Gary Griffith: E-mail bomb threats an 'act of terror'

National Transformation Alliance (NTA) political leader Gary Griffith has described the e-mailed bomb threats which caused the closure of over 55 schools in TT on Friday as "an act of terror."

The former commissioner of police and former national security minister criticised National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds for being unaware of this fact.

In a statement, Griffith referred to comments Hinds made in Parliament on Friday about the incident.

"Once again Fitzgerald Hinds demonstrates his complete lack of knowledge pertaining to matters of national security."

Griffith said Hinds' denial that the bomb threats were "an act of terror is factually incorrect."

He cited Section 21 of the Anti-Terrorism Act to support his argument.

Section 21 (2) of the act states, "A person commits an offence if he communicates any information which he knows or believes to be false with the intention of inducing in a person anywhere in the world a belief that a noxious substance or other noxious thing or a lethal device or a weapon of mass destruction is likely to be present, whether at the time the information is communicated or later, in any place.”

Against this background, Griffith said Hinds "should have known that what occurred yesterday (Friday) is an act of terror according to our laws."

Referring to Hinds' description of the perpetrator as "just an ordinary miscreant," Griffith said, Hinds needs to be informed that who perpetrated the crime is irrelevant, as the bomb threat is clearly defined in our anti-terrorism laws.

He suggested that someone educate Hinds on these matters.

Griffith said Hinds' comments were reminiscent "of his attempts to marginalise the danger school children and teachers faced, when gunmen were engaged in battle in close proximity to the Rose Hill RC Primary School (in east Port of Spain last November)."

He said Hinds' latest attempt "at marginalising the severity of what occurred yesterday (Friday), sends the wrong message to a public which is already under siege from criminals."

Griffith viewed Hinds' ignorance as part of a wider problem of shortcomings facing our national security apparatus.