(Trinidad Guardian) Security has been beefed up at the Piarco and Crown Point international airports in response to travel alerts issued by the United States following the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on Sunday.
Sources at Piarco airport confirmed that yesterday. Deputy general manager of security at the Airports Authority of T&T, Joseph Edwards, confirmed last night that security at the airports had been tightened. He said: “We have put our personnel on high alert. It will continue until we are satisfied the threat no longer exists. We have to be guided by what is happening in the international arena.” Meanwhile, Office of Disaster Preparedness Management (ODPM) chief executive officer, Dr Stephen Ramroop, also called for beefed up security at critical national facilities due to threats of retaliation from Islamic groups after the United States army killed Al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden.
Ramroop made the appeal in an interview yesterday after the opening of the Expansion of the Earthquake Readiness Capacity Building Initiative stakeholder consultation at the Chancellor Hotel and Conference Centre, St Ann’s. The US Department of State issued a worldwide alert to its citizens travelling or residing abroad about the enhanced potential for anti-American violence as a result of the counter-terrorism attack in Pakistan. US President Barack Obama announced Bin Laden was killed by US special forces on a compound in Pakistan. Bin Laden was accused of being the mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
