Belgium Waffles

By Sora Song

Mind-boggling incompetency" is how one American diplomatic source characterized Belgium's laggard cooperation with U.S. efforts to catch terrorists. Since Belgian police arrested two men two days after the Sept. 11 attacks, American officials have pleaded for hard information (phone numbers, addresses, travel itineraries) on one of the men, Nizar Trabelsi, a Tunisian citizen suspected to have been the designated suicide bomber for a planned attack on the American embassy in Paris. Belgian officials say the U.S. did not properly request the Trabelsi dossier until Sept. 27. It took weeks after that, they say, to scan the documents, which were "the thickness of seven phone books," onto CDs and finally hand them over, on Oct. 12. Initially, though, the discs were useless; the Belgians had password-protected them and neglected to send along the code. Investigators in Washington were so frustrated with the stinginess from Belgium that they called the New York Times and gave the paper a blistering story that ran last Wednesday. Since then Belgium has offered official expressions of solidarity with America, but U.S. officials remain dissatisfied. "We wanted an opportunity to examine the machine pistol that was allegedly found when they arrested Trabelsi," said the source. "That still has not taken place." Last week Belgian Justice Minister Marc Verwilghen told TIME that "Belgium wants to cooperate with American law enforcement" but strict evidentiary rules made it difficult. He also said his ministry's influence is hampered by the "absolute power of the investigating magistrate," whose authority, he admitted, "is not in balance with a good administration of justice."

--Reported by James Graff/Brussels