Missed Opportunities—Real and Imagined

I was excited this morning to see a new article from CNN about Oussama Atar.  For those of you who have followed my blog, you know I have written about him a number of times (5 to be precise).  I initially stumbled upon him while trying to unearth more about the background of the El Bakraoui brothers, discovering his relationship to them, the Benhattals, and Yasin Atar.  My findings were confirmed by the Belgian press the following month.  I came back to his story briefly with the arrest of Moustapha and Jawad Benhattal last June.  August brought forth the stunning development of a series of unsuccessful raids in Laeken, Anderlecht, and Evere aimed at capturing Atar.  Meanwhile Belgian MP Alain Destexhe demanded an investigation into the role of Amnesty International and the deputies Zoe Genot (Ecolo), Jamal Ikazban (PS) and Ahmed El Khannouss (CDH) in the release of Atar from an Iraqi prison in 2012.  The last time I mentioned the Atars was in connection to a neighbor of their aunt Khadouj, Jamal Alkhomaili, who was an old gang-mate of Moustapha Benhattal and an associate of the recently arrested Farid Kharkhach, a supplier of false documents from the Saint-Gilles “factory” to the El Bakraouis.

A Good Nose For Details

Here are a couple of tidbits that show we are on the right track here at Hindsight is 20/20.

Oussama Atar Is the Cousin of the El Bakraoui Brothers

My speculations back in April turned out to be correct.  La Capitale ran a story under the headline, “Oussama Atar, mentor of the El Bakraoui brothers, was in prison in Iraq with the current leader of Daesh.”  In it they detail that police searched the residence of Oussama Atar the day after the Brussels bombings, which was located at rue du Busselenberg 64 in Anderlecht.  No arrests were made, and apparently Atar was not present at the time.

Benhattal Gives El Bakraoui, Which Gives Attar, Which in Turn Gives Benhattal

Advert for Oussama Atar rally

Following up my previous post, I’ve spent some time in the past week digging around into the criminal Underworld of Brussels in cases where it has exploded onto the pages of the Belgian press.  Admittedly, I am at the mercy of what makes its way into freely available sites, so I’m sure there is a whole world of material I’m not seeing.  Yet, I think the little bit I’ve done is already paying dividends in terms of my understanding of what is happening.

The point of interest is the surname Benhattal.  In my last post, I mentioned that Ibrahim El Bakraoui’s stint in prison came as a result of an attempted theft and shootout with the police.  His driver was a Jawad Benhattal, who received 6 years for his role in the crime.  Unfortunately, I was not able to find anything further on him, specifically.

A Flurry of Activity Around Europe

Due to other requirements on my time, I was forced to sit back for a few days and watch as things unfolded in the aftermath of the Brussels bombings.  Thankfully, this was so, because we’ve seen raid upon raid and arrest after arrest since late last week with little clarity added to the picture since then.  All that seems to be apparent is that the situation is far more complex and worrisome than authorities have either believed or made known to the public before now.