(Trinidad Express) Attorney General Anand Ramlogan yesterday was the only Cabinet Minister to criticise the e-mails sent from the home computer of Sasha Mohammed, special adviser to the Prime Minister, attacking Express editor-in-chief Omatie Lyder and Express reporter Anna Ramdass.
While his Cabinet colleagues steered clear of the issue, Ramlogan called it “unfortunate” and advised all threatened media personnel to do what was “in their best interest”.
“It is unfortunate that such a message went out to two senior journalists by a colleague,” he said in a telephone interview.
“But it is a matter for them to take such action as they deem fit,” he added.
Ramlogan said in this Internet age no employer can “exercise total control over the private use of the Internet by employees”.
“That is a serious challenge the world over,” Ramlogan said.
Ramlogan said he could not comment on the question of criminal charges and prosecution in the hate mail attack on the journalists from Mohammed’s computer.
The e-mails were sent from an e-mail account under the name Janice Thomas which was traced to Mohammed’s computer.
“That is a matter for the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions,” he said.
But even as Ramlogan criticised Mohammed’s actions, Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley spat fire at both her and Julie Browne, deputy director of the Strategic Services Agency (SSA), calling them a “clear and present threat” to the well being of the People’s National Movement (PNM).
Rowley was speaking after the PNM’s general council meeting at Balisier House, Port of Spain yesterday.
Rowley criticised the cyber attack from Mohammed’s computer and called for her to resign from her post.
He said the PNM was “threatened” by the continued employment of Mohammed and Browne in senior positions close to the office Prime Minister.
He said it was the PNM’s duty to criticise and monitor the government.
“It is a threat to our well-being to have persons who are on the government payroll in positions like Julie Browne and Sasha Mohammed,” he said.
“Until such persons are removed from the public sector payroll, we will continue to feel threatened,” he said.
“I am calling on the Prime Minister to remove her (Browne) and stop using her for personal protection. After the conduct ascribed to Sasha Mohammed, I call on Prime Minister to tell the country if for the third time she is going to provide sustenance and protection to individuals in public service who are carrying on,” he said.
Rowley counted Browne and dismissed SSA director and Mohammed’s friend Reshmi Ramnarine as the first two people that the Prime Minister refused to comment on.
Rowley said officers of the State were being paid to do dangerous police work under the People’s Partnership.
On Friday, police officers gave a stern warning to Mohammed over threatening e-mails sent to Lyder and Ramdass as the issues with Ramnarine’s appointment to the SSA unfolded in the media.
Chairman of the Congress of the People Joseph Toney, commenting on the matter yesterday, said: “If a crime has been committed, in the circumstances of threatening e-mails from a Janice Thomas, then the perpetrator of the crime must face the full brunt of the law. The law does not allow the police to give a stern warning to anyone who has committed crime.”
Lyder responded yesterday: “The judgment of the Prime Minister in her selection of people in key positions, paid for by taxpayers, is being questioned once again as it did in the shocking appointment of Reshmi Ramnarine to head the SSA.
“Sasha Mohammed, an adviser to the Prime Minister, based on the outcome of the police investigation into what I considered to be threatening e-mails sent to me and Express reporter Anna Ramdass, is clearly not fit to advise anyone, and certainly not the prime minister of the country,” she said.
“The e-mail was no doubt designed to intimidate me and the Express in our investigation of the appointment of Ms Ramnarine and to stifle freedom of the press.
“It failed to achieve this and never will.
“The Prime Minister must act as by now, she must be fully briefed on the outcome of the police investigation into the source of the emails. We are weighing our options in this matter.”
