eb 20 2016 : The Times of India (Chennai)
Belgian video raises spectre of IS N-strike
Milan Schreuer & Alissa J Rubin
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Paris
NYT NEWS SERVICE
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A suspect linked to the November 13 Paris attackers was found with surveillance footage of a high-ranking Belgian nuclear official, the Belgian authorities acknowledged on Thursday , raising fears that the Islamic State is trying to obtain radioactive material for a terrorist attack.The existence of the footage, which the police in Belgium seized on November 30, was confirmed by Thierry Werts, a spokesman for Belgium's federal prosecutor, after being reported in the Belgian daily newspaper La Derniere Heure.
The news set off an immediate outcry among Belgian lawmakers, who charged that they and the country had been misled about the extent of the potential threats to the country's nuclear facilities, as well as about the ambitions of the terrorist network linked to the Islamic State that used Belgium to plot the Paris attacks, which killed 130 people.
The International Atomic Energy Agency and the US sta te department also confirmed on Thursday a report by Reuters that radioactive material had disappeared since November in Iraq, where the IS controls broad areas of territory , adding to fears that the group may be able to acquire material for an attack with newly disconcerting dimensions.
The Belgian news media, citing sources close to the investigation, said that the surveillance footage of the Belgian nuclear official had been retrieved from the home of Mohamed Bakkali, who was arrested after the attacks and is in detention on charges of terrorist activity and murder.
Belgian officials have asserted privately that Bakkali may have been involved in planning several attacks, not only those in Paris. The purpose of the footage retrieved by the Belgian police was not clear, but officials speculated that it could have been part of a plot to abduct the nuclear official, who was not identified but had access to secure areas of a nuclear research facility in Mol.
The news set off an immediate outcry among Belgian lawmakers, who charged that they and the country had been misled about the extent of the potential threats to the country's nuclear facilities, as well as about the ambitions of the terrorist network linked to the Islamic State that used Belgium to plot the Paris attacks, which killed 130 people.
The International Atomic Energy Agency and the US sta te department also confirmed on Thursday a report by Reuters that radioactive material had disappeared since November in Iraq, where the IS controls broad areas of territory , adding to fears that the group may be able to acquire material for an attack with newly disconcerting dimensions.
The Belgian news media, citing sources close to the investigation, said that the surveillance footage of the Belgian nuclear official had been retrieved from the home of Mohamed Bakkali, who was arrested after the attacks and is in detention on charges of terrorist activity and murder.
Belgian officials have asserted privately that Bakkali may have been involved in planning several attacks, not only those in Paris. The purpose of the footage retrieved by the Belgian police was not clear, but officials speculated that it could have been part of a plot to abduct the nuclear official, who was not identified but had access to secure areas of a nuclear research facility in Mol.
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