FLYNN... a terrorist event launched from Jamaica would have negative impact on the island

WESTERN BUREAU - An American expert on international terrorism has warned Jamaica that the country's extensive network of gangs and criminals could be exploited by terrorists, who could find them a cheap source for doing their dirty work.

"I think the primary issue for Jamaica remains confronting its crime problem effectively so the terrorists have less (fruitful) ground to exploit," said Stephen Flynn, a retired US Coast Guard Commander who is now an international consultant on terrorism.

Flynn is this week participating in a conference in Montego Bay of air and seaport security officials and spoke to the Observer after a presentation to the closed-door meeting.

While Jamaica may be under no immediate, or direct, threat from terrorists, Flynn warned, the island's proximity to the United States, and particularly Miami, made the country a potential staging point for terrorists who want to hit the US or American interests.

Such an event could be catastrophic for both the United States and Jamaica or other Caribbean countries that may be involved, he said.

"If a terrorist event happens in the United States that originates from the Caribbean, then our (the US') response is likely to be to close down our trade/commercial relations with the Caribbean, certainly for a period of time," said Flynn who worked as consultant on homeland security on the US commission on national security that was co-chaired by former Congressmen Gary Hart and Warren Rudman.

"It would have a huge impact on tourism (and) it would have a very disabling effect on any export industry," he added.

The Hart/Rudman committee reported in 2001 and pinpointed many of the failures which are believed to have left the United States vulnerable to the September 2001 terrorist attacks that damaged the Pentagon in Washington and brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York.

Jamaica, with about 1,000 homicides a year, has one of the world's highest murder rates. Although the bulk of the murders are categorised as domestic, involving people who know each other, a large amount are also by gang members in conflict over turf. Some of the killings are also the result of robberies.

Many of the guns used in crime are believed to have come into the country because of the drug trade, which is counted as a serious problem for the island.

Jamaica's geographic location makes it an ideal transshipment point for the smuggling of drugs between South America and the United States and Canada, as well as to Europe. It is estimated that more than 100 tonnes of cocaine, or about 10 per cent of the drugs processed in Colombia, passes through Jamaica.

In the past, officials have warned that Jamaica could be vulnerable to narco-terrorists. While the potential of the island being used as a staging point for attacks on the United States - or for hitting soft US targets here - has long been recognised, it is the first time that such a blunt assessment of the potential for the recruitment of local criminals has been so openly made.

Given the possible dangers, it Is in the best interest of Jamaica and other Caribbean countries to guard against acts of terrorism, however minimal the threat against them may be, said Flynn, who has served as an associate professor at the US Coast Guard Academy and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.

"It's very much a fact that none of us can escape the fact that we live in this global community and particularly when the biggest guy on the block (the US) gets paranoid, then Jamaica would be affected," said Flynn. "That's why we all have to pull together. It is within Jamaica's own interest to ensure that this risk is being contained."

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