-‘I don’t know anything about it,’ minister says
A 2002 letter sent to an official of the Miami-based Spy Shop purportedly from embattled Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy confirming support for the purchase of a “cell phone interceptor and geographic integrator” on behalf of the Government of Guyana has surfaced, but the minister denied knowing anything about it up to late yesterday.
The letter, “Re: Acquiring the services of cell phone interceptor and geographic integrator,” is dated October 24, 2002, just two months before the intercept equipment was seized from drug trafficker Roger Khan and others by members of the joint services. It is addressed to someone named “Nancy”. Nancy Salvador has been revealed in court documents as being an employee of the spy shop in Miami.
“I don’t know anything about it,” Ramsammy told Stabroek News last evening when contacted about the letter. Further pressed on the issue and informed that the letter includes his ministry’s official letterhead with the ministry’s telephone numbers, he maintained his position. “Yeah but I don’t know anything,” he said. “I don’t know where people are coming up with these things.”
The full text of the letter, which this newspaper has seen, reads:
October 24, 2002
Dear Nancy
Re: Acquiring the services of cell phone interceptor and geographic integrator
Guyana is in the throes of one of the worst crime situation the nation has ever faced. We are interested in acquiring your service for a short period so that we can enhance our intelligence.
Our representatives have been in touch with you. I have spoken directly to you and this letter on my Cabinet portfolio letterhead is confirmation that this initiative has government’s support.
Thank you.
Yours truly,
Dr Leslie Ramsammy
Minister of Health
Government of Guyana
What looks like the minister’s signature is affixed above his name and portfolio in the letter.
Ramsammy was identified as having links to Khan by both US government witnesses and the defence at the recently concluded trial of former Khan lawyer, Robert Simels. The revelations in the court flowed primarily from the testimony of Selwyn Vaughn, a paid US informant who said he was a member of Khan’s ‘Phantom Squad.’ Vaughn told jurors that Khan had connections to the government through Ramsammy.
Peter Myers, the Co-director of UK firm Smith Myers, 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 Guyana government. Meyers, who identified the equipment in court, said it was only sold to governments.
Simels’ defence identified Ramsammy as the purchaser of the equipment on behalf of the government. The letter is the first piece of physical evidence that implicates the minister.
However, both the government and Ramsammy have continually denied the allegation. While testimony in the US courts stated that Simels exported the equipment back to the US, the police and the government have said the equipment is here and Commissioner of Police Henry Greene recently produced two items for the media.
Last week, during a chat with the media at which Ramsammy was present, President Bharrat Jagdeo was specifically asked what the administration’s position would be should a letter be produced showing that the minister gave permission for the purchase of the equipment. The President said: “But that’s it, we need to see the stuff.
And even if he had done that, I don’t know if he had said he has not signed any such document, so we would have to… I don’t want to deal with hypothetical, I could deal with a hundred hypothetical [situations] but at this point in time what the government is committed to is to get the police to investigate . . .”
The President also argued that the company that sold the equipment bears some responsibility. He added, “We never restrict the export of the equipment–it was the US government–so assuming Ramsammy signed this letter or even Jagdeo or Luncheon and said ‘we want you to sell this equipment to Guyana’, the company had to seek permission from the US government because it was the US government that was prohibiting the export not Guyana. So even if they had my approval, they still couldn’t sell it to Guyana because they had to seek permission from the exporting country. Did they seek permission? The [answer] is no, so clearly the company has to be held responsible… If you had a letter from God himself… they had to seek the US permission saying we have a request now from God and we would like to export the equipment. Is God the right person to export the equipment to?” To further illustrate the point, the President noted that when Guyana wants to bring certain weapons into the country, it had to seek permission from the exporting government.“So we need to ask these questions because… you see we don’t know what went on in the US court and that’s what we are trying to find out and to get help from the US government,” he said.
The President also said that the minister has made it clear that he is willing to subject himself to an investigation. “We have said it is the police who should investigate,” he reiterated.
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. 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.
Meyers 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 maintained in emails and subpoenas that Chapman trained Khan to use the equipment.
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.