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“In the way of the world, things happen. As one writer previously wrote, ‘there is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face…”
Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds, Express, 5 July 2024.
The preening, self-important Minister Hinds evidently did not recognise that he was quoting Macbeth and that the ‘writer’ was Shakespeare. The full quote is significant given his plight in the Strategic Services Agency (SSA) debacle.
“[…] There’s no art/ To find the mind’s construction in the face/ He was a gentleman on whom I built/ An absolute trust…” (Macbeth Act 1 Scene 4)
As the line minister of the country’s national security ministry, he should never trust anyone. Trust, but verify should be his watchword. He bears the responsibility for the affairs of that Ministry.
Will he do the honourable thing and fall on his sword?
To defer to the Prime Minister’s official statement in Parliament is to ignore Dr Keith Rowley’s confession of being blindsided.
“Things happen” attempts to bamboozle the nation: that the events were unavoidable. Wrong!
Dr Rowley set the proverbial fox in the fowl coop when he approved the appointment of Gary Griffith as police commissioner. Minister Hinds stood idly by when public funds were used to create “Super G” (Ajim, 2023).
Dr Rowley ignored the advice of former minister Edmund Dillon, who told Parliament how Gary Griffith subverted the procurement process in ordering six armoured personnel carriers for a cost of $12 million. Griffith blustered but could not deny the wrongful action.
The inattentive Hinds is no match for Griffith, nor does he provide leadership for the burgeoning crime situation. The merry-go-round of permanent secretaries in the Ministry was not helpful. There have been nine since Jennifer Boucaud-Blake’s resignation in 2013!
With a huge budget and a pressing social crisis, the Ministry does not have the administrative support to rein in the players.
(via TTPS)
We saw the value of a long-serving permanent secretary when Sonia Francis-Yearwood of the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure shut down an ill-fated public funds spender.
Who was minding this National Security shop? The short answer: nobody! What is the value of Minister Hinds to the Prime Minister or the nation?
However, the SSA debacle is a reprise of the infamous Reshmi Ramnarine appointment as head of the Security Intelligence Agency (SIA) in 2011.
Ramnarine was controversially appointed as a Security Intelligence Agency (SIA) director in 2011.
She subsequently resigned after media reports that her credentials were fraudulent.
The scandal surrounding the appointment of Reshmi Ramnarine as head of the SIA was as a result of a recommendation made by senior superintendent of police Surajdeen Persad directly to the Prime Minister.
According to the letter, the situation warranted immediate action, as it could topple Persad-Bissessar’s government.
Mr Griffith was the national security advisor to the then Prime Minister. He claimed that the letter from Persad to the Prime Minister was never discussed at the National Security Council level.
Photo: UNC
He added that he had no direct links to Persad but understood that he (Persad) no longer operates at the Special Branch and was shifted to another security unit.
All complicit employees in the scheme to undermine the organisation were quietly whisked away. Rowley claimed the action of the police officer was unknown to the commissioner of police (at the time, Canadian national Dwayne Gibbs),
Jack Warner called a press conference in his war with the United National Congress (UNC) over ‘plant-like’ substances found at the then Prime Minister’s residence. He played three audio tapes starring Mr Griffith. Griffith blustered in his explanation.
(Copyright Trinidad Express)
Denyse Renne, then an Express journalist, confirmed the evidence from a police diary. The then Police Commissioner denied but afterwards admitted that a parcel was found. He claimed it to be in a different place.
Gary Griffith said then, “he was leaving it to the population to decide the kind of man Warner is for secretly taping him.”
The question must now be asked. What manner of man is Mr Griffith?
Photo: UNC
He secretly archived and shared with Dr Roodal Moonilal screenshots of private conversations with the luckless Hinds and the news media about Prime Minister Rowley.
Mr Hinds did not learn the lesson of Macbeth: violence and treachery powered by ambition and a lack of a moral centre. Instinctively, we know several who lack a moral centre.
Griffith called some of us “cockroaches” and laughed at extrajudicial killings. The late Colin Robinson quoted Sunity Maharaj: “…a few more “extrajudicial killings would make him unbeatable at the polls”.
The image is blurred as it may be disturbing to some readers.
(via TTPS)
The late Minister Morgan Job said: “The Police is the Praetorian Guard of our political and business class.” (n/a). This was prescient, except it is the SSA, powered by some police elements.
We will discuss the business community and the “I Support Our Service” initiative at another time.
The worm turns. Chief of Defence Staff Air Vice Marshal Darryl Daniel apparently saved Major Roger Best, the former Strategic Services Agency (SSA) director, from a possible criminal charge of having a prohibited weapon.
The person who introduced Roger Best (SSA Head) to Pastor Ian Brown, the self-described spy, was assigned to our Washington High Commission.
Griffith denies a relationship with Mr Brown but guested twice with him on a gospel radio station. Is Griffith a nice guy with loads of time? How often is he in strange events, only to seek ‘plausible deniability’, that is distance himself from actions taken?
As Lady Macbeth found out, “a little water does not clear us of this deed”. Looking right does not make it right. As former US president Barack Obama said: “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.”
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868
You and I cannot unsee the blood spilt in this land. The Police and military leaders frolic at our expense. Did any of these shenanigans make us safer?
As Shakespeare said about the warring Montagues and Capulets families at the deaths of Romeo and Juliet: “plague o’ both your houses.”
The only solution? “Out damn spot!” (Macbeth Act 5 Scene 1).
Photo: THA
We must clean the shop; tout monde. There is no time for partisan behaviour. The house is on fire!
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