I'm no spy, Phillips declares he has never been in bed with US
Published:Sunday | May 29, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
Dr Peter Phillips has rejected suggestions that his relationship with some United States government officials is or has ever been abnormal and declared that he had never second-guessed himself on his role in the extradition affair of the reputed influential Tivoli Gardens don, Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.
WikiLeaks cables published last week by The Gleaner reawakened speculation about Phillips' relationship with the United States, fuelled by his knowledge of the Coke extradition request.
But two years after the allegations first surfaced, Phillips remains defiant, declaring that he has never been in bed with the Americans and, as a patriot, has no intention of doing so.
"I believe what you have to do is try to be honest, sincere and clear about your objectives and your duty; and I have always felt my duty was to the country, the laws of Jamaica and to the highest ideals of our nationhood. And I pursue that regardless of who likes it or doesn't like it."
Asked to characterise his relationship with the US, Phillips said: "It is like that I have with all other countries with whom Jamaica deals - that is, one of respect and transparency," Phillips asserted in a Sunday Gleaner interview.
"I relate to all of them from the vantage point of my view of Jamaica's interests and how those interests can be facilitated by our linking discussions and relationship, so it is not abnormal at all, just the same (as Britain and Canada)," said Phillips.
Phillips, who was the national security minister when the Americans began to probe Coke's activities and associations in the US, maintained that his relationship with Jamaica's powerful neighbours has always remained professional and above board.
The interactions of Phillips, the last national security minister in the near 19-year People's National Party (PNP) administration that ended in 2007, drew attention after persons aligned to the Jamaica Labour Party labelled him a spy when he raised questions in Parliament in August and September 2009.
Phillips' security
The uncomplimentary depictions of "CIA spy" and that he was "selling out" Jamaica were plastered in graffiti on walls in mainly Jamaica Labour Party-dominated areas and the Phillips' security became a cause of public concern.
"It was simply a contrivance on the part of the Government to try and play a CIA card," charged Phillips.
Asked whether the ploy worked, Phillips said: "Not as far as I am concerned, because, tell you the truth, I have never felt that you can organise your life around what you feel people are going to say or not say.
"That assertion only arose because we were determined that the decades of work that Jamaican law enforcement had put in (in) cooperation with other countries to root (out) criminality, and in particular the Shower Posse, should not go in vain because of what, in my view, was a clear breach of national patriotic responsibility on the part of the Government."
He added: "It (the relationship with the US) is as close as it was to anybody else - the US the Canadians, the British have had a particularly close relationship in terms of security issues, precisely because their own countries are affected," said Phillips.
He said this was spurred by the wave of criminality that had spread through Jamaica, so they provided assistance born out of their self-interest. "But I think we share the interest in having a country that is free of criminality."
Phillips played down suggestions that he had impressed the United States (Embassy), prompting cables that the Americans were worried that he, as well as the former finance minister, would have been sidelined by the president of the People's National Party and the then prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller.
"I don't think so. I don't know their view of me - without being invidious, I wouldn't say that they were necessarily more intensely involved than the other three major countries and certainly some of our Caribbean partners. There was nothing particularly special about the US connections as compared with the British, Canadians or CARICOM people who were involved."
Phillips told The Sunday Gleaner that his relationship was closer with Caribbean countries precisely because he attended university with prominent persons in leadership throughout the Caribbean.
Stressing that his focus was fixed on eliminating criminality, Phillips said as national security minister he established a security cooperation plan with the Cubans because of the negative effects Jamaica was experiencing from increased drug trafficking through Cuban waters.
The former minister was placed on the defensive when it was revealed that he had signed two memoranda of understanding facilitating the building of wiretapping technology to nab criminals with international links.