A terrorist attack at a subway station and airport in Brussels today has taken the lives of 30 and wounded hundreds. The bombing, which ISIS has claimed responsibility for, bares a resemblance to the Paris attacks last year, giving credence to the notion that this attack may have been planned by the same group of terrorists. Congressman Bill Keating is a ranking member of the terrorism subcommittee and was in Brussels last month as part of a counter-terrorism congressional delegation.
“I was there during when they had a state of high-security alert in place. Seemingly on every street corner, there was a person in military gear with assault weapon stationed there. Something in the US we would have a hard time visualizing,” said Keating.
Last Sunday, Salah Abdeslam, the last terrorist involved with the Paris shooting was caught in Molenbeek, Brussels. French authorities said Abdeslam was in the midst of planning a similar attack for Brussels. “One can assume that there is a linkage in the same kind of planning there and what happened today in Brussels,” Keating said.
All though it has not been confirmed that the attack was a direct response to Abdelsalam capture, Keating is not ruling that out as a possibility. “If his capture escalated the timing, who knows.”
Congressman Bill Keating is a ranking member of the terrorism subcommittee. You can listen to his interview with Boston Public Radio above.
