Police ready for FTFs

THE Police Service stands ready to partner with other national security agencies to deal with foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) returning to TT. Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith gave this assurance on Sunday. He told Newsday, "The TTPS (TT Police Service) has a specific unit assigned to such matters." Griffith added this unit "would continue to work with other arms in the Ministry of National Security to monitor the movement and action of any such individual or body that may attempt to assist."

At a Military-Led Academic Training (MILAT) graduation ceremony at Teteron Barracks in Chaguaramas last Saturday, National Security Minister Stuart Young said, "This Government has policies in place. We are working on counter terrorism."

At the American Chamber of Commerce's annual general meeting at the Hilton Trinidad last Friday, United States Embassy Chief of the Military Liasion Office, Col Claudia Carrizales, said TT must be ready for the return of FTFs. Carrizales said those people were currently being detained in Syria and Iraq. “Within the next year or so, you will eventually have some hardened FTFs return to this country,” she said. Carrizales said the people who attempted to pull off last year’s Carnival terror threat were “boy scouts” compared “to what’s coming back.” She said anyone who believed that threat was a conspiracy theory, is “living under a rock,” Carrizales declared.

She said the US spent US$6.2 million to train TT’s elite security forces. Carrizales also disclosed that US special operations personnel worked closely with local elite military and police units for two years to ensure TT “was prepared for any type of terrorist situation.” While the US may not be TT’s preferred partner in everything, Carrizales said the population could be assured that “when the crap hits the fan, it’s the red, white and blue that’s sitting right there next to you.”