Trinidad neighbors startled by plot charges
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (Reuters) - Residents of Trinidad were stunned on Sunday that two men were arrested on the island on charges of plotting to blow up fuel tanks at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport.
"What! That old man is a terrorist? I don't believe that. Look, you really don't know who your neighbor is. That man is a good man. He is like a community leader. He helps everybody, " the Sunday Guardian quoted Anthony Smith as saying.
Smith was speaking about his neighbor in Trinidad's eastern community of Tacarigua, Kareem Ibrahim, who along with former Guyanese parliamentarian Abdul Kadir were arrested by police last week on a warrant to commit acts of terrorism in the United States.
The two were among four accused of plotting, including Abdel Nur, a Guyanese, believed to be at large in Trinidad. A third man was arrested in New York and the fourth is at large in Trinidad.
Kadir and Ibrahim are due to appear in a Port of Spain court on Monday, when proceedings to have them extradited to the United States to face the charges were scheduled to begin.
Their arrest was the talk of the country, especially on a radio call-in show hosted by Bilaal Abdulah, a former insurrectionist in a 1990 coup attempt by Trinidad's Jamaat al Muslimeen extremist group.
"From what we know of him, it just seems strange," Abdulah said of Kadir. "But we would like to see how this turns out."
U.S. law enforcement officials say the two men were associates of Jamaat, which they described as an Islamist extremist group. There was no connection in the plot to al Qaeda, U.S. officials said.
Abdulah said Kadir attended University of the West Indies in Trinidad in the late 1970s. His co-host, Kwesi Atiba, said he was familiar with both Kadir and Ibrahim.
"All that we know of (Kadir), his inclination is certainly not what they are trying to present," said Atiba adding "and I couldn't see any of that coming out of Kareem."
Many callers to the radio program criticized the arrests, with some claiming a U.S. conspiracy and a plot to shore up support for the Republican government now in power in the Caribbean nation.
Back in Tacarigua, where Ibrahim lived, residents described him as a community leader.
According to the newspaper report, Smith pointed to Ibrahim's weather-beaten roof and said, "If he had money, you don't think he would want to fix his roof? He would not be looking to buy a ticket to go to the U.S."
