US deems Trini an ISIS operative

“There was a listing communicated to the Government on March 31 2017. That transmission came to us from the United States Embassy and it acknowledged that the US has listed Shane Dominic Crawford.

“He was designated as person believed to be in Syria serving as an English-Language propagandist for the group working with ISIS,” Al-Rawi said during a news conference at the Ministry of National Security’s head office in Port-of- Spain.

He confirmed that Government has also listed Crawford, under Section 22 of the Anti- Terrorism Act.

The consequence of that listing, Al-Rawi said, was that Crawford is the 341st individual or entity listed in accordance with Section 22B and the fifth designation by TT in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 (2001). “Having gone from zero in 2015, we are now at 341 listings including five nationals of TT,” he said.

“We have more listings which would be sent to the court very shortly because we worked our way from the outside in, first being the UN designations, then moving to persons who had linkages to them.” The Order against Crawford, also known as Abu Sa’d al-Trinidadi and “Asadullah”, came after several months of intelligence sharing and investigative co-operation between TT and the United States and United Kingdom.

“Today’s success is due in large part to the joint efforts of, the Ministry of National Security (Strategic Services Agency and Immigration Division), the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (Financial Investigations Branch and Special Branch), the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs (Registrar General’s Department, Central Authority and Anti-Terrorism Desk),” the statement from the Office of the AG said.

The Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs said it continues to make significant progress in implementing the provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act, which remained largely un-utilised until the first ever Order under Section 22B was obtained from the High Court on December 3, 2015.

“Such action against Crawford however represents a new threshold in TT’s fight against terrorism and the spread of violent extremism ideologies,” the ministry said. It is not known if Crawford is alive.