...With A Little Help From Our "Friends."
Without waiting for Commissioner Gibbs to declare their prerogatives, [see 2:44 above] it seemed that the majority of online readers, if you read the comments following the Express' first article on the alleged assassination threats, chose not to believe the government of Trinidad and Tobago.
For many it was tiresome déjà vu [all over again] and the lack of evidence helped to destroy the credibility of this latest threat to national security. After reading about it yesterday evening, a long steups was my gut reaction. I still cannot say whether I believe it or not because I do not have any evidence before me and this is what I continue to find distressing and frankly embarrassing about politics as usual in T&T.
These threats should be announced only after evidence has been gathered, persons must be charged and their identities and alleged activities shared with the public. Without that evidence and coupled with Commissioner Gibbs' studied callowness, his painstaking attempts to choose the neatest words while appearing to subliminally distance himself from the laglee, "All I can say is that we've all expressed that there is a threat there. If you choose not to believe that I guess that's your prerogative." I was left more inclined to interrogate than to commiserate.
Death threats, by the way, are occupational hazards for leaders of nations. Just like all of the people won't like you all of the time, you should expect that some of the time, some of the people will want to see you dead like a semp for your efforts or lack thereof. Ask Fidel Castro about the six hundred and something times he alleged that a certain agency attempted to hand him over to Basil.
So while I remain open to believing the claims of the government and I wait for more details to dribble out, I want to congratulate all the online readers who dispensed with pinches of salt and resorted to snorting it in the face of this latest report from Oceania. Your skepticism is wise especially with the "mentors" to the north whispering into the pliant ear of this administration. All of the quotes below apply to their own fear-mangled society but I want my countrymen to be vigilant and to look for the signs that our mimicry is escalating.
"In January of 2003 FBI and CIA whistleblowers told Capitol Hill Blue that the White House was scripting phony terror alerts to maintain hysteria, upkeep President Bush’s approval ratings and milk extra defense funding."-- Paul Joseph WatsonMeanwhile, on the subject of evil, devious acts of treason, let us revisit the leaked US Embassy Cable of 20th October, 2006, "SUBJECT: OPPOSITION LEADER: PM HAS TERRORIST LINKS, IS ANTI-AMERICAN AND DICTATORIAL" and Wade Mark's breathless waving of carefully tailored red flags before the paranoid bull whose patronage he was seeking. The following cable records the damning allegations made to an alien presence against a sitting Prime Minister:
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and hence clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."-- H.L. Mencken
The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself... Almost inevitably, he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable." - H. L. Mencken
"Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping, and unintelligent." --H. L. Mencken
"If you haven't recognised the following fact then I suggest you do a little research and deal with it. Government's, ruling oligarchies, dictatorships subtle and overt, throughout history time and again create their own enemies. They need to manufacture enemies to indefinitely hoodwink the real enemy, the people they govern."---Paul Joseph Watson.
"¶1. (C) On October 3, the Ambassador met with Opposition United National Congress (UNC) Deputy Political Leader Senator Wade Mark, at Mark's request. Mark said his purpose was to express to the Ambassador the UNC's shock at the "sudden assault" on the United States unleashed by Prime Minister Patrick Manning, in his September 5 address before energy industry executives and members of the diplomatic corps (Ref A). Mark wished to reassure the Ambassador that a UNC administration would reestablish with the US the same friendly and cooperative relations which has characterized the 1995-2001 period when then UNC Prime Minister Basdeo Panday and Secretary of State Warren Christopher signed an extradition treaty, a mutual legal assistance treaty and an agreement on maritime law enforcement. Mark went on to say that UNC concern with Manning's "undiplomatic" outburst was heightened by the fact that Minister of Energy and Energy Industries Dr. Lenny Saith has reportedly signed a memorandum of understanding with Mexico according to which a portion of the liquefied natural gas currently exported by T&T to the US would be assigned to Mexico instead. Such an action could not help but have serious national security implications for T&T, given that T&T depends for much of its food imports on the US. The Ambassador listened to Mark and acknowledged that the Prime Minister's September 5 criticism of the US had taken him by surprise, too.What exactly constitutes sedition, treason and terrorism?
¶2. (C) Mark then launched into a litany of allegations and rumors whose veracity it is impossible to gauge. He said it was the UNC's understanding that newly-appointed foreign minister Arnold Piggott (Ref B) had, while serving as High Commissioner to Canada, met with elements associated with Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah. (Note: Post has no reason to believe that this is true and has not heard this rumor from any other source). He went on to say that three ships carrying rocket launchers as well as members of Hezbollah, which had left Syria in August en route to Argentina, were diverted to Venezuela's Margarita island where a Hezbollah base was to be established with the aim of targeting the US. (Note: Post has heard this claim elsewhere, although embassy Caracas would be better placed to ascertain whether it is fact or fiction).
¶3. (C) Mark also drew a connection between Prime Minister Manning, Imam Yasin Abu Bakr, leader of the extremist Jamaat al Muslimeen (JAM) group, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Referring to Abu Bakr's release from prison on bail and to his court-authorized leave to travel to Venezuela, Mark said it strains credulity that such a development could have taken place without the knowledge and intervention of the powers that be. Mark said that Abu Bakr is treated like a head of state by the Chavez regime, and hypothesized that his leave to travel to Venezuela could have been intended to cement Manning's anti-American credentials in return for the JAM's assistance with voter recruitment at the next election. (For info on Abu Bakr, see Reftels D, E, and F).
¶4. (C) Making full use of the exaggerated or rhetorical style which characterizes both his public appearances and private conversations, Mark then accused Prime Minister Manning of increasingly dictatorial tendencies. He said that Manning would stop at nothing including assassination, to get elected, and that the proposed draft constitution, which Manning commissioned and which incorporates no checks on the abuse of power by an executive president, is designed to suit his own predilection for absolute control.
¶5. (C) COMMENT: Wade Mark's visit must be viewed in the context of an increasingly acrimonious political atmosphere in T&T, both between the ruling People's National Movement and the opposition forces and within the opposition forces themselves recently split down the middle through the creation of Winston Dookeran's Congress of the People (Ref C). Although many of Mark's allegations seem outlandish, some of them may not be entirely implausible. On the one hand, the fact that the GOTT is prosecuting Abu Bakr for sedition, incitement and terrorism makes it highly unlikely that any deal is in the works between him and Manning. On the other hand, Abu Bakr's leave to travel to Venezuela really does raise eyebrows. Post would appreciate any insights which embassy Caracas may have on Abu Bakr's activities in Venezuela.
AUSTIN"
Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.
Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare
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