Akash Sama­roo

Se­nior Re­porter

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says the de­ci­sion to re­move Ma­jor Roger Best as head of the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA) was based on trou­bling in­for­ma­tion pro­vid­ed to the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil (NSC) by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS).

The in­for­ma­tion, he said, war­rant­ed dras­tic in­ter­ven­tion.

Speak­ing with mem­bers of the me­dia at the open­ing of the Diego Mar­tin Pub­lic Li­brary yes­ter­day, Dr Row­ley was, how­ev­er, cagey with specifics re­gard­ing ex­act­ly what the TTPS is in­ves­ti­gat­ing, on­ly ad­mit­ting it dealt with per­son­nel, equip­ment and process­es of the SSA.

He said as the per­son over­see­ing SSA per­son­nel, Ma­jor Best had to take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. The Prime Min­is­ter con­firmed he was the on­ly per­son sent on ad­min­is­tra­tive leave.

“There are some things that re­quire a cer­tain amount of cir­cum­spec­tion but suf­fice it to say that the cir­cum­stances re­quired that the Gov­ern­ment act to en­sure that na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty was not jeop­ar­dised.

“The ac­tions that had come to the at­ten­tion of the Cab­i­net war­rant­ed that dras­tic in­ter­ven­tion. Let’s put it this way, and I am just go­ing to say this to en­sure that the con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries are ground­ed in some fact, the Gov­ern­ment act­ed on in­for­ma­tion from the po­lice. I say no more,” Row­ley said in re­sponse to the me­dia’s per­sis­tence for clar­i­ty over the ra­tio­nale for Best’s re­moval.

Hours be­fore that an­nounce­ment, premis­es oc­cu­pied by the SSA at Knowsley on Queen’s Park West; St Vin­cent Street and Sackville Street in Port-of-Spain were placed on lock­down. Knowsley is oc­cu­pied by sev­er­al law en­force­ment agen­cies, in­clud­ing the Na­tion­al Op­er­a­tions Cen­tre, the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice Op­er­a­tional Cen­tre and the SSA.

When asked if any doc­u­ments were seized from the premis­es the Prime Min­is­ter said, “there was noth­ing tak­en but it was just to en­sure that there was ab­solute con­trol of the sit­u­a­tion.”

“A new head of the SSA is in place or has been in place now since Sat­ur­day night. And I heard some con­ver­sa­tions from per­sons try­ing to stir up dis­cord about what the po­lice can’t do and what was tak­en, but noth­ing has been tak­en, but be­cause of the cir­cum­stances of the changeover and the sit­u­a­tion that we are deal­ing with, we want­ed to en­sure that all the prop­er­ties on the premis­es, the in­tegri­ty was pre­served.”

Giv­en that the SSA is the coun­try’s main in­tel­li­gence-gath­er­ing agency, the Prime Min­is­ter was asked if the is­sue of sur­veil­lance was at the cen­tre of the probe.

“It is not re­al­ly around in­ter­cep­tions, the SSA has a wider func­tion and in­ter­cep­tion is on­ly one. I heard a lot of con­ver­sa­tion around in­ter­cep­tion, that is not the main is­sue, there are oth­er is­sues,” he said.

How­ev­er, the Prime Min­is­ter sought to urge the pub­lic to trust that the Gov­ern­ment act­ed in the right man­ner.

“It’s not every day we act like this, it’s not every day we do this, some­thing must have hap­pened to war­rant this. If you don’t trust the Gov­ern­ment, then you will up­set your­self with these con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries,” he re­spond­ed.

One per­son who ex­pressed lit­tle trust in the process was Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who told Guardian Me­dia that Best’s re­place­ment, re­tired brigadier gen­er­al An­tho­ny Phillips-Spencer, is a hand-picked op­er­a­tive of the Gov­ern­ment who will now grant Dr Row­ley’s Cab­i­net with sen­si­tive in­for­ma­tion from the pub­lic. (See sto­ry be­low)

Asked about this al­le­ga­tion from the UNC leader, the Prime Min­is­ter said, “I would not re­spond to any of the Op­po­si­tion’s ex­trem­i­ties in rub­bish. Be­cause they will go as far as to say that any­body from Trinidad and To­ba­go is my own per­son, and I will ac­cept that. I don’t know what she means by that, but I will not en­gage in that kind of dotish­ness as I con­duct pub­lic busi­ness.

“The Op­po­si­tion Leader makes a ca­reer of den­i­grat­ing peo­ple, I am a se­ri­ous of­fi­cer of state with an oath of of­fice that guides my con­duct and the con­duct of the Gov­ern­ment that I lead. So, I will not en­gage the Op­po­si­tion Leader in her fol­ly.”

The Prime Min­is­ter said he ex­pects the pub­lic will hear of fur­ther de­vel­op­ments in the com­ing days, but he ques­tioned why there was crit­i­cism over Gov­ern­ment’s in­volve­ment in a mat­ter that af­fects the na­tion’s se­cu­ri­ty.

“Some peo­ple seem to have a prob­lem with the Gov­ern­ment be­ing in con­trol. The Gov­ern­ment is re­spon­si­ble for cer­tain sit­u­a­tions and en­sur­ing that some­body is in con­trol. That re­quires per­son­nel, it re­quires in­ter­ven­tions, it re­quires un­der­stand­ing, and it re­quires see­ing re­ports and act­ing on them, some­body is in con­trol,” he said.

Asked if he was trou­bled by the in­for­ma­tion pro­vid­ed to him, the Prime Min­is­ter said curt­ly, “If I wasn’t trou­bled by it, we would not have act­ed in this way.”