Kamla’s niece, driver carjacked
Saturday, May 15 2010
THERE are persons who have been hatching a plot to violently disrupt the general election, according to acting Police Commissioner James Philbert.
Evidence of the plot was unearthed on Thursday, by a party of his officers who raided a house in Carenage where they seized an AK-47 assault rifle, two magazines and 48 rounds of ammunition.
Philbert told a media conference yesterday at Police Headquarters, Port-of-Spain. He reported the seizure of several green coloured T-shirts. The raid at the house took place at about 8.30 pm on Thursday, and Philbert disclosed to the media its location at Mackenzie Drive, Carenage.
The police party went to the house, Philbert said, and after conducting a search and seizing the weapon and ammunition, came upon the keys for a car. Upon opening the vehicle which was parked in a garage nearby, they saw the green T-shirts. There were 22 of them. The T-shirts, as well as the AK-47 and ammunition together with the magazine, were displayed for the media at yesterday’s conference.
Sitting in with the commissioner was his Acting deputy, Gilbert Reyes, and Assistant Commissioner of Police (Special Branch) Raymond Craig.
Full Article : newsday.co.tt
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Cops foil election terror plot
A plot hatched by local terrorists to disrupt the process of the May 24 general election has been foiled by law enforcement officers.
Election Plot
Cops link AK-47 rifle, ammo to planned disruption of May 24 polls
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UNC leader’s SUV taken at gunpoint
Anika Gumbs-Sandiford
Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s SUV was being analysed for fingerprints last night, after it featured in a dramatic mid-afternoon gun crime. One week after a $5 million “hit” was allegedly taken out on the life of the prime ministerial candidate, her 31-year-old niece Lisa Harry and driver Denzil Dookeran were yesterday robbed at gunpoint. The gunmen drove off with Persad-Bissessar’s luxury Toyota Prado. Police discovered the vehicle hours later in some bushes off the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway.
At a news conference yesterday, acting Police Commissioner James Philbert said the police had no evidence to suggest that the robbery was politically motivated. The drama unfolded at around 2.30 pm outside Tunapuna Hindu School, shortly after the duo left a function at the Centre of Excellence at Macoya. The gunmen emerged from a silver Almera car and announced a hold-up. Two men drove off with Persad-Bissessar’s vehicle, while the third sped off in the Almera. Dookeran and Harry were left stranded along the highway. They were unharmed. Eventually, they secured a phone call and told a political colleague of the vehicle’s hijacking.
Full Article : guardian.co.tt
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Kamla’s niece, driver carjacked
A week after a report of a $5 million contract on her life surfaced, UNC political leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar was confronted with yet another ordeal when her niece and personal driver were held up by two gunmen who robbed them of Persad-Bissessar’s official Toyota Prado SUV in Tunapuna.
Persad-Bissessar: No random robbery
Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar told supporters last night that she does not believe the hijacking of her niece and official driver earlier in the day was a random robbery. She was speaking at the party’s political meeting in Penal. Persad-Bissessar said what was disturbing was that her Prado was found minus confidential documents. “What is disturbing is the interpretation one places on the removal of those documents,” she said.
There’s something fishy here, very fishy!
What to me is also disturbinbg is the timing of these actions.
For example, a $5 million hit on Kamla, and now, the car-jacking of her neice, and confidential documents, no doubt very political and strategic, taken from the car highjacked?
It is not that these actions are improbable, but the timing seems too convenient!
Why, in a close election, when media coverage can play crucial roles to determine electoral outcomes, is this happening?
Other examples might help.
In Toronto, Canada, a candidate for municipal elections once complained to the police and media that his election signs had been destroyed and some taken and dumped in a ravine.
The implication was that it was his opponent, obviously who might been complicit in these illegal acts.
The only problem, for him at least, was that it was his own organizers who had done it, hopefully to get free media portraying him as a victim.
It is not that these actions are not taken by opponents, but the timing is the thing, and can tell as much about the perceived victim as also about the perceived victimizer.
Is this an election in which every side is prepared to win, regardless?!
In God we trust, in man(Ning) we bust!
On the one side, there is the British elections, just completed, and the elections for US President, as well as elections in Barbados.
On the other side, there is Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, India, Afghanistan, Guyana, Jamaica and Pakistan.
We have a choice of hundreds of years of peaceful elections, and on the other side violence and chaos masquerading as politics.
There are people on both sides of the political divide in Trinidad and Tobago, who would like to buss a few heads.
Both sides need to realize that there is no retreat from chaos. Preventive measures must occur beforehand.
We have proved to the world, through The Summit of the Americas, the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference and the numerous sports events we have hosted and participated in, that we are a civilized country.
I spit a curse upon the forces that would deny our peaceful ways,in the interests of politics. May they be forever damned!
Another carefully organised plot by the UNC and its Guyanese allies in T&T, like the former Indian Guyanese born political affairs officer that once worked at the US Embassy in the early 90’s. he was FIRED for trying to ruin relations between T&T and the US and was then found out to be spying for the gov’t of Guyana now run by the PPP, he lives in Maraval and goes back and forth between GT and T&T while telling ppl he’s “trini” I wonder if the UNC gave him a T&T diplomatic passort? he once claim his son was “kidnapped” and had to pay them 200 US $ to get him back.
Mike Samuel, you are coming across as a disgruntled PNM destabilizer. You should refrain from concocting these unfounded, wild and questionable conspiracy theories at a time like this. Your suggestions are inflammatory and really serve no useful purpose.
I totally agree with what’s stated ‘fishy’, very fishy. We have a climate where all the media either openly support or covertly support the opposition. Where facts cannot be substantiated, almost all opposing views tend to be alluded that PNM or sympathises are responsible for whatever idiocities are covered in the press. It is pathetic that we as consumers of news cannot be fed with facts leaving the inuendos to us to discover. It is shameful of the press to lead us into ‘temptation’, that the PP must win come hell or high water. I cannot help but be suspicious of some of these acts with political overtones.
This could be PNM tactics again. Remember the cocaine and bombs found in Sadiq Baksh water tank around election time. That was PNM. PNM has a history of intimidation.
Instead of idle speculation regarding “fishy hijackings” and alledged “plots by the UNC”,certain bloggers on this site should concern themselves with the real issues.
Among the issues facing the Prime Minister:
v the UDeCOTT and Calder Hart issue;
v the release of the findings of the Uff Commission of Enquiry;
v the criminal probe into the Abu Bakr land deal;
v the construction of a Church at Guanapo Heights;
v the dangerous Trinidad and Tobago Revenue Authority Bill;
v the unpopular property tax;
v fear of unchecked crime;
v the breakdown in the provision of health, water, education;
v the squandering of resources, and
v the public perception of widespread corruption in government.
Fuad Abu Bakr Denies Election Disruption Plot
Abu Bakr denies involvement in plot to disrupt elections
FUAD ABU BAKR, Political Leader of the New National Vision (NNV) and son of 1990 attempted coup leader Yasin Abu Bakr, has categorically denied any link between his party and five persons who were arrested after police unearthed a plot to disrupt the 2010 general election.
Dark deeds afoot?
When the Opposition Leader’s vehicle was found, with documents and valuables missing, it was reasonable to speculate that the assailants had assumed her to have been on board. She was not.
Acting Commissioner James Philbert voiced certainty that those gunmen would be caught, but he rejected the interpretation of a political motive. Mr Philbert had no such doubts over the next episode that easily trumped all that had gone before. A police raid on a house in Carenage yielded a haul of five young suspects, and one assault rifle with ammunition. The acting commissioner connected the arrests and seizures to ’credible information that a certain group has expressed its intention to disrupt election proceedings.’
NNV blames PNM
Yesterday, in response to the report, Bakr, son of 1990 attempted coup leader Yasin Abu Bakr, said he was disheartened by Philbert’s remarks since the Government was only creating unnecessary fear and panic among citizens with the discovery of the jerseys. Bakr said he would not be surprised if Prime Minister Patrick Manning uses this so-called plot to declare a state of emergency at the eleventh hour to delay the general election because they know they are losing support base. “They are the ones trying to destabilise the country, not us. They are playing dirty politics. They should not stoop to that level.”
Five granted $100,000 bail each
Five people, including a woman and a 15-year-old boy, appeared in court yesterday, charged with being in illegal possession of an AK-47 assault rifle and 48 rounds of ammunition. But their court appearance was very low-key, compared with their arrests last Thursday when acting Commissioner of Police James Philbert, at a news conference, announced that the police had foiled a plot by local terrorists to disrupt the May 24 general election. But the five people who appeared in court were not charged with anything else except the gun and ammunition charges. Attorney Keith Scotland, who represented three of the defendants, said the five had been detained for too long. He said this was a case of simple possession, and pointed out that the defendants had not been linked to anything else in the country.