A tale of two secrets

Lambert Brown, Contributor

This seems to be the season of secrets. Let us examine two of these secrets and their potential impact on our society. On August 24, 2009, our prime minister was informed of the extradition request for Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, expected to arrive in Jamaica the very next day. The United States government was investigating this alleged drug- and gunrunner for 13 years. It would appear this started from the days of Bill Clinton, through George Bush, and on to Barack Obama's presidency.

As a friendly state, the US government wanted to give our Government and our security forces some advance notice so we could be prepared for any eventuality. The Americans have been actively engaged in helping our security forces with training, equipment, etc. They know what is happening in Jamaica. When the commissioner of police and the chief of defence staff informed our head of Government, Mr Bruce Golding, he simply told them thanks. He then informed his minister of justice of its impending arrival. We are not told what else he told her.

Drawing conclusions

However, sometime later, Mr Golding told the nation that Minister of Justice Dorothy Lightbourne was not a "lubricated conduit", and if she signed the warrant to proceed with the extradition, she should also sign her resignation. Well, we know she never resigned. Are we still in the dark about what the prime minister might have told Minister Lightbourne on August 24, 2009? People are drawing their own conclusions.

We also now know that on September 6, 2009, the prime minister secretly sanctioned an initiative to have a group of foreign lawyers intervene in the extradition matter to protect the 'constitutional rights' of a man wanted for extradition on drug-dealing and gunrunning charges. The foreign lawyers were charging US$100,000 per quarter, plus expenses.

Notwithstanding the then secret involvement of Prime Minister Golding, Minister Daryl Vaz is reported in The Gleaner of September 10, 2009, as criticising the members of the public who were justly calling for the prime minister to break his self-imposed silence. In that Gleaner story, Vaz said: "This matter has been put properly before the minister of justice and the Attorney General's Department; it is a case for them to deal with. They have it in front of them and it is being actively pursued."

He added: "The question of making a call for the prime minister's intervention smacks of politics. The fact of the matter is that there has been no extradition in previous times that has had any intervention or comment of a prime minister. And no amount of calls, either by private sector or Opposition, is going to rush that process."

Clandestine initiative

Mr Vaz obviously wanted to keep the prime minister's secret from the public. So clandestine was this initiative sanctioned by Mr Golding that Karl Samuda, a senior minister of government and general secretary of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, was never told about it. Neither were Dorothy Lightbourne, the minister of justice, nor Dwight Nelson, minister of national security, informed. Dr Ronald Robinson, minister of state in the foreign ministry, who was asked to give "credence" to the foreign lawyers so they would believe that they were acting on behalf of the Jamaican Government, declared that he was at all times acting as a government official. So secret was this initiative that the Cabinet was not told of it.

So secret was this scheme that the JLP Standing Committee, Central Executive, officers of the party, and annual conference were kept in total darkness in what is turning out to be a nefarious plot to defraud, mislead, and con the United States government, including its president.

What was this secret about? We are told it was to protect constitutional rights. Nonsense! There is no constitutional right in Jamaica or anywhere else in the world to engage in "a criminal conspiracy" to import illegal firearms or export cocaine.

The second secret is about MoUs. Way back on January 12, 2003, The Gleaner carried an article written by veteran investigative journalist Lloyd Williams about agreements signed by Dr Peter Phillips with the government and agencies of the United Kingdom. In that well-researched article titled 'Enough is enough! 'Yardies', cocaine, violence behind visa imposition', Williams wrote: "... The British have agreed to provide operational assistance to set up a National Intelligence Bureau in the Jamaica Constabulary Force and will follow up with equipment and training support. The bureau will encompass all the constabulary's intelligence-gathering operations."

This must have been the most public secret in Jamaica. Printed right here in The Gleaner from January 2003. It is the said "equipment and training and support" that at least one of the MoUs dealt with. Readers are encouraged to Google that article and read it.

That secret was further revealed on May 15, 2004, in the Jamaican Parliament. Then, Dr Peter Phillips, in an address during the Sectoral Debate, said he wanted to "inform Parliament and the nation of some developments in the Ministry of National Security." Under the rubric 'Disrupting the drug trade', he said, "Given the centrality of trafficking in illegal drugs and its relationship to violence and corruption, we have placed particular focus on this issue, both at the level of our own security forces and our cooperation agreements with regional and international governments and agencies."

Public secrets

In that same speech to Parliament, Dr Phillips also reported: "We have bolstered our own intelligence-gathering, with support from international partners, and this is showing impressive results with the recent arrest of major players in drug trafficking." How quickly we forget! No wonder witnesses simply 'can't recall' things at the commission of enquiry! Clearly, these 'cooperation agreements' must have been the most public secrets ever in Jamaica. Laziness and gullibility to political propaganda oftentimes suppress the truth. Fortunately, truth pressed to the ground always rises again.

In the search for the truth that our national anthem demands of us, we must distinguish between the national good and partisan interest. The tale of the two secrets gives us such a chance. The future of our beloved country is at stake. Reinforcing the pernicious link between criminality and politics, or facilitating the liberation of the society from the chokehold of the merchants of death who get powerful peddling drugs and weapons of destruction is the stark reality facing our nation.

Lambert Brown is president of the University and Allied Workers' Union. Email comments to columns@gleanerjm.com and Labpoyh@yahoo.com.