Former prime minister Patrick Manning says nobody is above the scrutiny of national security in T&T. He said this during a news conference in the Parliament building yesterday in response to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar's disclosure of public officials, including President George Maxwell Richards, politicians, journalists and trade unionists, whose phones were tapped by the Strategic Intelligence Agency (SIA).
He said: "I never asked whom do you monitor or not monitor. They conduct their business and if in the conduct of their business they see a need to monitor individuals, they do that. "The parameter we set is that you are not authorised to monitor anybody who is a law-abiding citizen," Manning added: "If in the course of the work of intelligence agencies they come up on the association of individuals who are up-standing citizens in the country, associations that are of concern to them, they have a responsibility to investigate it. "It becomes then, not a matter of who you are, but a matter of national security."
Manning stressed: "And in those circumstances nobody is above the law. Nobody is above the scrutiny of the State when it comes to national security matters, whether you be Prime Minister, minister, judge, journalist or anybody else... nobody is above the scrutiny of the State." He stressed his Government "never sanctioned the illegal intervention of the State or any of its agencies in the private affairs of private citizens. "We never did that. We set the parameters within which they should operate and they conducted their business." He said the intelligence agencies were never asked to reveal their sources of their information. "It is improper to do that," he said.
Manning said the SIA reported to him in his capacity as Prime Minister and the Minister of National Security. He said it was funded by the national budget. Manning said the amount of cash retained by the agency was nothing unusual as the police would have to pay informants and do other things in the discharge of their work. Manning said the Government decided to introduce the agency and observe its effectiveness before bringing the required legislation for approval. Manning, who is the MP for San Fernando East, said he called the news conference because he was denied an opportunity to ask Speaker Wade Mark to seek the approval of the House to waive the Standing Orders to allow him to respond to the PMs statement in Parliament.
He claimed the People's Partnership Government was "systematically dismantling the institutions of the State that are involved in the anti-drug effort." Noting that the illegal drug trade was the major problem affecting the country, Manning said the SIA was doing a good job in that fight. He said: "If we didn't have the SIA and Sautt, God help us as to where this country would have been now. The situation would have been immeasurably worse that it is today. "The Government is taking this country down a road where the narco dealers will have a major say in the conduct of the State's business." Manning said he has been waiting to make a contribution in Parliament on that matter "and the Government knows it and that is why the Government is making sure that I don't speak."