Explosion at Brussels Airport (Update: also at Molenbeek metro station) 34 dead

[DavidB.]

Terrible. Ugh. Also, it's quite literally hitting close to home now.

On some high schools in Amsterdam, kids were celebrating this...

[DavidB.]

The bomb at Brussels Airport contained nails in order to cause more casualties, Belgian broadcaster VTM Nieuws reports.

[DavidB.]

Meanwhile, some telephone networks are down in Brussels. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) called on people to use wifi and social media instead of texting and calling. Internet provider Telenet has opened its network to non-clients.

[DavidB.]

Terrible. Ugh. Also, it's quite literally hitting close to home now.

The Netherlands started bombing ISIS a few months ago, so you are obviously on the list of potential targets (more than countries like Germany, Austria or Sweden for example).

I'm not sure how much that really matters, at this point. What matters much more is how many people from a country have radicalized. In that regard, I think the Netherlands is slightly less bad off than Belgium and France (numbers of people travelling to Syria underpin that), but of course I do not have the illusion that an attack like this one could not happen here. But I'm not going to be afraid of it.

[DavidB.]

Brussels mayor Yvan Mayeur states that 20 were killed by attack on Maalbeek metro station and 106 wounded, of whom 17 very severely wounded, 23 severely, and 66 lightly.

With hashtag #ikwilhelpen ("I want to help"), people are offering help to the victims and to people who cannot go home anymore because of the public transportation shutdown.

[DavidB.]

People write messages on a square in the city center of Brussels.

[DavidB.]

Maalbeek metro station. Damn.

[DavidB.]

Janusz Korwin Mikke was at airport during the attacks

Is he alright?

[DavidB.]

Janusz Korwin Mikke was at airport during the attacks

Is he alright?

As media says yes.

Alright, that's good to know.

[DavidB.]

Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon (N-VA) has announced three days of national mourning, starting tomorrow. Meanwhile, Flemish Interest MP Jan Penris tweeted that Jambon should step down, though he later deleted it.

[DavidB.]

Some impressive pictures here.

[DavidB.]

Belgian king Filip will make a speech at 7PM tonight.

[DavidB.]

Shooting at Amsterdam Central Station, a few minutes ago. 1 person arrested.

[DavidB.]

[DavidB.]

Time to move to Poland or Hungary.

Welp, I guess its not good idea to move to Poland when you only consider lack of terrorist attacks danger.
1. World Youth Day 2016 will be organised in Poland, His Holiness Francis will be there for few days.
2. NATO summit in Warsaw, Barry Obama will come himself.
3. PiS is currently doing purges inside the army, police, security services (we still have no Chief Commandant of Police and PiS as they follow staunch anti-communism more than 20 years after collapse of "communist" state they mainly focus on the most experienced people only because they worked before 1989) which does not really help. We still have no any legislative act on anti-terrorism (although it is ready, but govt wanted to make it 100% solid - now I guess they will change their mind) and I highly doubt that security services control anything.

I highly recommend you to avoid Warsaw and Kraków in July.

The point is obviously that Poland has been less "enriched" than Western Europe.

[DavidB.]

here's a start

Again I am asking you, why are 90% of the people on that list Muslims?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI_Most_Wanted_Terrorists

Are you calling the American Security Agencies incompetent, or ar they just straight up racist and putting up random Muslims on their Most wanted?

here's a start

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I'm not on board with the OMGZ BAN MUSLIMS NOW!!! crew, but let's be honest here, the claim that radical Christians kill more than radical Muslims is chickensh**t.

New York, 2001: 2,977 casualties.
Bali, 2002: 202 casualties.
Madrid, 2004: 192 casualties.
London, 2005: 56 casualties.
Paris, 2015 (both): 142 casualties.

People who don't see the obvious worldwide patterns by now are not going to see it, unfortunately.

[DavidB.]

Crabcake's posts here are really excellent.

[DavidB.]

On request of the French authorities, a French national was arrested in Rotterdam today on suspicion of terrorism. He is presumably connected to the Bataclan attackers. Apparently it was a large-scale operation: several people in the neighborhood had to be evacuated. According to French press agency AFP, the suspect is called Anis B.