09 KINGSTON 1024 CLASSIFIED BY: Isiah Parnell, CDA; REASON: 1.4(B), (D) Summary 1. (C) Jamaica has a significant penchant for violence, frequently gang related, and often exported to the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Some perpetrators appear to be in search of the sense of security and strength offered by gang membership, or perhaps to fill the void of an absent father figure in a society in which the family structure is fluid and marriage rates are low. Although not widely known, Jamaicans have been involved in some of the worst or potentially devastating acts of terrorism of the last decade. In 2008, The Economist listed Jamaica as the “most murderous country in the world,” while concluding in a 2009 article that the nation has an “unfixable” crime problem (Reftel A and B). Although Jamaica’s nascent Muslim population is small and largely peaceful, these conditions could be fertile ground for the types of Islamist extremism that has thrived in other countries. The recent return of extremist Jamaican-born cleric Sheikh el-Faisal raises serious concerns regarding the propensity for Islamist extremism in the Caribbean at the hands of Jamaican born nationals. End Summary. Jamaican-Born Terrorism A Rising Concern 2. (SBU) Although Jamaicans have not been widely seen as potential perpetrators of terrorist activity, developments over the last decade indicate that a surprising number have had links to high-profile events. After serving in the U.S. Army and working as a contractor in Iraq, Jamaican-born U.S. resident Kevin Brown returned here to find that his mother had been the victim of an unsolved murder. As a result, Brown reportedly grew increasingly withdrawn and in April 2008, attempted to board a flight from Orlando, Florida to Montego Bay, Jamaica with bomb-making materials in his luggage. Although Brown was not Muslim, he reportedly wanted to show friends how to build explosives similar to those he had seen in Iraq. Brown was sentenced to three years probation. 3. (S) In April 2009, Jamaican Stephen Fray bypassed security while concealing a handgun and entered a Canadian (CanJet) charter flight at Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay (Reftel C). Frey held one hundred and sixty passengers and the crew hostage while the plane was at the gate. At twenty two years old, Fray was sentenced to a maximum of twenty years in prison. Fray may have been Muslim and it appears he visited a mosque on Jamaica’s North Coast. These incidents are reminders of security weaknesses for a country whose biggest industry is tourism and to which more than 80 percent of visitors are from the U.S. and Canada. Jamaican Shoe Bomber 4. (S/NF) In December 2001, Richard Reid, a Briton of Jamaican descent, attempted to detonate an explosive in his shoe aboard American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami. Born to an English mother and an absent Jamaican father who spent nearly twenty years in prison for car theft, Reid had dropped out of high school at sixteen and had turned to a life of petty crime. While in prison, Reid embraced the teachings of radical Islam, and later honed his extremist beliefs at England’s Brixton Mosque (NOTE: Brixton Mosque has been linked to several Islamist extremist figures, including Jamaican extremist cleric Sheikh el-Faisal. The mosque officially condemns terrorism, but has been targeted by extremists in recruitment efforts. End Note). Reid then turned to the more extreme Finsbury Park mosque, well-known for its radical preaching and the significant number of suspected terrorists who have worshipped there. He later traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan, and since has been linked to some of the most notorious terrorist cells in Europe. Reid has been sentenced to life in prison in the United States. Jamaican D.C. Sniper 5. (S/NF) In October 2002, Jamaican-born Lee Boyd Malvo terrorized the Washington D.C. area in the sniper-style killing spree that took the lives of ten people during a three-week period.. Malvo, who grew up without a father and was periodically abandoned by his mother, eventually moved to the U.S. in violation of immigration law. He is presumed to have met his sniper accomplice, John Muhammad, in Antigua, and the two later developed a bond while living in a homeless shelter in Bellingham, Washington, where Muhammad became a father figure in Malvo’s life. Muhammad, a former member of the U.S. Army who taught Malvo how to shoot, is thought to have motivated the murders. After being convicted, Muhammad was executed by lethal injection in 2009. Malvo was sentenced to life in prison at the age of eighteen. Although these events were not linked to Islamist extremism, Muhammad was a convert to the Nation of Islam. (NOTE: Malvo and his mother were detained by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in December 2001 for being illegally present in the U.S. They were released a month later pending a deportation hearing. It was during this time that Malvo caught up with Muhammad. The two are also suspected of fatal shootings in Alabama, Arizona and Louisiana, which occurred before the D.C. shootings. End Note). Jamaican London Metro Bomber 6. (S/NF) Suicide-bomber Germaine Lindsay was a Jamaican-born British resident who moved to the UK when he was five. After converting to Islam and leading what many would later call a quiet life, his beliefs became more radical over time, culminating in his participation in the London bombings on July 7, 2005 at the age of nineteen. Lindsay was killed in the terrorist attack. (NOTE: Less is known about Lindsay’s motivation, but many suspect he had been radicalized by fellow suicide-bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan, eleven years his elder. End Note.) Prisons And Deportees – Extremism Export? 7. (S/NF) Islamist extremism is known to attract young, disaffected single men who are not necessarily from Muslim nations. Jamaica’s marriage rate is low and the unemployment rate is officially twelve percent, although unofficially thought to be much higher. The country’s organized crime dons are notorious for recruiting and arming members from the ranks of poor young men looking for the identity and protection offered by allegiance to a gang. Given the right motivation, it is conceivable that Jamaica’s disaffected youth could be swayed towards organized crime of a different nature through the teachings of radical Islam. The proportionally high number of Jamaicans in U.S. prisons could also be exposed to radical Islamist teachings, as was Richard Reid in the UK. Many Jamaican criminals serving time in prisons abroad are eventually deported back to Jamaica, and under the right conditions this could create a dangerous flow of individuals with extremist attitudes. The New Preacher In Town 8. (S/NF) The January 2010 return of Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal, aka Trevor William Forest, to his Jamaican homeland creates a potential new catalyst for the call to radical Islam (Reftel D and E). Having spent four years in a British prison for advocating the murder of Americans, Israelis, and Hindus, el-Faisal has recently been suspected of recruiting suicide bombers to stage a terrorist attack during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Having led a mosque attended by convicted terrorists in London, he was deported in 2007 from the UK to Jamaica where he continued preaching violence against non-Muslims. In 2008, the Jamaican Islamic Council banned el-Faisal from preaching in the country’s mosques, although he was welcomed to attend. Undeterred, el-Faisal set out to build a mosque in 2008 with money secured from unnamed overseas sources. (NOTE: el-Faisal’s Jamaican business partner was convicted in the U.S. and sentenced to nearly thirteen years in prison for cocaine distribution and sexual assault. The majority of cases from the U.S. Marshals Service Jamaica field office concern fugitives wanted for drug trafficking and violent crime. Gang dons in Jamaican are often exceptionally wealthy as a result of ill-gotten gains related to organized crime and drug trafficking). El-Faisal later moved to East Africa to continue preaching before being deported from Kenya in January 2010. El-Faisal currently is back in Jamaica and is likely to continue his advocacy of violence against non-Muslims, having recently told the press he considers jihad self-defense. Analysis and Conclusion 9. (S/NF) With easy access to drug money, networks of gang members throughout U.S. and British prisons, thousands of disaffected youth, a high number of U.S. tourists, and less than robust security, Jamaica potentially presents fertile ground for those who might commit acts of violence in the name of Islamist extremism. This likelihood has increased with the return of el-Faisal to Jamaica as a potentially motivating catalyst. Jamaica’s proximity to, and large expatriate populations in, the U.S., Canada, and the UK underscore the need to ensure that Islamist extremism does not grow in a nation struggling to control its staggering crime rate. While Jamaica does have legislation to address terrorism, nobody to date has been prosecuted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Note: Stephen Fray was prosecuted for firearms offenses), and the country is largely unprepared to address a real threat. The Ministry of National Security has established an special unit to collect information on Islamic extremism, but the weak appears to be having trained law enforcement entity to able react rapidly to actionable intelligence and to effectively prosecute an anti-terrorism case in the courts. A societal trend of young men who are quick to resort to acts of violence, and a history of high profile terrorist operations perpetrated by individuals with Jamaican roots, should raise concerns and awareness that history could repeat itself. End Analysis and Conclusion. Parnell