Terror alert after Belgian nuclear plant guard is murdered and his security pass is stolen amid concerns terrorists are plotting an attack on power station
By Jennifer Newton
A
security guard who worked at a Belgian nuclear plant was murdered and
had his security pass stolen, just two days after the Brussels terror
attacks.
Belgian
media reported today that the security guard, named as Didier
Prospero, was walking his dog in the Charleroi region of Belgium when he
was shot dead.
However,
as soon as it emerged that his security pass had been stolen, it was
quickly cancelled so nobody could gain access to the site using it.
The Tihange nuclear power plant in
Belgium, where the guard worked. Nuclear power plants are known to be
targets for the terror network behind the Brussels bombings and the
Paris attacks in November.
Didier Prospero, pictured, who was a security guard at the Tihange Nuclear power plant, was found shot dead in his bathroom beside his beloved pet sheepdog Beauce. No gun was found at the scene of the crime.
Investigators
are exploring a theory that the man, who has not been named, was killed
to steal his pass and gain access to a nuclear facility.
Nuclear
power plants are known to be targets for the terror network behind the
Brussels bombings and the Paris attacks in November.
In
a nation on high alert following this week’s attacks, the report stokes
fears about the possibility militants are seeking to get hold of
nuclear material or planning to attack a nuclear site.
On Thursday, Derniere Heure newspaper had reported the suicide bombers who blew themselves up on Tuesday
originally considered targeting a nuclear site, but a series of arrests
of suspect militants forced them to speed up their plans and instead
switch focus to the Belgian capital.
However, Charleroi prosecutors has
reportedly played down reports of a connection between the murder and a
planned terror attack, according to the Belga news agency.
Belga also said that the prosecutor had also denied media reports that the guard’s access badge had gone missing.
There
was no immediate independent confirmation from the prosecutor’s office
in Charleroi, about an hour’s drive south of Brussels.
Late
last year, investigators found a video tracking the movements of a man
linked to the country’s nuclear industry during a search of a flat as
part of investigations into the Islamist militant attack on Paris on November 13 that killed 130 people.
The
video, lasting several hours, showed footage of the entrance to a home
in northern Belgium and the arrival and departure of the director of
Belgium’s nuclear research programme.
Interior
minister Jan Jambon previously told Belgium’s Parliament there was not a
threat to the country’s nuclear facilities last month
At
the time, the interior minister he said that while there was a threat
‘to the person in question,’ there was not one to the country’s nuclear
facilities.
He
added: ‘To date, we have no indication that there is a specific threat
to the Belgian nuclear sites. The nuclear industry is one of the best
protected areas.’
However,
the European Union’s counter-terrorism chief warned today that
Belgium’s network of nuclear power plants and other major infrastructure
face the threat of a cyber-attack over the next five years.
‘I
would not be surprised if there was an attempt in the next five years
to use the Internet to commit an attack,’ Gilles de Kerchove told daily
La Libre Belgique.
‘It
would take the form of entering the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data
Acquisition), which is the nerve centre of a nuclear power plant, a
dam, air traffic control centre or railroad switching station,’ he
added.
It
comes as the head of the UN atomic watchdog also warned that terrorists
have the ‘means, knowledge and information’ to create a nuclear bomb.
The
warnings of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Yukiya
Amano come just days before world leaders meet for an important summit
against ‘nuclear terrorism’.
Suicide bombers Khalid El Bakraoui, Ibrahim El Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui who blew themselves up in the Brussels attacks.
‘Terrorism is spreading and the possibility of using nuclear material cannot be excluded,’ Mr Amano told AFP.
‘Member states need to have sustained interest in strengthening nuclear security.
‘The countries which do not recognise the danger of nuclear terrorism are the biggest problem.’
Belgium’s
neighbours have raised concerns over the country’s creaking nuclear
plants for some time, after a series of problems ranging from leaks to
cracks and an unsolved sabotage incident.
Doel
1, the country’s oldest reactor, was originally shuttered in February
2015 under a law calling for the country’s gradual phasing out of
nuclear power, but the government then restarted it under an extension
deal.
International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Yukiya Amano confirmed that
terrorists now hae the ‘means, knowledge and information to create a
nuclear bomb.
Amano
said: ‘Terrorism is spreading and the possibility of using nuclear
material cannot be excluded. Member states need to have sustained
interest in strengthening nuclear security. The countries which do not
recognise the danger of nuclear terrorism are the biggest problem.’
Belgian authorities have arrested Faycal Cheffou, pictured, and charged him with terrorist offences.
Around 50 leaders will meet in Washington on March 31 for a summit on ensuring that nuclear material in the world’s roughly 1,000 atomic facilities is secure.
Major progress has already been made, with countries reducing stockpiles of nuclear material, experts say.
Japan, for example, is this month returning enough plutonium to make 50 nuclear bombs to the U.S.
But
according to the International Panel on Fissile Materials, enough
plutonium and highly enriched uranium still exists to make 20,000
weapons of the magnitude that levelled Hiroshima in 1945.
A
grapefruit-sized amount of plutonium can be fashioned into a nuclear
weapon, and according to Mr Amano it is ‘not impossible’ that extremists
could manage to make a ‘primitive’ device – if they got hold of the
material.
‘It is now an old technology and nowadays terrorists have the means, the knowledge and the information,’ he said.
But he said that a far likelier risk was a ‘dirty bomb’.
Belgium media reports suggest Cheffou,
a freelance journalist, is the third bomber pictured far right, walking
through Brussels Airport before the attacks wearing a white coat and
hat
This is a device using conventional explosives to disperse radioactive material other than uranium or plutonium.
Such
material can be found in small quantities in universities, hospitals
and other facilities the world over, often with little security.
‘Dirty
bombs will be enough to [drive[ any big city in the world into panic,’
Mr Amano said. ‘And the psychological, economic and political
implications would be enormous.’
This
is thought to be well within the capabilities of extremists, and ISIS
has already used chemical weapons, according to CIA director John
Brennan.
Probes
into the Brussels attacks this week claimed that jihadis may have been
plotting to steal nuclear material to create a radioactive bomb.
Meanwhile,
prosecutors in Brussels have confirmed they have arrested and charged
Faycal Cheffou, a freelance journalist, in connection with the Brussels
attacks.
Cheffou was among six men arrested during a police raid on Thursday.
Ibrahim El Bakraoui, left, and Najim Laachraoui, right, who carried out the attack at Brussels Airport on Tuesday.
He has been arrested for ‘involvement in a terrorist group, terrorist killings and attempted terrorist killings’.
Belgian prosecutors have arrested and charged a new suspect in the Brussels terror attacks.
The
federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement today that a man
identified as Faycal Cheffou, was one of six men detained in a police
raid on Thursday.
The
statement added that he has been charged with for ‘involvement in a
terrorist group, terrorist killings and attempted terrorist killings’.
Belgium
media reports suggest Cheffou, a freelance journalist, is the third
bomber pictured walking through Brussels Airport before the attacks.
However that has not been confirmed by Belgian prosecutors.
But one source close to the investigation, said: ‘That is a hypothesis the investigators are working on.’
Following his arrest, police raided his home although they failed to find any traces of explosives or weapons.
Reports in the Belgian media also say that the taxi driver who took the suicide bombers to the airport on Tuesday morning has said he believes the man wearing the white jacket and hat is Cheffou.
The aftermath of the explosions at
Brussels airport in terror attacks on Tuesday. Today Belgian prosecutors
have issued an arrest warrant for a new suspect in the terror attacks
Prosecutors also said a second man Aboubakar A. had also been charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group.
Another suspect named as Rabah N. linked to a foiled plot in France was charged with taking part in terrorist activities.
Cheffou lived in a small studio in an apartment building just 500 metres from Maelbeek metro station, De Morgen reported.
Police cleared the building of all residents and spent five hours searching his small home, the paper said.
A resident heard investigators say they had not found weapons or explosives but had ‘found enough’.
Cheffou, thought to be a freelance journalist, is known to the authorities for drugs and violence, the paper claimed.
It
is also said his sister reported him to police in 2014 saying she was
worried he was planning to go to Syria but was ‘waiting the right
moment’.
Read more:
by Jeff Dunetz | Mar 26, 2016
Guest post by Onan Coca
It
seems as though the terrorist threat to Brussels, Belgium is not over
yet. In a story that has gone largely unreported upon by major media
sources, there are terrifying new developments for the people of Europe
to be worrying about.
Apparently on Thursday
a guard from a nuclear power plant in Brussels, Belgium was found shot
to death in his apartment. What is even more disconcerting is that the
guard’s security credentials for the power plant had been taken by
whoever murdered him.
The
power plant at which he had worked is in the district of Charleroi,
which just so happens to be the same area from which the Paris
Terrorists had plotted their evil attack from.
Having
this guard murdered so soon after the attack on Brussels’ airport and
metro adds another wrinkle to the story as it clearly proves that Muslim
terrorists are still actively plotting within the city.
The Belgian newspaper which broke this story on Saturday, Derniere Heure, noted
“that
the murder of a nuclear plant guard raises particular concern ‘because
nuclear power plants are among the potential targets of the terrorist[s]’ responsible for the attacks in Brussels Tuesday and in Paris last November.
Sources told Deriniere Heure that authorities involved in the investigation may have contributed to the delayed reporting, as they hoped to track any usage of the stolen security badge.
The outlet reported that ‘following the attacks of 13 November 2015,
the issue of security around our nuclear plants remains more relevant
than ever ... .’”
Whatever
this means, it’s a stark reminder that the West faces near constant
danger from the threat of radical Islam. For every possible attack
thwarted, another handful of plots are still being planned. Our
governments must remain vigilant and our policies towards Muslim
migrants and refugees should be grounded in logic and reason, as opposed
to the pie-in-the-sky fantasy world most liberals seem to live in. By
focusing on the threat posed by the massive wave of Muslim migrants, our
governments could also safeguard our civil liberties because we, the
loyal citizens of the West, are not the threat. The violent and
conniving radical Muslim is.
Cross posted from EagleRising.com
Laura J Alcorn
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Monday, March 28, 2016
ISIS INTENDED BRUSSELS ATTACK TO BE NUCLEAR!
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