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Snowden says Brussels attacks could have been prevented: report

by Jessie Hellmann - 03/26/16 1:24 PM ET

Former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden says Turkey offered Belgian authorities information that could have prevented this week’s terrorist attacks in Brussels, according to The Mirror.

Snowden said Turkish intelligence agencies warned Belgium about the men behind the attacks and that they were involved in terrorist activities, the report said.

{mosads}He followed up with a tweet citing a New York Times report of Belgian officials ackowledging that Turkey had alerted them that Ibrahim el-Bakraoui was briefly arrested last year on suspicion of terrorist activity.

Snowden tweeted that he displayed the Times report on-screen while he spoke.

Snowden was speaking at a video conference on privacy hosted by the University of Arizona College of Behavioral Sciences.

He has sought asylum in Russia to avoid the repercussions of dumping sensitive U.S. data.

Two men have been charged in connection with this week’s attacks in Brussels that killed 31 and injured 300, BuzzFeed reported Saturday.

– Updated at 1:55 p.m.

Tags Belgium Brussels Brussels attack Edward Snowden Russia Turkey