US helping Guyana terror suspect

GEORGETOWN: The United States said it is helping Guyana track down a suspected mastermind in a series of domestic terror attacks, despite local concerns Washington is doing little to help, a US official said.

"The request for information is with the Department of Justice and they're are processing it," US acting Charge d'Affaires in Guyana, Carol Horning. said Saturday

She explained that the US first has to conduct due diligence and privacy procedures related to phone records.

Guyanese police were Saturday still looking for at least two of eight men who last Monday attempted to burn down two government buildings, including the High Court, and opened heavy gunfire on two police stations, injuring two policemen.

This is the second time in four months that Guyanese authorities have linked the suspected master-mind in the US with attacks on government buildings based on phone-records showing calls made to suspected co-conspirators here.

Last July, the Ministry of Health building was destroyed by fire. Police, government and the business community have all labeled these events as the work of terrorists.

Reacting to concerns by Guyana's President, Bharrat Jagdeo that the US appeared reluctant to cooperate in helping his country fighting domestic terrorism, Horning said: "I can't react to interpretations and what's taking place."

"Can you imagine if... someone here in Guyana had made a call to the US to someone just before he burnt a federal building in the United States of America, what kind of pressure we would be under here in Guyana to find the person and deliver him to them.

"In fact there would a storm of FBI agents coming here," he added.

Guyana's umbrella business organisation, the Private Sector Commission (PSC) also expressed concern at the failure by the US to so far hand over information about the unnamed suspect in the US.