Trinidad Islamic Group Under Scrutiny

A radical Islamic group known for launching a bloody 1990 coup attempt in Trinidad faced growing scrutiny at home and abroad well before an alleged U.S. terrorist plot focused new attention on it.

The four suspects named on Saturday in the plot to attack John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York tried to enlist the help of Jamaat al Muslimeen, according to U.S. court documents.

But the group, whose followers are largely black converts to Sunni Islam, has faded as a political force in Trinidad as its charismatic leader, Yasin Abu Bakr, fends off criminal charges of inciting violence.

In 1990, Abu Bakr's group stormed Parliament and took the prime minister and his Cabinet hostage in a rebellion that left 24 dead — the only Islamic revolt in the Western Hemisphere. The rebels eventually surrendered and were later pardoned.

Though they did have contact, Jamaat al Muslimeen is not accused of offering any support to the men involved in the plot to blow up the New York airport, its fuel tanks and a jet fuel artery.

Analysts are not surprised.

"They haven't identified themselves as a terrorist group," said Anthony Bryan, a senior associate at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"They're identified more in terms of protection rackets in Trinidad and Tobago," said Bryan, who was doing research in Trinidad.

The suspects allegedly traveled to this twin-island Caribbean nation off the coast of Venezuela to lobby Abu Bakr, but only one met with him. Heavy surveillance of the group and its leaders apparently made communication difficult.

One suspect, Abdul Kadir, allegedly told an informant that he expected difficulty reaching out to Bakr because of the security.

"Everybody is zooming in on him. So I don't know if he'll be available," Kadir said.

Kadir, a former member of Guyana's parliament, and a second suspect were arrested on Friday in Trinidad, where police were searching for a third member of the alleged Muslim terrorist cell that planned to kill thousands by blowing up a jet fuel artery. A fourth suspect, a U.S. citizen native to Guyana, was arrested in New York.

Trinidad and Tobago Police Commissioner Trevor Paul said Sunday that he had "no new information" to report on the search for the suspect at large, Abdel Nur of Guyana. In Guyana, an official and acquaintances of Nur said he had been deported from the United States in the late 1980s after a drug violation and called Americans "oppressors."

Inspired by black nationalist movements in the United States and elsewhere, Jamaat al Muslimeen formed in the 1970s and built a private compound including a mosque and school. It has drawn followers among poor urban blacks but remained underground and the number of members is unknown.

Abu Bakr, a former police officer who converted to Islam, blamed the government for widespread poverty that followed the collapse of world oil prices.

Nur, the suspect at large, said Abu Bakr suggested during their meeting in Trinidad that he return later with others involved "to discuss the plan in detail," according to the U.S. court documents. He reportedly said he also wanted to conduct "checks" on the other plotters.

Phone calls to Abu Bakr's office seeking comment went unanswered Sunday.

Bakr's group, often accused of aiming to create an Islamic state in Trinidad, describes itself simply as a religious organization. It is not known to have international reach, although a member was convicted of trying to smuggle 70 assault rifles to Trinidad from Florida in 2005.

Abu Bakr faces charges stemming from a 2005 sermon in which he called for war against all rich Muslims who refuse to pay zakaat, an Islamic tithe used to alleviate poverty. The following week, he was arrested by police who razed the group's compound and charged with sedition and incitement to violence.

He was questioned but not prosecuted in connection with a 2005 series of at least four bombings in the capital Port-of-Spain.

The FBI opened a permanent office in Trinidad in 2005, partially to investigate the unsolved bombings. At the time, FBI chief Robert Mueller said he had no reason to believe there were terrorist cells in Trinidad or Tobago, but said there are "persons of interest" living in the Caribbean nation.

Nur was detained Feb. 13 by Guyanese detectives at the request of the FBI, fingerprinted, and released, according to a police commander in Guyana who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

After he was named as a suspect, police went to his house and seized Islamic books and documents including receipts from international money transfers, the commander said.

Nur, a Muslim originally named Compton Eversley who is now in his late 50s, worked odd jobs for a foreign-exchange office and smoked drugs at night but appeared harmless, said Rudy Thorne, an employee of the rooming house where he lived in a low-income area of Guyana's capital, Georgetown.

"He left for Trinidad about three weeks ago and did talk about Americans as oppressors," Thorne said. "Other than that he was very quiet."

Colleagues of former lawmaker Kadir in Guyana have expressed disbelief that he could be involved in the alleged plot.

The father of nine children including two Iranian-trained Islamic scholars, Kadir had never expressed extremist views or hatred of the United States, said James McAlister, who served with him in parliament.