Atg: Countering terrorism

Antigua & Barbuda and the rest of the Caribbean should become ISPS compliant by the mandatory deadline of 1 July. This has been revealed by captain John Hewlett, one of the guest speakers at a two-day ISPS Awareness and Implementation seminar now taking place at the Royal Antiguan Hotel.

"The Caribbean Shipping Association is working towards that and I think we can and with seminars like this and people being made more aware of what needs to be done, I think we can do it," Hewlett said.

According to Hewlett, US intelligence suggests that the next major attack could be on cruise ships. "The target intelligence suggests that there is going to be a lot of attacks against Americans outside the US, in countries friendly to the US ... and the problem is, it is very important for us... intelligence suggests the next major attack is going to be on a cruise ship and we really hope and pray that it does not happen in the Caribbean."

"The security designed to prevent drug trafficking, follows similar patterns like the terrorists actions and if we can put the system a little bit higher we"re at home. A lot of people think we need to get the fancy expensive electronic machines but it is not necessary. You can do it by upgrading the system that you have," he said.