Separating fact from fiction

By Kevan Gibbs
November 28, 2010 – guardian.co.tt

Patrick ManningIn the past six months, many political know-it-alls claimed former prime minister, Patrick Manning’s silence was part of a master plan. After all, what was becoming an uncomfortable silence from the San Fernando East MP must have been because he fancied himself a comeback kid that would reclaim the leadership of Patrick’s National Movement.
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Indian Time Ah Come

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 23, 2010

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeA foolish person opined that I was catering (they used the word “kissing up”) to Sat and Kamla because I dedicate Indian Time Ah Come, my most recent book, to Sat, Kamla and the East Indian struggle for justice. He even seemed perturbed that I asked Sat to offer the feature address at the launching of the book and more aggrieved that Sat agreed to do so.
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I spy, with my electronic eye…

By Raffique Shah
November 20, 2010

Raffique ShahAs I write this column, Government is before Parliament presenting the Interception of Communications bill, which it expects to pass in a marathon sitting. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said she hoped to get support from the opposition PNM, which I feel certain she will.
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Manning comes out fighting

SpyingSandy Hits ‘Manic Man’
MINISTER of National Security Brigadier John Sandy yesterday tore into former prime minister Patrick Manning as a “manic man” with “a sick mind” for the wiretapping of persons in public life by a secret spy unit that reported to Manning.

Manning comes out fighting (link fixed)
…says ‘spy’ bill will undermine national security
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Setting a Proper Example

By Dr. Selwyn R. Cudjoe
November 16, 2010

Dr. Selwyn R. CudjoeI did not vote for the People’s National Movement (PNM) during the last national election. Like so many, I became so disenchanted with the positions and attitudes of the former Prime Minister that I could not, in good faith, support the party which I always supported and of which I am a member. I did not vote for the People’s Partnership (PP) either. Theirs was merely a throwing together of disparate elements whose only objective was to remove the PNM. They had no plans for the country, except for a provision of computers for our students and a promised old-age pension of $3,000 which they repudiated the first day they walked into office. They informed an eager population that it really was not a promise: it was a misprint.
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Kamla’s Aid Comments on Target

By Dr. Kwame Nantambu
November 16, 2010

Aid?Within recent times, a plethora of unfounded, misleading and misconstrued remarks/opinions have been levelled at and/or against Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s aid comments in the aftermath of hurricane Tomas’ devastation/destruction in some Caricom countries.
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On Mr Manning’s Secret Service

Express Editorial
November 13, 2010 – trinidadexpress.com

SpyingAs the country watched in fascination, former prime minister Patrick Manning showed signs of having been stung into replying to his successor’s revelations about the telecommunications intercepts perpetrated for five years under his rule . Until Friday, Mr Manning, now just another MP, had been mostly silent in the House. It was unseemly of the 39-year parliamentary veteran to insist on an unentitled opportunity to reply, thereby earning the rebukes and an eventual ejection threat from the Speaker.
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Fourth Estate Outlasts Governments

By Raffique Shah
November 13, 2010

Raffique ShahMOST Cabinet Ministers in successive governments suffer with political foot-in-mouth disease, an affliction that seems endemic to the corridors of power. Others succumb to the “left-hand, right-hand” syndrome. In the latter, persons charged with governing the country, who meet at least once weekly, have differing interpretations of what they discussed and what decisions were made.
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They Spied on the President Too

SpyingClear and present danger
PRESIDENT George Maxwell Richards, former Chief Justice Satnarine Sharma, his wife Kalawati, Government and Opposition politicians, trade-unionists, journalists and even some of their children were subject to secret surveillance by the Security Intelligence Agency (SIA), Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar revealed yesterday as she expressed a “deep sense of personal outrage” over the SIA’s use of illegal wiretapping.
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