Alleged terror plotter a COP man June 8, 2007
Posted by Scarecrow in 06/04/07 Newsday 6.trackback
Alleged terror plotter a COP man
By RICHARDSON DHALAI Monday, June 4 2007
TRINIDADIAN Kareem Ibrahim, 56, who is one of four men arrested on Saturday for allegedly being involved in a terrorist plot to blow up JFK International Airport in New York, is an executive member of the Congress of the People’s (COP) Arouca/Bon Air West constituency.
This was confirmed yesterday at a press conference of the party in Chaguanas, conducted by Captain Gary Griffith, the COP’s national security advisor. COP Political Leader Winston Dookeran is out of the country.
The plot to blow up fuel depots was uncovered by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and resulted in the arrest of three men, one in Brooklyn and two in Trinidad by local policemen.
One of the men is Shia Imam Ibrahim of Cane Farm Road, Tacarigua who was arrested at approximately 11 am while at his mosque while the two other accomplices — Guyanese-US citizen Russel De Freitas and former member of the Guyanese Opposition PNP party Abdul Kadir were arrested almost simultaneously on Friday — De Freitas in Brooklyn and Kadir in TT.
In a media briefing at the COP’s Gaston Court, Chaguanas head office, Griffith stated Ibrahim was a registered member of the COP opposition party who joined during the party’s membership drive last year.
He said while Ibrahim was still a party member, the party’s membership committee was yet to decide on an appropriate course of action saying they are still awaiting additional information on the matter.
He said the party did not have the resources available to perform a comprehensive background check on its over 50,000 members and pointed out that Ibrahim’s association with the other conspirators was not uncovered by any of the TT Government’s anti-spy units including the blimp and the eye-in-the-sky.
“No political party can do a comprehensive test on all of its members,” he said adding that during the party’s open membership drive, no background checks had been carried out on persons seeking membership.
Adding that unlike other political parties with known “criminal associations”, the COP would not fall into the trap of allowing criminal elements within the party’s hierarchy to allow “bartering” to take place after the party was elected into government.
COP chairman Roy Augustus said the party would now be looking at associates of Ibrahim in an effort to weed out those elements which sought to infiltrate political, social and other organisations to use as a cover for their nefarious activities.
Asked whether the party would be adversely affected by news of its relationship to the Shia Imam (Ibrahim) given the unofficial election campaign presently gripping the nation, Augustus said the party had faith in the population’s intelligence.
Augustus also stated that Ibrahim’s religious belief would not cloud the party’s association with local Muslim groups. “We are taking steps to protect the integrity of the party. We are in the business of saving the country,” he said.
