Brussels bombers had pictures of Belgium's Prime Minster's home and office, possible assassination plan?

Belgian police gathering evidence in Brussels. Reuters

The ISIS bombers that attacked Brussels had pictures of Belgium's Prime Minster, Charles Michel, office and home. Reuters. The pictures and plans were found on a laptop in a trashcan outside the bomber's apartment in Schaerbeek, a district of Brussels. Belgium did not comment on the reports. The bombers killed at least 35 people, including 3 of the attackers. 

My Comment:

Not much of an article, but I think this report is very significant. The obvious takeaway from this is that the Brussels bombers had plans to attack and assassinate the Prime Minster of Belgium. Obviously they didn't end up doing that, but that is probably because they had to move up their schedule due to the arrest of Salah Abdeslam, a Paris attacker and major planner for ISIS. Had that arrest not happened, the Brussels attack could have included a strike against a major world leader. It also could have had an attack on a nuclear power plant, but that is a whole different issue. 

I have said before that ISIS will likely start to attempt to assassinate world leaders. Indeed, I always believed that the suicide bombing at the stadium in Paris was an attempt to kill France's President, Francois Hollande. Only dumb luck and the actions of security guards prevented his death, and it looks like the Brussels attackers wanted to follow the same pattern. 

And that pattern is multiple strikes on multiple different targets, which divides and distracts the attention of anti-terrorism forces. It also includes an attempt on the leadership of the country they are attacking. Even if any prong of the attack fails, like the attempt on Hollande, you are still going to have a huge impact on the country you are attacking. That is what the plan was for the Paris attacks, and I think for sure that if the Brussels attack hadn't been moved up, they would have tried the exact same thing in Belgium. And even though the attacks on the leadership failed in both cases, albeit for very different reasons, the damage was still severe.

If it an attack was carried out where a world leader was hurt or killed, it would be absolutely devastating. A decapitation strike against a leader of a major country would strike a massive blow and do huge psychological damage to the people of that country. It really is a brilliant, if not disgusting plan. Not only would ISIS be terrifying and demoralizing an entire country, the leadership of that country would be in disarray. In short, it would be everything that ISIS wants to accomplish and more. 

Would it have worked? I thin it is very possible. I really think that Hollande could have died in the Paris attacks, and it was mostly luck that he didn't. Had the terrorists actually made it inside of the stadium, they could have found him and killed him. The same could be said for Charles Michel. Though both men have equivalents to the secret service to protect them, there is only so much you can do against suicide bombers. 

Certainly, hitting a world leader is the very definition of a hard target. But time and time again, we have seen how terrorists, rebels and lone nutjobs have pulled it off. Just think of all the presidents that the United States has lost due to assassinations. And that doesn't even count the dozens of close calls that we have missed. It's difficult to be sure, but I don't think it is impossible that ISIS could pull this off. And they only have to be right once. The bodyguards for these leaders have to be right 100% of the time... 

It's not just Hollande and Michel that are targets. They are just the ones we know about. I would say that every leader in Europe is at risk right now. My biggest concern, though, is the Pope. Pope Francis is a man of the people and sees it as his holy duty to meet with the common man. He takes risks that other world leaders would not. He's also the leader of one of the worlds largest religions, and a de-facto world leader. Killing him would be a massive win for ISIS, and I don't think it would be all that difficult for them to do so. Certainly not any harder then pulling off the attacks in Brussels or Paris. Plus, killing him would probably turn most of Christianity against Islam, which would also help ISIS. Killing the Pope would be a game changer, and I honestly don't know what would happen after it happens. 

But it's not just the Pope either. I'm worried about US politicians as well. I think Barack Obama is reasonable safe, compared to other world leaders, but what about all the people running for president right now? We have seen in this election cycle people getting very close to the candidates. Indeed, Donald Trump almost got roughed up by a protester, and Michelle Fields got close enough to Trump to put her hands on him. Had either of those people been assassins, Trump would be dead right now. And the same goes for all of the other presidential candidates as well. The security at these rallies is not as good as people would hope... 

We are not helped by all the idiots on Twitter and Facebook who think it is a good idea to say that they are going to attack or injure one of these candidates. The Secret Service has to investigate all of these threats, even when they are obviously fake, so there is a real threat that they will miss something. That something might not be an ISIS attacker, but the fact remains that something could fall through the cracks. The threat of ISIS and lone nutjobs are so high right now, I am amazed that nobody has actually tried to kill any of the candidates so far. 

I really hope I am wrong about this, but I do think that ISIS will either kill a world leader, or come damn close to doing so, before this year is out. It probably won't be in America, but I would guess that at least one world leader in Europe or the Middle East could be dead before the year is up. And it is amazing to me that nobody else is talking about this...