As the US maintains its high security alert, The Bahamas has been declared a “soft target” by experts dealing with new threats of a major terrorist attack, it emerged yesterday.
While there is no national alert the country is in a state of “greater watchfulness”, claimed officials. Security precautions have been stepped up in areas considered vulnerable but no details are being released.
The news comes as both the US and Britain adopt high level security in key areas like airports. Heathrow is now under heavy military guard.
While high-profile “symbolic” locations are under special protection in the US and UK The Bahamas is seen as a “soft target” because of the high number of American tourists and resort properties.
The terrorist blast which killed 200 people in Bali last year brought home the possible threat to any resort area used by large numbers of Americans and Europeans.
Brian Bachman , chief of the political/economic section at the US Embassy in Nassau, admitted yesterday that The Bahamas is considered a soft target. This comes in the face of the US maintaining its second highest security alert in response to new threats of terrorist attack.
The Bahamas, said permanent secretary at the Ministry of National Security, Mark Wilson, is not under any national alert, but is exercising “greater watchfulness.”
While he could not divulge any of the security measures in place, he said these efforts involve the Royal Bahamian Police and Defence Force, who exercise vigilance over the island’s “large facilities”. These are measures instituted immediately after September 11, 2001.
While Mr. Bachman said The Bahamas is considered a low risk for terrorism, as it does not have a history of terrorist activity and no large Islamic population, there are still areas such persons would want to target.
Attacks on tourist spots in Bali last year, said Mr. Bachman, pointed to the fact that terrorists may consider attacks on “soft targets” such as major hotels and the island’s embassy.
Excerpted from The Tribune, Rupert Missick
