Plan needed for returning terrorists

“Some have died on the battlefield and there will be some, as they continue to lose the war in Iraq and Syria, who will look to come back,” he told Newsday yesterday during an interview at the US Embassy, St Clair. To reintegrate them back in society, he said, “You must have a strategy to do so. Not all of them would want to be reintegrated. It is a serious problem.” It is a problem for which he hopes the Government and the Opposition get together and do what is best for the country.

“I will be very clear and very blunt. You do have an issue with foreign terrorist fighters,” he said.

Asked about the possibility of terrorist activities occurring in TT, Estrada said the question should be when will it happen, if the right measures are not taken to prevent them. The right measures, he said, will include strengthening security cooperation, building intelligence capacity, building law enforcement capacity and sharing information with partners like the US and other countries that are currently fighting the same issues.

“This is a worldwide problem,” he said, referring to recent terrorist activities in France, Belgium and Turkey. As ISIL continues to lose the war in Iraq and Syria, TT-born terrorist fighters, Estrada said, “will look to come back. Should they make it back home, they will return with a very deadly skill set.

That skill set is how to fight, kill and blow people up.” TT was not immune to terrorism, he said, “and big countries like the US that has the best intelligence service, best military, get struck by terrorists all the time.” As he demits office tomorrow at the same time as outgoing US President Barack Obama, Estrada, a political appointee, said he has achieved much in his ten-month tenure. On TT and US partnerships, he said, “We are much safer than we were a couple of years ago because of some of the agreements we have completed.” Asked about the agreements, he said a lot of them had to do with security involving information and intelligence sharing — including foreign terrorist fighters — to keep both countries safe, and building law enforcement capacity.

“That is as far as I will go on that (security issues),” he said. Estrada listed the US Department of Justice working with and building partnerships with the Office of the Attorney General on “numerous issues” and visits by Justice officials as one of the successes of his tenure.

(See Page 14A)