Hdrs: Al Qaeda's in da house!

The Honduran Attorney General's office and the Ministry of Security are investigating possible links between the terrorist group al-Qaeda and Islamic organizations in Honduras.

After three months of investigations, Attorney General Ovidio Navarro stated that a network of Islamic organizations in Honduras is attempting to recruit Honduran youths. The Muslim groups offer to finance their studies in Middle Eastern countries, but their ultimate objective is to locate and enlist followers for a terrorist war against the West.

Navarro said that these organizations maintain offices in Honduras but receive their financing from abroad, which is why the government's investigation is attempting to track money pouring into the organizations from overseas. Security Minister Oscar Alvarez commented: "This is very serious. We are talking of Honduran citizens being prepared to commit terrorist acts. We understand that the recruits undergo a kind of 'brainwashing' in order to become Muslim followers and possible martyrs in attacks against civilians. The investigations are intended to keep track of people who have been granted a scholarship to ascertain whether their behavior undergoes changes and what kind of communications they continue to have with groups which the government has declared to be terrorist."

The travel of Honduran citizens to and from the Middle East has taken on an increased urgency following a recent discovery by the U.S. Embassy, which alerted the Honduran authorities to an extensive illicit traffic in Honduran passports being fraudulently used by Afghan and Pakistani citizens. The U.S. Embassy in Honduras sent an official report to President Ricardo Maduro revealing that a Honduran consulate in an undisclosed Latin American country is secretly issuing the documents.

At the same time the American Embassy was alerting Honduran officials, local authorities uncovered and neutralized a group working in Honduras that was procuring Honduran passports for Afghan and Pakistani citizens. This case and another concerning money shipments from Egypt already are in the hands of the public prosecutor for organized crime, Doris Aguilar. "We are collating information with the National Commission of Bank and Insurance to uncover the names of the owners of the saving accounts who are receiving those funds," she explained.

These facts, added to al-Qaeda's threat of serious retaliation against countries that support the United States in Iraq, among them Honduras, have caused authorities to intensify safety measures in airports, commercial ports and public areas.
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Mohamed Yousou Andani, one of the founders of the only mosque in Honduras operating with government approval, was surprised by the statements of Attorney General Navarro and Security Minister Alvarez postulating al-Qaeda links with the Islamic community in Honduras. Andani commented: "As far as I know our mosque [located in San Pedro Sula, the country's second-most important city, 155 miles north of Tegucigalpa] is the only one in Honduras. The mosque's congregation is very small with barely 30 people."

In spite of the sizable Arab-Honduran community, Andani noted that the majority is composed of children or grandchildren of immigrants who arrived in the country several decades ago. According to Andani, even though they maintain the language, names and customs of the Middle East, most of them have changed religion and no longer profess Islam, but rather Christianity.

Big-ups to EPG.

That only one mosque is government sanctioned does not mean that there are not other, underground mosques. Since the Arab population of Honduras is sizable and since not all converted to Christianity, one would imagine that there is still a significant number of these who are Muslims and that that number is more than 30. The ones being sent to the Mid-East for indoctrination must come from some place.

Meanwhile, in the Caribbean, news reports on terrorism focus on blaming the U.S. for everything. I get the impression that Caribbean journalists seem to think that as long as they speak out against the U.S.; as long as their governments position themselves against the U.S. as much as possible, terror will not touch their shores. So, the news stories focus on Carnival, on issues of local interest, but ignore the proximity of terrorism to their shores. Caribbean journalists, with the exception of TT, make no effort to prepare their readers for the threat that confronts us.

The sad and incredible folly of it.