Beckles demands answers on radar installation

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has raised a se­ries of ques­tions for Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­gard­ing the in­stal­la­tion of a radar sys­tem in To­ba­go. She made the com­ments while speak­ing at a press con­fer­ence to­day.

Beck­les asked, “ The pop­u­la­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go is en­ti­tled to know what did that radar cost? Who in­stalled that radar? Whether any Trinida­di­an or To­bag­on­ian has been trained to op­er­ate that radar? The peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go are en­ti­tled to know what is hap­pen­ing to the da­ta that is col­lect­ed by that radar. The peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go are en­ti­tled to know where would that in­for­ma­tion be in­stalled and whether Trinidad and To­ba­go has any ac­cess to that radar. The peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go al­so need to know where is the da­ta be­ing col­lect­ed and where is the da­ta be­ing processed.”

The Op­po­si­tion Leader said the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment un­der­stands the im­por­tance of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty and bor­der pro­tec­tion.

“We un­der­stand that we have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to do all with­in our pow­er to con­vince our pop­u­la­tion, not just now, but for the years that we have been in of­fice, that we are very con­scious of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty is­sues and there is noth­ing that this gov­ern­ment will do or can do to con­vince the pop­u­la­tion oth­er­wise.”

Beck­les called on the Prime Min­is­ter to dis­close de­tails sur­round­ing the radar project and re­cent high-lev­el dis­cus­sions with the Unit­ed States.

“I there­fore am call­ing on the Hon­or­able Prime Min­is­ter to come clean with the pop­u­la­tion and to tell us if there are any oth­er se­crets that you are hid­ing with us in re­la­tion to the radar and in re­la­tion to To­ba­go and in re­la­tion to the dis­cus­sions that you re­cent­ly had with the U.S. Chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine who vis­it­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go on No­vem­ber 25th had a dis­cus­sion with you.”

She al­so ques­tioned the tim­ing of re­cent de­vel­op­ments.

“You told the pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go that Gen­er­al Dan Caine in his dis­cus­sions with you ab­solute­ly no men­tion was made about Venezuela. Isn’t it iron­ic that a day lat­er this mys­tery U.S. mil­i­tary air­craft lands in To­ba­go and short­ly there­after the in­stal­la­tion of the radar. So as mem­bers of the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment we await these an­swers.”

Beck­les was al­so asked what her next step would be if the Prime Min­is­ter ig­nores the ques­tions.

“If the prime Min­is­ter de­cides to ig­nore those ques­tions, what is your next step?” she was asked.

She replied, “Well, I mean, I wouldn’t be sur­prised if it is ig­nored. But the point about it is, as it re­lates to sen­si­tive mat­ters, you can’t just ig­nore it. I mean, even if the prime min­is­ter re­fus­es to an­swer, which, I mean, I re­call she said some time ago that I should go and read the Ex­press if I want to find out par­tic­u­lar in­for­ma­tion. And in some in­stances, you know, to give a tweet. But as the op­po­si­tion, it would be our re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, once there are mat­ters in the pub­lic do­main that af­fect the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, it is our re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to bring to the at­ten­tion, not just the prime min­is­ter, but al­so the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, as it re­lates to the pos­i­tives and where there are pit­falls.”

Beck­les al­so re­ject­ed claims made by the Prime Min­is­ter re­gard­ing al­leged links be­tween the PNM and drug traf­fick­ing.

“We will not ac­cept this Hon­or­able Prime Min­is­ter caus­ing dis­trac­tions and cre­at­ing mis­chief by ac­cus­ing us of sup­port­ing any nar­co gov­ern­ment and say­ing that we are in­volved in drug traf­fick­ing and that there are fi­nanciers who are in­volved in drug traf­fick­ing who have been sup­port­ing the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment.”

She closed by chal­leng­ing the Prime Min­is­ter to take any ev­i­dence to law en­force­ment.

“I close by say­ing to the Prime Min­is­ter if you have the in­for­ma­tion take it to the po­lice.