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PM Thomas: Wikileaks Bringing Out The Truth
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- Parent Category: Sept 2011
- Category: Week ending Sept 30th, 2011
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Prime Minister Tillman Thomas says he is surprised at the revelations made in the leaked wikileaks documents implicating two former officials of the Keith Mitchell-led regime in trying to hoodwink U.S diplomats into believing that a coup d’etat was in the making in the Spice Isle after Hurricane Ivan in September 2004.
The documents identified the two as Barbadian, Barry Collymore, the former Press Secretary to Prime Minister Mitchell and fellow Bajan, Dr. Rudy Webster who is married to the former principal of a secondary school on the island.
According to the wikileaks exposure, Collymore and Webster visited the U.S Embassy in Bridgetown as envoys of Prime Minister Mitchell and made claims that Thomas’ National Democratic Congress (NDC) might try to overthrow the government in St. George’s.
Addressing a Post-Cabinet briefing on Tuesday, PM Thomas told reporters that he was surprised to read the wikileaks and to hear what the US envoys in Bridgetown were reporting to their superiors in Washington about the so-called planned coup by Congress.
I must really say I am surprised.... because that issue was raised at a CARICOM meeting in St Lucia when former Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, (Patrick Manning) said he got information that we (the Opposition National Democratic Congress) were planning a coup in Grenada”, he said.
When Manning was delivering an address in New York in i2007 where he received his Doctor of Laws degree from Medgar Evers College, he publicly stated that there was a plot within the Congress party to overthrow Mitchell’s ruling New National Party (NNP) government following the passage of Hurricane Ivan.
The former TNT leader said that Port-of-Spain would continue to play a role in the region including peace and stability.
High-level police sources in Grenada have said that the Manning government ferreted out Mitchell out of his private quarters at Happy Hill by helicopter days after Ivan and took him away to the neighbouring twin island republic.
Manning told his audience in New York that when “there was talk in Grenada about a threatened coup, the diplomatic intervention that Trinidad and Tobago made notably cleared away those who might have had a hand in it”.
“...While we had no intentions of intervening in the internal affairs of Grenada, with 231 troops in Grenada, we were unlikely to stand idly by (to) see a democratically elected Government of a CARICOM country moved by undemocratic means and that put all talk to an end,” he said.
PM Thomas who then the island’s Opposition Leader denied the allegations and called on the T&T leader and Prime Minister Dr. Mitchell who made a similar claim to justify their statements on the alleged coup plot by Congress members.
However, in the wikileaks report, U.S Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Mary Kramer, said they ad investigated the coup claims and concluded that Dr. Mitchell had thrown out the idea of an imminent coup d’etat in St. George’s in order to attract Washington’s support for his one-seat government which was facing tremendous opposition from the Congress party.
The US report also pointed accusing fingers directly at Collymore and Dr. Webster in helping to promulgate the Coup allegation.
The American envoy said that in meetings with the two Bajans, they submitted “arguments thinly veiled (that) implied threat of a coup d’etat and loss of U.S. influence on the island if more USG assistance fails to materialize”.
According to Prime Minister Thomas, he has maintained all along that the accusation was so far from the truth.
“To now get the truth that these people (Collymore and Webster) were involved in this sort of a low degrading type of activities, I mean it is unbelievable”, he said.
“After the hurricane you think about helping people and trying to live in peace and people helping each other. Who could think about coup...I mean this one surprised me ... but to be coming from people within Grenada...getting involved in this sort of dangerous activities, I was surprised”, PM Thomas added.
The Grenadian leader argued that he has no reason to question the credibility of the wikileaks reports, because he knows for a fact that the coup allegation was made and had been raised directly with him by Manning.
“Now we getting into the truth...see... whatever is hidden.
This is the good thing about standing up for what is right and maintaining your ground on integrity...”, he said.
“...This is why the truth always come out. I am very pleased that this thing is coming (out and) people getting to know the facts about this”, he added.
Prime Minister Thomas also chastised members of the media for what he described as their “laid back” attitude as journalists in handling the wikileaks reports.
“As journalists I think you should get these documents and do analysis and bring to the public. Journalists in Grenada report on a lot of things that are not too significant, but the significant things ... to do some research and analyse and put things in perspective ... sometimes you’re laid back on these issues.
“Journalism is a field I think I have some interest in too. I would have gotten all the wikileaks documents on Grenada and the Caribbean, and I would analyse it and expose all those who involve in conduct and activities ... not living up to the standard that is expected of those in leadership.
“Even if is me, if you get information on me, you reveal it to the public, because we need to have leaders under scrutiny. A lot of people masquerade as leaders and they really using position for personal gain or other purposes and we have to expose them”.
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