The Tel Aviv couple’s Brussels killer got away clean after Belgians missed out on intelligence routine

As time goes by, the chances grow fainter of catching the murderer of the Tel Aviv couple Miriam and Emmanuel and Riva at the Jewish Museum of Brussels and two other victims on May 24. The Belgian general prosecution handed the case to State Security, after rating it a terrorist-motivated crime and failing to turn up a single lead.

debkafile’s intelligence sources report that in the absence of strong interrelations between Israel’s intelligence bodies and Belgian GISS, the intelligence-gathering teamwork essential for solving this sort of crime was not performed. And so the perpetrator got away clean.

The counter-intelligence agencies of the Belgian capital, albeit home to NATO and European Union headquarters, have had no experience of terrorism in many years and therefore lowered their guard.

In other cases, fast cooperation with Israeli intelligence led local preventive agencies to immediate results. The host agencies wasted no time in handling the “forward” operations such as wiretaps, surveillance, arrests and interrogations – after sealing off the crime scene and escape routes – while Israeli experts provided guidance for logistics.

Had the initial work been entrusted without delay to bodies with sigint (signal intelligence) capabilities, knowledge of the enemy, his methods of operation and even relevant languages or accents, the manhunt would have been launched sooner and been more effective.
Even Open Source Intelligence (available on the social media) might have helped the investigators run to earth active or sleeper terrorist cells, monitored their mobile and online communications, IP addresses and analyzed targeted communications.

With no arrests or leads, and without the aid of an ally or friendly superpower, the Belgian investigation has very little chance of catching the shooter or identifying the principal who would have ordered a targeted assassination.  
Speculation is divided over the reasons for the Brussels killer deciding to stay on the scene after murdering the Israeli couple on the street. He subsequently turned to the museum’s entrance and shot dead two museum employees.

A professional killer on contract, they say, would have made off without wasting precious escape time. Others surmise that he went into the second stage for the deliberate intent of obscuring his real mission and presenting the impression of an indiscriminate anti-Semitic attack on a Jewish target.
The latest issue of DEBKA Weekly offered exclusive details and background for this perplexing crime.

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