As Belgian Cops Face Intense Terrorist Investigations, Obama Calls for Sensitivity
by Jim Kouri
Clash Daily Contributor
In the aftermath of Tuesday’s coordinated terrorist attacks in Brussels, Belgium — that left at least 34 innocent people dead — that was claimed by Muslim terrorists from the Islamic State of Iraq, the United States Marines are gearing up for an Obama reaction to the global jihad: sensitivity training. President Barack Obama has pushed for more and more programs aimed at sensitizing and softening U.S. fighting forces and critics believe under a Hillary Clinton administration Americans will see a continuation of the anti-military agenda.
Police investigators and officers are not only investigating the perpetrators of the devastating attacks, but they are also conducting multiple crime scene investigations in hopes of collecting evidence that leads to arrests and prosecutions. Instead of offering assistance to the Belgian law enforcement and intelligence communities, Obama, Clinton and other Democrats are offering noble — and meaningless — platitudes.
Meanwhile, the Democrats and their allies are displaying more outrage over GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s response to Belgium’s terror attacks than they are to the devastation and death caused by ISIS in that European nation.
During television interviews on Tuesday morning, Trump said he would go beyond waterboarding when interrogating suspected terrorist leaders and repeated that the U.S. should “close up our borders until we figure out what’s going on.”
“Waterboarding would be fine and if they could expand the laws, I would do a lot more than waterboarding. Authorities should be able to do whatever they have to do. You have to get the information and you have to get it rapidly,” he said.
“We can’t be soft and weak,” Trump said, suggesting the U.S. and Europe should observe laws around interrogation techniques but said “liberal” laws there have hampered terror investigations. The U.S. considers waterboarding torture.
“Donald Trump is 1,000% right. This political correctness nonsense is getting people killed. Innocent people who are just trying to enjoy their lives — their often too short lives — are being sacrificed on the altar of political-correctness in the U.S. and in Europe,” said former police official assigned to an anti-terrorism unit, Eric Nadel. “Mark my words: in reaction to the Belgium terrorist bombings we will see and hear Obama, Clinton, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and their media sycophants display more concern over possible backlash against Muslims in the U.S.
BELGIAN POST-BOMBING INVESTIGATION
According to Conservative Base law enforcement contacts, Belgian police officers and detectives on the scene of the explosions are already gathering evidence in order to better understand what they are dealing with, as well as for future prosecutions.
As occurred during the aftermath of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing in New York, the actual search of the scene of an explosion is possibly the most important aspect of the investigation. Investigators should start with a quick visual search in order to familiarize themselves with the area.
They also must be aware that multiple bombs planted in the immediate area of the original blasts may be encountered. These additional bombs are planted for one purpose and one purpose only: to kill or maim the emergency personnel who respond to the initial blast.
If a suspicious object is sighted during this phase of the crime scene search, detectives and other emergency personnel will evacuate the scene until bomb technicians can determine the nature of the threat or disarm the additional devices.
Once the visual search is completed, with the utmost care and continuous caution, detectives and police officers will start removing large pieces of debris from the area of the explosion. They understand that there could be live electrical wires or ruptured gas lines in the immediate work area requiring them to view the scene of an explosion as being hazardous at all times.
When any of the large pieces of debris are removed, they are stored within a protected location, catalogued as to the description and place of recovery, name of the officer involved, and held at the location for a subsequent detailed search. After the large pieces are moved and secured, detectives and officers must get on their hands and knees and start searching the debris looking for anything that appears foreign to the scene such as: leg wire (color-coded wire used in blasting caps); parts of a blasting cap; remains of a safety fuse; battery fragments; metal pipe fragments; other metal fragments (clock, propane tank, etc.); and bomb container fragments (metal, leather, canvas, cloth, paper, etc.).
“Whenever anything considered significant is found, it will be bagged and marked for identification purposes. The location, time, date, name of officer or detective, shield (badge) number and command should always be marked on evidence bags,” said former police and military bomb technician Pete Perrotta. “If there are other data, these should be written on a separate report form or piece of paper and enclosed in the evidence bag. Investigators will never mark or deface the recovered evidence.”
Detectives and officers at a blast scene must be persistent and they may have to go over the same area numerous times before uncovering anything of value. Ultimately, they will have to conduct a sifting operation because some objects such as watch springs and other internal mechanisms are so small that they could easily be overlooked by investigators.
The type of search to be conducted at the scene of an explosion will be determined by Bomb-Section personnel and investigators will be guided by their decisions. A properly conducted search may yield fingerprints, serial numbers, manufacturers’ names, price tags and many other investigative aids which would eventually help in solving the crime.
“Any information regarding the nature of the explosion, type of device, damage, amount of explosives used, etc., is the function of the Bomb Section because they are the ones who possess the expertise to make those determinations. Investigators should not volunteer any information to the news media. Instead, advise them to consult with the explosion squad supervisor or the police department’s public information officer,” Bomb Tech George Vangness said.
Image: screen shot courtesy of: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/attack-brussels-airport-takes-place-amid-terror-investigation-37837113
Jim Kouri, CPP, is founder and CEO of Kouri Associates, a homeland security, public safety and political consulting firm. He’s formerly Fifth Vice-President, now a Board Member of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, a columnist, and a contributor to the nationally syndicated talk-radio program, the Chuck Wilder Show…
