AN AUDIT into the Strategic Services Agency (SSA), one of key weapons in the state’s arsenal in the fight against crime, found it was being run under the influence of a religious cult comprising highly-trained military operators, armed to the teeth with the latest weaponry, on a treasonous mission to overthrow the Government.
In a bombshell statement in Parliament on July 3, the head of the National Security Council (NSC), Dr Rowley, revealed for the first time details of the audit done by acting director of the SSA retired Brig Gen Anthony Phillips-Spencer, which painted an alarming state of affairs that went undetected for years under the current PNM administration.
The SSA is authorised to intercept communications, phone calls, WhatsApp, e-mails and other modes after obtaining court orders under the Interception of Communication Act. It was first established in 1995 primarily “to guide the formulation and implementation of national policies on illicit trafficking of dangerous drugs and related criminal activities.”
The role and function was expanded in 2016, under the PNM, “to act as an office for centralising information that could facilitate the detection and prevention of serious crime, for co-ordinating operations for the suppression of serious crime and for co-operating with the services or the corresponding services of other countries.”
Oropouche MP Dr Roodal Moonilal sought to raise the question of oversight of the SSA as the Prime Minister concluded his statement.
“In light of the shocking revelations and allegations made over the last 40 minutes which constitute, metaphorically and literally, gun talk, given this disaster occurred under the weekly watch of a National Security Council and the oversight of a Minister of National Security...do you now agree that the Minister of National Security (Fitzgerald Hinds) ought to be fired forthwith?”
In response, Rowley said, “Under whose watch the discovery has been made, allowing me to report it here?”
Phillips-Spencer, who was recalled as this country’s ambassador to Washington, DC, US, was appointed acting SSA director on March 2 by the President after the then director Major Roger Best was sent on administrative leave that same day on the instruction of the Prime Minister.
Rowley, using Facebook, announced the sudden shake-up of the SSA leadership without giving any details. But in a co-ordinated operation, police moved in to secure SSA assets at Knowsley, Queen’s Park West, its St Vincent Street base, another at Piarco and one at Camp Cumuto in an attempt to prevent the removal of possible evidence by those loyal to Best.
The NSC had met on May 1 to consider a mind-boggling report from Special Branch which detailed the activities of the church and its membership, which, according to Rowley “warranted an immediate intervention and the installation of new leadership at the SSA.”
Best’s removal from office took place after Rowley returned from a trip to Washington, DC, where he met with the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA
