Attacks. All airport operations have been suspended. The interjior minister has raisd the security to the highest level. And theres a posted on social showing smoke coming from that station. All Public Transportation in the city, including the buses, the trams, and the metro subway system, have been shut down. The euro star train line is also closed there. The European Union is asking their personnel to stay home or inside buildings. The u. S. Embassy in brussels ordered staff to shelter in place and avoid public transport. The nypd tells nbc news that theyre in the process right now of ramping up security for mass transit, the bridges and tunnels as well as city landmarks. This mornings explosions come days after paris attack suspect Salah Abdeslam was arrested in brussels. Msnbcs Ayman Mohyeldin has been covering the story all night for us. I guess we have gotten to the
stage in europe where were now expecting an attack at any moment. When it happens it still takes us as your guest said by surprise and catches us unawares. What happened in brussels . Not only by surprise but the scale and coordination of what appears to have been a multipronged attack is certainly a very significant development. Put it in context of where we were on friday, put it in context of where europe has been since those paris attacks and you get a better sense of why today is very dramatic. Obviously not just simply for the loss of life but what this means for european officials. This is obviously going to be considered a very significant setback for their efforts. Over the course of the past four months you had counterterrorism officials in europe, certainly those that i have been speaking to as well as in france, theyve been trying to get this situation under control. This situation being an assessment of how big these networks, cells that have been operating across france as well as belgium. They had a living link with Salah Abdeslam. This is an individual that they knew was present the night of that attack back on november 13th in paris. They have been in his pursuit. He had been europes most wanted man. They believed, though, his network was going to be much smaller than it appears to have been. Steve clemons saying the belgian foreign minister saying there were about 30 people in his network. Thats a significant number given that he was an individual believed to be on the run without very little traces. Given the fact that Salah Abdeslam was captured on friday, the belgian authorities saying they were going to continue in pursuit of his network and they had stepped up and beefed up security certainly in that neighborhood, its surprising this morning to hear that shortly after his capture security at the airport was still not ironclad. What i mean by that is there were no perimeter checkpoints. Were now getting confirmation
that two explosions took place in the departure hall. Thats a public area. We do expect to arrive in the departure halls. It is an area where people gather. There are still a lot of questions as to how the two individuals managed to get into the departure hall without beefed up security. A lot of questions will be answered in the coming day about that as well as the subway station. A very dramatic and tragic day for brussels. Certainly going to have Ripple Effects across europe as countries continue to react from what happened today. Lets bring in former Communications Director for george w. Bush Nicolle Wallace and sam stein and Mike Barnicle and former treasury official steve rattner. And David Ignatius is joining us
too. David, let me start with you. We know from what the belgians have been saying over the last few days, ever since the arrest of Salah Abdeslam that they were anticipating the prospect that there could be a retaliatory attack, that you take one person off the table and another cell group pops up again. Is this now starting to be a pattern . Are you seeing this in Counterterrorism Operations . Certainly what weve seen from isis over the last year is that, as theyve been hit harder in iraq and syria they have developed external attack capability, most clearly in paris last november. I was just in brussels, returned on sunday. I heard the belgian foreign minister talk about their recognition that with the capture of abdeslam there were multiple people in a much Broader Network that they were going to try to hunt down. That network clearly is what struck in this terrible attack
this morning. Its clear as we look at the evidence that the tradecraft that the attackers, the terrorists, have used, that these networks have used, is more sophisticated than the belgian authorities, authorities in europe, have been able to deal with. They have multiple, multiple cell phones. It was a marvelous piece of reporting in the New York Times about stacks of unused cell phones waiting for these people in their hideouts. The very fact that Salah Abdeslam, the person who was captured on friday, had escaped a dragnet for 120 days since the paris attacks just, you know, almost slipped through peoples fingers. Thats cruel to say. But that tells you the size of the Security Task thats ahead. I just got an email from two Close Friends of mine who this morning were heading to the airport, were about a minute away, felt the blast force on their vehicle as they
approached. Were still learning about the loss of life there, but its an attack that since brussels is the capital of europe, its going to scare every european. David, lets talk about this a bit more, the aspect that you just raised for people just tuning in, just watching and perhaps people who have never been to brussels or Central Europe before. The ease of access within europe from syria, the numbers of people who can go back and forth with quite with no problems at all. That and you referenced the times story over the weekend. The seeming inability of authorities not just in brussels but within europe to get a handle on the scope of these terror networks, not the not necessarily the activities that were seeing today, those are hard to pinpoint, but the scope of the activities. Could you talk about that a might. Two things, mike. First, modern europe is premised on the idea that you can operate
essentially with open borders. Thats one of the great achievements the europeans fought in the European Union. They have whats called the agreement where youre allowed to pass from one country to another. What theyve realized is that they dont have a firm, hard external border so that they can see who is coming into the entire group and then do monitoring. The second thing is, within individual european cities, and brussels is a perfect example, there are communities that essentially are nogo zones. Theyre typically north africans who have come as migrants over the last few decades, as a report this morning said, in molenbeek, which is the suburb of brussels where abdeslam and the other conspirators were hiding, there is what an
anthropologist who studied the place called a code of silence, like in a mafia where, where people simply do not talk to outsiders, they dont talk to police. Its been evident week after week in this chase that the belgian authorities simply were not getting enough intelligence to be able to crack this cell. And even when they staged the raid on friday, captured abdeslam, there are still so many other people in motion toward todays attack at the airport. Its extraordinary how much they didnt know. Hi, david. When you think about it in the u. S. , we had San Bernardino, obviously a very different type of terrorist problem. But we, other than that, have been remarkably safe in the last 15 years almost, since 9 11. You mentioned the border issue and the not only the existence of the schengen zone. You were leaving me with the impression of the quality of the intelligence efforts that go on in europe seem to be quite different. I wonder if you could compare how weve approached security since 9 11 versus how the europeans have and what you think the implications will be of all this for the europeans. We had a shock in 2001. Some argue that we overreacted but the u. S. Did put in place very tough defensive measures, Police Forces became very sensitive to their own responsibilities in monitoring communities. I have often heard u. S. Counterterrorism Officials Say that the most important thing they can do is be in touch with their local muslim communities, so if a sheikh in a mosque sees a young man or a young woman who has become very withdrawn, is showing signs of alienation, anger, a prospective recruit, sometimes that sheikh will notify local police or others. Second thing thats really important for us in all humility to say is the u. S. Muslim community is so much smaller than that in europe. Its on the order of, i would say, eight to ten times larger in belgium and france than it is in the u. S. And also, muslims in the u. S. Generally have been pretty effective in assimilating into our society, in getting jobs and feeling that theyre part of the american project, so obviously not always true but its mostly true. In europe thats just not the case. This is a second society. My european friends, when we talk about it, despair about finding ways to make these countries one. It happens that on friday at a wluf lunch with one of the top officials of belgium that i shouldnt identify in a royal palace. And this man said that the biggest project for his country Going Forward was to find a way
to be one country so they would know more about each other. Well, here is evidence on tuesday, four days later, that its it sure hasnt happened yet. David, you are quite right. Europeans have long looked to america in a sense as the country that has managed to integrate its Muslim Populations and that european Muslim Populations are far more radicalized and feel far more as outsiders whereas american muslims feel as they are Americans First and muslims second and thats a huge difference. I know european officials are studying whats happening in america to see how much we can try and emulate that here in europe. Lets bring in msnbc contributor and former profiler clint van zant. Tell us about how the perpetrators of the paris attack how has it been since november theyve managed to hide seemingly in plain sight in brussels and the disintegration really in a country that has two different languages of the security networks, the power plays that are going on in
brussels that have allowed such a big radicalized Muslim Population to carry on acting. I think this has been the real frustration for the Investigative Services is simply, as your other guest was suggesting, trying to put together information, trying to gather information. When you go in and ask for help, when you make the case that there were 130 People Killed and were trying to identify the people involved and you still get blank looks from people. We know, for example, that the French Interior minister has said that there are at least 90 potential suicide bombers at large at this moment. That was said as of yesterday. Well, if theres 90 at least that they know of, then there is also a support network, and for the intelligence Investigative Services to try to follow 90 people or 100 people or 200 people, that has just stretched
them beyond the limits they can do. And another issue thats coming up is the terrorists in europe, the ones were looking at right now, were told, are becoming so much more adept at, number one, building bombs and, number two, encrypting their communications. Were all aware of the ongoing issue between apple and the fbi here in the United States after the december terrorist attack in San Bernardino where 14 were killed, and the issue, of course, is an iphone 5c that the fbi has not been able to crack into. They have asked apples help to get into that terrorist phone to see whats there. Now, we know within the last day another source has come forward and said, even though apple has taken a stand not help, we think we can help you to get in that phone. But when we hear reports of stacks and stacks of phones
which are obviously easy to acquire, that terrorists are using, what they have learned, of course, is, just like the mob has learned in the United States, you use a phone for a very short period of time, you throw it away, you get another phone. And instead of like most of us in america keeping all of our contacts on that phone, theyve learned not to do it. So even if we can crack into it, that information may not be stored there any longer. Well, let me pick up on that, cliff. We referenced the New York Times article a couple of times. I think its worth diving into a little bit here. The phones used in the paris attack were burner phones. Then they took phones from the victims in the facilities to communicate with each other. What was the most surprising thing was the explosives that they were using. They were using tatp. This is just basic over the counter stuff. Hair bleach, nail polish
remover, stuff that anyone could access. Scary stuff. Maybe to ayman, should people be most concerned i guess by how simplistic the plots are, how easy they can be to execute and how anyone could grab these materials off their pharmacy counter shelf and make a bomb, use a burner phone and do Something Like this. Its a deadly cocktail, not just from the ingredients for the explosives but where theyre learning how to do this. Whe what were seeing particularly in the case of paris is a lot of that comes from the battlefield of syria and iraq. In the case of abaaoud, an individual, including Salah Abdeslams older brother ibrahim, they all spent time on the battlefields of syria. This is what people mean when they say syria will be a major problem for years to come. People are traveling to syria and iraq, even if its
afghanistan. Theyre acquiring the battlefield experiences, learn how to use them, come back to europe or elsewhere and then be able to make the kind of explosives that we are seeing. Thats one reason syria and iraq has become a major cause of global concern. If you are a public official who is trying to tamp down on this, how do you go about trying to prevent someone from buying nail polish remover. How do you do something to actually disrupt what is an unsophisticated cell that could do great damage . I would defer to our colleagues who are actually counterterrorism experts. Jim cavanaugh could probably tell us more about that. From the standpoint of how you track these individuals, thats probably the more realistic issue because you cant control nail polish remover in pharmacies but you can certainly keep track of who those
individuals are that have travelled abroad, have come back to the United States and europe, pose a threat. Thats where i think the human intelligence has to get better. You should pose the question to jim and clint. We have jim. Maybe jim can jump in on that. Yeah. I think, really, it gets back to some of the things that you guys talk about every day in the political world and that we saw when, you know, i was working on the joint Terrorism Task force with the fbi and all other Law Enforcement. We work so close with the american Muslim Community. And they were so great at helping us. One of the reasons and David Ignatius talked about it. One of the reasons america has been so secure, really, is because our Muslim Community is made up of so many patriots who have helped us to stop so many plots. The fbi can give you the numbers of how many plots theyve stopped since 9 11. What they dont have in europe is that. So the basic start is, you have to engage with your local Muslim Community where they trust the police. This is a giant hurdle in
europe. A giant hurdle. Its another reminder of why exactly. Theyre alienated. They wont talk with you. You need that information. When populations den greigrate e populations it makes it harder. Lets bring in tara in brussels. What are you seeing there now . Reporter right now passengers and Airline Workers are leaving the building. I am seeing actual, you know, actual detonations on the building. Some of the windows are blown out. On the airport. People said it was an apocalypse, there was blood everywhere. I talked to a swiss airport checkin agent and he said he hit a luggage turnidal sty styl. They believe 30 are dead and 80 are wounded already. This is going on throughout the city, not just at the airport. In fact, at the station, my source tells me the explosives were placed inside of a wagon. The Metro Station below the buildings, there have been explosions. They have been taking people out for the past hour in stretchers. They actually covered the windows of the hotel eu, which is popular among diplomats and people coming into town to stay, so that you couldnt see the wounded people being taken out. This is a bustling town. Its the capital of europe. Tara, were still getting different numbers on numbers of dead, of course, and well work on confirming those numbers. Those are coming in from different sources at the moment. How soon after the explosion did you get to the airport and what was the security situation when you got there . Reporter well, i ran to the airport as soon as i could. I took a taxi.