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... sometime yuh haffi gi up sintin fi get sintin.... all Babylon yuh haffi deal wid more time... as lang as is nat di devil...
Mi memba wen Peter Phillips seh Jamaica is in clear and present danger from state capture by Transnational Criminal Gangs... no doubt headquartered inna one likkle place created by di DayWalker in West Kingston...
Now wi know how him deal wid di case... Langley im seh
Useless MOU - Wiretap agreement can’t be used in court
MOU issue a red herring, says lawyer
BY PAUL HENRY Crime/Court Coordinator henryp@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, February 03, 2011
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on which the United States Justice Department is said to have relied to gather evidence against accused drug lord Christopher 'Dudus' Coke prohibits the use of the said information in a court of law.
This was revealed yesterday during the ongoing commission of enquiry into the Government's handling of the United States' extradition request for Coke to answer drug and gunrunning charges.
[Hide Description] Queen's Counsel Frank Phipps... Yesterday's insight into the stipulations and provisions of the MOUs, which are stamped secret and are referred to as "highly classified", were revealed during his cross-examination of Taylor
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Section F of the document, identified yesterday as MOU 1, also forbids the intelligence being used in any affidavit and statement.
MOU 1 is part of four such documents allegedly signed in June 2004 by Dr Peter Phillips, the then security minister under the People's National Party (PNP) administration.
The signed MOUs, the commission had previously been told, remained outside of Government knowledge until the latter part of 2009 when a Jamaican delegation was informed by US Justice Department officials that the agreement would be relied upon for Coke's prosecution.
According to evidence previously given before the commission by Ambassador Evadne Coye, the permanent secretary in the foreign ministry, the delegation was in Washington to discuss Kingston's concerns with the extradition request. Chief among them was that Jamaica's Interception of Communication Act had been breached by the US when it obtained wiretap evidence against Coke.
The US, however, maintained that it did not breach any of Jamaica's laws and that it was relying on the evidence gathered under the MOUs.
The United Kingdom is also party to the treaty that allows it and the US to listen in on the phone conversations of Jamaicans. Accordingly, the treaty also allows for the installation in Jamaica of the device which is used to aid in the interception of communication, the commission heard yesterday.
According to an Observer source, that device has been installed in New Kingston.
Yesterday's insight into the stipulations and provisions of the MOUs, which are stamped secret and are referred to as "highly classified", were revealed during Queen's Counsel Frank Phipps' cross-examination of Jeremy Taylor, the deputy director of public prosecutions, who heads the extradition unit in the Office of the DPP.
Phipps is one of the attorneys representing the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in the enquiry that began last month and is being held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston.
Following yesterday's proceedings, Phipps told the Observer that the four MOUs said to be signed by Phillips had no legal binding on Jamaica as they did not have Cabinet approval.
During his cross-examination of Taylor, Hugh Small, one of the lawyers representing Prime Minister Bruce Golding, brought out that MOU 1 stipulated that any interception of information should be done in accordance with Jamaican laws and that Jamaica's Interception of Communication Act places a restriction on who intercepted communications can be given. It is being claimed in this case that Jamaica's Supreme Court did not approve the delivery to the US of any intercepted communication in relation to Coke.
During the nine-month-long stand-off between Kingston and Washington over the extradition request that strained relations between both countries, the Golding administration had claimed wiretap information had been passed to the US without court approval.
Yesterday's sitting was also thrown into an uproar when it was brought to the attention of the commission by Queen's Counsel KD Knight that Phipps, based on his own pronouncement last month, had revealed that he was in possession of copies of the "classified" MOUs.
While declining to tell the Observer his source of the documents, Phipps said later that he came in possession of the MOUs "long before" the start of the enquiry. "I have studied [the documents] and [they are] secret document[s] for the Government because the Government did not know about [them]," said Phipps.
At the same time, Queen's Counsel Patrick Atkinson, one of the attorneys for the PNP, told the commission yesterday that the issue surrounding the signing of the MOUs was a "red herring" and a distraction from the issue the commission is t
Mi memba wen Peter Phillips seh Jamaica is in clear and present danger from state capture by Transnational Criminal Gangs... no doubt headquartered inna one likkle place created by di DayWalker in West Kingston...
Now wi know how him deal wid di case... Langley im seh
Useless MOU - Wiretap agreement can’t be used in court
MOU issue a red herring, says lawyer
BY PAUL HENRY Crime/Court Coordinator henryp@jamaicaobserver.com
Thursday, February 03, 2011
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on which the United States Justice Department is said to have relied to gather evidence against accused drug lord Christopher 'Dudus' Coke prohibits the use of the said information in a court of law.
This was revealed yesterday during the ongoing commission of enquiry into the Government's handling of the United States' extradition request for Coke to answer drug and gunrunning charges.
[Hide Description] Queen's Counsel Frank Phipps... Yesterday's insight into the stipulations and provisions of the MOUs, which are stamped secret and are referred to as "highly classified", were revealed during his cross-examination of Taylor
[Restore Description]
1/2
Section F of the document, identified yesterday as MOU 1, also forbids the intelligence being used in any affidavit and statement.
MOU 1 is part of four such documents allegedly signed in June 2004 by Dr Peter Phillips, the then security minister under the People's National Party (PNP) administration.
The signed MOUs, the commission had previously been told, remained outside of Government knowledge until the latter part of 2009 when a Jamaican delegation was informed by US Justice Department officials that the agreement would be relied upon for Coke's prosecution.
According to evidence previously given before the commission by Ambassador Evadne Coye, the permanent secretary in the foreign ministry, the delegation was in Washington to discuss Kingston's concerns with the extradition request. Chief among them was that Jamaica's Interception of Communication Act had been breached by the US when it obtained wiretap evidence against Coke.
The US, however, maintained that it did not breach any of Jamaica's laws and that it was relying on the evidence gathered under the MOUs.
The United Kingdom is also party to the treaty that allows it and the US to listen in on the phone conversations of Jamaicans. Accordingly, the treaty also allows for the installation in Jamaica of the device which is used to aid in the interception of communication, the commission heard yesterday.
According to an Observer source, that device has been installed in New Kingston.
Yesterday's insight into the stipulations and provisions of the MOUs, which are stamped secret and are referred to as "highly classified", were revealed during Queen's Counsel Frank Phipps' cross-examination of Jeremy Taylor, the deputy director of public prosecutions, who heads the extradition unit in the Office of the DPP.
Phipps is one of the attorneys representing the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in the enquiry that began last month and is being held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston.
Following yesterday's proceedings, Phipps told the Observer that the four MOUs said to be signed by Phillips had no legal binding on Jamaica as they did not have Cabinet approval.
During his cross-examination of Taylor, Hugh Small, one of the lawyers representing Prime Minister Bruce Golding, brought out that MOU 1 stipulated that any interception of information should be done in accordance with Jamaican laws and that Jamaica's Interception of Communication Act places a restriction on who intercepted communications can be given. It is being claimed in this case that Jamaica's Supreme Court did not approve the delivery to the US of any intercepted communication in relation to Coke.
During the nine-month-long stand-off between Kingston and Washington over the extradition request that strained relations between both countries, the Golding administration had claimed wiretap information had been passed to the US without court approval.
Yesterday's sitting was also thrown into an uproar when it was brought to the attention of the commission by Queen's Counsel KD Knight that Phipps, based on his own pronouncement last month, had revealed that he was in possession of copies of the "classified" MOUs.
While declining to tell the Observer his source of the documents, Phipps said later that he came in possession of the MOUs "long before" the start of the enquiry. "I have studied [the documents] and [they are] secret document[s] for the Government because the Government did not know about [them]," said Phipps.
At the same time, Queen's Counsel Patrick Atkinson, one of the attorneys for the PNP, told the commission yesterday that the issue surrounding the signing of the MOUs was a "red herring" and a distraction from the issue the commission is t
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