The crime plague 2002-2006: Revelations that will kill PPP leaders

Feb 01, 2018 Freddie Kissoon

Mr. Jagdeo has gone on the offensive with the announcement that there will be a judicial inquiry into the crime vortex that almost drowned society between the years 2002 – when the infamous jail break took place – and 2006 when it abated. Mr. Jagdeo for the past three days has accused big wigs in the then-opposition PNC of having connections to the mayhem that emanated from Buxton.
Mr. Jagdeo cannot comprehend what a judicial inquiry is. If he knows, then he will understand that he cannot go on the witness stand and say, “I don’t know,” when the evidence will be there to contradict him. In such a situation, a charge of perjury can be instituted. In a judicial inquiry, the commissioners have judge-like authority.
When the process begins, it will shock the entire world. PPP leaders in that period are forgetting two factors. Captain David Clarke, who was based in Buxton as part of security logistics, was arrested for drug trafficking. After his plea bargaining and cooperation, he was given refugee status and allowed to stay in the US. What did he tell the US authorities?
Roger Khan also copped a plea bargain. Here is where Jagdeo is going to find himself in volcanic lava. There is material out there that the commission will want to access. Roger Khan has said that when the American Regional Security Officer, Mr. Stephen Lesniak was kidnapped, he met with Embassy officials to help in the release of Lesniak. So Khan was a major player at the time, yet all PPP leaders at the time, are on record as saying they never met Khan.
Then there is the statement from the general manager of the store where the spy equipment was bought, which Khan had in his possession when he was arrested on the Good Hope public road. The spy equipment by US laws is only sold directly to governments. There is a paper trail that showed it was Minister Leslie Ramsammy that facilitated the purchase. Ramsammy has denied it. If Ramsammy is telling the truth, why did the manager name him, a person who was the Minister of Health at the time and not a minister connected to state security? What will the commissioners say to Ramsammy if he is supplied with the proof?
There are the requests from the US Government not to confirm Henry Greene as Commissioner of Police. You have to be a jackass to assume that the US government was lying on Greene, had nothing on Green, and just didn’t want him to be the head of the police force. President Jagdeo declined the suggestion of the US and appointed Greene. There is material out there that quotes Robert Simels, Khan’s lawyer, as saying that it was Greene who bugged Commissioner Winston Felix’s office when Felix was on leave. That bugging resulted in an embarrassing conversation the Commissioner had with others.
The paper trail on the role of the Jagdeo government in the crime vortex in those years is going to embarrass the hierarchy of the PPP leadership. Mr. Jagdeo is forgetting that the head of the army and the head of the police and the chief of the army at the time were in possession of information that can seriously implicate many PPP ministers. Mr. Jagdeo is pointing to senior opposition figures that were connected to the Buxton conspirators. Be that as it may, the political authorities cannot be that stupid to hold a commission without any proof of the involvement of the then-government.
My thinking is that the then-big wigs in office feel that the most incriminating evidence will not be available to the commission – Clarke’s confession statement, Khan’s cooperation and Simels’ testimony. If the Commission fails to secure those documents, then PPP leaders will walk free. There will be substantial proof pointing to Khan’s penetration of Jagdeo’s government and Khan’s role in Waddell’s murder; information that most media operatives have. But if there is no material on the cooperation with American authorities by Clarke and Khan, the commission’s work will be inelegantly incomplete.
The release of the relevant documents by US authorities on the testimony of Clarke and Khan is a delicate matter that will involve complex negotiations. The Guyana Government has the skills to pursue those discussions. I doubt the US will be disinterested. Too many people lost their lives, state security was compromised by the acceptance of drug traffickers into the workings of the police force, senior government ministers were participants in a labyrinthine conspiracy of death and violence, and Guyana had experienced a hell no West Indian society ever endured. The US government should release the papers.

1 thoughts on “The crime plague 2002-2006: Revelations that will kill PPP leaders”

weir February 1, 2018 at 10:27 am

Freddie, what about your article; Guyana Under Siege, Failure of Buxton Conspiracy?
You are too contradictory. You forget what you have written.