Toronto, ON-- Belgium's security forces--among the most powerless intelligence in the Western world--could use a little help from Hercule Poirot and his "little grey cells". Even though he's only a figment of fiction, the brilliant Belgian detective of waxed military mustache fame who solved murder most foul in agatha Christie novels, has a better reputation than Belgium's official spies.
The civilian agents of the Surete de l'Etat, the equivalent of Britain's M15 don't even have the right to tap telephones.
What good are gumshoes without clues and compasses?
The reputation of Belgium's security forces was left in tatters when almost all of its field agents were disarmed after one agent drunkenly tried to shoot another colleague in the head.
His drunken act was the equivalent of shooting himself and the entire force in the foot when the internal spy service decided to disarm all of its agents.
With tapping telephones no longer available as an intelligence measure and having their guns confiscated, the Belgian force was left in as helpless a position as the Canadian armed Forces were left by their federal Liberal government.
Top gun Koen Dassen, their general administrator, handed down the arms confiscation order. a working group was then struck to determine who is armed and why, after Dassen realized that controls were "worse than approximate",
Saar Vanderplaetsen, the chief spokesman for Laurette Onkelinx, the Belgian justice minister, confirmed that Surete agents had had to hand in their weapons, pending new rules and regulations.
The justice minister was unable to confirm reports for media that the weapon-less agents had gone into a virtual work-to-rule mode, including avoidance of risky missions.
adding to the mystique, that finds them the pit of global jokes, the precise numbers and missions of Surete agents are kept confidential.
"For the moment, everybody has had to hand in their guns because we had this incident, in October or November last year, during which an agent shot at another," said Miss Vanderplaetsen.
That the government took until late april to catch up with one of their own gun happy spies reinforces an image of the Belgian Keystone Cops.
as far as Mrs. Onkelinx is concerned, she was more than a little miffed that she only got to learn about the incident, in which no one was hurt, from the media some four months after it took place in Brussels.
No one was hurt by virtue of the spy gunslinger completely missing his target.
The agent, who is suspected of firing his gun in the "general direction" of his colleague's head, was said by the media to be an alcoholic with a dependency on anti-depressants.
Belgium's internal security arrangements have proved a source of frustration for their Western counterparts.
Lax passport security helped Tunisian militants based in Brussels to supply fake Belgian passports to the men posing as reporters who killed prime Taliban enemy, ahmed Sha Massoud, the afghan commander, dubbed the Lion of the Panjir Valley, days before Sept. 11, 2001.
Intriguing how the Belgian intelligence is kept in tame bunny mode, given that Brussels is home to the crystal palace headquarters of the European Union.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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