Counterterrorism

After Brussels Attacks, U.S. Must Shut Down Foreign Fighter Pipelines

Today, Americans woke up to news that Europe had been hit again, with reportsof two bombs in Brussels that killed and injured scores. The attacks come only days after the arrest in the city of the perpetrators of the terrorist strike in Paris last year.

A top concern here will be that the terror campaigns being orchestrated there could be directed here. There is a precedent for that. A core of the participants in the 9/11 attack organized a cell in Hamburg, Germany.

If there are cells in Europe interested in attacking one of their chief challenges will be traveling here. The United States has been focused on thwarting terrorist travel to the United States since the tragic attacks on New York and Washington in 2001. The danger was a major subject of investigation for the 9/11 commission.