T&T PM disturbed over spy agency

(Trinidad Express) Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Thursday stated that in her capacity of chairman of the National Security Council (NSC), she was never informed of the secret operations of the Security Intelligence Agency (SIA), a unit which spied on law-abiding citizens.

She said she only became aware that the unit illegally wire-tapped the phones of persons who were not engaged in criminal activity, after information came to her that members of a “certain” political party requested information from the agency.

Persad-Bissessar was speaking at a press conference at the Piarco International Airport on her return from her official overseas trip.

She said: “The SIA as I say, very few people even knew it existed. Very few people know what it is they do and we were similarly not informed and advised as what was happening there. This is in spite of the fact that we would hold National Security Council meetings, this is in spite of the fact that at any time the heads of security at the agencies would speak to me as chairman of the NSC, this was never brought to our attention.”

“And the question is, to whom was this information being fed? We don’t know. Where was it going? And indeed, when we discovered it, and of course we were being advised that people were requesting transcripts of the tapping, requesting tapes of the tapping and this was about two-and-a-half weeks ago, from officials at the SIA, and therefore we had to take action,” she said.

She said officials at the SIA, which is now under a forensic probe being conducted by the Police Service, some two weeks ago, were requested by certain officials of a political party to supply information obtained by illegal wire-tapping.

Though she did not identify the political party and the nature of the information, Persad-Bissessar questioned reasons behind the SIA tapping the phones of law-abiding citizens.

“It is being alleged that they are persons from a particular political party (that requested information from (SIA). It is being alleged,” she said.

Contacted on his cellphone for a comment on Thursday, former SIA and Security Services Agency (SSA), another intelligence agency under the Ministry of National Security, director Nigel Clement said he had no comment to make.

“I don’t wish to speak. Not today, not tomorrow. I am not willing to speak,” Clement said.

On Wednesday, under the SSA Act of 1995, President George Maxwell Richards signed an order revoking Clement’s appointment.