Operation Featherweight: Month 20, Week 4, Day 7.

This should be read as a direct continuation of; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/operation-featherweight-month-20-week-4_22.html

On Monday the UK responded to the Spanish bus crash with a similar bus crash in Ayrshire, Scotland. This was intended to acknowledge the point raised by the Spanish.

Throughout the Scottish independence referendum and now the European Union (EU) referendum Scottish nationalists have claimed that an independent Scotland will be able to join the EU. This is unlikely to be the case. Instead Spain is likely to block Scottish EU membership as not to increase calls for Catalan independence.

At around the same time a man was shot and wounded in a drive-by shooting in Craigavon, North Armagh, Northern Ireland. This area was the scene of many battles during the Troubles and is synonymous with the Holywood port from where Hollywood, Los Angeles, US gets its name.

The shooting occurred outside a school just as the children were leaving and getting on buses. That gave everyone plenty of opportunity to condemn just how stupid the whole thing was.

Just before Britain's contribution though residents of an area of Hamburg, Germany had be evacuated after Sulphuric acid and Nitric acid were accidentally mixed together in an industrial accident. Although I wouldn't recommend drinking it a mixture of Sulphuric and Nitric acids is generally harmless. However producing very dramatic looking clouds of yellow/orange gas it is a useful way to discuss chemical weapons.

It's a particularly useful way to discuss Mustard Gas because there is actually two types - Sulphur Mustard Gas and Nitrogen Mustard Gas. More worryingly Sulphuric acid can be used as one of the precursor chemicals used in the manufacture of VX nerve agent. This is probably the most lethal chemical weapons ever created. It is the stuff of nightmares for even battle hardened spies and terrorists.

For example if the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or an associated group were able to detonate a VX device at one of the stadiums or fan-parks during Euro 2016 there wouldn't be an evacuation plan. All the people in the immediate area would be dead.

Also with a similar consistency to motor oil it can take weeks to decontaminate an area following a VX attack. A major city would be crippled throughout this period.

Sulphuric acid is widely used in a variety of harmless industrial processes and is therefore extremely easy to get hold off.

As such you can imagine my relief when I discovered that the triple explosions that struck Brussels, Belgium yesterday killing 31 and wounding over 200 were just the result of conventional bombs.

What appears to have happened is that a bomb was detonated close to the American Airlines desk in the departure terminal of Brussels' Zaventem Airport. Then moments later the suicide bomber who had placed the suitcase bomb detonated his explosives belt close to a Starbucks coffee shop elsewhere in the terminal.

With both Starbucks and American Airlines being symbols of the US and Starbucks possibly being a reference to Sunday's Lafayette, Indiana bus crash it would be easy to interpret this as the US being the primary target of the attack. However despite symbols of America being involved the attack most certainly occurred in an airport in the Belgian capital.

Roughly an hour later a second suicide bomber struck Brussels underground rail (Metro) system. Specifically at the Maelbeek station. This is the main station serving the headquarters of the EU. It came 12 hours after a spirited but largely unsuccessful gun attack on a hotel housing the EU Military Training (EUMT) mission in Bamako, Mali.

As such the EU seems to be the main target of the Brussels attacks. The message simply being; "Do as you're told or we'll attack you again."

In terms of whether the attack was revenge for the capture of Saleh Abdeslam on Friday (18/3/16) normally I would say no.

Although I've not had it confirmed I suspect the explosive used was TATP. This is often used because it is relatively easy to manufacture. However in order to do that you first have to acquire large quantities of the precursor chemicals. As these are known to be used to make TATP if you were to walk into a shop and buy them all in bulk you would simply be arrested.

So instead you've got to buy or steal them separately in small quantities from a variety of shops. Once you've gone through the laborious process of obtaining the chemicals you've still got to turn them into functioning bombs and scout the targets you're going to use them against.

So normally I would say that three days is not enough time to prepare an attack.

However the problem that Belgium has got is that it has allowed ISIL to establish a base of operations within the country. This allowed them to launch the thankfully unsuccessful August 21st 2015 (21/8/15) Thalys train attack and the November 13th 2015 (13/11/15) Paris Massacres.

The five months that base of operations has gone unmolested by the Belgian authorities is certainly enough time to build up an arsenal of weapons and plan attacks that are ready to be launched at short notice.

What I found interesting is that an unexploded suicide belt was left at Zaventem Airport. This seems to have been done as a joke at the expense of the Belgian security services.

It perfectly echoes the claim that Abdeslam was too afraid to carry out a suicide bombing as part of the Paris Massacres. This both mocks the people who believed this story and tries to get them to believe it again in order to prevent them hunting down the wider network.

Likewise investigators have conveniently being able to find a laptop belonging to Ibrahim el-Bakraoui who blew himself up at the airport. That laptop contained a word document in which Ibrahim spoke of the need for him to act quickly because the arrest of Abdeslam had him panicked. That is exactly the sort of misdirect you would leave in an effort to discourage investigators from looking for a wider support network.

In terms of how we respond to this latest attack I would like to keep the option of surprise at least partially open. However as with after the Paris Massacres it's clear that NATO needs to invoke the Article 5 mutual defence clause. This would mean that for NATO members fighting and defeating ISIL and their associates is no longer optional.

Unfortunately as with the Paris Massacres US President Obama doesn't seem in any way interested in this latest terror attacks on a US ally. He responded to the attacks by going to watch a exhibition baseball match in Cuba where he enjoyed hotdogs and a Mexcian wave. Rather than returning to Washington he has decided to continue his foreign holiday with a trip to Argentina.

Obama's excuse for doing this is that to change his plans would encourage the terrorists. This a nonsense because with the story being item one on every news channel across the globe Obama has already been forced to acknowledge the attacks.

By showing that he has no interest in taking action to respond to the attack Obama is simply giving succor and encouragement to the terrorists.

17:15 on 23/3/16 (UK date).