-company official testifies in US court
The Co-director of UK firm Smith Myers yesterday testified in a New York court that the cellular intercept equipment used by drug kingpin Roger Khan had been sold to the Government of Guyana (GoG), a contention that officials here have repeatedly denied.
Peter Myers, who co-founded the firm, testified under oath that the intercept equipment, including an intercept receiver and two laptops, was sold by the company’s Florida sales office through the Fort Lauderdale-based Spy Shop to the GoG. According to Capitol News, Meyers, who identified the equipment in court and said it was only sold to governments, was addressing the Brooklyn, New York Federal court, where former Khan lawyer Robert Simels is being tried for witness tampering. Simels’ defence yesterday again identified Health Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy as the purchaser of the equipment on behalf of the GoG-a charge that the minister continued to deny up to late last evening.
Smith Myers’ profile lists it as a company that specialises in cellular engineering, designing and manufacturing cellular measurement equipment for cellular network operators worldwide. It has been producing application specific cellular measurement equipment since 1986 and is well regarded around the world for its expertise and quality of equipment.
The intercept receiver Myers said was identified as the CSM 7806 as well as two “TOUGHBOOK” Laptops, a small one and a larger one. He told the court both in direct evidence and during cross-examination that the only things missing from the equipment that was sold to Guyana were a USB cable and a small rubber antenna, both regular items that could be picked up at any electronic store. Myers, in his testimony, said that both laptops were working, while the intercept receiver had a minor power supply problem.
He explained that his company has manufactured such equipment to be sold to law enforcement agencies at a price of around roughly US$75,000. The equipment allows intelligence officers to intercept cellular phone calls using the receiver and the data can be sent by USB cable to the laptops where the numbers and the conversations/communication can be recorded onto the hard drive. He said while any laptop can be used running on Windows XP or other systems, the Intercept CSM 7800 series is necessary to passively intercept the radio frequencies on which all cellular phones operate.
Myers was shown the operating software CD and he identified it as belonging to his company and stated that the software would have accompanied the equipment sale. He further identified printouts and photographs of the two “Toughbook” laptops and confirmed them as the company’s operating systems.
He also testified that an independent contractor, a trainer named Carl Chapman, had been dispatched to Guyana to train the persons who had to use the laptops. Further, Simels’ defence team maintains in emails and subpoenas that Khan was trained by Chapman to use the equipment. The US government intends to call the FEDEX individuals who were responsible for the movement of the equipment from the US back to Guyana and back to Simels office, from where the authorities seized it. Stabroek News had reported on the visit of the trainer but the government and the immigration department were mum on this.
Meanwhile, lengthy lists of Guyana telephone numbers gleaned from the spy equipment with target names like “Fineman” next to some of them were shown to the court. Among the numbers, were one allegedly assigned to dead fugitive Rondell “Fineman” Rawlins and another belonging to opposition leader Robert Corbin. The sheets of the list of numbers were entered into evidence and are available as part of the case docket.
In a comment last night, Corbin told Stabroek News that he was not surprised to learn of the revelations. “I had said so publicly before and it is clear that Roger Khan was facilitating the government with it since then,” he said, noting that it was known that Khan had tapped the phone of former Police Commissioner Winston Felix.
He said the government had been silent because Khan was working as an agent on its behalf. The opposition leader emphasised that he was conscious of the fact that he was being tapped and he added that the number was still tapped presently. During last year’s parliamentary debate on the law to allow wiretaps, Corbin had argued that the government was only seeking to “legitimise” what it was already doing.
According to court papers seen by Stabroek News, the specialised equipment was among the items seized from the New York office of Simels during an investigation. In an affidavit in support of a search warrant executed on Simels’ office, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officer Cassandra Jackson said the equipment was shipped by the lawyer to his York Avenue, New York office.
‘No I did not!’
Khan’s defence yesterday maintained that Ramsammy was the purchaser of the equipment. Defence attorney Gerald Shargel told Capitol News that the evidence shows Ramsammy authorised the purchase on behalf of the GoG.
Ramsammy, who has denied testimony of his alleged links to Khan, said he was not the purchaser. “No I did not!” he told Stabroek News when asked about the claim last evening, adding, “And that is all I am, prepared to say about the issue.” On Tuesday, a US government informant Selwyn Vaughn linked Ramsammy to Khan. Subsequently, the Minister distanced himself from the allegations about his connections to Khan, calling the claims “absurd” and charging that the witness was trying to frame him.
Meanwhile, Capitol News also noted that since Smith Myers is a UK-based company, it could be asked by the GoG or a Guyana court to produce the authorisation the Florida Office received to allow the equipment to be sold to Guyana.
In December 2002, an army patrol discovered the sophisticated electronic surveillance equipment and arms in a pick-up that Khan, Haroon Yahya and policeman Sean Belfield were in at Good Hope, on the East Coast Demerara. Khan and his cohorts had told law enforcement officials at the time that they were in search of Shawn Brown and the other February 2002 Camp Street prison escapees.
Police Commissioner Henry Greene had maintained that local law enforcement is in possession of the equipment seized from Khan in 2002. When asked what the force was going to do with the equipment and why it had not been used to track some of Khan’s former associates, he said it would be “used as evidence.”
After he was held by the US his lawyers claimed that when the escapees went on a killing spree, Khan responded to the crisis, providing financial and logistical support to the government. In June last year, as Khan battled a drug smuggling indictment, his lawyers disclosed that a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) probe had found that the GoG had given Khan permission to purchase the sensitive electronic surveillance equipment from the Spy Shop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and this was reported in the Stabroek News. On June 9, 2008, the Home Affairs Ministry issued a statement rejecting the claim, saying that both Guyana and the US had strict sale and import/export controls on such items. “In Guyana, such sensitive electronic items could only be procured and imported for the exclusive use of law enforcement agencies,” the statement said. “Such a request by the law enforcement agencies of Guyana would have to be approved by the relevant authorities before an application is made by the [GoG] to the relevant American authorities for approval for the item to be exported to Guyana. The Ministry of Home Affairs asserts that it did not authorize the importation of the electronic equipment under question nor did it seek any approval of the US authorities for an export licence for the item. In the context of the above, the Ministry of Home Affairs has since requested the American authorities to provide it with the records of all such applications made by the Government of Guyana during the period of the operations of the Roger Khan outfit.”
Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon shortly after said that he had neither signed any document authorising Khan to import the equipment nor had colluded with him to do so. Meanwhile, on June 25, last year, President Bharrat Jagdeo said that the spy equipment was in the custody of the police and had not worked since it was confiscated.
He also reiterated that the GoG could not give permission to Khan to import the sophisticated surveillance equipment from the Spy Shop. Jagdeo said it was only the US government which could have authorised the sale, while noting that a formal request had been made to the US State Department on the issue as well as allegations from the US government that Khan may have been tied to a group responsible for over 200 murders during the period of 2002 to 2006. “We don’t have any hard evidence about these claims but we have nothing to hide so we have requested the information from the US and whatever are the responses we will make it public,” Jagdeo declared at the time.
During the period he represented Khan, Simels sent emails to Myers, seeking to confirm who had trained Khan. “This is a simple matter – Spy Shop purchased this machine on the authority of the Guyana Government. Your company provided technical support in the training of individuals in Guyana. Providing a simple invoice for training, without any other documentation as to who provided the training, the underlying billing rather than a lump sum figure for travel and lodging accommodations in Guyana, and significantly, the actual invoice for the sale of the triangulation equipment are all within your possession and your company is subject to the subpoena and compliance since you have a US office. We can also use international treaties to enforce, and I will not hesitate to do so, if needed,” Simels told Myers in an email.
Simels’ emails to the company representatives were released as exhibits in a motion he filed in a bid to have the charges of mailing and possession of eavesdropping equipment that were recently filed against him and his former assistant, Arienne Irving, dismissed. Simels and Irving, who had been charged with witness tampering jointly with Khan, who has since pleaded guilty to the charge as well as drug trafficking charges and a separate gun-running charge.
