FROM WIKILEAKS: 5. (C) The principal motivation of the letter seems to be displeasure that Merai is assisting Venezuelan-based Guyanese narco-trafficker Maxwell "Lunkie" Melville in his struggle with Mark De Abreu to take control of Roger Khan's narco-trafficking empire. The letter refers to a DVD audio and video recording (labeled #4 of 11) that purportedly implicates Merai, "Lunkie", and an unnamed businessman in a 200kg, US$710,000 cocaine transaction gone bad. Luncheon volunteered to Charge that the businessman purportedly captured on DVD is the son-in-law of Ashton Chase, revered as co-founder of the PPP along with Cheddi and Janet Jagan.

PNC dictatorship operated execution squad

- Gates testifies

WHAT went wrong with Guyana?
Why had the nation plummeted to socio-economic depression, authoritarian dictatorship, food shortages and a crippling housing crisis? Could we avoid that ever happening again to our nation?

President Donald Ramotar

Guyanese see emerging out of the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry the answers to these troubling questions, with yesterday’s hearings providing sobering insight into how the Guyanese people suffered from covert political maneuvering and dictatorial abuse of law and order under the autocratic Government of the People’s National Congress (PNC). The PNC rigged elections in Guyana for 28 years, operating as an authoritarian dictatorship, resulting in the political assassination of several Guyanese.

Dr. Walter Rodney

Testimony at the Commission yesterday revealed how Guyana sunk to a staggering totalitarian state by the 1980’s. Guyanese citizens saw the PNC Government deny them basic food and freedom of the press, and left them lurching under a crippling housing crisis and devastated local communities.
The situation got so draconian and ugly that Guyanese saw the political assassination of their populous political leader and world famous scholar, Dr Walter Rodney, in a bomb blast on the streets of their capital city, Georgetown, on June 13, 1980.
The dark secrets, murderous plots and dictatorial conspiracies of the PNC Government lay dormant for over three decades, before President Donald Ramotar overcame obstacles to establish a Presidential Commission to probe why Dr Rodney was assassinated. The Commission’s job is to unearth the truth about why Guyanese saw their nation plummet to the deadly point of assassinating its foremost historian and intellectual leader, Dr Rodney.

The Commission also posts live updates throughout the day on Social Media, as follows:
Twitter: @WalterRodneyCom
Facebook Page: Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry
Blog: commissionofinquiry.wordpress.com
Google+: Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry
Pinterest: Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry
YouTube videos are also posted online for global access to live testimony.

Yesterday’s hearing resumed the Commission’s vital task to probe the socio-political dysfunction in Guyana that caused Dr Rodney’s death.

Witness Robert Gates resumed his testimony in the Witness Box, dressed in a light green shirt and tie.
Under examination from lead Counsel for the Commission, Glen Hanoman, and cross examination from Trinidadian Attorney-at-Law Keith Scotland, who is representing Donald Rodney before the Commission, Gates revealed additional details of his sinister involvement in clandestine conspiracies to assassinate Guyanese citizens under the PNC dictatorship Government.
Gates’ testimony before the Commission reveals how top Army, Police and Government superiors strangled Guyana’s development in the PNC’s desperate grab for political power, with the State operating a menacing, clandestine “Execution Branch” within the Guyana Police Force that assassinated Guyanese citizens, including Dr Walter Rodney.
Under cross examination, Gates said he knows of “25 to 30 people” who the “Execution Branch” assassinated. “Some were justified, and some were not. Two that I know of were members of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA),” Gates said.

Gates’ testimony before the Commission reveals how top Army, Police and Government superiors strangled Guyana’s development in the PNC’s desperate grab for political power, with the State operating a menacing, clandestine “Execution Branch” within the Guyana Police Force that assassinated Guyanese citizens, including Dr Walter Rodney.
Under cross examination, Gates said he knows of “25 to 30 people” who the “Execution Branch” assassinated. “Some were justified, and some were not. Two that I know of were members of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA),” Gates said.

Gates had detailed to the Commission how he worked as an undercover Police Officer, involved in a plot of the law-flouting PNC Government, Cecil ‘Skip’ Roberts, ex-Police Crime Chief now residing in the US, Major General (retired) Norman McLean, and the late Police Commissioner, Laurie Lewis, to rob Guyanese citizens of their political human rights.
Yesterday, Gates several times named Mr Roberts, Major General (retired) McLean, and Lewis, along with PNC ruler and authoritarian Head of State, Forbes Burnham, as masterminds behind the political intrigues that

crippled the nation.
Himself a colorful character, now serving a jail sentence at the Camp Street jail after being convicted of forgery, Gates shocked the Guyanese nation early this month when he revealed his role as undercover double agent spy, working for the Police under direction of the dictatorship PNC Government, and for Dr Rupert Roopnarine, co-leader of the WPA.
Gates faced criticism and hostility from the Counsel, before the Commission, for the PNC, Mr Basil Williams, because of his troubles with the law.

Trinidadian Lawyer Keith Scotland cross examining Robert Gates during Rodney’s COI yesterday. (Cullen Bess-Nelson photo)

But Gates said most of his testimony could be verified, and he named names with confidence and freedom. He said he recalls that at one public political meeting in Kitty, Georgetown, he pulled his Police guns on a group of religious fanatics from the cult, the House of Israel, who the PNC Government hired to break up political meetings. The thugs had started pelting broken bottles at the Opposition political speakers, with one bottle hitting Moses Nagamootoo, speaking on the platform on behalf of the People’s Progerssive Party (PPP), on his head.
“I pulled my guns on the House of Israel men, and the next day my superiors in the Police Force called me in and reprimanded me, telling me to leave them alone,” Gates said.
The witness, speaking clear and with dignified clarity in the Witness Box, said he personally has knowledge of the operations of a secret body that operated as a joint Armed Forces intelligence organ of the State. This organ got direct orders from Head of State of the dictatorial PNC Government, Mr Forbes Burnham, Gates said, emphasising that the top actors were “Laurie Lewis and Cecil ‘Skip’ Roberts”.
Under cross examination, Gates revealed that Roberts, though not head of the Police Force, ignored then Police Commissioner Lloyd Barker to report directly to Mr Burnham. “I know personally that Roberts accompanied Burnham horseback riding,” Gates said, noting that the two men were confidantes.
The witness, under a cloud of controversy because the PNC has indicated its unhappiness with his appearance at the Commission, ignored the criticisms, and testified with ease and comfort. Gates said the Guyana Police Force operated a Special Branch, “which became known as the Death Squad”. Within the Special Branch, the “Execution Branch operated”, tasked with killing Guyanese citizens, Gates revealed under cross examination.
Counsel Scotland spent considerable time cross examining Gates to prove that his client, Donald Rodney, was in no way involved in the bomb blast that killed Dr Walter Rodney.
The dictatorship PNC Government had charged Donald Rodney with being in possession of explosives, and Scotland cross examined Gates to prove that the Police charged Donald Rodney falsely.
The Commission resumes tomorrow, with Gates still in the stand.
Several key witnesses are lined up to appear at this session of the Commission’s sitting, which adjourns on July 2 next.
In the audience today, Dr Rupert Roopnarine sat quietly in the audience, and listened with rapt attention as his name came up several times. Gates has testified that Dr Roopnarine paid him as an undercover spy, on behalf of the WPA.
Yesterday, the name of a recurring mysterious agent of the Russian secret service, the KGB, came up several times as well, as the political intrigue and dark conspiracies take on international implications.
Gates said the KGB agent trained him, along with suspected assassinator of Dr Walter Rodney, the late Gregory Smith, to operate explosive electronics, and also provided them with “technical help”. Gates met the mystery KGB undercover agent with Laurie Lewis and his handlers within the Police Force at the Pegasus Hotel.
Gates said the Russian spy worked in Guyana as a consultant to the dictatorship PNC Government, to provide technical assistance in clandestine political plots to harm, harass and assassinate Guyanese citizens, a point that Counsel Scotland emphasised in his cross examination.
The Commission resumes its work today at the High Court building in Georgetown, with Guyanese all across the world showing keen interest in the revelations of dark political plots. The hearing is streamed live worldwide for free online by the National Communication Network (NCN).
President Ramotar has said that the Presidential Commission, officially called the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry, aims to provide answers for the family of Dr Rodney, and the Guyanese people, along with the WPA, as to why Guyanese Dr Rodney died in a bomb blast in his car.
Commission members are Chairman Sir Richard Cheltenham of Barbados, Mr Seenath Jairam of Trinidad and Tobago, and Ms Jacqueline Samuel-Brown of Jamaica.
Guyanese all across the world, especially the young generation, focus riveted attention to the testimonies coming out of the Commission, as for the first time the nation is seeing why Guyana suffered a socio-economic collapse in the 1970’s and 1980’s, and how the dictatorial PNC Government treated Guyanese citizens, with such authoritarian disdain.

excerpts from Guyana Chroincle

PNC dictatorship operated execution squad

- Gates testifies

WHAT went wrong with Guyana?
Why had the nation plummeted to socio-economic depression, authoritarian dictatorship, food shortages and a crippling housing crisis? Could we avoid that ever happening again to our nation?

President Donald Ramotar

Guyanese see emerging out of the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry the answers to these troubling questions, with yesterday’s hearings providing sobering insight into how the Guyanese people suffered from covert political maneuvering and dictatorial abuse of law and order under the autocratic Government of the People’s National Congress (PNC). The PNC rigged elections in Guyana for 28 years, operating as an authoritarian dictatorship, resulting in the political assassination of several Guyanese.

Dr. Walter Rodney

Testimony at the Commission yesterday revealed how Guyana sunk to a staggering totalitarian state by the 1980’s. Guyanese citizens saw the PNC Government deny them basic food and freedom of the press, and left them lurching under a crippling housing crisis and devastated local communities.
The situation got so draconian and ugly that Guyanese saw the political assassination of their populous political leader and world famous scholar, Dr Walter Rodney, in a bomb blast on the streets of their capital city, Georgetown, on June 13, 1980.
The dark secrets, murderous plots and dictatorial conspiracies of the PNC Government lay dormant for over three decades, before President Donald Ramotar overcame obstacles to establish a Presidential Commission to probe why Dr Rodney was assassinated. The Commission’s job is to unearth the truth about why Guyanese saw their nation plummet to the deadly point of assassinating its foremost historian and intellectual leader, Dr Rodney.

The Commission also posts live updates throughout the day on Social Media, as follows:
Twitter: @WalterRodneyCom
Facebook Page: Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry
Blog: commissionofinquiry.wordpress.com
Google+: Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry
Pinterest: Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry
YouTube videos are also posted online for global access to live testimony.

Yesterday’s hearing resumed the Commission’s vital task to probe the socio-political dysfunction in Guyana that caused Dr Rodney’s death.

Witness Robert Gates resumed his testimony in the Witness Box, dressed in a light green shirt and tie.
Under examination from lead Counsel for the Commission, Glen Hanoman, and cross examination from Trinidadian Attorney-at-Law Keith Scotland, who is representing Donald Rodney before the Commission, Gates revealed additional details of his sinister involvement in clandestine conspiracies to assassinate Guyanese citizens under the PNC dictatorship Government.
Gates’ testimony before the Commission reveals how top Army, Police and Government superiors strangled Guyana’s development in the PNC’s desperate grab for political power, with the State operating a menacing, clandestine “Execution Branch” within the Guyana Police Force that assassinated Guyanese citizens, including Dr Walter Rodney.
Under cross examination, Gates said he knows of “25 to 30 people” who the “Execution Branch” assassinated. “Some were justified, and some were not. Two that I know of were members of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA),” Gates said.

Gates’ testimony before the Commission reveals how top Army, Police and Government superiors strangled Guyana’s development in the PNC’s desperate grab for political power, with the State operating a menacing, clandestine “Execution Branch” within the Guyana Police Force that assassinated Guyanese citizens, including Dr Walter Rodney.
Under cross examination, Gates said he knows of “25 to 30 people” who the “Execution Branch” assassinated. “Some were justified, and some were not. Two that I know of were members of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA),” Gates said.

Gates had detailed to the Commission how he worked as an undercover Police Officer, involved in a plot of the law-flouting PNC Government, Cecil ‘Skip’ Roberts, ex-Police Crime Chief now residing in the US, Major General (retired) Norman McLean, and the late Police Commissioner, Laurie Lewis, to rob Guyanese citizens of their political human rights.
Yesterday, Gates several times named Mr Roberts, Major General (retired) McLean, and Lewis, along with PNC ruler and authoritarian Head of State, Forbes Burnham, as masterminds behind the political intrigues that

crippled the nation.
Himself a colorful character, now serving a jail sentence at the Camp Street jail after being convicted of forgery, Gates shocked the Guyanese nation early this month when he revealed his role as undercover double agent spy, working for the Police under direction of the dictatorship PNC Government, and for Dr Rupert Roopnarine, co-leader of the WPA.
Gates faced criticism and hostility from the Counsel, before the Commission, for the PNC, Mr Basil Williams, because of his troubles with the law.

Trinidadian Lawyer Keith Scotland cross examining Robert Gates during Rodney’s COI yesterday. (Cullen Bess-Nelson photo)

But Gates said most of his testimony could be verified, and he named names with confidence and freedom. He said he recalls that at one public political meeting in Kitty, Georgetown, he pulled his Police guns on a group of religious fanatics from the cult, the House of Israel, who the PNC Government hired to break up political meetings. The thugs had started pelting broken bottles at the Opposition political speakers, with one bottle hitting Moses Nagamootoo, speaking on the platform on behalf of the People’s Progerssive Party (PPP), on his head.
“I pulled my guns on the House of Israel men, and the next day my superiors in the Police Force called me in and reprimanded me, telling me to leave them alone,” Gates said.
The witness, speaking clear and with dignified clarity in the Witness Box, said he personally has knowledge of the operations of a secret body that operated as a joint Armed Forces intelligence organ of the State. This organ got direct orders from Head of State of the dictatorial PNC Government, Mr Forbes Burnham, Gates said, emphasising that the top actors were “Laurie Lewis and Cecil ‘Skip’ Roberts”.
Under cross examination, Gates revealed that Roberts, though not head of the Police Force, ignored then Police Commissioner Lloyd Barker to report directly to Mr Burnham. “I know personally that Roberts accompanied Burnham horseback riding,” Gates said, noting that the two men were confidantes.
The witness, under a cloud of controversy because the PNC has indicated its unhappiness with his appearance at the Commission, ignored the criticisms, and testified with ease and comfort. Gates said the Guyana Police Force operated a Special Branch, “which became known as the Death Squad”. Within the Special Branch, the “Execution Branch operated”, tasked with killing Guyanese citizens, Gates revealed under cross examination.
Counsel Scotland spent considerable time cross examining Gates to prove that his client, Donald Rodney, was in no way involved in the bomb blast that killed Dr Walter Rodney.
The dictatorship PNC Government had charged Donald Rodney with being in possession of explosives, and Scotland cross examined Gates to prove that the Police charged Donald Rodney falsely.
The Commission resumes tomorrow, with Gates still in the stand.
Several key witnesses are lined up to appear at this session of the Commission’s sitting, which adjourns on July 2 next.
In the audience today, Dr Rupert Roopnarine sat quietly in the audience, and listened with rapt attention as his name came up several times. Gates has testified that Dr Roopnarine paid him as an undercover spy, on behalf of the WPA.
Yesterday, the name of a recurring mysterious agent of the Russian secret service, the KGB, came up several times as well, as the political intrigue and dark conspiracies take on international implications.
Gates said the KGB agent trained him, along with suspected assassinator of Dr Walter Rodney, the late Gregory Smith, to operate explosive electronics, and also provided them with “technical help”. Gates met the mystery KGB undercover agent with Laurie Lewis and his handlers within the Police Force at the Pegasus Hotel.
Gates said the Russian spy worked in Guyana as a consultant to the dictatorship PNC Government, to provide technical assistance in clandestine political plots to harm, harass and assassinate Guyanese citizens, a point that Counsel Scotland emphasised in his cross examination.
The Commission resumes its work today at the High Court building in Georgetown, with Guyanese all across the world showing keen interest in the revelations of dark political plots. The hearing is streamed live worldwide for free online by the National Communication Network (NCN).
President Ramotar has said that the Presidential Commission, officially called the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry, aims to provide answers for the family of Dr Rodney, and the Guyanese people, along with the WPA, as to why Guyanese Dr Rodney died in a bomb blast in his car.
Commission members are Chairman Sir Richard Cheltenham of Barbados, Mr Seenath Jairam of Trinidad and Tobago, and Ms Jacqueline Samuel-Brown of Jamaica.
Guyanese all across the world, especially the young generation, focus riveted attention to the testimonies coming out of the Commission, as for the first time the nation is seeing why Guyana suffered a socio-economic collapse in the 1970’s and 1980’s, and how the dictatorial PNC Government treated Guyanese citizens, with such authoritarian disdain.

 

excerpts from Guyana Chroincle

Serious indictment on Granja and his new found domestic terroirst Tyrone Kemraj.

Now Tyrone and Gerhard write one love letta about Hammie, the chief warrior against poor Dr Walter.

Read the Hammie Love letta from these two political comics.

SHAME on these APNU elements.

Georgetown is too important for adversarial politics

Dear Editor,
We would like to add to Gokarran Sukhdeo’s letter (SN, June 14, titled, ‘Green and the PPP are the problem not the solution&rsquo.  We address the issue of Hamilton Green as raised by Dr Dolly Hassan in her letter in SN, June 11, titled, ‘The PNC should concede that certain mistakes were made during its tenure’.
Dr Hassan, in her letter, says, “…Hamilton Green (oh, good ole Hammy), who is a ghostly and ghastly reminder of repression. He exemplifies how we can decay as a nation when we are governed by race-based politics. The stench of Green’s Georgetown is a metaphor for the nation.”
For the record, we hold no brief for Hamilton Green nor the City Council that has been in place since 1994. What we would like to focus on, however, is the fact the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has been used as a political football by the PPP to further the racist narrative that the ‘black man’ is incompetent and corrupt, and give people precisely the impression articulated in Dr Hassan’s letter.
We posit that Green has only been in place for so long because of the PPP’s belief in the concept the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Incidentally, this concept has its origins in the ancient Indian political treatise, Arthashastra. Not only is this evident in the case of Hamilton Green, but also in Odinga Lumumba, Kwame McCoy, Manniram Prashad, Gillian Burton, Carvil Duncan and Joe Hamilton (a founder and self-confessed enforcer of the infamous House of Israel, that Dr Hassan, even though she is not aware of the day to day politics in Guyana, ought to know of) among others.
The issue of Green would have been resolved long ago by Local Government Elections (LGE) that were due since 1997. However, LGE today are solely held up by the PPP. We believe this is because the PPP cannot get over that it was unable to win Georgetown at the height of its popularity in 1994. Instead, it has chosen to viciously punish Georgetown ever since, and blame it on the ‘blackman’.
This delay also relates to the fact that the PPP could dominate all the local bodies by inserting their interim management committees (IMCs). The latter is one of the points under contention between President Ramotar and the opposition, which wants to reduce the power of the local government minister to implant IMCs at will.
We hold no brief for the M&CC, but we are compelled to note some of the requests by the Council that were denied by the PPP Government: a portion of the environmental tax, to implement a container tax, to hold a lottery, to assume responsibility for fire hydrants, to engage in a project to extract gas from the Le Repentir dumpsite and to implement parking meters.
The Council also had two revenue earning operations shut down by the PPP: a car park at Stabroek Market and the supervision of the Vreed-en-Hoop/Georgetown speedboat operations. The Council also does not have the power to reassess property valuation to collect taxes. The PPP has not only neutralised the power of the Council to collect taxes, but also it is deliberately starving it of funds.
We also direct Dr Hassan to the remarks of then Minister of Local Government, Kellawan Lall, who on July 14, 2010, in the midst of yet another garbage crisis, said: “Well, if there is a health crisis in the city I’ll be glad because it’ll remove the city council. They’ll be responsible for it.”
The Ministry of Public Works has oft repeated that is has the power to intervene in the City, and has done so in emergencies, for example, the Le Repentir dumpsite and the Cummings Koker. The Ministry has also engaged in periodic clean-ups, for example, in the Albouystown area last December.
This to us, clearly indicates that the while the Government has the capacity to ease the woes of Georgetown, it prefers to engage in racial politics instead.
Dr Hassan ought to know too, that a large number of people in Georgetown vote PPP. These people are collateral damage in the race war that PPP is intent on perpetuating in the mistaken belief it can win. We, therefore, believe that Dr Hassan’s words, “exemplifies how we can decay as a nation when we are governed by race-based politics”, best applies to the PPP.
We would like to reassure Dr Hassan that we abhor adversarial politics and are advocates for an all-hands-on-deck approach to resolving the various issues our country faces. In that regard we seek to counter destructive race-based propaganda and we hope that Dr Hassan sees our letter in that light.
Georgetown is too important for us to just allow it to continue to suffer the way it has, particularly in recent years.
Gerhard Ramsaroop.

These fools cannot figure an answer to this question.

What happens to the $600 million in revenue raised by the Hammie Green Council?

Instead, they use this lame excuse to shelter a crooked Hammy by making foolish statements like "it has chosen to viciously punish Georgetown ever since, and blame it on the ‘blackman’."

This is not about Indian and African, this is about how people we expect better from sell all the principles of BOYO to sell out to HAMMY and suck PNC balls.

Put up.....or Shut up!!!!!

Stop following hearsay, and stop trying to derail the thread, as stated before put up or shut the hell up!!!!.

Burnham practiced ‘a politics of vindictiveness’ – Rodney COI hears

Former President LFS Burnham

[www.inewsguyana.com]–Executive Member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) Tacuma Ogunseye has described Former President LFS Burnham as a “vindictive politician.”

During his testimony at the Rodney Commission of Inquiry, Ogunseye, said that the Former President was an outstanding Guyanese, great Lawyer, good author, but above this he was a Politician who in his judgment was not prepared to lose executive power.

“He was a Politician, a politician that in my judgment, once he got power he was not prepared to lose it at all cost,” he said.

The WPA Member went on to add that Burnham did not subscribe to the principle that the presidency should rotated.

“He wanted to hold onto power till he died, he practiced a politics of vindictiveness.”

Executive Member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) Tacuma Ogunseye. [iNews' Photo]

He said Burnham was very personal even as he drew comparison to Former President Janet Jagan, whom he said was like Burnham in relation to being vindictive.

Ogunseye went on to tell of a story where the late President turned her back on him when he attempted to shake her hands, a day after he had criticized her in the local newspapers.

“Burnham had his strong points, he was a nationalist but he was a man like this: if you play with my power, I will hurt you.”

When asked whether Burnham supported violence against his political opponents, Ogunseye replied: “He was prepared to do anything, even use force.”

He recalled rigged elections by PNC Government, pointing to a massive electoral fraud in 1973 and the referendum in 1980 which was designed to give Burnham overwhelming powers.

He also spoke of ‘paramountcy of the Party’ which made the PNC more important than the State, adding that the WPA was 100% opposed to that.

The P.N.C may do the AFC what they did to the UF....those who forgets the pass are condemned to repeat it...

"Mitwah" Gerhard parted company with the A.F.C.....

he followed the footsteps of TK and Sase...

Jagdeo and the PPP Mafia Sold-out Guyana’s Security Apparatus To Criminals

By Richard Millington, Research Assistant – George Washington University Law School

Nov 20, 2011 --- Details are emerging about the contempt US government officials developed for Guyana’s President, Bharrat Jagdeo. Apart from his obvious criminal associations, officials were incensed by Jagdeo’s People’s Progressive Party (PPP) government’s 2006 audacious attempt to use US law enforcement to emasculate the role of then Police Commissioner, Winston Felix. “They aggressively employed draconian measures to undermine Mr. Felix to protect their criminal axis and sought our assistance to enable that subversion,” a US diplomat contends. Jagdeo’s alleged criminal associations are so far-reaching and alarming that it motivated a senior official of the Colin Powell State Department (DOS) to regard him as a “Mafia” Head of State. Then US Ambassador to Guyana, Ronald Bullen, in a 2006 cable to DOS stated that Guyana was believed to be “a narco-state” and that “If Guyana is a narco-state, then Khan is its leader” – An indication that Jagdeo was compromised and had surrendered governance of the country to Khan’s criminal enterprise. Felix drew the ire of Jagdeo over his aggressive pursuit of drug lords connected to Jagdeo’s ruling PPP, including now convicted criminal and accused murderer Roger Khan. Currently serving a 15 year sentence in the US for exporting and distributing narcotics in the US, Khan was Jagdeo’s ally and financier of the PPP. The Guyanese President has condemned his arrested in Surinam and extradited to the US, via Trinidad and Tobago, as “another US “rendition.”

Guyana's former no-nonsense Police Commissioner Winston Felix

Jagdeo has offered facile denials of any association with Khan, which strain credulity. There is at least one tape, reportedly in the possession of US officials, which purportedly shows him meeting Khan. Moreover, a Guyanese businessman informed US officials that on one occasion when he had an appointment with Jagdeo at Guyana’s Presidential Complex, he was made to wait for hours. He added that he was labbergasted and got a stomach ache when he saw Jagdeo emerged from his office with Roger Khan. The sight of the President meeting with the country’s most notorious criminal incensed him and forced him to relocate from Guyana. Around 1999, Khan, at the urging of some members of Jagdeo’s regime, form a gang nicked-named the “phantom death squad.” The phantom gang unleashed a reign of terror on the Guyanese nation. It received governmental support through Jagdeo’s then Minister of national security Ronald Gajraj. Telephone records show Gajraj was in constant communication with gang leaders before and after major murders and executions. It was later discovered that Gajraj was the co-leader of the gang. The phantom gang committed over four hundred murders for hire and executions of mostly young African Guyanese men. It is also responsible for hundreds of kidnappings, including that of a US diplomat. The gang also assassinated then PPP Agriculture Minister Sash Sawh as well as anti-PPP journalist Ronald Weddell. Sawh was locked in a bitter skirmish with Khan when he was killed. Waddell, a television talk show host, believed Jagdeo governed by ethnic supremacy and was unrelentingly critical of the PPP’s association with Khan. Jagdeo had also accused him of forming an alliance with Buxtonans who were resistant to the PPP government. The melee between Khan and Sawh stemmed from Sawh’s abrupt cancellation of a land deal that was signed between Khan and corrupt PPP appointees on the Forestry Commission, which fell within Sawh’s ministerial portfolio.  The deal awarded a large concession of lands to a company owned by Roger Khan, much to the chagrin of the US government. The US had harshly condemned the deal in its international Narcotics Control Strategy Report.

Phantom gang murder victim former Agriculture Minister Sash Sawh

 

A Canadian citizen, Sawh was himself no stranger to crime; having been convicted of passport fraud in Canada in the 1980s. He, his security guard and two siblings were slaughtered when heavily armed members of Khan’s gang invaded his La Bonne Intention home during a family dinner and opened fire with machine guns. President Jagdeo rejected an offer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to assist the Guyana Police with the investigation. Sawh’s family has accused Jagdeo of complicity in his killing. Some members have defected to the opposition Alliance For Change party while his wife has reportedly been rewarded with a diplomatic posting ostensibly to quell further family demands for a commission of enquiry. Ronald Waddell was gunned down as he left his home in suburban Georgetown on January 30, 2006. During Khan’s trial in a New York federal court, Selwyn Vaughn – a former associate of Khan turned DEA and FBI informant, testified under oath that Roger Khan ordered Waddell’s execution. Vaughn testified that Khan sent him to be the lookout man to see when Waddell arrived home, where he kept surveillance. He said he observed Waddell arrive home, leave his car idling in the driveway and go into his residence. He called and informed Khan that Waddell had arrived home. According to the witness, shortly after his call to Khan, he saw four other named phantom gang members, all former Guyana Police officers, arrive in a Burgundy Toyota car, license number AT 192. He said all four gang members were armed with automatic weapons and opened fire on Waddell as he reentered his vehicle. He testified that after the shooting he and the four murderers rejoined Khan at his Blue Iguana nightclub. According to Vaughn, Khan, while in their presence, telephoned Guyana’s Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy and

Ronald Waddell

 

informed him that Waddell had been shot and had been taken to the government-owned Public Hospital Georgetown (PHG). Khan then instructed Ramsammy to order emergency room doctors at the hospital to let Waddell die. No one was ever arrested for Waddell’s murder.

It was also established in court that Ramsammy had, on behalf of the Guyana government, written a Florida company – “The Spy Shop” advising that the government of Guyana had granted approval for Khan to purchase and high-tech surveillance equipment for importation to Guyana. Khan imported the equipment which he used to intercept his targets’ cell phone calls and to track their location before executing them.

In March 2006, then Police Commissioner Winston Felix, and Army Chief of Staff Edward Collins, directed a joint services operation which targeted Khan. The Operation comprised officers from the criminal investigations division and tactical services unit (a SWAT team) of the Police Force. They were supported by members of the Defense Force intelligence unit. Several of Khan’s business establishments were raided, including the “Blue Iguana,” from which millions of dollars, believed to be drug proceeds, were recovered.

Khan eventually escaped as he had by that time infiltrated the Police Force and was tipped off. It is believed that Henry Green, Felix’s deputy at the time and current Police Commissioner enjoyed a friendship with Khan.  The US subsequently abruptly revoked Green’s US visa, ostensibly because of his criminal associations with drug lords.

The operation against Khan was conducted without the knowledge of President Jagdeo and national security minister, Gail Teixeira, “for fear it would have been compromised,” a confidential Police source told CAF Blog.  The source said that law enforcement officials had information that Khan had a personal relationship with Jagdeo. Following the raid Khan threatened to “bring down” Jagdeo and his government if they didn’t get Felix “off his back.” The source said that Khan then instructed Jagdeo to get rid of Felix.” Within days of the operation, Khan, who had gone into hiding, published a fullpage ad in the Stabroek newspaper boasting of being head of the “phantom gang” and claimed he was “working in close association with the Jagdeo government to “fight crime.” Khan also announced that he had bugged Commissioner Felix’s telephone presumably using the surveillance computers which he had imported, and would release a recording with Felix.  In a move that suggested that he was in collaboration with the criminal to dismantle the country’s security infrastructure and defeat Felix, Jagdeo, as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, ordered Army Chief of Staff Edward Collins to disband the military intelligence unit. The criminal enterprise of Guyana was now out to get Felix. The following day, Khan, seemingly working in partnership with Jagdeo and his government, released a CD containing an alleged recording of a conversation between Felix and opposition PNCR Member of parliament and Attorney at law Basil Williams. The alleged conversation was doctored to give the impression that Felix was suggesting that a woman who was connected to Guyana’s opposition leader and who had allegedly committed grand larceny could be planted with drugs at the airport as she attempted to leave Guyana. Both Williams and Felix immediately challenged the source and authenticity of the recording and dismissed it as being bogus. It was here that President Jagdeo tipped his hand. Instead of condemning the bugging of the Police Commissioner’s

Roger Khan under arrest in Suriname

 

telephone as a dastardly breach of national security and ordering an investigation, Jagdeo publicly backed the criminal, claiming that if the voice was indeed that of Felix, then Felix had committed a crime.

Jagdeo’s comments outraged Felix, who questioned whether persons in the government were complicit with the wiretap of his telephone. Felix’s reported comments led to a confrontational meeting with Jagdeo on March 21, 2006. The President purportedly demanded that Felix retract statements implying Government of Guyana’s complicity with the wiretap and suggested he take an early retirement, but the Commissioner, also an Attorney, flatly refused.

Disgraced former National Security Minister Ronald Gajraj

As the sordid episode unfolded, then national security minister, Gail Teixeira, who had just inherited the portfolio from her disgraced predecessor Ronald Gajraj, tried desperately to salvage her government’s criminal image by ingratiating herself to western diplomats, specifically to win the confidence of the American, British and Canadian governments – referred to as the ABC countries. She attained measured success by keeping them apprised of modest crime fighting efforts and by leaking details of internal PPP wrangling to then Charge D’Affaires of the US Embassy, Michael Thomas. Thomas dispatched several cables to the US State Department detailing his conversations with Teixeira. One stated that Teixeira seemed to be fighting a “lonely, uphill battle in the government against fraud and corruption,” and hinted of Teixeira’s vain confirmation of a disturbingly convenient marriage of interests between Jagdeo and Khan.   Another said that at a meeting with ABC Ambassadors on March 20, 2006 she agreed that the government must give consideration to the dubious origins of the Felix recording and likelihood that it had been doctored.. Leaked  US government cables indicate that Teixeira complained to the diplomats that if Felix were to be removed his apparent successor would have been next in line and current Commissioner Henry Green who would be bad for the country because, as they has previously discussed, Green was corrupt and had allegedly been benefiting financially from Roger Khan. Teixeira, Thomas said, then asked the Ambassadors to leak this information to the press, as well as the fact that it was Khan who had bugged Felix’s phone. A State Department source said that Teixeira, acting on the direction of President Bharrat Jagdeo, requested the assistance of the United States government, through the FBI, to determine if the “voice in the Khan recording was that of Police Commissioner Winston Felix.” The source added that Teixeira provided a CD with the alleged recording and another recording with a speech Felix had delivered to his officers for FBI analysis.

The FBI summarily rejected the government of Guyana (GoG) request for a voice analysis, indicating that neither of the two tape recordings provided were original copies and thus, their authenticity was dubious. A US official pointed out that even if the tapes were original copies, the FBI would not have proceded with the analysis because they were fully aware that “President Jagdeo was attempting to use the US to legitimize his attempts to implicate the Police Commissioner who was attempting to bring down one of Jagdeo’s alleged criminal associates.” By the time GoG request got to the FBI, it had already come under a barrage of withering attacks from Rickford Burke, the influential President of the New York based Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID). Burke dispatched a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, through New York Governor George Pataki, detailing Jagdeo’s alleged criminal association with Khan and called on the Bush administration to distance itself from Jagdeo who he claimed was harboring Khan – a fugitive from US law. At the time, the CGID was leading an international campaign against Jagdeo’s government for its false imprisonment of journalist Mark Benschop on fabricated treason charges, and to expose Jagdeo’s apparent complicity with the Guyana’s violent criminal enterprise. Burke told CAF Blog that in 2005 he and New York State Senator, John Sampson, led a CGID delegation to the State Department to discuss the situation in Guyana, including Jagdeo and Gajraj’s criminal associations.  He said that the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Caribbean affairs in the Western Hemisphere Division advised the delegation that the US government had severed all communication with Gajraj and was engaging Felix directly on law enforcement and national security matters. He said that they were assured that security assistance and cooperation with GoG had been pulled from the Ministry of National Security and channeled directly to the Police Force. Pressure from CGID and the political opposition in Guyana forced the US government to issue a statement on April 12, 2005, condemning Gajraj’s reappointment following the release of the findings of an inquiry into extra-judicial killings. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said in the statement that “the United States is concerned by the Government of Guyana’s decision to reinstate former Home Minister Ronald Gajraj…. A Guyanese commission of inquiry looking into his links to the so-called ‘phantom death squad‘ has found serious procedural irregularities in his official conduct related to his involvement with individuals who allegedly carried out extra-judicial killings…. We believe significant questions remain unanswered regarding his involvement in serious criminal activities…”   The US position forced Gajraj to resign but Jagdeo immediately appointed him as ambassador to India and whisked him out of Guyana under cover of diplomatic immunity.  Jagdeo then appointed Teixeira to replace him. Teixeira, who had previously served as Health as well as Youth and Culture Minister, was reassigned to the National Security ministry by Jagdeo under the guise that she would clean-up Gajraj’s mess. She had the rug pulled from under her as it became obvious that she was intellectually moribund and out of her depth. Ultimately she was removed from the cabinet and made a presidential advisor on governance. Referring to Teixeira’s recent comments that Felix had dropped the ball on crime because he was obsessed with Roger Khan, Burke said those comments reflected her pedestrian thinking and a stunning inability to grasp the facts and causations of the crime spree. “It was Roger Khan and his gang that committed 90% of the crimes, so who else should the police have been targeting, if not the rats in the sewage system?” Burke questioned. “It is obvious that this woman lacked the intellectual heft to manage the country’s national security portfolio. Her demotion to a so-called presidential advisor position was justifiable and in the best interest of the country,” Burke said. He observed that her most useful purpose during her tenure was that of a gossip mill for western diplomats who gleaned from her a clear insight into PPP corruption and complicity with criminals.

n May of 2010 Teixeira blatantly lied to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. Responding to a question from Canadian Ambassador Jeffrey Heaton on a fifteen year-old school, Twyon Thomas, whose genitals had been burnt by Guyana Police while they tortured him, Teixeira told the council that the government had compensated the child and provided him with counseling and medical treatment, and had brought the perpetrators to justice – a blatant falsehood.

[SOURCE: CAF Blog]

One wonders, if Gerhard would face character assassination as Mr. Yusuf....