New era for Caribbean security?

New era for Caribbean security? The arrest in Trinidad of two of four suspects in an alleged terror plot at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, as well the Guyana ties of a suspect arrested in New York and another suspect believed to be at large in Trinidad, could mark the beginning of a new era for Caribbean transportation security measures.
   At a meeting of the Caribbean Shipping Association in Puerto Rico less than a month ago, speakers addressing security and terrorism issues felt compelled to raise the issue of why Caribbean nations even needed to worry about terrorism. Kingston, Jamaica attorney Milton Samuda reminded the audience, 'We are not immune, at least from the consequences' of international security concerns, pointing out it is a 'global issue' that also impacts security and insurance costs that directly impact ports and the overall tourism-based economies.
   But the events of recent days are bringing the concerns closer to home.
   New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who has an extensive history in dealing with terrorism and security both in New York and as a former U.S. Customs commissioner and former under secretary for enforcement in the U.S. Treasury Department, said at a Saturday press conference that the backgrounds of the JFK plot suspects makes the case unique.
   'It is different in that it has ties to the Caribbean,' Kelly remarked.
   A report on the arrests in Sunday's edition of the Trinidad Guardian said the case was the 'talk of the island' and Monday's front page headline blared 'Tight Security.'
   Suspects in the case include Russell Defreitas, a U.S. resident and former JFK airport cargo worker who is originally from Guyana; Abdul Kadir, a citizen of Guyana and former member of its Parliament and former mayor of the Guyana city of Linden; Karim Ibrahim, a citizen of Trinidad who was arrested there; and Abdel Nur, a citizen of Guyana who is still at large and believed to be in Trinidad.
   A complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn said the four, 'together with others,' plotted to destroy JFK and surrounding area buildings by using explosives to blow up airport jet fuel supply tanks and pipelines.
   Defreitas was arrested in New York Friday, and Kadir was arrested Friday in Trinidad after a flight he was taking from Port-of-Spain to Caracas, Venezuela, was ordered to turn back and return to Trinidad.
   A statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York alleged the suspects were 'tapped into an international network of Muslim extremists from the United State, Guyana and Trinidad.'
   The complaint filed in federal court said the plot had been underway since January 2006. An informant working with law enforcement authorities was a key part of the investigation, even traveling to Guyana and convincing the suspects that he would be a primary player in the planned attack on JFK.
   While the four suspects charged in the case are considered to be a 'home grown' cell without direct links to international terror groups, the complaint said they were trying to establish contacts with Jamaat Al Muslimeen (JAM), a radical Muslim group in Trinidad that was behind a 1990 coup attempt in which 24 people were killed. The group took the prime minister and cabinet hostage, and JAM leaders were given general amnesty to end the six-day standoff.
   Although the complaint alleged that Kadir and Nur are long-time associates of JAM leaders, and that Ibrahim and Defreitas had met with JAM members, the group has not been directly linked to the JFK plot.
   The arrests in the JFK plot put the Caribbean on the international antiterror map. While both airports and seaports have implemented extensive security improvements since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, those security efforts have been inconsistent throughout the region, largely because many countries do not have the economic resources of countries like the Bahamas, or the Dominican Republic, which has been described by U.S. Coast Guard officials as having particularly good transportation security programs.
   Anton Edmunds, executive director of U.S.-based Caribbean Central America Action (CCAA), said Caribbean nations will have to increase security training and focus on established international security standards like the International Ship and Port Facilities Security (ISPS) standards and requirements, and the U.S. Coast Guard's related International Port Security program.
   'There's a symbiotic relationship, a kind of umbilical cord, between the Caribbean and the U.S.,' Edmunds said, adding, 'It's not just an economic issue. It really is a security issue.'