(Trinidad Express) The most damning, explosive, “troublesome and vexing” of the revelations made by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar in the Parliament on Friday, was that the nation’s Head of State, its first citizen, President George Maxwell Richards’ phone was among those persons whose phones were being tapped and e-mails intercepted by the Strategic Intelligence Agency (SIA), the “secret intelligence agency,“ since 2005.
“Oh God no! No! Shame!” Government MPs chorused as Persad-Bissessar, “with a heavy heart,“ read out Richards’ name among the list of “prominent personalities” whose constitutional right to privacy had been secretly and illegally invaded.
The Prime Minister’s far-reaching statement detailed the use of the intelligence services, particularly the SIA, an agency which reported directly to the Prime Minister and National Security Minister, in “political wire-tapping” during the period of the Patrick Manning administration.
Included on the list, so all-embracing that it seemed to defy justification, was the country’s third highest official and head of the judiciary, the then chief justice Satnarine Sharma, his wife Kalawati and son Shiv; former commissioner of police James Philbert, comedian Rachael Price, Olympic medallist Ato Boldon and former chief of defence (now National Secu-rity Minister) John Sandy.
“It grieves my heart to say that whilst our children were being kidnapped and the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) seemed powerless and unable to trace the several telephone calls demanding a ransom, the SIA was busy listening to our conversations—conversations of prominent members of society who had no connection with criminal activity,” the Prime Minister stated.
“How many men, women and children who were kidnapped or abducted could have been saved we’ll never know,” she added, recalling stories from grieving parents about the archaic equipment that was used by the AKS.
She said as chairman of the National Security Council she was made aware of the existence of the SIA.
“At no time, however, did my brief on this agency inform me that the agency was involved in illegal wiretapping and interception of communications of private citizens. Had I been briefed about this secret aspect of the agency’s functions, I would have taken immediate steps to address an act which I am advised to be unconstitutional and illegal,” she said.
Noting that State agencies SAUTT and SIA reported directly to the Minister of National Security and the Prime Minister as head of the country’s National Security Council, the Persad-Bissessar said the information suggested that sensitive information obtained via illegal wiretapping of government ministers’ phones was being supplied to a certain MP from the opposition bench.
“That MP now sits in this Honourable House and served the highest level in government under the previous administration,” Persad-Bissessar said.
She added: “The dictator was not content to spy on opposition MPs and the aforementioned list of persons,” but also made PNM officials and MPs the subject of wire-tapping, the Prime Minister said. Among this group were Colm Imbert, Pennelope Beckles-Robinson, Donna Cox, Faris Al Rawi and Keith Rowley.
Virtually every opposition MP’s phone, including that of the Prime Minister, was bugged along with trade unionists, journalists, judges in the “covert project code named “Operation News.“
As she expressed her “deep sense of personal outrage and hurt” about this matter, the Prime Minister asked: “Why on earth would a government wish to engage in such unproductive illegal activity when the country was under siege as a result of criminal activity?”
She said there was evidence to suggest that a massive sanitisation operation took place after the general election, since empty folders carrying the name of individuals who were subject of interception were found. Other records of taped conversations and transcription of conversations were also removed and/or destroyed. “We may never know all of the persons whose right to privacy was compromised by the unlawful intrusion of wiretapping,” she said.
“Incredibly, Mr Speaker, the wiretapping continued after the results of the last general election. It is alleged that information gathered by the SIA were secretly being siphoned to a certain opposition MP.”
Stating that she asked Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs to investigate, she said experts were flown in from Canada and a high-level team from the Special Branch moved in at 6.15 am on October 23 and took control of the SIA’s operations.
The Prime Minister said reports from the Special Branch indicated that the SIA was a virtual law unto itself. She said Special Branch officers found $5.9 million in cash at the SIA and some $15 million could not be accounted for, pointing to ‘serious concerns about accountability and transparency.“
Persad-Bissessar noted, however, that there was a “silver lining” to this “darkness caused by the sinister operations of these agencies.“
“We will now be able to properly utilise the equipment and technology to assist in the fight against crime,” she said.
“Under the former government, Big Brother seems to have taken a very keen interest in ordinary citizens’ private lives and affairs. I want to reassure you that I do not intend to move from Big Brother to become Big Sister.”
To loud desk-thumping, she added: “Such activity cannot be condoned, as it represents a clear and present danger to our democracy.”
She said there were many others whose names she had not disclosed to the Parliament.
