‘No conversion of helicopters’

National Security adviser to the Prime Minister Gary Griffith yesterday denied that any of the military’s Augusta Westland helicopters were being converted into luxurious aircraft. “Mr Imbert seems to have been set up with the so-called photos he received of these helicopters being reconfigured and refurbished with a table and machine-dispensing refreshments. “His statements about the conversion of the helicopters for the Offshore Patrol Project is totally untrue,” Griffith said in response to claims made by the PNM MP. Countering Opposition MP Donna Cox’s motion accusing the Government of dismantling national security systems, Griffith said a previous PNM Government minister made arrangements to have the lawn of MPs cut by Golden Grove prisoners.

“A work permit would be signed and authorised by senior prison supervisors and vehicles would leave the prison with prison officers to go to the MPs homes to landscape their yards, prune trees and cut lawns,” he said. “These would be referred to by the senior officers as community support events.” On the Opposition’s criticism of the Government’s selling of the blimp, Griffith said it was a totally ridiculous concept that proper air intelligence was based on hovering capabilities of an aircraft. “Nothing is further from the truth,” he said. Griffith, who referred the T&T Guardian to National Security Minister John Sandy and Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs for comment on the leasing of a Zenith aircraft, said the Government was looking at the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), otherwise known as drones, for air surveillance.

“These are piloted by remote control, or a navigator, and are hundreds of times more modern and productive than a blimp,” he said. Charging that Opposition MP Colm Imbert is dealing with “Fred Flinstone” type of technology in air surveillance, Griffith said the Government held meetings over the possible acquisition of UAVs. “Those are the things we are looking at,” he said. Griffith said the blimp acquired by the previous administration and recently disposed of by the Government was known worldwide for marketing and advertising and was of limited use in intelligence. “Obviously, the Opposition is trying to regurgitate the failed blimp, which constantly broke down and had a lot of flaws,” he said. “A kite is a more effective apparatus to assist our law enforcement agencies than a blimp that requires 19 men to run with a rope to get it airborne and then to try to catch the rope to get it to land.”