If religion, politics and economics are the explanations for terrorism and if arguments persist that home grown terrorism is labeled as one of the most important layers of al Qaeda’s threat to the developing world, then why are Caribbean gang members in the US who were convicted of violent crimes and deported to their countries of origin now directly involved in the fanatic ideology of carrying out autonomous jihad via acts of terrorism against the United States?
It must therefore be seen that homegrown terrorism is not only carried out by people who were born, raised and radicalized within a western milieu, or who speak good English, have proper travel documents and knowledge of how not to raise the suspicions of US intelligence and law enforcement agencies but also from the surge of deported gang members from the US, Britain and Canada to their Caribbean homelands. In prompting an analysis of the psychology of the terrorist, US terror experts believe that Muslims, the realities of a globalized society, and the internet are the chief perpetrators of terrorism, while the violent Caribbean deportee is often overlooked. It is also worth noting that, while the internet makes the emergence of new human relationships possible, groups don’t only radicalize themselves over the internet. While the medium is still the message, it is now an outdated tool for terrorist, as the medium no longer shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and actions.
The alarming numbers of Caribbean deportees enlisting in terrorist cells in the Caribbean far exceeds the McLuhan dogma that universal participation generated by electronic media will put an end to parochialism because deported Caribbean gang members are not using the internet to be radicalized. In the conflicting age that now defines the 21st century, deported gang members are seeking union with those to whom they relate by way of elemental instinct.
New evidence suggest that Al Qaeda is now setting up cells and operating covertly on many Caribbean islands, recruiting and financing deported gang members from the US, Britain and Canada. Recent law enforcement investigations have unearthed a sophisticated network of nascent terrorist entrepreneurs lurking in a host of Caribbean countries, most notably Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Curacao, Guyana and Suriname.
The so-called “Caribbean terrorist” phenomenon now gains wide appeal because not only are the motivations for such individuals driven by a combination of personal circumstances and external factors but proves that self radicalization also stems from social marginalization and that the Caribbean is not immune from terrorism.
While many believe that gang violence in the Caribbean region threatens social stability, restrains economic and social development, discourages foreign investment, accelerates illegal immigration, drug smuggling and trafficking in arms and persons, it is also important to note that there are no differences between US homegrown terrorism and the Caribbean deportee, as they are both citizens or long-term residents who clandestinely plot to attack the United States and unleash untold miseries on law abiding citizens using the same types of military and propaganda tactics.
It must also be seen that while the Caribbean deportee favours a social marginalization stigma rather than a national or international one, it is ideology that motivates both groups. Ideology is the substratum and vehicle for radicalization. It is ideology that identifies the variance, classifies the issues, and impels recruitment.
Not only are deported gangs deemed enemies of the US by al Qaeda and other Jihad organizations but upon returning to their various Caribbean nations, deported criminals are re-forming gangs, recruiting locals to expand their numbers and returning to the US, particularly the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, by means of clandestine sea operations or on forged documents to carry out their missions against the United States and innocent citizens.
The seriousness of the situation now calls for the creation of a deported gang intelligence centre in the Caribbean to build stronger partnerships with Caribbean states threatened by extremist violence and to uncover future terrorist plots, as it is not only a threat for all Caribbean citizens but to democracies all over the world.
Deported gang members are now one of the Caribbean’s top national security priorities and special efforts should also be made to enhance the intelligence capabilities of local police, who should not only be trained in fighting crimes but should also be trained in learning the way that al Qaeda works, how their goals are evolving and how their modus operandi changes.
It is clear that the threat of Caribbean deportees from the US, Britain and Canada is now the troubling picture that confronts us all. Terrorist concern in the Caribbean is no longer hypothetical. It has now become a reality.
January 19, 2011
caribbeannewsnow
