during the Six-Day War. I agreed with during the Yom Kippur War.
I agreed with you when I learned of Churchill's thoughts during the River War.
I agreed with you when I learned about the Siege of Vienna in 1683.
I agreed with you when I learned that the Crusades were defensive in nature.
I agreed with you when I learned of the Battle of Tours and Charles Martel.
When I look at the history of the last 1400 years, and I see that Islam is a predatory ideology founded by a warlord, I agree with you.
My question to you, and to anyone else reading this who has a thought to add, what next?
Who is going to organize all of us to destroy this culture of hate once and for all?
Who is going to bring about the cultural revolution, and it would take nothing less than that in the West at this point, to really, really fight back, and fight back to not just win and hold in check, but to win for all time?
This has been going on for 1400 years, and I can't even get my closest friends and family to acknowledge the threat we face right now, today.
I ask you Mr. Simon, what next?
p.s. Say what you want about the Chinese and Japanese, etc, they are not fools in the way that we in the West are, and not letting The Enemy infiltrate their societies en masse as we have done, is like adding 10% annual growth to their prospective GDP(s). It's a huge bonus for them not having to fight this fight. And all they've had to do to gain that advantage is be honest about the reality they inhabit.
Years later, a doctor will tell me that I have an I.Q. of 48, and am what some people call "mentally retarded".
Hey TC,
Thanks for the kind reply.
I read a paper about 15 years ago that I will try to summarize quickly here:
If you throw out all the myriad labels we use to divide ourselves into sub-groups within our different societies; left, right, liberal, conservative, all the various religions and organizing governmental doctrines we cling to, there are really only three overarching and competing philosophies in the world today.
1. Theocratic fascism.
This one is pretty self-explanatory. The lunatic fringe of those who believe in a higher power. Think the Westboro Baptist clan or a far-too-large segment of the Muslim world. They want to impose the will of their dogma on the rest of us at literally any cost.
2. Philosophical Empiricism.
To try and sum it up in very few words, these are people who are compelled to ask the deeper questions of how things really work, and how things really are. At it's most pure, this philosophy encompasses the Scientific Method among other things. P-Empiricism can lead to some pretty uncomfortable conclusions, because again, it forces its adherents to look honestly at the world and the universe they inhabit.
3. Philosophical Idealism.
Again, to sum up most likely poorly in very few words, these are people who are compelled to see the world as they wish it to be. An underlying linchpin to this philosophy is something called teleology. It's an emotionally-driven philosophy at its worst, and it is very, very widespread in the West at present. P-Idealists see things how they want them to be, and perhaps in some cases how they should be, but they have a very difficult time reconciling reality when in flies in the face of what they wish to see.
Very dumbed down summaries. But necessary to say this:
The third of the three philosophies I listed here is the real problem, in my opinion.
We in the West have about half our citizens living in a society that has been so materially successful, they have been afforded the luxury to take a vacation from history for most if not all of their lives, and their wishes for a better world have been indulged, both wisely and foolishly, for a few decades now.
I have no idea how to convince half of our population that sometimes the world is a scary place, and sometimes you need to fight for your survival, when the very idea of that is so abhorrent to them that they just simply choose to 'believe' otherwise.
I'm with you in what you say, and I like to think I can construct a cogent argument if needed, but I've found it to be almost like arguing the case for reality with the mentally ill.
I don't even know where to begin anymore. You need some common ground, and when all you get in reply is variations on, "La la la, you're a racist, war-monger, blue meanie, La la la", it's very, very disconcerting.
Meanwhile, Islam continues to spread like a cancer among us.
Thanks again for being rational actor.
Years later, a doctor will tell me that I have an I.Q. of 48, and am what some people call "mentally retarded".
You say this because you guys do not mix with them, nor understand the tenet of their culture
I grew up in a poorer neighborhood that had several neighboring groups of different immigrants, and the cheap housing I found in university was in a mostly middle eastern neighborhood. You think I didn't mix enough with them, when instead it looks to me like your characterization seems like it is completely disconnected from the reality of immigrants who cared more about making money, getting good jobs and spouses, and raising their kids to do well in school than political and religious tenets. I'm not going to speculate on how much mixing you did, as observations are useless if you just see everything through tinted glasses.
DO NOT FORGET that their community plays the part of the ***support group***, providing them everything from financial aid to networking to even safe houses for them to hide
How many people provided safe houses and financial support? Even if it was 50%, you would still be an asshole for treating the other half like terrorists.
They threw stones at the cops !
So did the blacks in neighborhoods near where I grew up, and so did college students at the school I went to... there are a lot of reasons groups of people get pissed off at cops and end up doing stupid things to police.
Yes, their community actually feel proud of having terrorists amongst them ! The terrorists are their "heroes", someone who 'do things for them'
Again, what fraction? Are you extrapolating from a minority? How are you any different than those that say all Americans are proud of Trump, and that all Russians are proud of the Soviet era, other than you might be extrapolating from an even smaller minority?
But of course, you do not read this type of 'news' in the mainstream media -
And yet I've heard about the issues cops faced in those neighborhoods from mainstream media already... I find it funny how often people try to emphasize some point by claiming it wasn't covered by media, when it was, and that doesn't change how much or how little BS is involved in the original point.
You, Sir, are naive --- no matter how you want to deny it, those of us who are not from the West get to witness your naivete being displayed in the open
And yet when I travel overseas and out of the west, the most ridiculed aspects of westerners is not those that are too generous or open, or naively kind. Instead you hear nonstop complaints, insults, and jokes about how intolerant westerners are, how self-centered they are to the point of trying to force everyone else to act like them or GTFO. Any truth to what you say about problems in the West is not exclusive to the West, and you're just another person trying to make neat, easy piles to point fingers at.
You want people to not be naive and see reality? Start by not pretending that these problems are not neat little categories that are easy to blame instead of the big fucking mess it actually is.
I have done some reading too. And you are full of shit.
If Christians were in the same social and economic situation as the Muslims are right now they would behave exactly the same. People in general are able to do crazy shit. Remember the first and second world war?
The extraordinary crazy shit people can do, has nothing to do with religion or beliefs. It has everything to do with human beings under certain conditions.
Reducing complex problems to simple ones with even simpler solutions is not the answer. That is just convenient and lazy, but at the same time human too.