How the Brussels Attacks Affect the Global Fight Against Terror

For the latest on the investigation into the morning’s terror attacks in Brussels, Judy Woodruff talks to Peter Spiegel of the Financial Times. Also, Gwen Ifill speaks with former counterterrorism official Rick Nelson of Cross Match Technologies and Lorenzo Vidino of George Washington University for more on the threat of terrorism in Europe and beyond.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, Brussels was on high alert, we know, after the arrest of the Paris suspect, Mr. Abdeslam, last week and it had been on alert since the Paris attack.

A number of experts today are saying, why wasn’t Brussels better prepared?

PETER SPIEGEL: Yes. And the Belgian authorities have come under a lot of pressure, a lot of attack even back from the Paris attacks.

You remember the Paris attacks were largely organized here in Brussels in the Molenbeek neighborhood, which is really just a mile away from where I’m talking to you here. So this has been — the Belgians get very defensive about this. Why all the Belgian bashing?

But the fact of the matter is that a number of the jihadis, particularly those who travel into Syria as foreign fighters, had come from Brussels and other parts of Belgium. Belgium has the largest percentage of nationals who have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight for ISIS.

And there is a perception, at least, that they had used Brussels as sort of an organizing place. The Belgian authorities dispute this. They don’t think they’re any worse they Paris or any of the other major cities that have large and sometimes radicalized Muslim populations, but what is true, in talking to Belgian officials, is that up until about 18 months ago, Belgium didn’t invest in the intelligence assets, in the military assets that are needed to counter these kind of radical groups.

After Charlie Hebdo in particular and some of the associated raids after that, the new Belgian government did start ramping up the amount of money they’re putting into their intelligence services, into the security services. But the question is whether it’s been too little too late.

They have to ramp up so quickly to try to get the handle on this thing, that this could have been a lapse and inability because they are so behind the heart of the curve right now.

WOODRUFF: So, Peter Spiegel, what is the security situation there now? Are they expecting more attacks?

SPIEGEL: Well, we’re back on level four, which is the terror alert for imminent attack.

But literally just a few hours ago, they told us all we could leave our buildings. Parents were able to pick their kids up from school who were basically held at the school for most of the afternoon. So we’re not in sort of a lockdown situation, if you remember, after November, after the Paris attacks, where the Belgian authorities said we had to sort of like hide in place for about a week.

We’re not in that situation now. There is a general feeling that this current attack is now over, that they have this cell on the run or they have going into hiding.

But, yes, there is nervousness that because they do have these suspects in detention, that these suspects and particularly Abdeslam have knowledge about the cells that are operating in Europe, that some of these other cells will come out and act now, for fear of being turned up and arrested in the days to come.