THE SPY AGENCY

Nov 15, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

This week, we examine a development closer to home which has serious implications for the plans by the present administration to establish a new intelligence agency to be housed in Castellani Grounds.
The shocking news emerged this week from Port of Spain about the activities of an official intelligence agency which it seems was spying on a number of prominent citizens, including the present Prime Minister and the President of the country.
There are now further allegations that large sums were being paid for information. What we are witnessing unfolding is a possible pattern of misuse and abuse of the powers under which the spy agency operated.
The scandal has far reaching implications not the least of which are for Guyana which is planning to establish a national intelligence headquarters in the compound that houses the national art gallery.
Guyana is keen to imitate what Trinidad and Tobago is doing. When that government announced a computer in every home, Guyana followed suit with a plan to distribute 90,000 computers in three years time so that very family will be connected to the Internet.
Imitating is one thing, learning from the lessons of another is quite different. At when it comes to lessons, there are quite a few which can be had from the present situation in Trinidad concerning the operations of the spy agency which is now under intense investigation.
Guyana has legislation which allows for the communication of citizens to be tapped. But this can only be done with the consent of the courts. The problem is that this safeguard does not mean that such tapping cannot be done outside of the control of the Courts, that is the phone and mails of persons could be illegally monitored without the knowledge of the courts or the individuals concerned.
So what guarantees are there that when this new spy agency is established in Guyana that private communications will not be illegally monitored? What is to prevent persons connected with the soon to be established agency doing their own thing and tapping into the personal communication of citizens unknowing to these citizens and without the consent of the courts?
National security surely requires modernization of the intelligence gathering arms of the State. Guyana has suffered in the past because of the failure of the intelligence agencies to identify potential threats. Thus the need for improved intelligence cannot be understated.
We live in different times when threats to the State are now more pronounced, when agents of organized crime are extremely powerful and capable of compromising the security agencies. We reached an all time low a few times ago when the telephone of a top law enforcement office was bugged.
Now if that is not something that demanded a revamp of the entire security network then what does?
The British and the Americans are always willing to help. But the government has to be mindful of any assistance from these sources because they are only interested in safeguarding their national interests, and not necessarily ours.
So while assistance may be welcome, this must not come at the price of conceding control because in the final analysis those foreign countries are only interested in ensuring that their national security interests are protected. We have different problems here. But then we now have another problem. Apart from organized crime, we also have political threats from extremists.
Last year one group fire-bombed the Ministry of Health and while one of the main suspects have been identified, the US is not cooperating in having him sent back here fore questioning.
Guyana therefore has to look out for itself. It has to improve its security readiness and this entails more resources to be dedicated to intelligence gathering.
But there are also risks involved. Look what domestic control has led to in Trinidad. It has created a spy agency which, we are told, was tapping the phone of the President of the country.
What then are we to expect in Guyana? And just who will be entrusted with the management of this new spy agency and just who will be responsible for the gathering of intelligence? The PPP has been a monumental failure in the area of national security. In fact, had it been able to ensure greater security within the State, this country would have been far better off today than it is.
So why should anyone have any confidence that the new spy agency will be effective considering that every national security agency that the PPP has created since it came to power has failed?

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