Posted on 01/29/2003 1:38:59 PM PST by Pokey78
An unexpected new front in the "war on terrorism" has opened this week in Trinidad after an announcement by a local Islamic group that it is manufacturing chemical and biological weapons and might use them against British and American targets on the island.
The announcement, made through two reporters for Trinidad's leading newspaper, who were blindfolded and taken to a plausibly alarming secret chemical laboratory, has caused ferment on the island, alarmed authorities in London and Washington and prompted at least one foreign company, the P&O shipping line, to keep tourists away.
"With our weapons we are going to reach you," the group said in its statement. "We will reach you where you sleep, we will reach you where you take your baths, we will reach you where you take your meals and have your drinks, even a glass of water you hold in your hand to drink may not be safe."
The group claimed it had been manufacturing and storing chemical and biological weapons for two years. It said it hoped not to have to use them, but was deadly serious about stopping Britain and the United States "persecuting Muslims worldwide".
The reporters for the Trinidad Express talked to a man who said he was a chemical engineer who had received explosives training in the United States. They were shown various materials and told they could be used to manufacture a form of nerve gas as well as toxins strong enough to poison the island's water supply. An expert from the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute watched video footage of the reporting trip and said the man in the lab "sounded as though he knows what he is talking about and what he intends to do".
It is not clear who the Islamic group is, although it is likely to be related to Jamaat al-Muslimeen, a radical sect that launched an unsuccessful coup attempt in Trinidad and Tobago in 1990. The group told the Trinidad Express it sympathised with Osama bin Laden and the Bali bombers, and harboured ambitions to stage an Islamic revolution on the island, even though Muslims make up only 6 per cent of the local population.
Even before the Trinidad Express story ran on Sunday, Britain's Foreign Office had issued a warning on tourist safety. "We believe Trinidad and Tobago to be one of a number of countries where there may be an increased terrorist threat," a statement on the Foreign Office website said.
Since the story, American and British officials have been cautious in public on how much credence to lend to the group. Patrick Manning, Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister, is treading a careful line, trying not to harm the tourist industry, a mainstay of the local economy, while ordering Special Branch officers to investigate the threat as thoroughly as possible.
</sarcasm>
Like the latest clothes and hip-speak, it has become a mindless example of groupthink.
Islamic group unveils secret ‘chemical labs’ Terror Threat 1/26
"...The group wanted it known that they intend to set up an Islamic State in this country....Warn first, attack later 1/28A man in the “lab”, wearing surgical gloves and a gas mask, described the substances as chemical compounds including potash and borax, heavy metal pellets and sulphate of heavy metal pellets, carnauba wax, amatol and tetryl, talc, non-ionic reddening, activated sand and a carbohydrate compound used in the petro-chemical industry.
The man said he was qualified as a chemical engineer and trained in the United States in explosives.
He explained that the potash, borax, carnauba wax, and the carbohydrate compound could be individually combined with other chemicals to make explosives......"
Less vacation dollars are spent.............
Economy suffers..................
Marxist and Islamic groups move in to rally poor populace against yankee imperialists............
Government fights back...............
More poverty due to NO dollars going into the country..........
Marxist & Islamic guerrilla movements started to "free" the people from "pawns" of the US Impeialists...............
More death and destruction................
Middle class finally gets sick of lawlessness and starts hireing their own police squads to protect them and their property.............
UN becomes involved over abuses of "private" police forces that are termed "Right Wing Death Squads" by Koffi Annan and cuts all aid to Trinidad................
More death and destruction.............
Fidel speaks out on behalf of the people of Trinidad and sends "advisors' there to "help"............
More death and destruction.............
Hundreds of boats head for Florida..............
etc., etc., etc.
***ISLAM-ONLINE.net: "MULLAH OMAR URGES JIHAD AGAINST U.S. WAR ON IRAQ" by Hasbanullah Mutawakel, IOL Correspondent (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Peshawar, December 18 (IslamOnline) - Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar exhorted Muslims on Tuesday, December 17, to prepare for Jihad against the United States if it unleashes a military offensive against Iraq. In a statement published in the Pakistani Mashraq newspaper, Mullah Omar stressed it was time for the Islamic nation to stand in the face of world atheism and to attack American interests worldwide.") (121802)
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