Defence Ministry: Drone footage of US radar site

Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­[email protected]

The Min­istry of De­fence says an in­ves­ti­ga­tion has been launched to de­ter­mine how drone footage was ob­tained of a re­strict­ed area near the ANR Robin­son In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port in To­ba­go, where a Unit­ed States–in­stalled mil­i­tary radar is lo­cat­ed.

In a me­dia re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day, De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge said the ac­qui­si­tion and dis­sem­i­na­tion of footage of mil­i­tary in­stal­la­tions and equip­ment is “in­im­i­cal to na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty in­ter­ests” and “ex­pos­es the cit­i­zen­ry to those who would ben­e­fit from the use of such in­for­ma­tion to our detri­ment.”

Sturge said, de­spite claims the drone was op­er­at­ed out­side the air­port’s five-kilo­me­tre no-fly zone, his min­istry has in­tel­li­gence sug­gest­ing oth­er­wise.

The De­fence Min­is­ter — who has re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the radar and cus­tody of its da­ta, and to whom the Prime Min­is­ter has de­ferred tech­ni­cal ques­tions — warned that drone ac­tiv­i­ty near air­ports pos­es a se­ri­ous safe­ty risk.

“The Min­istry of De­fence wish­es to high­light the reck­less en­dan­ger­ment cre­at­ed by drone op­er­a­tors from the ob­vi­ous and in­her­ent dan­ger posed to both in­com­ing and out­go­ing com­mer­cial air­craft dur­ing such drone op­er­a­tions, with the re­al pos­si­bil­i­ty of col­li­sions which can po­ten­tial­ly lead to loss of life on a mas­sive scale,” Sturge said.

He added that in­ves­ti­ga­tions were un­der­way to iden­ti­fy the “anony­mous source” re­spon­si­ble for the drone sur­veil­lance, which he said vi­o­lat­ed the law.

“The Min­istry of De­fence wish­es to as­sure the law-abid­ing pub­lic that in­ves­ti­ga­tions are afoot to de­ter­mine the iden­ti­ty of the claimed ‘anony­mous source’… with a view to pre­vent­ing fur­ther such ac­tions, there­by pro­tect­ing the pub­lic in­ter­est and en­sur­ing the safe­ty of all air­line pas­sen­gers,” he said.

Sturge al­so said his min­istry has not­ed drone ac­tiv­i­ty close to the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port.

“The Min­istry of De­fence al­so wish­es to re­mind those op­er­a­tors who wish to con­tin­ue in de­fi­ance of the law that the State will take the nec­es­sary ac­tions to pro­tect the pub­lic in­ter­est should it be­come nec­es­sary, in­clud­ing those af­ford­ed un­der the cur­rent State of Emer­gency,” he added.

The im­age of the radar fa­cil­i­ty shows sev­er­al trucks and util­i­ty ve­hi­cles with­in the re­strict­ed area, along with a small tent and an­oth­er tem­po­rary struc­ture lo­cat­ed close to the equip­ment, sug­gest­ing op­er­a­tional or shel­ter use.

A num­ber of portable toi­lets were al­so vis­i­ble at the site.

The im­ages fu­elled pub­lic spec­u­la­tion that a US mil­i­tary base was op­er­at­ing in To­ba­go.

Com­ment­ing on the pho­to­graph last Sun­day, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­scribed the equip­ment and tents vis­i­ble at the site as “sup­port of­fices” for the radar sys­tem in­stalled on the is­land.

“The pic­ture is self-ex­plana­to­ry. There is a radar with the sup­port of­fices to op­er­ate it,” she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so ac­cused Guardian Me­dia and the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) of “ap­pear­ing ob­sessed” with hav­ing the “radar and the Amer­i­cans out of the coun­try,” ar­gu­ing that the on­ly ben­e­fi­cia­ries of such an out­come would be drug traf­fick­ers.

That state­ment marked the Prime Min­is­ter’s ini­tial re­sponse.

Days lat­er, she re­ject­ed claims that the pho­to­graph showed a mil­i­tary base.

Re­spond­ing to fur­ther ques­tions from a dai­ly news­pa­per, Per­sad-Bisses­sar again char­ac­terised the scene as a radar in­stal­la­tion with sup­port gen­er­a­tors, a tent and portable toi­lets.

The Prime Min­is­ter has re­peat­ed­ly sought to as­sure the pub­lic that Trinidad and To­ba­go will not be used as a launch­ing pad by the Unit­ed States to at­tack Venezuela.

How­ev­er, Guardian Me­dia has re­port­ed that the PNM in To­ba­go, along with the In­no­v­a­tive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Al­liance (IDA), have ex­pressed strong con­cern over the pos­si­bil­i­ty that To­ba­go could be used as a base by the US amid height­ened re­gion­al ten­sions and threats of war in­volv­ing Venezuela.