What an idiot Trump is. As if the US is a safe place. This guy must be creating fear in the US. They will become very inward looking if he wins and that will not be good for the world.
Britain is no longer safe, Trump warns Americans
Americans are no longer safe travelling to Britain or the rest of Europe in the aftermath of the Brussels bombings because of the continent’s “very, very severe” problems, Donald Trump said yesterday.
In a warning to the 10.8 million Americans who travel to Britain and continental Europe every year, the Republican presidential contender said: “When you look at Brussels, when you look at the way they’ve handled things from law enforcement standpoints, when you look at Paris, when you look at so many other places ... no, it’s not [safe].”
His comments were reinforced by John Kerry, the US secretary of state, who urged Americans in Europe to “avoid a crowded place where you have no control over who may be there”.
Mr Kerry said that US citizens must not be “oblivious to your surroundings” because terrorist groups continued to plan attacks across Europe.
A Libyan branch of Islamic State released a new video promising more attacks on the West. The English-speaking militant in the video said that the Brussels bombings were revenge for western airstrikes on the group.
Four of the 31 people killed by triple suicide bombs at Brussels airport and on the city’s Metro on Tuesday were American. The remarks by Mr Trump, who owns two golf resorts in Scotland, are a reminder of how the July 7 bombings in London caused visitor numbers to collapse by a quarter.
Belgian police carried out 13 raids yesterday as they hunted the perpetrators of the worst attack in the country’s history. Nine people were arrested, of whom four remain in custody.
The Belgian authorities are also fighting accusations that they failed to close the Brussels Metro after the first two bombs detonated at the city’s airport. At least 19 people died in the attack on Maelbeek station and critics say their lives could have been saved if the network had been evacuated. The airport bombs went off at 7.58am; the attack at Maelbeek station came at 9.11am.
Jan Jambon, the interior minister, giving evidence to a parliamentary committee, said that ministers had ordered the closure of the underground network at 8.50am that morning. However, the Société des Transports Intercommunaux de Bruxelles, which runs the Metro, said that it had received no order. As a result, the underground was full of passengers when Khalid el-Bakraoui activated his suicide vest.
The row over the closure of the Metro represents the latest in a series of bungles by the Belgian authorities, prompting Mr Jambon to offer his resignation. After the attacks it emerged that Turkey had twice deported Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, one of the airport bombers, and had informed Brussels. The Times also revealed how the Belgian police had failed to pursue him when he broke the terms of his parole.
The Belgian media said that Metro executives ignored advice from their security staff to shut the network. “Most of the staff on duty that day were surprised that they didn’t shut all the stations straight away,” one employee said.
Mr Trump told the ABC network yesterday: “I don’t think Bruss . . . England ... or I don’t think that Europe is a safe place. No, I don’t. I think there are a lot of problems in Europe that are very, very severe.”
He has been trying to assert his foreign policy credentials over the past week to counter views that he would be a diplomatic liability in the White House.
In December Britons mocked him for suggesting that there were “places in London and other places that are so radicalised that the police are afraid for their own lives”. Parliament urged the home secretary to bar him from Britain.
In January Mr Trump referred to Brussels as “a hellhole” and after the attacks last week he reiterated his call for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration to the US.
Mr Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, said that the Republicans’ rhetoric had become a national shame. He told a TV show: “Everywhere I go, every leader I meet, they ask about what is happening in America. They cannot believe it. I think it is fair to say that they’re shocked.”
Britain will be less able to repel a Brussels-style attack after large cuts to the Border Force being planned, Andy Burnham, the shadow home secretary, said, demanding that the Home Office publish the budget for the force after being told by insiders that staff had been told to expect cuts of £88 million in the next two years. Officials said that the budget had yet to be finalized.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/poli ... 722847.ece
