WASHINGTON (CMC):

In the wake of the foiling of an attempted plot to blow up John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, counter-terrorism officials say the rise of radical Islam in the Caribbean and Latin America is "alarming".

All four suspects in the plot had ties to the region. Two were arrested in Trinidad and Tobago, including ex-Guyanese lawmaker Abdul Kadir.

Senior U.S. counterterrorism officials confirmed fears that Islamists in Trinidad and Tobago could turn the nation "into another Mogadishu", referring to the Somali capital ruled until last year by Islamic fundamentalists with Al Qaeda ties.

'Loose-knit' confederation

"Trinidad and Tobago have been a high concern for us since the late 1980s," said Michael Scheuer, who created the CIA's Osama Bin Laden unit in 1996.

Scheuer said the Caribbean is not home to major terror groups, aside from Trinidad's Jamaat al Muslimeen, but a "loose-knit" confederation of extremists have found it easy to move around the tourist-friendly islands.

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the Caribbean is a region "of increasing concern to us".

"It's an area we should take a closer look at," he said Saturday at the arraignment of Russell Defreitas, the Guyanese-born alleged mastermind behind the attempted plot.

Counter-terror agents

In Latin America, most attention of U.S. counterterror agents is focused on Argentina, its notorious border with Paraguay and Brazil, and northern Chile.

But the FBI has only about 25 legal attaches, called legates, positioned in embassies throughout the Americas, officials said.