Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says she is “most concerned” about the threat of terrorism to T&T and other Caricom states. Persad-Bissessar, who has lead responsibility for crime and security in the regional body, made the comment on the eve of yesterday’s summit between US President Barack Obama and Caricom Heads of Government at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica. She was expected to raise the terrorism issue at yesterday’s meeting with Obama.
Ahead of the meeting yesterday, she said the issue should not be taken lightly. “I raised the issue very seriously. Heads did take it on. Some may feel it is not for their specific country at this time but that is a threat (and) it is facing the world. “We are very concerned and we will do all we can to work in partnerships to deal with narco trafficking, transnational organised crime, which is human trafficking and trafficking in arms, and trafficking in drugs.
“And who are we, as small nation states, where borders are porous, that is why narco trafficking happens so often in our region. It is important that we band together, and Caricom has made those decisions that we would work and partner together.” Persad-Bissessar said the region also faced serious threat from the terrorist groups in the Middle East.
She said T&T “nationals may be leaving to go (to the Middle East) and there are others who are coming from other parts of the region and passing through T&T as a trans-shipment, if you like,” adding that if such people “attempt to re-enter, we may have greater knowledge or forewarning of such re-entries.” She said T&T and Jamaica had co-sponsored a United Nations resolution in New York last September to deal with such threats in the Middle East.
She said T&T and the nations which signed the UN resolution would receive “great benefits and help in the fight against terrorism,” as it provided “a little more protection, because of the co-operation and partnership that would have taken place relating to the sharing of information, sharing of intelligence, that comes on a global scale.” She said Caricom was made up of small nation states, where the borders are porous and that was why it remained important that the regional states work together.
30 nationals on watchlist
Former national security minister Gary Griffith yesterday said he fully supported Persad-Bissessar’s call for co-operation on terrorism. In a brief interview with the T&T Guardian, Griffith said terrorism was an international threat which would not go away by putting “our heads in the sand.” He said the matter should not be taken lightly, adding that there were “persons of interest in T&T” and thousands of foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) in countries across the world, including the United States, Canada and Europe. He said many of those fighters go to Syria to train.
Griffith said from information he received while in office, there were more than 30 T&T foreign terrorist fighters who have left for training abroad. He said it was almost impossible to stop them from leaving to go to Syria but there were systems in place to monitor when they returned to T&T. He said the recently-signed UN agreement would assist T&T in the fight against terrorism, as when FTFs returned home “they can be arrested and denied bail.”
He said the terrorists did not “just enter your country to engage in radical religious behaviour. They come as mercenaries and engage in economic activity,” adding that Isis operates with “a heavy capital.” Griffith said there already existed in T&T, a special “elite, highly-trained unit, called the National Security Special Operations Group, which is ready to respond immediately if any act of terrorism was attempted in the country.”
He said a counter-terrorism intelligence unit was also being established within the Strategic Services Agency (SSA). The former minister said there was no need to press the panic button over the issue but it was critical that T&T and other countries be prepared for any such possibility. Griffith said while Persad-Bissessar was criticised by many for signing the UN resolution, it provided “our intelligence agencies with the opportunity to not just give information but also to receive real time intelligence from our allies, which includes monitoring the movement of FTFs.”