Salah Abdeslam, the purported mastermind and lone surviving terrorist of the Nov. 13, 2015, Paris terror attacks, was taken into custody in Brussels, Belgium, on March 18. He had been one of the most wanted men on the planet, and almost certainly the most wanted man in Europe, since being initially identified two days after the Paris atrocities. In reporting on his capture, one well-known American news anchor used the term “hiding in plain sight.” But is that really accurate?
Was Abdeslam hiding in plain sight? That phrase seems to imply that he was walking around his Brussels neighborhood in broad daylight, as if he somehow was not the focus of a massive international manhunt. One could infer from that statement that had the Belgian police and security services simply opened their eyes, there Abdeslam would have been, standing in line at the grocery store or waiting with the crowd at the bus stop. True, he was not where many “experts” thought he would be: He did not flee to ISIS-controlled areas of Syria, Iraq or Libya. He didn’t escape to West Africa, where attacks by ISIS-inspired Islamist radicals are on the rise. He went home. He went back to the very neighborhood (the Molenbeek section of Brussels) where he had lived prior to the attacks in Paris — the very neighborhood where he planned the attacks that resulted in the deaths of 130 innocent victims and injuries to almost 500 others.
He was in plain sight about as much as one zebra is in plain sight while within a herd of hundreds, or as one fish is in plain sight within a school of thousands.
With Abdeslam in custody, additional questions now emerge. The first: Who assisted him? On the surface, it’s a simple question. However, it has many layers: Motivated by fear of reprisal, fraternity of cause or fellowship of faith, who helped him? Who provided a known terrorist with food, clothing and shelter? Who helped the most wanted man in Europe stay a step ahead of the authorities by moving him from one location to the next? Who tipped him off about where the police were and what they were doing? Who — when they recognized him in the neighborhood or heard rumors about his presence (it was his own neighborhood, after all) — provided him with passive assistance by not reporting what they had seen or heard?
The second question is: Who’s hiding there now? Belgium, and Brussels in particular, continues to be a focal point and haven for radical Islam. In the weeks immediately following the attacks in Paris, Belgian security forces conducted hundreds of raids. A Paris-style attack in Brussels appeared to be so imminent that, on Nov. 21, 2015, much of the Belgian capital was locked down; the subway system shut down, soccer matches were cancelled, and ordinary citizens were asked to avoid large crowds and public places, and basically stay home.
Counterterror operations there continue. As recently as March 16, police raided an apartment in the Brussels neighborhood of Forest. One terror suspect (reported to be an Algerian living illegally in Belgium), as he was about to open fire at approaching officers, was shot and killed by a police sniper. Two other suspects escaped and were at the time of this writing still at large.
With the help of those who might be motivated by fear of reprisal, fraternity of cause or fellowship of faith, who else might be hiding in plain sight?
