Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon yesterday said that there are “ideas” as to the identity of the “terrorist mastermind” in the US who was said to be behind last week’s attacks in the city and the Ministry of Health fire and attempts continue to have the US assist in the confirmation of the individual’s identity.
According to Dr Luncheon, it is because of the “historical background of the matter” that the authorities were able to get some ideas as to the identity of the mastermind.
The government spokes-person told the media yesterday at the Office of the President that the authorities don’t just have the name of the person they have more information but what is needed is the link between the individual and the telephone number.
Last week Wednesday several gunmen hijacked a Toyota Tacoma vehicle on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway during which they murdered gold miner Wodette Roberts. Police said they then used the vehicle to launch an attack on the Brickdam Police Station, shooting two policemen in the process, and attempted to burn down the High Court and a secondary school. The police have since issued wanted bulletins for six persons in connection with the attacks, two of whom were linked to the Ministry of Health fire but who escaped before they were charged.
Meanwhile, Luncheon said the government has requested assistance from the US through the Inter-American Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters — a multilateral treaty to which both Guyana and the US are party and through which states can request information from each other on criminal matters. The convention is an Organisation of American States (OAS) treaty.
He said the US officials have responded and the local authorities now have to supply more information so as to facilitate the processing of the request by their US counterparts.
Luncheon described last week’s events as terrorist attacks adding that many were traumatised by the “brazen acts” of the players. He added that there are persons who feel such acts are “payback and restitution” to the Guyana Police Force. He said there are also those who support such acts as to them they represent “blows to the government” while they belittle “patriotic things” in the country.
He said the “actors are known and it is only time before they are caught.”
Last week President Bharrat Jagdeo had said that there was a “foreign terrorist mastermind” who lives in the US who was behind last week’s attacks and who was also implicated in the ministry fire through calls made to that person’s telephone number by one of the persons implicated in the fire before and after the incident.
According to the head of state, it was not the first time this number surfaced in connection with local criminal acts since it had showed up in the past in connection with the Buxton criminals. He said government had approached the US for assistance in finding this person, “because obviously this person has been masterminding terrorist acts in Guyana.”
The President had also announced that he had met US officials and urged them to hand over information about convicted drug trafficker Roger Khan, the infamous spy equipment, and on this terrorist mastermind “as soon as possible.
“I also said to them, can you imagine if a Guyanese, someone here in Guyana had made a call to the US to someone just before he burnt a federal building in the United States of America what kind of pressure we would be under here in Guyana to find the person and deliver him to them. In fact there would a storm of FBI agents coming here.”
