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EDITORIAL: Deciphering America's Signal
Published: Sunday | March 6, 20110
The Golding administration will find some comfort in the fact that it was not roughed up, as it was last year, in America's latest report on the behaviour of its partners.
But if the Government listens closely, it will discern that there is still more than a note of disquiet in Washington's perception of Kingston over the events of 2009-10.
And that, we fear, could grow more discordant, given certain actions by some of the administration's representatives, unless the Government moves quickly to assuage its international partners and introduce new harmony into the relationship.
At the time America's 2010 International Narcotics Strategy Report was published, Jamaica was consumed by a raging debate over the Government's handling of the US request for the extradition of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, the alleged gun and narcotics smuggler with close ties to the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).
The Government was insisting that the apparent slowness with which it was moving on the extradition was to protect the rights of a Jamaican citizen, for whose extradition Washington was using illegally acquired wiretap information.
Most people felt that the real aim was to protect an influential power broker, especially in west Kingston, the heart of the JLP's street force, in a country where such things matter.
Said the Americans at the time: "Jamaica's delay in processing the US extradition request for a major suspected drug and firearms trafficker with reported ties to the ruling party highlights the potential depth of corruption in the Government."
Eventually, after nine months, and the cost of more than 70 lives during an attempt by armed irregulars to prevent his arrest, Coke was extradited.
Transnational crime
In its new report, the United States says that cooperation between the two countries on narcotics and related transnational crime "remains strong overall".
But there is no mistaking that despite the vast improvement in relations over the past 10 months, Washington has not forgotten the Coke episode and that it wants Kingston to know that it remembers.
Significantly, the State Department used the word "languished" in its perception of how we handled that request in the "nine months before the attorney general signed the authority to proceed with Coke's extradition".
The tone of the report may be softer, but the attention to Coke pointed. It would not have been lost on the Obama administration that it was being issued in the midst of the commission of enquiry into the Government's/ruling party's handling of the Coke affair, including the hiring of lobbyists to intercede with the USA. This brings us to the signal that we believe is being sent by Washington and about which we have warned before.
The narcotics investigation and interdiction partnership among the United States, Jamaica and Britain rests in no small way on the technologically sophisticated systems in Jamaica that allow, in accordance with Jamaican law, the intercept of the communication of suspects. This highly classified operation, code-named Anthem, was apparently operationalised by secret memoranda signed in 2004 by then security minister, Dr Peter Phillips.
But little about these memoranda, and even Anthem, is secret anymore. Though, at best peripheral to the issue, they, and Dr Phillips, were put on trial and all but flayed at the Coke enquiry. We can hardly see Washington, or London, in the public cheering sections over this one.
The Government has work to do rebuilding multiparty confidence in these arrangements.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.
Published: Sunday | March 6, 20110
The Golding administration will find some comfort in the fact that it was not roughed up, as it was last year, in America's latest report on the behaviour of its partners.
But if the Government listens closely, it will discern that there is still more than a note of disquiet in Washington's perception of Kingston over the events of 2009-10.
And that, we fear, could grow more discordant, given certain actions by some of the administration's representatives, unless the Government moves quickly to assuage its international partners and introduce new harmony into the relationship.
At the time America's 2010 International Narcotics Strategy Report was published, Jamaica was consumed by a raging debate over the Government's handling of the US request for the extradition of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, the alleged gun and narcotics smuggler with close ties to the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).
The Government was insisting that the apparent slowness with which it was moving on the extradition was to protect the rights of a Jamaican citizen, for whose extradition Washington was using illegally acquired wiretap information.
Most people felt that the real aim was to protect an influential power broker, especially in west Kingston, the heart of the JLP's street force, in a country where such things matter.
Said the Americans at the time: "Jamaica's delay in processing the US extradition request for a major suspected drug and firearms trafficker with reported ties to the ruling party highlights the potential depth of corruption in the Government."
Eventually, after nine months, and the cost of more than 70 lives during an attempt by armed irregulars to prevent his arrest, Coke was extradited.
Transnational crime
In its new report, the United States says that cooperation between the two countries on narcotics and related transnational crime "remains strong overall".
But there is no mistaking that despite the vast improvement in relations over the past 10 months, Washington has not forgotten the Coke episode and that it wants Kingston to know that it remembers.
Significantly, the State Department used the word "languished" in its perception of how we handled that request in the "nine months before the attorney general signed the authority to proceed with Coke's extradition".
The tone of the report may be softer, but the attention to Coke pointed. It would not have been lost on the Obama administration that it was being issued in the midst of the commission of enquiry into the Government's/ruling party's handling of the Coke affair, including the hiring of lobbyists to intercede with the USA. This brings us to the signal that we believe is being sent by Washington and about which we have warned before.
The narcotics investigation and interdiction partnership among the United States, Jamaica and Britain rests in no small way on the technologically sophisticated systems in Jamaica that allow, in accordance with Jamaican law, the intercept of the communication of suspects. This highly classified operation, code-named Anthem, was apparently operationalised by secret memoranda signed in 2004 by then security minister, Dr Peter Phillips.
But little about these memoranda, and even Anthem, is secret anymore. Though, at best peripheral to the issue, they, and Dr Phillips, were put on trial and all but flayed at the Coke enquiry. We can hardly see Washington, or London, in the public cheering sections over this one.
The Government has work to do rebuilding multiparty confidence in these arrangements.
The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.
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