An expert in electronic devices, Nirmal Rohit Kanhai yesterday stated that Gregory Smith’s account in his book that the walkie-talkie explosion which killed Dr. Walter Rodney, was accidental, was erroneous and the explosive had been placed in a gadget traditionally used in the military.
Gregory Smith, the man who has long been accused of the 1980 bomb explosion which killed WPA’s co-leader Dr. Walter Rodney, had stated in his book, Assassination cry of a failed revolution, that the device which he gave Donald Rodney to give Walter Rodney was a toy walkie-talkie and that the explosion was an accident.
But Kanhai, who was deemed an expert in electronic devices and communication yesterday at the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into Rodney’s killing, said Smith’s assertions were inaccurate, based on research he had carried out.
The expert’s testimony will add to mounting evidence that the Guyana Defence Force had to have facilitated Smith in the killing of Rodney and then his subsequent removal from the country.
Kanhai’s statement and his analysis on Dr. Frank Skuse’s forensic report on the death of Rodney were admitted as evidence in the inquiry. Kanhai, who resides in the United States of America, is the publisher of a weekly newspaper called the Caribbean Daylight and has years of experience with electronic devices. He did several courses in electrical engineering and electrical insulation.
He stated that he did extensive research on the walkie-talkies and had tested theories and examined several different walkie-talkies. He said he carried out parallel analysis on Dr. Frank Skuse’s report. Skuse was the forensic scientist who was flown into Guyana to make determinations on Rodney’s killing. Kanhai said he also studied the statement of Donald Rodney, and from his perusal, he accepted the findings of Dr. Skuse as factual.
He said Dr. Skuse’s report pointed to evidence that indicated that the device used in the explosion was not a toy walkie-talkie but a Harris Porta-Phone device, which is used in the military. And since then he has been on a quest to gather more information on the Harris device.
Kanhai, who is also a WPA member, stated that based on the price of the device and the components, along with other factors, Smith was not operating a toy walkie-talkie. “The Harris Porta-Phone was the starting point,” he said, talking about his research.
He noted that the device used in the explosion was operating on a frequency of 151.025 MHz while toy walkie-talkies would operate on a range of 27 MHz. He stated that he obtained the Harris Porta-Phone manual and he discovered that signals for the hand-held sets were limited to 5.4 miles of transmission.
He explained to the commission that signals are weakened by metal and since the antenna of the walkie-talkie, which Rodney had in his possession on the night of the explosion, was inside of a box and within the confines of a car, its signal was limited. “Signal accessing would have been severely limited,” he said.
Donald Rodney, in his statement to the police, had stated that Smith had instructed him to relay to his brother that he, Walter, should walk to the area where they would activate the device. He stated that he told Rodney what he had to do but he had refused and chose to go into their car.
Kanhai said the Georgetown Prison walls was also a limiting factor and whoever sent the detonation signal would have been less than two miles away from where the Rodney brothers were. He stated that a person would have been able to transmit a signal from Russell Street to John Street, where the explosion occurred, since the distance between the streets was approximately half a mile.
He indicated that he accepted Dr. Skuse’s opinion that the explosion was triggered by an external source, and from someone transmitting from a companion set. He stated that Dr. Skuse explained very carefully how he arrived at that conclusion. “Someone with a hand-held set close to the surrounding triggered that signal and activated the device to set off the explosion,” Kanhai stated.
He stated that it was Smith’s proposition that the explosion was “accidental” but when it is considered that the device was a Harris Porta-Phone, no one would ever come to that conclusion. “Once you accept the forensic evidence of Dr. Skuse that it was a Harris Porta-Phone then everything Smith says becomes nonsense,” he said, reiterating that the Harris Porta-Phone was used in the military.
He said the Harris device was deliberately designed to exclude outside interference, other than the person operating the companion set and the receiver. “It would have been a secured channel,” he said.
He noted that the Trinitrotoluene (TNT) explosive, which caused the blast, was also used in the military and that it was a very stable explosive which could not be easily activated. He described it as the “bullet proof” explosive.
However, he said it was susceptible to frictional forces, electro static forces, impact, and since none of these elements were at work that night, it had to have been activated by a signal. He said Smith’s declaration that the explosion was accidental was not accurate. “…the explosion was deliberately triggered,” he posited.
Kanhai stated that the quantity of the explosive used was very significant to the investigation. He said based on James. T. Thurman’s book, Practical Bomb Scene Investigation, one pound of TNT would destroy an entire car and kill all its occupants. So since Donald Rodney, who was also in the car, did not die and Walter Rodney only suffered injuries to the lower parts of his body, only a small amount of TNT had to have been used.
“It is definitely not more than four ounces…that we can say with certainty,” he said, noting that if it had, Donald Rodney would have been dead.
He also stated that the theory which indicated that Rodney was going to use the walkie-talkie to bomb the prison was not practical. “This amount of explosive could not have been intended to bomb a prison,” he said.
He stated that the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) could not be ruled out as the source for the Harris Porta-Phone device, stating that checks should have been made to see if anyone was registered with an identical frequency and also where the components came from.
He said Dr. Skuse had also made recommendations for the frequency to be checked.
But, Crime Chief Leslie James had stated that no evidence was found that an investigation was carried out to determine where the signal came from.
Kanhai is to return to the witness stand today.
Dr. Omawale Omawale, yesterday during his cross-examination by attorney Basil Williams who is representing the interest of the PNC, testified that Forbes Burnham and the PNC had tried to cloak their “dictatorship”. He said the thought had never entered his head that “the threat”, which resulted in Rodney’s death, came from the PPP.
