See Update Below.
After more than six months of negotiation, vacillation, trepidation, and resignation(s), Belgium has finally been given a Christmas present by its stalwart "current affairs" Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt: a new government, though an "interim" one that will end in March 2008. That's just fine for now, to instill a measure of confidence in the population - and among foreign investors. And just in time to deal with a terrorist alert, on the same morning as the cabinet was sworn in by King Albert II.
According to news reports, Belgian authorities acted to prevent associates of Nizar Trabelsi from liberating him. He's serving a ten year prison sentence. Trabelsi had been convicted of plotting to attack American interests in Europe in the wake of September 11, 2001, and was arrested days after the attacks on New York and Washington.
Also arrested: Malika El Aroud, widow of the assassin of the anti-Taliban resistance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, killed in Afghanistan on September 9, 2001. In all, 14 people, mostly of North African origin, were arrested (Update: Belgian radio announced Saturday morning 22 December that all 14 suspects had been released).
This news comes at a time when there is increasing concern in Europe about a resurgent North African terrorist connection. Though Belgium's colonial past was concentrated in Central Africa (Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi), it has a large North African (largely Moroccan) community. Brussels also has a sizable Turkish community. Most importantly, Brussels is symbolically important, as the seat of NATO (active in Afghanistan) and the European Union.
Too bad for the Maghrebi community, which is increasingly integrated into Belgian life. Local elections in Brussels feature second-generation candidates from the North African (and sub-Saharan African) communities, and they are frequently elected. And their presence in respectable politics is a nice counter to Flemish extremists from the "Vlams Belang" and other right wing groups, who persist in the notion that Islam and Arabs are trying to take over Belgian society and convert churches into mosques.
Overall, definitely not a nice development for those Muslim families trying to have a quiet Eid holiday, nor for those Brussels residents trying to complete Christmas shopping in peace.