Blog Briefing Room

Rep. King: Europe was ‘totally unprepared’ for attacks

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said Belgium and Europe in general do not take terrorist threats seriously enough, following the attacks in Brussels that killed more than 30 people and injured hundreds. 

{mosads}”They were just not equipped for this; they were not ready. They had warnings that an attack like this could happen,” King told radio host John Catsimatidis in a Sunday interview. “It looks as if Brussels was totally unprepared.” 

King said that as the U.S. ramped up security measured after 9/11, Europe failed to follow suit. 

“They were convinced that we were overreacting. They had a very smug attitude,” he said. 

King criticized the “loose borders” throughout the European Union and the lack of intelligence-sharing among countries. 

“If anything positive can come from these tragedies, it’ll be more of a wake-up call to Europe to be much more aggressive and be much more alert and take this seriously,” King said.