Copycat bomber

It is bad enough if the four dustbin bombs were the work of a lone crank. After the St James explosion on October 15, Prime Minister Patrick Manning implied that the scenario was even worse — that the bombs were an organised strategy being carried out under the instructions of an individual Mr Manning christened "Mr Big."

Now we would like to believe that the Prime Minister would not have made so startling a statement without solid grounds for doing so. Unfortunately, Mr Manning’s penchant for off-the-cuff remarks does not inspire great faith in some of his pronouncements.

Moreover, the Government has been under great pressure because of the failure to make any headway on investigations on the dustbin bombs, and Mr Manning was thus highly motivated to give the impression that there had been significant progress behind the scenes. He even went so far to say, after Muslimeen leader Abu Bakr and four other Jamaat members were held, that there were "solid leads." If this were so, the leads apparently didn’t come from Bakr and his cohorts, since they were released without charge after 48 hours.

Because of this, the explosion on Thursday morning must be politically embarrassing for the Prime Minister. Not only does the incident seem to make his words hollow, but the explosion occurred the day after FBI director Robert S Mueller III left Trinidad, having come here to set in train the investigation into these same bombings. If "Mr Big" was indeed behind this latest incident, then the authorities are presumably that much closer to an arrest. But, if this was the work of a copycat, the effects of these bombings have multiplied to an even more worrying degree.

In the first place, it means that the authorities have to catch at least two persons, when they haven’t even caught the first one yet. It may also mean that these incidents are going to be more frequent, with the risk of injury or death increasing accordingly. It also means that Trinidad and Tobago’s reputation abroad is going to be even more negative. The fact that all the explosions have been low-intensity ones is irrelevant. What would-be visitors are going to hear is that random bombs have been going off in this Carnival country. The effects on local business, tourism and even foreign investment could, in this post-9/11 world, be catastrophic.

For all these reasons, catching the perpetrator or perpetrators must now be the number one priority of the security agencies. We must again point out that, despite all the talk about getting the help of the public in this and other matters, the authorities have been very stingy about releasing any information they have. Instead, it is the media who have been able to unearth some information about the type of device being used — but, if that information is wrong, then it can only hinder matters. The authorities need to let the public know how the explosion is made and how it is set off, since this may help ordinary citizens know what to look for and will certainly help retailers keep an eye out for persons buying certain items.

In this situation, every means of stymieing the bombers must be used.