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OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHKG #0027/01 0561531
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
O 251531Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY KINGSTON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0756
INFO RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RUEHDG/AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO IMMEDIATE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON IMMEDIATE 0193
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA IMMEDIATE
RHMFISS/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/FBI WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEAORC/US CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION WASHINGTON DC
RUEHKG/AMEMBASSY KINGSTON
RUMIESS/SOUTHCOM IESS MIAMI FL

S E C R E T KINGSTON 000027 
 
SIPDIS 
NOFORN 
STATE FOR WHA/CAR (VDEPIRRO) (WSMITH) (JMACK-WILSON) 
WHA/EPSC (MROONEY) (FCORNEILLE) 
INR/RES (RWARNER) 
INR/I (SMCCORMICK) 
SANTO DOMINGO FOR FCS AND FAS 
TREASURY FOR ERIN NEPHEW 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 2035/02/25 
TAGS: ECON PTER SOCI EAIR ASEC PREL PINS PINR KISL KCRM
KCOR, KTFN, JM, XL 
SUBJECT: Jamaica: Fertile Soil for Terrorism? 
 
REF: 09 KINGSTON 521; 09 KINGSTON 964; 09 KINGSTON 303; KINGSTON 3 
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