In the wake of allegations that The Bahamas has very strong ties to terrorism by a US INTEL officer, Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell is hinting that some legal action may be in place.
Malcolm Nance on Saturday made the serious claim while sitting as a guest on a MSNBC show hosted by JoyAnn Reid over the weekend.
He alleged that the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria commonly referred to as ISIS, has dozens of members from Brazil or Trinidad or The Bahamas, who has more terrorist members than any of those other countries.
Those comments sparked controversy on social media over the weekend.
Minister Mitchell again denounced the allegations during a press conference at his office after a signing of a new AUTEC (Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Centre) agreement between the US government and The Bahamas yesterday.
“Our lawyers are dealing with the matter in the US; and I think I’ll have more to say once that’s been done. But suffice it to say, there is no evidence that that statement is correct and true. The person himself has backed off the statement,” said Mr. Mitchell.
“We believe that MSNBC itself ought to formally back off the statement because it was said in an off- hand manner. The tweet which was the response was not sufficient in our view because it’s dismissive and he also goes on to another point to make other allegations which were irrelevant to this point,” he added.
Mr. Nance was linking his claims to a recent report where officials identified two suicide bombers in the deadly attacks on an airport and subway station in Brussels as brothers with criminal records.
Interpol listed one of the brothers as having dual citizenship, Belgian and Bahamian nationality and that he had been wanted in Belgium on terrorist charges.
However, the Bahamian reference has been dispelled.