Threat & response

'They're way behind the ball and paying a terrible price': U.S. intelligence experts slam Belgium's 'overwhelmed' anti-terror teams

In the wake of the bombings that shook Belgium on Tuesday, the country's anti-terror teams have been slammed by US intelligence forces as 'weakly coordinated,' 'behind the ball' and uncommunicative with their allies in the West by U.S. intelligence experts.

U.S. officials and consultants ran up a sizable list of complaints about the country's anti-terror officers for Reuters, suggesting that the home of the European Union was frustrating its American allies.

Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told the news agency, 'They're way behind the ball and they're paying a terrible price.'

Even before Tuesday's shocking blasts at Brussels Airport and Maelbeek Metro Station, which claimed the lives of 31 victims and three perpetrators, the country had a troublesome history with Islamic extremism.

Its capital, Brussels, was the unwitting base for the men who attacked Paris in November last year, and it has provided, per captia, more fighters to Syria than any other European nation.

And yet its intelligence agency is distinguished by its seeming reluctance - or inability - to cooperate with its allies.

U.S. officials who did not wish to be identified told Reuters that a 'top U.S. counter-terrorism official' in Europe who decided to visit Brussels shortly after the Paris attacks found his Belgian counterparts curiously unwelcoming.