The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) has already established a presence on the ground in T&T. That is the view of criminologist Daurius Figueira.
He was speaking in reference to a recent video posted on Facebook which has gone viral showing children learning to shoot assault rifles at a training camp. A man with a distinct Trinidadian accent can be heard instructing the children in firearms tactics.
Speaking to the Sunday Guardian on Thursday, Figueira said, “There are already elements of an Isis organisation on the ground in Trinidad.
“As long as you have people leaving T&T and going to Syria to fight with Isis, you have to have a recruiter here.
“You can’t just talk to somebody on the Internet, walk in and say you want to be a shaheed (martyr) or mujahadid (fighter), buy a plane ticket to Turkey and cross into Syria.
“Isis is paranoid about spies infiltrating the organisation. Somebody with the credentials has to vouch for you.”
He said Isis put out videos of public beheadings of even teenagers accused of being spies and used stringent security screening to vet people who want to join and fight in their ranks.
At a Pentagon briefing in March, US Marine General John Kelly said that Caribbean countries such as Jamaica, T&T, Suriname, as well as Venezuela were concerned about the militants returning home to conduct terror operations because they could not be monitored or tracked. He said they could easily slip into the US.
Figueira said the language the man with the Trinidad accent in the video was using and what he was seeking to inculcate in the children was straight out of the Isis playbook.
He said Isis released videos showing children in Syria and Iraq being trained to be mujahedin—guerrilla warriors engaged in jihad or holy war.
Figueira said this was entirely different from African warlords using child soldiers. Isis has a specific agenda to train two generations of mujahedin in Iraq and Syria.
He said they were taking boys as young as three years old and placing them in special schools where they were drilled and indoctrinated in the specific ideology of Isis which focused on constant jihad or never-ending warfare.
Figueira said military training was part of the Isis curriculum, which sought to mould the personalities of the very young to the Isis world view.
He said the greatest act a male Muslim could perform was to die a martyr’s death.
Heerah: NOC monitoring terrorists
In a telephone interview on Friday, NOC executive director Garvin Heerah said the video had engaged the attention of the NOC and by extension all intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
He said NOC was monitoring the situation and engaging in meaningful dialogue with other agencies in conducting an analysis.
Heerah said National Security Minister Carl Alfonso had instructed that they were to leave no stone unturned in their investigations and intelligence-gathering on this matter.