WHEN I raised the Mystery of the Missing WMD recently, hawks fired barrages of reproachful e-mail at me. The gist was: “You *&#*! Who cares if we never find weapons of mass destruction, because we’ve liberated the Iraqi people from a murderous tyrant.” But it does matter, enormously, for American credibility. After all, as Ari Fleischer said on April 10 about WMD: “That is what this war was about.” I rejoice in the newfound freedoms in Iraq. But there are indications that the US government souped up intelligence, leaned on spooks to change their conclusions and concealed contrary information to deceive people at home and around the world. Let’s fervently hope that tomorrow we find an Iraqi superdome filled with 500 tons of mustard gas and nerve gas, 25,000 litres of anthrax, 38,000 litres of botulinum toxin, 29,984 prohibited munitions capable of delivering chemical agents, several dozen Scud missiles, gas centrifuges to enrich uranium, 18 mobile biological warfare factories, long-range unmanned aerial vehicles to dispense anthrax, and proof of close ties with al Qaeda.
Those are the things that President Bush or his aides suggested Iraq might have, and I don’t want to believe that top administration officials tried to win support for the war with a campaign of wholesale deceit. Consider the now-disproved claims by President Bush and Colin Powell that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger so it could build nuclear weapons. As Seymour Hersh noted in The New Yorker, the claims were based on documents that had been forged so amateurishly that they should never have been taken seriously. I’m told by a person involved in the Niger caper that more than a year ago the vice president’s office asked for an investigation of the uranium deal, so a former US ambassador to Africa was dispatched to Niger. In February 2002, according to someone present at the meetings, that envoy reported to the CIA and State Department that the information was unequivocally wrong and that the documents had been forged. The envoy reported, for example, that a Niger minister whose signature was on one of the documents had in fact been out of office for more than a decade. In addition, the Niger mining programme was structured so that the uranium diversion had been impossible.
The envoy’s debunking of the forgery was passed around the administration and seemed to be accepted – except that President Bush and the State Department kept citing it anyway. “It’s disingenuous for the State Department people to say they were bamboozled because they knew about this for a year,” one insider said. Another example is the abuse of intelligence from Hussein Kamel, a son-in-law of Saddam Hussein and head of Iraq’s biological weapons programme until his defection in 1995. Top British and American officials kept citing information from Mr Kamel as evidence of a huge secret Iraqi programme, even though Mr Kamel had actually emphasised that Iraq had mostly given up its WMD programme in the early 1990’s. Glen Rangwala, a British Iraq expert, says the transcript of Mr Kamel’s debriefing was leaked because insiders resented the way politicians were misleading the public.
Patrick Lang, a former head of Middle Eastern affairs in the Defence Intelligence Agency, says that he hears from those still in the intelligence world that when experts wrote reports that were sceptical about Iraq’s WMD, “they were encouraged to think it over again.” “In this administration, the pressure to get product ‘right’ is coming out of OSD (the Office of the Secretary of Defence),” Mr Lang said. He added that intelligence experts had cautioned that Iraqis would not necessarily line up to cheer US troops and that the Shiite clergy could be a problem. “The guys who tried to tell them that came to understand that this advice was not welcome,” he said. “The intelligence that our officials was given regarding WMD was either defective or manipulated,” Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico noted. Another senator is even more blunt and, sadly, exactly right: “Intelligence was manipulated.” The CIA was terribly damaged when William Casey, its director in the Reagan era, manipulated intelligence to exaggerate the Soviet threat in Central America to whip up support for Ronald Reagan’s policies. Now something is again rotten in the state of Spookdom.
A 36-YEAR-OLD police officer assigned to escort Justice Herbert Volney, jumped 20 feet into the Couva River on Saturday night to escape three bandits who shot him five times and robbed him of his 9mm service pistol, ammunition, cash, and jewelry. A critically injured Constable Derrick Nelson was pulled from the river around midnight by residents of Milton Road, Couva, who rushed to the scene after hearing the gunshots. He was rushed to the Couva Health Facility where he was treated then transferred to the San Fernando General Hospital. Nelson underwent emergency surgery yesterday and was moved to Ward 4 of the hospital where he is in critical condition. Both legs were broken in the fall and he is being kept under heavy sedation. PC Nelson was on his way to visit his girlfriend on Saturday night when three occupants of a silver grey car began firing in his direction. They struck the rear of his car, forcing him to stop, and dragged him out of his vehicle.
He was robbed of his pistol, ammunition, cash and jewelry. The gunmen shot him on both feet and when he attempted to run away he was shot three more times in the legs. PC Nelson said he saw a railing and, fearing for his life, decided to jump over to escape from the bandits. He fell 20 feet into the Couva River and broke both legs. ACP Crime Oswyn Allard, Ag Supt Errol Denoon and other police officers who visited PC Nelson yesterday were allowed only two minutes with him because of his condition. They said he appeared to be in excruciating pain. Later in the day, the injured officer was also visited by Police Commissioner Hilton Guy. Guy later expressed concern about recent attacks on police officers and was critical of reports of a recent incident in which “the media screamed police brutality.” He pointed out: “We have even more frequently seen where police officers are being attacked. It is with great interest that I am awaiting the next headline.”
Allard, who presented PC Nelson with a Bible, vowed: “ I will ensure that evil will never conquer goodness.” He described PC Nelson as one of the best and most supportive officers in the service. Allard told Newsday he was concerned that a service revolver with ammunition is in the hands of ruthless criminals. However, he assured that every effort will be made to recover the gun and arrest the perpetrators. Investigators said the three suspects in the shooting of PC Nelson robbed a Carapichaima man of his car on Saturday. According to reports, at around 10.30 pm, Inocencia Cardinez, 32, was plying his car PBM 8803 along the St Mary’s/Chaguanas route when he picked up three men who dealt him several blows about the body, placed a gun to his head, put him in the back seat of the car. They later dropped him off at Forres Park, Couva. Police said the bandits were on their way to carry out robberies when they attacked PC Nelson along the unlit Rivulet Road.
They said the bandits were not aware that PC Nelson was a police officer when they decided to rob him. The suspects reportedly went to San Fernando early yesterday and carried out another robbery. All Police Divisions are on the lookout for the stolen car. Investigators said they believe criminals from the East/West Corridor have now shifted to Central Trinidad. Over the past three weeks, several persons have been robbed of their vehicles at gunpoint. PC Nelson joined the Port-of-Spain CID in 1993 and moved to the Crime Suppression Unit. He was then assigned to Justice Volney. Officers who do special duties and provide escort are assigned a service revolver even when they are off duty.
POLICE OFFICERS investigating the shooting deaths of Kirt Richard Rosal and Julien De Gannes at Trou Macaque on Friday, are appealing to members of the public with information on the killings to come forward and assist. Investigators said they have received information that the persons responsible for the two killings are members of a gang from an area in Laventille known as “Africa.” Kelvin George, 21, one of the four men wounded by the killers, was released from hospital on Saturday. Three others, Anslem Cox, Brendon Cox and Thor John, are still in serious condition at Ward 54 of the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.
George was interviewed by homicide officers but could not give a description of the killers because they were masked. Residents of Laventille are reportedly planning a march from Laventille to Whitehall to seek an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Patrick Manning on the spate of killings in the area. They are said to be fed up of the daily loss of lives in the area and of innocent people being killed. They added that they are fed up and angry over the situation and will be meeting the elders of Laventille shortly on the matter. The deaths of Rosal and De Gannes have pushed the murder toll for the year so far to 94. More than 50 percent of the murders have been committed in Laventille, Belmont and surrounding areas and are reportedly gang-related.
THE United National Congress (UNC) is moving to fill the most controversial vacant position in the party — that of deputy political leader. Party insiders told Newsday political leader Basdeo Panday is likely to accept a recommendation from the executive that the UNC constitution be amended to allow him to appoint the deputy political leader, rather than continue with established one-man-one vote procedure to fill that post. According to Article 12 of the UNC constitution headed: “Executive Positions,” the post of deputy political leader is among 13 elected positions in the party. A well-placed UNC source told Newsday yesterday: “There seems to be moves to have the constitution changed to allow the political leader to appoint the deputy political leader.”
Under the party’s constitution, only the party’s national assembly can ratify an amendment of the constitution. Acceptance of such a move, Newsday learned, is gradually being filtered down from the leadership of the UNC to the rank and file members. At the party’s June 2001 executive elections, Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, now the leader of National Team Unity, Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar and former Works Minister Carlos John fought for the position. Maharaj won the post but did not last for long as he was expelled from the party just months after those elections. If the change is made, word is that Opposition Chief Whip Ganga Singh would be Panday’s likely choice for deputy political leader. Sources said St Augustine MP Winston Dookeran has already indicated his unwillingness to accept the post. Contacted yesterday for comment, former UNC executive member Trevor Sudama said: “What we are seeing is an attempt by the political leader to ensure that whoever is his deputy political leader, is of his own choosing.”
FOR the second day yesterday refinery operators at State-owned Petrotrin refused to go back to work, causing a total shutdown of the refinery and triggering panic buying at gas stations throughout the country. In a release yesterday, Petrotrin officials said the company has stocks to last for some time. Workers downed tools on Saturday forcing a total shutdown of the refinery, which is responsible for processing crude oil. The workers have listed ten points of contention, accusing Petrotrin’s management of dragging its feet in ratifying increased allowances and other benefits. Yesterday, the workers’ representative, the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) met with company officials for an all-day round the table discussion. The meeting started at around 10 am and up to late yesterday it was still in progress at the company’s Pointe-a-Pierre offices.
A Petrotrin source told Newsday six of the ten issues were settled. It is expected that discussions will continue this morning. The refinery shutdown is also expected to continue. If the workers return to work, however, it will take the next three days for the refinery processing units to get started again. Petrotrin officials said the company’s deadline for processing crude from its external market source was not yet affected by the shutdown. “There is no need for panic buying. There are adequate reserves but we hope the negotiations will see the resumption of work soon,” the company stated in a release.
MEDICAL Chief of Staff at the St Clair Medical Centre Dr Ronald Henry said yesterday the institution had offered to perform a free CAT scan on 10-year old Amit Moon. Moon was the victim of an accident last Sunday which left him in a critical condition,. His parents have been unable to raise the money for the CAT scan. Dr Henry said the offer was made following a report in Saturday’s Newsday, which highlighted the financial problems of Amit’s parents. A CAT scan costs as much as $1,200, a medical source revealed. Henry said he did not know whether Moon’s parents had contacted other hospital authorities, or whether another concerned citizen had already rendered assistance, but the offer still stands. Amit’s parents are asked to contact the St Clair Medical Centre.
THE 20-year-old prostitute being sought by the police in connection with the stabbing death of 14-year-old Tranquillity student George Langford remained in hiding yesterday. Police sources told Newsday relatives of the dead schoolboy telephoned Woodbrook police yesterday and told them of an area where the suspect was last seen. The information was checked out but the suspect was not found. On Friday, Sgt Valentine Millette secured a warrant for the woman’s arrest. Investigators said yesterday it is only a matter of time before the suspect is held. They called on the woman to surrender so she could be interviewed about the stabbing.
Police have secured statements from three women who claimed they witnessed the killing. They identified the killer as a prostitute who frequents the Woodbrook area. Langford’s funeral will take place Saturday at Simpson’s Funeral Home Chapel. Relatives insisted yesterday that he was not soliciting prostitutes when he was killed. They claimed he was on his way home from cricket practice at the Queen’s Park Oval when he was killed. They also denied he was sexually active. However, investigators said that based on statements from women interviewed in Woodbook, the Form Two student was well known by several prostitutes. Sgt Millette, Cpls Joseph, Grant and PC Grant are investigating.
PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning said the Best Village Trophy Competition was designed from inception to unite Trinidad and Tobago’s various communities and channel people’s energies away from crime and into more positive endeavours. Addressing yesterday’s launch of Folk Fair 2003 at the Queen’s Park Savannah, the prime minister declared that this was why his government placed great emphasis on reintroducing and revitalising the competition after it was stopped for six years under its UNC predecessor. Recalling that Best Village started under the nation’s first Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams, Manning said the competition was more than just creating “readily available avenues and outlets for the talented among us.” “Programmes like our Best Village Trophy Competition do make for greater peace and tranquility among groups and communities. Another objective is to bring people in communities together and to bring people of different communities into better understanding and more meaningful relations,” he said.
Stressing the importance of dealing with the social dimension of crime, Manning warned that if there was “no outlet for the pent-up energies of individuals and groups in our communities,” those energies could be utilised in various forms of criminal activity. He said it was recognition of this fact that the PNM reintroduced Best Village shortly after it returned to office and enacted legislation which offers financial incentives to the business community whenever they support any aspect of local art. Observing that the country had achieved much in the creation of new music, art and literature, the prime minister said it was government’s intention “to sell more of our local music, art and literature to the world” and “better days” were coming for local artistes. “We are really the world. We are truly its children represented within one lovely nation,” Manning declared.
NATIONAL AIRLINE BWIA yesterday declined to respond to allegations from Suriname Airways vice-president Clyde Cairo that the airline’s non-co-operation led to its present financial predicament. Addressing a news conference at the Hilton Trinidad on Saturday, Cairo claimed that BWIA’s lack of co-operation was one of the reasons for its financial troubles. He used his airline’s inability to meet with BWIA CEO Conrad Aleong to discuss an arrangement between the two carriers for flights between Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago to highlight his case. However, BWIA Communications Manager Clint Williams told Newsday the airline had no comment on Cairo’s allegations nor did it intend to engage in a “tit for tat” in the media. On continued media reports alleging that Aleong would resign as BWIA CEO today and names of individuals to replace him, Williams reiterated that to date there has been “no official notification” and he questioned the accuracy of those reports.
Last week, Government convinced lessors International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) to give BWIA “120 days of breathing space” to clear its outstanding debts, return two BWIA 737 jets it recently seized in Miami and not to seize any of BWIA’s remaining planes during the next four months. Prime Minister Patrick Manning said an immediate restructuring of BWIA’s management was a condition for Government financial support for the airline, but this did not imply that Government was insisting on Aleong’s dismissal as CEO. Manning said that was a matter for BWIA’s Board of Directors to deal with.
PUBLIC UTILITIES Minister Rennie Dumas will be a happy man when the Senate sits tomorrow because he will not be in the hot seat facing questions from his parliamentary nemesis, Senate Opposition Leader Wade Mark. That dubious honour goes to Agriculture Minister John Rahael who has to answer two questions from Mark regarding Caroni (1975) Limited. Mark has asked Rahael to say whether 70,000 acres of Caroni’s lands have been formally transferred to the newly formed Estate Management and Business Development Company Limited (EMBDC). He also has to name the company’s directors and state their qualifications. Mark has also asked Rahael to state what those 70,000 acres will be used for and whether sugar workers and cane farmers would be given first preference in the distribution of Caroni lands.
The UNC chairman will also ask Energy Minister Eric Williams to say whether negotiations have been completed for Atlantic LNG Train Four, provide the Senate with details of any agreement signed for Train Four and how much the Government would have to pay per cubic metre for natural gas. Debate is also expected to continue on the Anti-Kidnapping Bill, which the Opposition has steadfastly refused to support until the Government initiates constitutional reform and Independent Senator Professor Ken Ramchand’s motion for Government to articulate its position on that issue. Ramchand’s motion about the creation of a Technical University of Trinidad and Tobago and his Independent colleague Professor Ramesh Deosaran’s motion for live, televised parliamentary debates will also be discussed. The UNC will reintroduce motions asking Government to immediately have Equal Opportunity Legislation effected in Trinidad and Tobago, declare how it proposes to deal with any form of terrorism or terrorist group in the country, say how it intends to regulate the banking industry and its efforts to expedite the enactment of legislation to deal with corruption in public office. However the Opposition’s no-confidence motion against Senate President Dr Linda Baboolal is yet to be reintroduced on the Senate Order Paper. The motion was removed in April after the UNC said it was not prepared to debate it. Last week, the Opposition Chief Whip hinted of a similar motion being brought against Speaker of the House of Representatives, Barry Sinanan. However the UNC has not yet decided about following through on that motion.
