Trinidad: Criminal probe to be launched into the UNC for spying on citizens

(Trinidad Guardian) Minister of National Security Stuart Young says he is very con­cerned about the in­for­ma­tion brought to light in Christo­pher Wylie’s book about how the UNC sanc­tioned a breach of cit­i­zens’ pri­va­cy. He says he is al­so alarmed at how the in­for­ma­tion was used by a po­lit­i­cal par­ty and not the State.

As such the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter says he will ask for the launch of a crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the mat­ter.

At a news con­fer­ence which con­clud­ed just be­fore noon, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young says T&T cit­i­zens were be­ing used as In­ter­na­tion­al guinea pigs for a di­a­bol­i­cal plan. The Min­is­ter spoke on bomb­shell rev­e­la­tions re­port­ed by Guardian Me­dia about how Cam­bridge An­a­lyt­i­ca gained ac­cess to in­for­ma­tion to spy on cit­i­zens.

The rev­e­la­tions were made in a tell-all book by Christo­pher Wylie.

Young says what was done and sanc­tioned by the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) was the worst type of in­tru­sion in­to pri­va­cy.

Min­is­ter Young says Wylie de­tailed how cit­i­zens were used as re­al guinea pigs which were all de­cid­ed by a po­lit­i­cal par­ty, to use cit­i­zens as glob­al guinea pigs.

He adds what cit­i­zens have heard is be­yond so­cial me­dia pro­file. It’s the UNC gov­ern­ment giv­ing ac­cess to rights to pri­va­cy to be abused by peo­ple for po­lit­i­cal pur­pos­es.

The Min­is­ter says he heard UNC de­ny it be­fore, but the facts are there.

He says at a UNC meet­ing in June 2014, of­fi­cials from the par­ty were dis­cussing how in­for­ma­tion from Food Card, GATE and peo­ple from San Fer­nan­do West were be­ing used by UNC of­fi­cials. He says what makes it worse is that it was not even be­ing done by the State but by a po­lit­i­cal par­ty for po­lit­i­cal pur­pos­es.

The Min­is­ter says it was a clear abuse of cit­i­zens’ rights, pri­va­cy by the UNC.

He says as such a crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion will be launched.

He adds, par­al­lel to that probe along with the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al’s of­fice will make an of­fi­cial re­quest for as­sis­tance from in­ter­na­tion­al ju­ris­dic­tions.

The Min­is­ter says a Spe­cial Pros­e­cu­tor to look in­to this in­for­ma­tion.

Min­is­ter Young says he has rea­son to be­lieve the in­for­ma­tion is still be­ing used by the UNC and the par­ty is con­tin­u­ing to abuse the pri­va­cy and rights of cit­i­zens.