The Man In The Hat

"After being confronted with the results of the different expert examinations, he confessed his presence at the crime scene."
"He explained having thrown away his vest in a garbage bin and having sold his hat afterwards."
Belgian prosecutors; office

"It's one of the most significant advances in the case. Today we can say that all the important members of the Paris cell and Brussels cell are dead or in jail."
"Potentially, it's the end of this part of the story."
Claude Moniquet, French former intelligence officer, Brussels

Image caption Abrini was captured on CCTV (R) at a service station at Ressons in northern France while driving a car with Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam -- Photos Belgian Police

Sold his hat, did he? Does that translate to his being a very frugal, albeit imprudent man, or someone who was very hard up for cash, or a man viewing with a casual attitude his involvement as a jihadi representing Islamic State who had been involved in transnational atrocities with police of two nations hot on his trail, to prove they are not quite as inept as the situation and their reactions have caused the public to deduce?

How much money could he hope to pocket for the sale of a battered white hat that comes complete with an infamous role in a bloody terrorist assault? Is this indicative of the mindset of a man untroubled by shedding blood and creating mayhem, yet concerned that he not unnecessarily discard something that reflects his sartorial taste, when it could be sold instead? From psychopathic mass murder to taking care to be thrifty?

So the notorious hat is gone but the head that wore it is now in police custody after an intense search which, if it had succeeded in apprehending him several weeks earlier, might have prevented the bombing at the Brussels airport and train station. Good intelligence work there! From the November 13 Paris attacks with their significant loss of life, to the equally successful Brussels attacks, third- and fourth-generation Moroccan-Belgian citizens have been busy with their plots.

The father of one of the attackers expresses puzzlement, that he and his family have enjoyed a good life in Belgium, and it is beyond him why his two sons, one arrested, one dead, would have chosen to attack the very Europe that gave them all haven. If he is puzzled, then so much more is the society which welcomed their Muslim immigrants and gave them opportunities that would have been denied them in Morocco.

So Mohamed Abrini has confessed to having been one of the plotting attackers at the Brussels Airport, and likely among those involved in the Paris attacks. Proud and honoured by his dedication to Islamist credentials?

Hugging themselves with satisfaction over having secured the arrest of the mysterious hatted accomplice, Belgian authorities would like the world to believe that they have, after a five-month operation, apprehended most if not all, of the Islamic State-linked terrorists who fomented plans to attack, slaughter and shock the Europe that gave their parents haven and themselves a future, which they decided to squander in petty criminal acts before moving on to the more serious business of jihad.

Not only has Mohamed Abrini been taken into custody, but an additional three men as well, charged with taking part in a terrorist network and in terrorist-inspired murder, which should place them well on their way to achieving martyrdom at some future date, in the passion of their dedication. Sweden has its own representative in Osama Krahem, aka Naim al-Ahmed, implicated in the Maelbeek subway station attack. Europe's embrace of Islam has done it proud.