MOUs kept secret for fear of contents being leaked - Phillips

FORMER NATIONAL Security Minister, Dr Peter Phillips, says he did not inform then Prime Minister P.J. Patterson and his Cabinet colleagues about the secret memoranda of understanding (MOU) he signed because he feared the risk of possible "unintended" disclosure.

"It was an estimate of the risk that could arise with the national security of Jamaica should someone, either wittingly or inadvertently, allow the information to flow to ears they should not flow to," Phillips testified before the Manatt-Dudus commission of enquiry yesterday.

"While I have the ultimate confidence in the members of the Cabinet, there have been occasions, in the history of Jamaica, when Cabinet secrets have been disclosed," he added.

Phillips said this, coupled with the potential risk to the country's national security interest, gave birth to a practice, in the then administration, where matters relating to "operational intelligence issues" were not subject to Cabinet considerations.

"It was the policy of the Cabinet of the prime minister under whom I served that matters relating to operational intelligence would not be brought," he emphasised.

No breach

Phillips, under cross-examination by attorney-at-law John Vassell, who is representing current National Security Minister Dwight Nelson, said this policy "is embodied in a long-standing set of practices".

Vassell also raised suggestions that aspects of the MOUs are in violation of the Interception of Communications Act.

He argued that the MOUs allowed a committee, comprising representatives from Jamaica, the United States and the United Kingdom, to disseminate information outside the parties involved in a specific investigation.

However, while he agreed that information gathered through the use of the MOU could be shared with "foreign liaison interest", Phillips disagreed that it was in breach of Jamaican law.

He maintained that the MOUs do not take away the authority of the Jamaican court.