Dear Editor,
According to a June 27, 2009 SN news article, ‘Allegation not enough to probe Ramsammy,’ President Bharrat Jagdeo “ruled out any probe into the alleged link between Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy and confessed drug trafficker Roger Khan without factual evidence.” On September 15, 2009, SN carried another related news article, ‘Purported Ramsammy “spy equipment” letter surfaces,” and instead of asking the police – whom the President prefers over a commission of enquiry – to obtain a copy of the letter to launch an official investigation, the President went on the defence and tried to spin his way around and finally out of obtaining what could well be the actual evidence or smoking gun he has been asking for.
When asked, according to the June 27 article, whether an investigation was forthcoming after all that was revealed implicating Minister Ramsammy in the Robert Simels trial, the President is on record as saying, “Absolutely, I think any knowledge of any crime in Guyana has to be investigated.” He added that he even asked Police Commissioner Henry Greene to initiate such an investigation by writing to the US government requesting any information in their possession that might incriminate any person in Guyana. “So this is how we will proceed, on the basis of facts; he [Greene] has written and asked for the information and if we get the information he will act on it.”
Well, why are we getting this royal-run-around from the President, now that the purported smoking gun letter has surfaced? Why isn’t he making an effort to try and get a copy for his police? Is this really a case of the President realizing his credibility has already been irreparably damaged at home and abroad on the Roger Khan fiasco so he doesn’t care any more what he says and who believes or doubts him? This is not a case about a mistake or harm to a person or even some people for which forgiveness can be sought; this is a case about a pattern of behaviour that has come to characterize the Jagdeo administration relative to the law. There is big difference between one who made a mistake and one who keeps making mistakes.
And what does it say of our President’s understanding of international protocol when he argues that the US government and the spy equipment store must share responsibility for the spy equipment winding up in Guyana, knowing full well that the US government requires that all stores selling spy equipment overseas must do so only to governments after receiving an official request in writing from such governments?
My fellow Guyanese should read this convoluted quote of the President from SN: “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 [Guyana] 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.”
That’s not how the process works. The truth is, the US government, recognizing the capability of such equipment to the stability and security of governments and businesses that deal with highly confidential or classified data, passed a federal law requiring all stores that sell such equipment to first obtain a ‘letter of authorization to purchase’ from the government of the country to which the equipment will be shipped. The store does not have to contact the US government, unless it has suspicions about the request; the federal law is what it has to follow.
The US authorities had sent an FBI agent to the spy store to verify the purchase was made in accordance with federal law, and that’s when the store would have had to present the agent with a copy of the letter from the Guyana government. The President’s direct inference that the US government had given the store direct permission to sell the equipment to Guyana, therefore, suggests disturbing lack of knowledge, because if the US government gave the store specific approval to sell, as the President erroneously contends, then why would the US authorities send an FBI agent to the store to ascertain the circumstances of the sale? America is not Guyana!
So even if some Guyanese are gullible enough to buy the President’s attempt at being disingenuous or showing ignorance of the pertinent US law and system, we all can’t be that gullible to accept unquestioningly the statements of the President, whose rather convoluted explanation saw him strangely injecting the name of God into his lame defence of his government.
And even as the President flat out denies his government purchased the spy equipment, he definitely needs to stop playing mind games with Guyanese by asking the police to immediately get a copy of the letter, which surfaced as part of the material evidence gathered for Simels’ trial, and start their own probe. In the name of justice for unsolved extra-judicial killings, it is absolutely necessary for this probe to get started by proving or disproving the authenticity of the letter and the minister’s signature, and hopefully this would determine whether government should empanel a team of independent investigators. We need to know about the pre-Mash Day violence, the post-Mash Day violence and the Phantom Squad operations, but let us start with the role of the government, if it played any, because the government is supposed to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Apart from this seemingly damning letter, the President has to recognize that the contact person at the spy shop, a Nancy Salvador, did talk by phone with so-called representatives from or in Guyana as well as someone claiming to be the Health Minister: “Our representatives have been in touch with you,” the letters states, adding, “I have spoken directly to you and this letter on my Cabinet portfolio letterhead is confirmation that this initiative has government’s support.” What this means is that a check can be made of phone records originating from Guyana around the time of purchase that could confirm a call was made from the minister’s phone or altogether clear the minister and his phone number. Phone records to and from the store can also be accessed to determine if any of the ‘representatives’ referenced in the letter lives in the United States or anywhere outside Guyana. Maybe the minister will be eventually absolved, but let the process go to work!
Sorry to say, but if there were any copies on file of the letter of authorization in the Health Ministry, it obviously went up in that ministry’s inferno. Meanwhile, even though the President said that the minister has made it clear that he is willing to subject himself to an investigation, and the minister keeps saying, “I don’t know anything about it,” it is the President’s continued insistence that the Guyana police be the ones doing the investigation that makes us wonder whether this incident rises to the level of a police investigation that could lead nowhere, as many police probes have. There is now strong reason to believe that this matter rises to the level of an impartial commission of enquiry, comprising local and foreign commissioners, seeing the matter involves local and foreign players.
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin