Anti-Terror law will expose TT to terrorists

SENIOR COUNSEL Allan Alexan-der yesterday warned that government’s Anti-Terrorism Bill could result in those who are today called “freedom fighters”  being labelled as terrorists. “Does this mesh with our history?” he asked at the public forum on the Bill hosted by the Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine. Alexander said passage of the Bill would be a declaration that TT is joining the war against international terrorism and this could expose the country to terrorists.

Alexander said the Bill seemed confined to the detention of people without charge “and on pain of penalty, the compulsion to answer questions on oath and produce documents on the application of a second division officer of the Police Service.” He said the question must be asked whether these measures were enough to disrupt terrorist groups, prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction, manage the consequences of terrorist acts and protect infrastructure. “I think citizens would want to know what counter terrorism measures are being taken or planned,” he said Minister of State in the Ministry of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds dismissed the perception that the Bill was TT “kowtowing” to the United States. He said the September 11 attacks in the US triggered international concern for terrorism, and the United Nations National Security  Council at its meeting on September 28 agreed that nation states should put measures in place to prevent terrorism.

However, Hinds suggested that TT’s thriving economy could attract terrorist activity. He said the developed state of the financial sector provided an opportunity for terrorists to launder money.  “They find the most ingenious ways to move money from one part of the world to the other,” he said. Hinds said TT is a major player in gas and other downstream industries and had foreign investors, including Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States and Norway. “Terrorists could target business enterprises to get at their enemies.” “So while they may not have anything with TT. We provide a forum for their activity,” he said.

Hinds said TT was a signatory to several international treaties to protect citizens and visitors, including heads of state, against international terrorism. He said it was “hype and hyperbole” that the Bill was against political, religious or ideological causes. “You must have done damage, you must do the damage with the intention to compel the Government or an organisation to do or not do something. That must be done with some ideological, political or religious cause,” Hinds said. He dismissed any comparisons to the US Patriot Act. He said Government did not give it any consideration whatsoever. Other panellists were Opposition MP Gillian Lucky, Lennox Sankersingh, leader of the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) and David Abdulah, Education and Research Officer, Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union.