By Michelle Loubon, Trinidad Guardian
June 07, 2007

Social and welfare officer of the Jamaat al Muslimeen, Kala Akii Bua, says the allegations that the Jamaat was involved in a plot to blow up the fuel lines at JFK Airport is an international conspiracy conducted by the FBI and the T&T Government.

He was speaking at a press conference at the hall of the Jamaat compound, Mucurapo Road, yesterday.

Among those implicated in the plot were Trinidadians Kareem Ibrahiim and Abdul Kadir, Russel De Freitas, an American citizen native to Guyana and Guyanese Abdel Nur.

“It was an international conspiracy against the Jamaat...It was an international conspiracy conducted by the FBI and the Trinidad and Tobago Government,” Akii Bua said.

“We are concerned about the irresponsible statements from both local and foreign press.

“Today, (yesterday) some of the sensationalism reached its highest in the local press...We have a high literacy rate.

“I am surprised Trinidad-ians are being sucked in by FOX news...An international conspiracy it has to be.”

Without directly referring to the attempted coup staged by the Jamaat in 1990, he said, “Japan and America were enemies... But, they have moved on.

“We have moved on. We turned a new corner. We built a school (Mucurapo Islamic College). All praise be to Allah.”

Akii Bua said his son, a first-year engineering student at UWI, St Augustine, said, “Dad, this could never happen,” because there must have been systems put in place to prevent such an explosion.

Akii Bua said he was further surprised by the “cheap politics.”

“Politicians are attacking each other about who is terrorist...They are not doing anything to alleviate suffering,” said Akii Bua.

He even lashed out at politicians Attorney General John Jeremie and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar for their recent statements.

“If he (Jeremie) has a link with these terrorists, come forward...Don't try to hoodwink the population,” he said.

Calling Persad-Bissessar a “dumb woman,” he said she had been saying the Government had granted the Jamaat a licence for quarrying.

“Doesn’t she know they need a backhoe...an excavator. You don’t need to blow up sand,” he said.

Away from the local scene, foreign writer Frederick Forsyth came in for heavy blows because of his book The Afghan, which said there was terrorism in the Jamaat al Muslimeen.

Akii Bua produced an excerpt which stated that two seamen were attacked by a local gang and left dead.

The excerpt said, “The man who had paid them was a senior terrorist in the Jamaat al Muslimeen, the principal Trinidadian group on the side of Al Qaeda.”

Later on, Akii Bua said, “He will be hearing from us.”

Although leader of the Jamaat, Yasin Abu Bakr, was noticeably absent, Akii Bua said the last time he travelled to Guyana was in 1995.

He said he regretted he did not have Bakr’s passport.

He also said he was unaware of De Freitas meeting with Bakr, since “he was not with him 24/7.”

“This is a house of prayer...Anybody can come in here and pray and leave,” he said.

He admitted Nur did attend the mosque there.

He also said he had read that Nur was staying at a house in Covigne, Diego Martin, which belonged to a member of the Jamaat.

“He had no meeting with senior members...Too much propaganda,” he said.

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