Tracking terrorists

More than 25 years later, the issue of terrorism remains on the front burner - one which reached a head last Tuesday when National Security Minister Edmund Dillon told the Upper House that an estimated 130 TT nationals, including adults and their families, have left local shores to get involved in terrorist organisations in other countries.

“Information at hand reflects about 70 adults and about 58 family members,” he said in response to a question on the issue from independent senator Paul Richards. Dillon said, however, there was no way of tracking those persons overseas.

The Minister also made no reference to any specific group operating in Trinidad and Tobago.

“In terms of intelligence and information- gathering, people leave TT sometimes for destinations not mentioned.

For example, for England and end up in Syria, and the intended destination isn’t known to us,” he said.

“Therefore, we rely on international partners to give us the kind of information that will confirm they’re in a terrorist country.” Dillon’s revelations came one day after Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley condemned allegations by former United States Navy Petty Officer Malcolm Nance, who, in a recent MSNBC interview, said TT was among a group of countries which had more terrorists than seven predominantly Muslim countries.

President Donald Trump has banned the citizens from these countries from entering the United States.

But this executive order has been suspended following a federal judge’s ruling on the constitutionality of its provisions on Friday night. The Trump administration is expected to file an appeal.

(See page 29A) Recently, Minister in the Office of the Attorney General Stuart Young gave a somewhat different perspective of the situation, revealing in the Parliament that some 182 TT citizens were suspected of being involved in terrorist activities and there had been a significant increase in what appeared to be the financing of insurgents.

The findings were contained in the 2015/16 report of the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Ministry of Finance, which was laid in the Parliament, early last month.

Sunday Newsday learnt, though, that a comprehensive system to gauge the flow of suspected terrorists to and from TT-remains a work in progress.

In fact, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi on Thursday announced a suite of measures aimed at bolstering the country’s existing anti-terrorism laws and bringing new ones to tackle specifically foreign terrorist fighters.

These include stiff penalties for people directly or indirectly involved in the support of terrorist groups.

However, some Muslim groups have described the measures as draconian, saying they had far-reaching implications for not only members of the faith but other citizens as well.

The groups, under the umbrella of the Islamic Front, are expected to meet today at 2 pm to discuss the proposed amendments to the Anti- Terrorism Bill. The meeting is scheduled to take place at the Islamic Missionary Guild, Kelly Village.

President of the Anjumann Sunnat-Ul-Jamaat (ASJA) Yacoob Ali told Sunday Newsday he had not internalised the measures now being proposed in the legislation, saying he would address the matter at a later stage.

He said, though, that a few Muslims left TT shores several months ago, presumably to join terrorist organisations, but are yet to return.

“We haven’t seen them coming back and their families said they may be dead,” he said. “We understand that some members were killed but we don’t know how many.” Ali said he had not received any reports of Muslims going overseas under mysterious circumstances within the past six months.

Ali said they also had no way of tracking those who have left.

“I don’t think we can really do much here and we really don’t know where they are located.

We have checked within our organisation and nobody could tell us where any member from any one of the mosques or the Jamaat that we have would have gone.

Maybe people don’t know where they have gone?” ‘We don’t support ISIS’ Ali said the faith does not support the ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) network and its operatives.

“We, in Trinidad, being the type of organisation we are, do not advocate any extremist views. We don’t think Trinidadians should get involved in that at all because it does not concern us,” he said.

“There is nothing in the religious practice that says you have got to go and defend there. If somebody is defending their State, you could probably join that. But what are you going there for?” Ali said the promise of large sums of money appeared to be the allure.

He said: “We understand they are well-paid when they go and that is why many of them join ISIS. We have heard that they can get as much as US$20,000 depending...” The Muslim cleric said ISIS would not attract large numbers of locals “because, to my mind, we like too much of a sweet life to go and destroy it by going over there.” “Is only those people who do not have anything to live for in this country maybe because of their position they are just attracted by the payment of some US dollars,” Ali said.

“But I have been saying that they should not neglect their families because it is not part of the faith and they are not practising the faith by doing that for the sake of tens of thousands of dollars. It can spoil the rest of their lives.” Griffith: Dillon’s Senate statement confusing As the Government grapples with the movement of TT citizens in foreign-based terrorist organisations, former national security minister Gary Griffith yesterday described Dillon’s statement in the Senate as confusing.

“It has done more damage than assisted Trinidad and Tobago’s reputation and was in total contrast to the previous comment made from the Prime Minister where the prime minister was able to state that Nance’s comment was total nonsense,” he said.

“Minister Dillon making another comment along that line gave the perception there was a contradiction between the Office of the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Security.” Claiming that Dillon’s figure of 130 was “totally off the mark,” Griffith said the minister included the wives and other family members of the terrorists with the actual people who were deemed to be terrorists from T&T.

“So he was actually adding numbers,” Griffith said.

“I don’t know if he thought that this would have been of value to us.

So the numbers of the possible terrorists are 70-odd and then they had their family accompanying them. Their family accompanying them does not make them terrorists.

“So he added the numbers to more than what it really was. Family members accompanying suspected terrorists does not make you a terrorist.” Griffith recalled that when he was national security minister, there were about 35 TT nationals who left the country to terrorist organisations overseas.

“But by now it may have gone up,” he said.

Griffith claimed that while there was an estimated 15,000 foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs), worldwide, not one originated from TT.

“There are FTFs from all over the world, inclusive of the United States. Thousands of FTFs have left the United States to become Foreign terrorist fighters and there are many actual terrorists that are in the United States but the difference with Trinidad and Tobago and, Minister Dillon has failed to give the assurance internationally to reduce the fear in our own community - out of all the 15,000 foreign terrorist fighters, there is not one that is living in Trinidad and Tobago,” he claimed.

Griffith said Dillon gave the impression that TT was littered with terrorists.

“There is not one person who is deemed as someone who will commit a terrorist act in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.

Griffith, who served as national security minister in the former People’s Partnership Government from September 2013 to February 2015, said a United Nations Resolution 2178, signed by former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, ensured that all international countries relay information in real time regarding people who may be deemed as possible terrorists or linked to terrorist activities.

“No country has any information, data or documentation to show that any person is a terrorist in Trinidad and Tobago,” he claimed.

“The fact is that no TT citizen has left here, gone to the US and has been deemed as a possible terrorist and that is what is important. That is what differentiates us from the other seven countries that President Trump spoke about.

“Those seven countries are littered with persons who are terrorists that live and reside and operate as terrorists in those countries.

There are none in Trinidad and Tobago and that is what Minister Dillon has failed to be able to explain to the country.” Griffith added: “Those persons, they have gone to Syria and they will never get back home because having been deemed an FTF, they cannot board an aircraft to get back into Trinidad and Tobago because there is no one-way ticket from Syria or wherever to Trinidad and Tobago.” Griffith said no one can prevent someone from becoming a terrorist “because that person could easily take a flight to go to London and then you never know what happens after.” Rather, he said Government should focus on ensuring that they never return to TT.

“You can de-nationalise them, which is what I have been speaking about for the last two years and nobody understood.” Griffith said some countries were already practising the measure.

“They must know that they have given up their right to be a citizen by being a terrorist and that will prevent them from even thinking of getting back into our country.” Griffith said under the UN Resolution, the names of people suspected of being an FTF would be relayed to ally nations to ensure they are not able to board an aircraft to any of the transit routes to TT.

“That’s what Minister Dillon should be saying.” Griffith said the practice will ensure that citizens are not fearful of terrorists “lurking around at every turn.” “It will also stop the stupidity by these correspondents in MSNBC and others who believe that any TT citizen who leaves this country and goes to the US may very well be a person of interest in terrorist activities,” he said.