Homeland Security: There's a lot of talk about al-Qaida safe havens in Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. But the FBI is closely watching a potential hot spot in our own hemisphere. Al-Qaida is suspected of having set up a front in the Caribbean island state of Trinidad, and sympathetic jihadists have already launched a movement there to replace Trinidad's Westernized government with Islamic law.
The militant Muslim group Jamaat al-Muslimeen staged a bloody coup attempt in Trinidad last decade that involved the firebombing of police headquarters in Port-of-Spain. A rash of bombings over the past couple of years has been linked to the group, whose leader, Yasin Abu Bakr, recently was released from prison after claiming to be ill.
Local police had arrested him in 2005 after raiding his headquarters and seizing high-powered rifles, grenades, walkie-talkies and 700 rounds of ammo. He awaits trial for inciting religious violence and terrorism. The number of Bakr's followers is said to be growing, along with the number of kidnappings, murders and bombings in Trinidad. And fears are growing within the Department of Homeland Security and FBI that Trinidadian jihadists could train and export terrorists to strike the U.S.
Trinidad might be harboring the "next Mohamed Atta," a college-educated, English-speaking Saudi native known within al-Qaida as "Jafar the pilot." His real name is Adnan El Shukrijumah, and the FBI considers him "armed and dangerous." He's been connected to al-Qaida plots to attack America with dirty bombs.
Local papers report that Shukrijumah has stayed with friends in Trinidad, and worshiped at local mosques, indicating a possible cell exists there. U.S. authorities at Miami International Airport are closely monitoring inbound flights from that area.
The FBI's Web site says Shukrijumah "carries a Guyanese passport but may attempt to enter the United States with a Trinidadian passport." Shukrijumah's late father is Guyanese. He taught Arabic and lectured in mosques there and in Trinidad before moving to America to work for the Saudi Embassy and then run a small radical mosque in Florida (which was bankrolled by the former Saudi ambassador, according to Newsweek). Shukrijumah still has relatives in Guyana, which is near Trinidad.
So is Venezuela, headed by the anti-American thug Hugo "El Diablo" Chavez, who could ally himself with jihadists against their common enemy. A jihad domino effect in our hemisphere isn't far-fetched. If Fidel Castro dies, it would create a power vacuum in Cuba that could be filled by jihadists. Haiti also is vulnerable, and could fall to Islamists.
U.S. authorities worry that Caribbean blacks have been targeted by al-Qaida for Islamic conversion and recruitment along with African-Americans. Though the majority of Trinidad's population is Christian, its Muslim population is growing. The communists tried to set up a beachhead in Grenada during the Cold War. We did not hesitate to stop them. Trinidad may not be the next Grenada, but we certainly can't risk letting al-Qaida raise its black flag of jihad in our hemisphere
http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=254445363192537
French intelligence agents have arrested four people believed linked to terror suspects detained in Syria several months ago, officials said Wednesday.
Three men and one woman were detained Tuesday and were in custody in Tours, a city southwest of Paris, according to the French national police. The four are believed linked to two Frenchmen charged in November with suspected terrorist ties after they were expelled from Syria, police said.
Those men, from near Tours, had traveled to Syria in October and were allegedly planning to continue to Iraq, but were arrested by Syrian authorities who suspected them of terrorist connections, according to French judicial officials. Investigators are trying to determine whether the men were traveling on their own or as part of a broader terrorist network.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467805315&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Held In Contempt, Al-Arian Launches Hunger Strike
Jan 24, 2007
TAMPA - Sami Al-Arian has begun another hunger strike after being held in contempt for refusing to testify before a grand jury in Virginia, his supporters say.
In the meantime, Al-Arian has appealed an order with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that says his plea agreement in Tampa does not protect him from having to testify in Virginia.
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TRINIDAD..that's interesting, Oorang.
Interesting....thanks for posting that Oorang
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