Richard Lord

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Brigadier John Sandy says the soon-to-be es­tab­lished Na­tion­al In­tel­li­gence Agency (NIA) will ef­fec­tive­ly ad­dress de­fi­cien­cies in se­cu­ri­ty and crim­i­nal in­tel­li­gence. Sandy said so in a state­ment in Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day. He was re­spond­ing to a T&T Guardian re­port, which raised ques­tions about the new agency. Op­po­si­tion Leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley, Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion mem­ber, Mar­tin George, and po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath ex­pressed con­cerns about the pro­posed agency in the ar­ti­cle.

Sandy said it was "mis­lead­ing" for peo­ple to speak of the en­ti­ty as if it was al­ready in ex­is­tence. The NIA will re­place ex­ist­ing in­tel­li­gence agen­cies, in­clud­ing the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA), Se­cu­ri­ty In­tel­li­gence Agency (SIA) and the Spe­cial An­ti Crime Unit of T&T (Sautt). Sandy said there had been no in­ter­rup­tion to in­tel­li­gence shar­ing re­la­tion­ship be­tween T&T and its re­gion­al or in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners with re­spect to cross bor­der crimes. "Those who choose to per­pe­trate that in­ac­cu­ra­cy are recog­nis­ably bent on be­ing mis­chie­vous and nur­tur­ing dis­com­fort, with re­spect to the peace of mind and sense of se­cu­ri­ty of our cit­i­zens," Sandy added.

He called on those peo­ple to de­sist from do­ing that. Sandy said na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty mat­ters must be treat­ed with dis­cre­tion. He al­so com­ment­ed on re­cent al­le­ga­tions with re­spect to Cari­com's Im­ple­men­ta­tion Agency for Crime and Se­cu­ri­ty. Sandy said the mat­ter would be de­ter­mined dur­ing a video con­fer­ence of the Bu­reau of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ters on April 29. (RL)