Imam Yasin Abu Bakr the spiritual head of the Jamāʻat al-Muslimeen group, a Sunni Islamic group based on the island of Trinidad and Tobago was arrested questioned and held in the Central Police station in Port of Spain, in connection with the murder of Senator Dana Seetahal.
Figure 1: Dana Seetahal. This from the Jamaica Observer: “Seetahal, 58, a fearless prosecutor who had prosecuted attempted-coup leader Abu Bakr in the past and successfully won the lawsuit which enabled the State to sell the former insurgent’s property, was currently prosecutor in another high-profile case—the murder trial of Vindra Naipaul-Coolman”.
The mood of the country yesterday was one of overwhelming fear, worry and insecurity.
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Vindra Naipaul Coolman. |
I wrote the above post month’s before the actual questioning began, but for those who doubt I can quote from previous postings pertinent to same from my book, and from both my websites.
I will quote from my book Rastafari and its Hindu Origins, which was retitled Rastafari and its Shamanist Origins, the book was written in 2003 and published the same year under the first title given, it was later republished in 2007, under the latter title. On page 83 of said book I wrote that: “The Caribbean region will figure greatly in the upcoming years as a region that is part of the Arab Israeli question, the island of Trinidad and Tobago has gone, unnoticed in international circles as a haven for extremist Muslim rhetoric and activity. The attempted coup led by the Jamāʻat alMuslimeen leadership is an example of Muslim extremism in the region”. I further wrote that: “The extremist Muslim organization based in Trinidad will prove to be a security threat regionally in years to come. The tendency of Arab governments, NGO’s and wealthy people, to fund Muslim fundamentalist organizations with political aspirations based on sectarian and religious identity politics, to train and finance Muslim extremists in other parts of the world, have also proven to be the case in Trinidad and Tobago”. On Thursday July 23, 2015 an article appeared in the Today Newspaper captioned under the same heading of this article. The (CMC) carried the following report I have excerpted, only the parts from said article pertinent to what I have stated pertaining to the murder of Senator Dana Seetahal and the Jamāʻat al-Muslimeen group as being a player in her murder. Here is the CMC report: “PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) - Members of the Jamāʻat al-Muslimeen group staged an all night vigil outside of the Central Police station here on Tuesday lending support to their leader, Yasin Abu Bakr, who is being questioned in relation to the murder of prominent attorney and special prosecutor Dana Seetahal in 2014. Bakr’s son Faud Bakr stated: “It seems they are putting him through the process of 72 hours and that’s unfair” Bakr is among 11 people including a woman detained by police in connection with Seetahals murder. A high ranking member of the JAM said if Bakr is not released after 72 hours: “We will have to go and get him”. Fuad Bakr in an attempt to distance himself from the above quoted statement said the following: “I know we like bacchanal in Trinidad and Tobago…but let us not put the population of Trinidad and Tobago into any mode of panic. Let me state unequivocally that my father has never been against the population of Trinidad and Tobago. He had an issue with a number of people in authority”. Seetahals murder rocked Trinidad and Tobago, highlighting the ongoing power struggle between the government of TnT and the (JAM). If and when an open confrontation occurs between the government and the JAM, returning battle hardened Jamāʻat al-Muslimeen, from Iraq and Syria will be more than a match for the police force and the military on TT. The war experience gained in Iraq and Syria by Jam members and their affiliates will prove invaluable in bolstering, their ranks in TT and other Caribbean Islamic extremist groups affiliated with the Jamāʻat al-Muslimeen. There is at present no government in the Caribbean, with the trained personnel necessary to defeat an Islamic extremist operation of a regional or local nature. The ability of the JAM to with impunity influence the murder of, or to conduct the murder of high ranking parliamentarians, prosecutors and attorneys in Trinidad, is a testament to their sophistication and influence on and reach in criminal circles on TT. The JAM will continue to mutate and adapt, in this 21st century global reality that we live in today. The transnational and geo-political nature of modern terrorism dictates that it will happen. The JAM are not simply a terrorist organization, they are an organization that is primarily an Islamic fundamentalist Sunni organization, with political aspirations with great influence within criminal and disenfranchised quarters on TT. The leadership of the JAM in sharp contrast to its base are mainly university graduates, fluent in Arabic who have in most cases either studied or lived in the US, Canada, and the UK or in some cases Saudi Arabia. The JAM is part and parcel of the global Islamist fundamentalist Sunni Salafist current, whom are at present prominent in the global consciousness, such a development is an empowering occurrence within the JAM coupled with the fact that many JAM members and affiliates are now fighting in the ranks of Islamic State and other jihadist groups in the Middle East all point to an explosive terrorist event in the not too distant future regionally, which will have a debilitating effect on the tourism industry regionally and will irrevocably transform the region on a multitude of levels, particularly in the sphere of collective security, regional intra-cooperation on a regional security net et.al.
In the latest Seetahal related news, which appeared in an article in the Daily Herald, Tuesday, July 28, 2015, under the headline: “Eleven men charged in Trinidad with murder of prominent attorney”. United States Assistant Secretary William Brownfield said: “DANA’S HIT WAS ORDERED BY A TRANS-NATIONAL DRUG ORGANISATION WITH OPERATIONS IN TRINIDAD & TOBAGO.” William Brownfield’s statement is unsubstantiated and clouds the field. Seetahal’s murder was clearly tied to the disgruntlement, felt by members of the JAM when Seetahal began clamouring for closure of the Sport Life Program, which was an important economic mainstay in the JAM’s many economic “enterprises”.
Rajaee Ali (Rajaee Ali is the same man I wrote about elsewhere in this article, a Muslim and a member of the Jamāʻat al-Muslimeen), one of the 11 murder accused, has been charged under the anti-gang legislation with being a gang leader. His co-accused have been charged with being members of a gang along with three others-Dion Peters, David Hector and Stacy Griffith, one of Ali’s wives. Griffith, whose continued detention had sparked a confrontation between police and members of the Jamāʻat al-Muslimeen last Thursday night, will answer an additional charge of committing an act for the benefit of a gang. The Jamāʻat al-Muslimeen, is not a gang it is a Sunni-Salafist Islamic movement, whose head is an Imam namely Yasin Abu Bakr. By continually treating the Jamāʻat al-Muslimeen group as a gang the TT government remains hand tied in their dealings with the terrorist group. The Jamāʻat al-Muslimeen employs terrorist tactics in attaining their goals, though they do not limit themselves to such. The JAM has enormous clout within certain criminal subcultures in TT, since many criminals convert to Islam in prison and upon their subsequent release actively seek out the JAM. Rajaee Ali and persons of his ilk are a criminal cadre within the JAM, who are influenced by the JAM leadership to carry out certain types of attacks on high
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Figure 4: Rajaee Ali during a press conference.
ranking officials as a means of gaining political mileage. Seetahal was an outspoken critic of the now defunct Sport Life Program, which as I have proven was run by the JAM, with most of the participants being members of the JAM or affiliates of said organization. I wrote the following almost prophetic post on this website; Tuesday, January 13, 2015 under the caption:
 Seetahal's VW Touareg.Investigations have so far revealed that Seetahal was followed after she left the Ma Pau casino on Tragarete Road, Woodbrook, and was ambushed near the Woodbrook Youth Facility and killed. Police said a panel van, which had been parked near the Woodbrook Youth Facility, blocked her path, and two men, one armed with an assault rifle and another with a handgun, walked up to her Volkswagen Touareg. The man with the machine gun fired several shots in the air, leaving behind close to 15 spent 5.56 ammunition shells, while the other, now identified as Baker, stood near the driver’s door and fired repeatedly at his target. Forensic analysis of the scene revealed that the shots were fired so close that gunpowder residue was found on Seetahal’s face and clothing”.
The latest news on the police investigation into Seetahal’s murder is as follows: “A man in prison custody on the oil-rich island of Trinidad is assisting police with details into the murder of Senior Counsel Dana Seetahal. Police investigator’s claim to be in possession of, “key” information concerning the details of her murder. The man is linked to an east Trinidad mosque”. The senator was an outspoken critic of the now defunct “Unemployment Relief Program (URP), now morphed to the Sport Life Program (SLP)”, which had been for years co-opted by the Jamāʻat al Muslimeen (JAM) terrorist group, their associates and organizations and individuals, linked to the JAM. The suspect in police custody was also a participant in the defunct Life Sport Program, where he earned $1500 dollars a month for participating in the programme. From Caribbean 360 the following exposes a clear pattern of Muslims connected to the Jamāʻat al Muslimeen or who are members of said organization, being linked to the controversial Life Sport programme and in one case Rajaee Ali, the coordinator of the programme. Ali, a former murder suspect, was arrested in May soon after the murder of prominent senior counsel Dana Seetahal, he was released without charge. As coordinator Ali earned a monthly fee of $30,000 and was paid from the Ministry of Sport through a company called Varied Project Co-Operation Ltd, which is owned by the Imam. “It was also agreed that each coordinator shall hire two supervisors and one secretary to assist in the performance of their duties. The two supervisors were to receive $5,000 per month each and the secretary $3,000 per month out of the $30,000 paid to these co-ordinators.” LifeSport was conducted under a tent next to the mosque by co-ordinator Rajaee Ali, whose father’s, Imam Hassan Ali had a catering contract from LifeSport through his organisation Al Islamia Jama Ul Haqq. The value of that catering contract was $88,500 a month. Imam Hassan, in an interview published in the Express on May 19, said he helped mobilise voters to get the People’s Partnership Government into office in 2010 “against orders”. During that Express interview R Ali told the Express that he was chosen by the Ministry of Sport to be head of Carapo’s LifeSport and had met Sport Minister Anil Roberts “about nine to ten times” in the past two years. Roberts is also the MP for the area, D’Abadie/O’Meara. “People on the board chose people in different areas who they believe could co-ordinate the youths in the programme. I just came out of prison. Someone on the board who knew me, who went to school with me, told me about it,” R Ali had said. “I was chosen. Once I could get up to 60 participants, which I carried out. That is how the rumours started about Anil Roberts funding crime. He gave men in the constituency an option to do something legal, to make money fair,” R Ali had said. In 2004, R Ali was charged with the murder of Amadoo Huggins, when he was just 18. He has spent eight years in prison. In 2007, he was one of three prisoners who escaped from Golden Grove Prison in Arouca, but was eventually caught and sent back and was released in 2011. The Central Audit Committee had expressed concern about certain individuals who were contracted as co-ordinators for specific centres.
 Figure 5: Rajaee Ali under arrest.
Few governments in the western hemisphere are as corrupt and intimately linked with the mafia, and other unlawful elements like Caribbean governments. The government of Trinidad and Tobago are intimately involved with the JAM, which is an insular “self governing” entity. The JAM, is a large organization with a huge amount of social cache, namely it’s influence, when a parliamentarian is seeking re-election, they inevitably must campaign in neighbourhoods that are JAM strongholds, hereby ensuring that the JAM will influence members of the community to vote for candidates that it favours, in exchange for those votes the JAM leadership are given positions, such as the one given to Rajaee Ali, as coordinator for a multi-million dollar government programme. It should not be a surprise then, that Seetahal was murdered since she was the most vocal and outspoken politician, calling for the closure of the Life Sport Programme, which was a mainstay of fiscal support within the “criminal” cadre of the JAM, or persons affiliated with the Jamāʻat al Muslimeen group. Rajaee Ali a criminal suspected of murder, closely linked to a radical Sunni Muslim extremist group who murdered parliamentarians in a six day coup wherein 24 people were killed, was yet placed in a high level government position, by
members of the same government that the JAM attempted to overthrow, what power could the JAM possibly wield over the government of Trinidad and Tobago? The JAM is a large and influential organization, when politicians in the oil-rich twin island state seek to be elected, inevitably they must campaign in JAM strongholds, such as Lavantille et al, in exchange for guaranteeing certain political factions gain votes in JAM controlled districts, some politicians give Jam members positions in government or government run-programmes like the Sport Life Program. In a daring display of bravado, which epitomizes the mindset of Abu Bakr, Caribbean 360 reported that Bakr’s outburst during a radio programme in Trinidad on Wednesday night followed what he claimed was the unlawful detention of people at a mosque in Carapo, earlier that week. Bakr warned acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams , National Security Minister Gary Griffith and Roger Alexander, head of the North Eastern Division Task force that : “the question of coming into the mosque in Ramadan and detaining people unlawfully will not , and I repeat will not be accepted. Big man Alexander , if you think you can do whatever you want and you are not accountable to God, Mr commissioner of Police, Mr Griffith, this is Abu Bakr , Iam saying if you continue this transgression against us , we will respond appropriately, end of talk”. Seetahal in her capacity as a Special Prosecutor was uniquely placed to influence closure and in fact she was actively advocating for closure of the program. The person’s and organizations negatively affected by the closure were and are still, persons affiliated with, or direct members of the Jamāʻat al-Muslimeen group, motive established, not only is their motive clear the people testifying to the police are JAM connected or affiliated, pertinent to Seetahals murder. The people being implicated are mainly JAM members and or affiliates of same. The collective security of the region will increasingly be advocated as the linchpin, for intra-cooperation regionally and internationally. At a recently concluded graduation ceremony at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defence Studies (WJPC), in Washington DC, Guyana’s President David Granger said: “The small state has now become the central focus of international relations in the region. The end of bipolar international relations has allowed the spotlight to focus on the security of small states”. The Guyanese President also said small states face internal and external threats which may be politically motivated. He stressed the fact that transnational threats such as the trade in illegal narcotics, illegal weapons and human trafficking are all huge maladies that small states can never combat on their own.
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