U.S. worried about possible Caribbean terror threat

A top American military officer is warning that the Caribbean poses a possible terrorist threat to the United states. Admiral James Stavridis, head of the U.S. Southern command, says the region has the potential to host terrorist bases.

The Southern Command is responsible for promoting security cooperation and conducting military operations in Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.

Stavridis noted that conditions in the region present fertile ground to breed insurgency.

"The conditions in parts of the region - easily skirted borders, black market economies, corruption, poverty, established illicit trafficking routes - all could provide manoeuvring room for any form of terrorism to exploit, to include Islamic radical groups," he said.

The admiral made reference to the alleged involvement of a Trinidadian and three Guyanese nationals in an alleged plot to bomb the gas lines leading to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

He said, "the leading suspects' roots in the Caribbean raise the specter of Islamic terrorist activity gaining traction."

"We believe members, facilitators, and sympathizers of Islamic terrorist organizations are indeed present in our hemisphere," Admiral Stavridis added.

CIA reports have named the Jamat al-Muslimeen of Trinidad and Tobago and its leader, Imam Yaseen Abu-Bakr, as possible suspects in plotting insurgency directed against the United States and U.S. interests.

The admiral said the military unit he leads has a regional plan to combat that threat through multiple avenues including "shaping the strategic environment through humanitarian operations that deter radical organizations from gaining a foothold in the region, and building partner nation capacity to detect and defeat threats in a cooperative environment".

He explained that the efforts will serve a dual purpose: ensuring the security of the United States and increasing the security of regional states, which he described as "partners".

One such initiative began this year, titled Operation Enduring Freedom-Caribbean and Central America (OEF-CCA).

He said with cooperation from regional states this operation will try to improve the ability of the regional states "to interdict and disrupt terrorists who might leverage illicit transnational routes and uncontrolled areas to threaten the United States and/or our neighbours."

Admiral Stavridis explained that it is a long-term plan to create a multi-layered counter-terrorism mechanism that will benefit all stakeholders.

The US Southern Command covers Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and the Netherlands Antilles.