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| Europe |
| What made a Belgian woman become a suicide bomber? |
| 2005-12-02 |
| How could a young woman turn from Belgian baker's assistant to Baghdad suicide bomber? Belgium has been shocked by revelations that Muriel Degauque, an unassuming woman who grew up near the rust belt city of Charleroi, had entered Iraq from Syria and detonated explosives strapped to her body in a failed attack against US troops. Liliane Degauque, the 38-year-old's mother, told local TV networks that her daughter was "so nice", but began to change when she married an Algerian man and turned to Islamic fundamentalism. The case underlined the growing reach of international terrorism. "It is the first time that we see that a Western woman, a Belgian, marrying a radical Muslim, and is converted up to the point of becoming a jihad fighter," said Glenn Audenaert, the federal police director. In her younger years, Muriel Degauque lived a conventional life in an industrial belt of southern Belgium. Media reports said she finished high school before taking on several jobs, including selling bread in a bakery. They also said that as an adolescent she had run into problems with drugs and alcohol. Authorities say Degauque went on to become a member of a terror cell that embraced al Qaeda's ideology. It included her second husband, who died in a separate terror attack in Iraq. "This is our Belgian kamikaze killed in Iraq," read the headline of yesterday's La Derniere Heure newspaper, over a picture of a smiling young woman looking into the camera. When Liliane Degauque saw police coming to her doorstep on Wednesday, she immediately knew what it was about. She had heard reports that there had been a terrorist attack on November 9 by a Belgian woman. Ms Degauque said: "For three weeks already I tried to contact her by telephone but I got the answering machine." Authorities yesterday formally arrested five of the 14 suspects detained in dawn raids the day before and charged them with involvement in a terrorist network that sent volunteers to Iraq, including Degauque. Nine were released. Those placed under arrest were a Tunisian and four Belgians, three of whom had North African roots. "This action shows how international terrorism tries to set up networks in western European nations, recruit for terror attacks in conflict areas and look for funds to finance terrorism," said Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian prime minister. In France on Wednesday, police in the Paris area arrested a fifteenth suspect, a 27-year-old Tunisian man thought to have had contacts with the Belgian group. Authorities said the Belgian network had been planning to send more volunteers to Iraq for attacks. The raids in Brussels and three other cities across the country, involving more than 200 police officers, followed media reports of the Belgian woman's suicide. Belgium has been mentioned as a breeding ground for terrorists in the past and there are currently 13 Belgian and Moroccan nationals on trial for allegedly being members of an Islamic group suspected in recent bomb attacks in Spain and Morocco. Islamic radical groups linked to al Qaeda are suspected of setting up networks in Belgium and other European nations with large Muslim communities. For many in Belgium, however, Wednesday's arrests were a chilling reminder that that no-one is immune. "Belgium is directly involved in the terrorist threat," said Laurette Onkelinx, the justice minister. The US military yesterday reported that suicide bombings fell in November to their lowest level in seven months after joint US-Iraqi operations west of the capital. In Ramadi, the US military played down reports by residents and police of widespread attacks against American and Iraqi installations there, saying only one rocket-propelled grenade was fired at an observation post, and there were no injuries. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #9 To be honest we probably don't know if she volunteered or if she did it by threat. Not a few suicide bombers have blown themselves up (or failed as she failed to kill anyone) because of threats to family members and friends. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2005-12-02 19:38 |
| #8 What made a Belgian woman become a suicide bomber? 1. Dull sex life 2. Shortage of realistic, chocolate-flavored dildos in Belgium 3. Conversion to Wahhabism-Islam 4. Global Warming 5. President Bush 6. Tony Blair 7. Too many viewings of Pulp Fiction 8. War in Iraq 9. War in Afghanistan 10. I couldn't give a rat's rear end what motivated her |
| Posted by: The Happy Fliegerabwehrkanonen 2005-12-02 19:20 |
| #7 Let's hope that the jahadi's keep pointing thier ethnic european bombers at Iraq. |
| Posted by: Dan Canaveral 2005-12-02 16:10 |
| #6 "How could a young woman turn from Belgian baker's assistant to Baghdad suicide bomber?" Stupidity. Why do you ask? |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-12-02 12:57 |
| #5 So her husband asked her to do this one little favour... |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-12-02 11:27 |
| #4 Um...she's fuckin' crazy? Just a guess. |
| Posted by: mojo 2005-12-02 10:48 |
| #3 Belgium - an original member of the Axis of Weasels. Nuff said. |
| Posted by: Whease Glaitch2820 2005-12-02 08:39 |
| #2 The answer is Islam, that is what. That is not a bigoted statement it is a fact. Her act was an act of faith to her. Why is hard so hard for the chatering classes to understand? |
| Posted by: Mahou Sensei Negi-bozu 2005-12-02 02:14 |
| #1 Yes, a very profound question. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2005-12-02 00:43 |