(Trinidad Guardian) An officer from the T&T Defence Force will be stationed at a US facility, expediting the exchange of intelligence information between T&T and the United States, National Security Minister Edmund Dillon said yesterday. He was replying to queries after yesterday’s Joint Select Committee (JSC) meeting concerning the Energy Ministry at the Parliament. Dillon is a member of that JSC.
He was asked about the outcome of his meeting last week with the US Joint Task Force (Southern Command) Unit, part of the US military which deals with the Caribbean /Latin American region.
Dillon went to the meeting last Wednesday soon after T&T was plagued by social media voice notes warning of a threat attack on malls by Isis.
Another voice note on the weekend warned of an attack on schools yesterday. Dillon said his ministry and the Education Ministry had co-ordinated plans to ensure security alerts against that. He said he had been invited to last week’s US meeting to deal with matters relating to intel sharing and information gathering concerning maritime and aerial security.
“The meeting allows for a lot more sharing of information which will allow us to deal with an intelligence-led operations in T&T. Due to the US’ reach, we stand to benefit quite a lot.
“Coming out of that meeting, we will have a T&T Defence Force officer stationed at a US facility so direct passing of information would be done to speed up operations,” Dillon added. He declined to give a date for start of that arrangement.
Dillon also confirmed the presence of a Canadian military navy vessel in port—HMCS Shawinigan—which arrived yesterday and will be here until Saturday before heading to Grenada for the annual US-led Operations Trade Winds exercise involving North American and Caribbean militaries.
He said Canada had been playing an important role regionally, including a military liaison office in Haiti, and has helped T&T with assistance, including assets during the Americas and Commonwealth Summit’s (2009) and subsequent Cricket World Cup event.
On further foreign assistance, Dillon said Monday’s meeting with the Venezuelan Security Minister moved the T&T-Venezuelan relationship further on specific intel-gathering and sharing between T&T’s Coast Guard and the Venezuelan Navy. He said Venezuela’s Coast Guard commander was due in T&T next week for talks to plan an operation in August.
He also said the President’s assent to the controversial Strategic Services Agency Act would now allow T&T to have a sense of legitimacy which would enhance intel-sharing with foreign partners. In the past, he said, they had been reluctant to share due to legal ramifications and since they required a legal entity to deal with sharing high sensitive information.
Dillon said the five T&T nationals detained in Venezuela since March 2014 on suspicion of being terrorists are expected to attend court hearings again next week.
