JAN­NELLE BERNARD

Se­nior Re­porter

jan­nelle.bernard@cnc3.co.tt

For­mer po­lice com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith is ques­tion­ing Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to ter­mi­nate the con­tract of Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency di­rec­tor Ma­jor Roger Best.

Grif­fith, who was speak­ing on CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew pro­gramme yes­ter­day, said the Gov­ern­ment has not in­di­cat­ed on what grounds Best was dis­missed.

“Roger Best has not been charged, he has not been found guilty of any­thing. The DPP has now re­leased the in­di­vid­ual, so on what grounds did you have a hur­ried Cab­i­net meet­ing on Sat­ur­day to dis­miss a mem­ber of the SSA?” Grif­fith asked.

“And again, he (Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley) stat­ing that the Gov­ern­ment, they were blind­sided, based on what? Based on the fact that po­lice of­fi­cers signed for po­lice weapons? Based on the fact that a se­nior SSA, who was a mem­ber of the De­fence Force, had an as­sault weapon?”

On Sun­day, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said Gov­ern­ment and the coun­try were blind­sided by the SSA scan­dal, adding the agency would be re­turned “to its pur­pose” in due course.

Best was fired on Sat­ur­day by the Cab­i­net af­ter be­ing sent on ad­min­is­tra­tive leave in March. He was re­placed by for­mer US Am­bas­sador Re­tired Brigadier Gen­er­al An­tho­ny Phillips-Spencer, who is now con­duct­ing a probe in­to the SSA’s op­er­a­tions.

Best and self-pro­claimed spy, pas­tor Ian Brown, were de­tained by po­lice, along with two oth­ers as­so­ci­at­ed with the SSA, last week. They were all re­leased by po­lice and no charges were laid against any of them over the week­end.

Both Best and Brown are mem­bers of the Jerusalem Bride Church.

When Best was sent on ad­min­is­tra­tive leave on March 2, the Prime Min­is­ter in­di­cat­ed that there was na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty in­for­ma­tion about oc­cur­rences at the SSA which war­rant­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s in­ter­ven­tion.