Dear Editor,
I was shocked to read about the three men who were arrested at our airport last Saturday, a day after Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris. It has been confirmed that they are Syrian nationals. The fact that they were travelling with false passports is an indication that they did not come here with good intentions.
The words of our minister of Justice: “There seem to be no indications of planned acts of terrorism in St. Maarten” are not in the least reassuring. The fact that they are here is an indication that a catastrophe might be in the making.
It cannot be ruled out that these men are terrorists, killers of innocent men, women and children, who have either fled in order to escape arrest, or came here to carry out a terrorist attack.
Thank God our immigration officers were competent enough to detect their false documents. These men obviously did not expect to be caught on such a tiny island as ours. My admiration goes out to these officers.
Given the fact that the USA and both France and Holland have dropped bombs on Syria, and lots of American tourists come here, the terrorists could have targeted this little Dutch-French island to simultaneously take vengeance on Holland, France and the USA. The idiom: To kill 2 (read 3) birds with one stone comes to mind here.
The perfect targets would be our international airport and/or harbour where there are thousands of American tourists and only a handful of unarmed security guards. I once jokingly pointed out to one of the guards-a former postal worker-that he is unarmed, untrained and therefore utterly helpless in any emergency.
I then asked him, “What would you do if confronted by an armed man? Without hesitating, he replied, “Mr. Hodge, I would run away.” We both laughed at his reply, but we both knew he would do exactly that. I can’t blame him. It would be insane for an unarmed security officer to attempt to tackle someone with a weapon. Many countries have tightened security at their airports; what are we waiting for?
I used to think that our little island was safe from what’s going on in the rest of the
World; I no longer entertain that thought.
All security guards at the airport and at the harbour should be armed with uzis and properly trained on how to use them. We don’t want them to miss their targets. Another concern is that the toys our police officers are wearing will not protect them or us from terrorists. These precautions would not scare away tourists; on the contrary, they would make them (and us) feel safe.
In 2001, I heard from several people that Arabs residing on the island had rejoiced and celebrated after the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center had taken the lives of more than 3,000 innocent people and injured almost 10,000.
I was also told by several persons that one of those, who were involved in the 9-11 attack had been on St. Maarten.
If these rumours were true, it cannot be ruled out that these three Syrians could have friends or family members on our island, who are willing to accommodate them and provide them with the information (and perhaps even weapons) they need to carry out their ungodly acts here.
As far as I know, containers that come to the island are not inspected by the authorities. Terrorist-friendly Arabs–if they are indeed here-could have imported more than just furniture and hardware into the island. They could also be funding terrorism overseas with all their unpaid tax monies.
I used to praise European countries that are accepting-even welcoming-tens of thousands of refugees who are fleeing Syria, Iraq and other troubled countries. The vast majority of ‘refugees’ are actually immigrants fleeing abject poverty and seeking a better life in Europe and the USA. God will bless these countries, I often said.
However, my attitude changed after I read reports of how these ‘refugees’ are gang- raping, violating, severely ill-treating women and young girls and instilling fear and dread in the population of their host country.
They insist on introducing Sharia law and enforcing their ungodly culture and way of life on their host countries. The fact that the governments of the host countries are doing nothing to protect their own people from these dangerous criminals is beyond me. I guess all these happenings boil down to politics. The host country wants to show the world how generous and humanitarian they are.
They do this to the detriment of their own citizens.
Asking the population and border officials to be on high alert is not good enough. All countries, including St. Maarten, should close their borders to these murderers who are intent on killing Jews and Christians. This may sound inhumane, but the safety of our people should be our government’s first priority.
The French government has extended the state of emergency to all her overseas territories, including French Saint Martin. What are we waiting for? Let’s not bury our heads in the sand! Let’s not wait until after the unthinkable has taken place to take action.
Clive Hodge
