Tag Archives: James Robertson

Wikileaks 3, Jamaica Labour Party 0

Dudus, Jamaica days, Manatt Dudus Enquiry, , , , , , , , , ,

James Robertson resigned as Minister of Energy when he lost his visa. Then Wikileaks gave us this cable: http://wikileaks.org/cable/2007/09/07KINGSTON1470.html

Here’s a snippet:

26.(C) In 2004, Robertson was named along with fellow JLP
members, Shahine Robinson and Horace Chang, as being
involved with money laundering and organized crime by local
sources.  According to DEA sources he was involved with
Norris Nembhard, a drug kingpin awaiting deportation to the
U.S.  The source alleged that RobertsonQs father, Ishmael
Robertson, was forced to hand over acres of land to settle
his sonQs drug debts to Nembhard.  Robertson has also has
had frictions with fellow JLP stalwarts in the past.  In
2003 he defeated Babsy Grange as Deputy Leader, and caused
her to lose her composure and shout expletives from the
podium during a party conference.  In the past he also was
critical of Bruce Golding for not standing up to Seaga
earlier and for walking away and forming the new party
instead of fighting it out.  These past frictions maybe the
reason why Robertson was given the most minor Cabinet post
of all 18 nominees.  However, because of his long service
and current rank within the party, Golding was unable to
completely bypass him for the Cabinet.

Christopher “Dudus” Coke shocked many Jamaicans by not going to trial, pleading guilty and then begging for mercy. Best line from Mr Coke:-

“I’m pleading guilty because I am,” said Coke, who faces up to 23 years in prison when he is sentenced in December. 

We’ve always heard that the baddest Jamaicans crumble when faced with real time in a real U.S. prison. So we hear it and so it go…..

And now, Bruce Golding is also “pleading  guilty because I am”…….Maybe he could have survived the Manatt/Dudus enquiry, but not the confirmation by Wikileaks that he lied, lied and lied some more…..

So congratulations Bradley Manning and Julian Assange. You are locked up in America and locked down in England, and taking down politicians and dons across the globe.

Take it away, Tom Lehrer:

We will all go together when we go…

Now here in Jamaica we can have fun trying to figure out the real connections between these three men (….did Dudus send message for Bruce to resign?….. did Harold Brady play his card ?…..did James say he’s not going to prison if he can possibly sell out everyone he’s ever known or ever met ?…..) and speculate on who’s next:

Who’s Next



 


 


 

	

	
	


							


	

		
				

			The Manatt Dudus Enquiry: In the dark and out of the loop….
		

		
		

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The Commission of Enquiry continues, but even K.D. Knight could not provide much to laugh about this week. It was mostly sort of dull and devious, without even a hint of the spirit of Fling The Bottle.


Giving testimony this week Feb 28 to Mar 3, 2011 :-


Lackston Robinson, the Deputy Solicitor-General


 


 




If Solicitor-General Douglas Leys was a sad, bewildered witness, consider the unfortunate history of Mr. Robinson. He filed suit against the Government in 2002, after the PNP Solicitor-General Michael Hylton refused to allow him to act as his deputy on the grounds that Mr. Robinson was “not fit for the job“. This odious assessment of Mr. Robinson was backed up the Chairman of the Public Services Commission (PSC), Daisy Coke, who said he was “inappropriate for the post”.


The legal battle between Mr. Robinson and his employers dragged on for years, and was only settled in August 2007 when the Supreme Court ruled that the PSC had breached the rules of natural justice when it retired Mr. Robinson “in the public interest”. The Supreme Court ordered that he be reinstated and paid damages for loss of  salary and benefits. However,  by December 2007, the PSC still had NOT reinstated Mr. Robinson and was trying to transfer him out of the Attorney-General’s offices.


But all was not lost for Lackston Robinson. The new Prime Minister Bruce Golding rode to the rescue, fired the Public Services Commission, made sure that Mr. Robinson became Deputy Solicitor General, and appointed Lackston Robinson’s old pal, Douglas Leys, as his boss and Solicitor-General.


Great, right ? Justice is finally served ! Yeah, right. Michael Hylton, Daisy Coke and the PNP government are long gone, but it turns out Lackston Robinson’s friends are just as bad as his enemies.


Lackston Robinson represented by R.N.A. Henriques came to the Commission to give evidence that:


    

  1. The extradition request for Dudus Coke submitted in August 2009 was flawed because the evidence was illegally obtained and therefore Dudus’ rights were breached when he was extradited. Robinson still doesn’t know why, and has never been told, on what basis the Minister of Justice signed the extradition order.
    2. 

  2. He, Lackston Robinson, was never shown the MOU’s in full and was only shown one paragraph of one MOU by his boss, Douglas Leys.
    3. 

  3. He didn’t know anything about the hiring of Manatt in September or December 2009 and he never, in fact, saw any of the emails between Douglas Leys, Harold Brady and Manatt, Phelps and Phillips even though Douglas Leys claimed to have copied him on the emails.
    4. 



Lackston Robinson was kept in the dark and out of the loop by his bosses (Leys, Lightbourne). End of his testimony and end of his sad story….. But perhaps he can take comfort in the fact that Douglas Leys and Dorothy Lightbourne were themselves being kept in the dark and out of the loop by the Prime Minister himself.


For example, Douglas Leys was busy considering hiring Manatt in December 2009 when Manatt had already been retained and paid by Harold Brady, Bruce Golding and Daryl Vaz back in September 2009. And Dorothy Lightbourne spent nine months making public legal pronouncements about Dudus’ constitutional rights and how she would not sign the extradition order, only to have the PM announce on national television that he “had told her to sign the extradition order” and she signed it….


Friendly banter with Karl Samuda




Next up was Minister Karl Samuda, former General Secretary of the JLP. Karl Samuda is the very definition of a good old boy and his presence caused K.D. Knight and Patrick Atkinson to revert to being good old boys themselves.


After a small show of antagonism early on, the questions and answers proceeded very much as if being conducted over a few drinks and among old friends. As part of the all-lads-together good fellowship, Samuda became the first of his JLP colleagues to admit to knowing Dudus. He also jokingly encouraged Patrick Bailey, the lawyer for Ronald Robinson, to see if the JLP would pay his fees.


Commissioner Emil George repeatedly said he could not hear what was going on between Minister Samuda and the lawyers cross-examining him, only to be told that it was just some friendly banter……


Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Cole : I did not speak to that woman




For some reason, Lieutenant Colonel Cole, the legal officer for the JDF, was recalled to give evidence again. He gave the same evidence as before and with the same calm politeness. Love that JDF discipline! It is one of the many pieces of conflicting evidence at the Enquiry. The Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecution, Lisa Palmer-Hamilton, and Lt. Col. Cole, agree that he never spoke to the Minister of Justice and A.G. Dorothy Lightbourne on August 25, 2009 (the day the extradition request for Dudus was received) but Dorothy Lightbourne is insisting that this conversation took place…It’s still not clear (to me, anyway) why this is is such an important piece of evidence…


The lady-in-chief, Minister of Justice and Attorney-General Dorothy Lightbourne




This witness has only given evidence for one day so far. It was a very long day as her lawyer, Dr. Lloyd Barnett, led her through her testimony. So only a few observations:


There’s a reason why she’s known as Dodo….she is clearly somewhat slow for the lawyer who acts as chief law officer for the Government of Jamaica, especially a government filled with so-sharp-they-might-cut-themselves chaps like Daryl Vaz and James Robertson…..


In addition to being a little dim, she thinks it shows her in a good light to claim that she  had to constantly remind her staff about “proper behaviour and proper procedure“. According to her, from Day One of the Dudus saga, she was admonishing Lt. Col. Cole, Solicitor-General Douglas Leys and numerous other  functionaries on how to behave and how to do their jobs. In short, she was the nagging-nitpicking-boss-from-hell …..no wonder everyone kept her in the dark and out of the loop.


Everyone but Dodo understood that the Coke extradition had to be handled carefully and quickly. The JDF, the JCF and the DPP’s office were ready to arrest him the same day the extradition request arrived, while, for his part, the Prime Minister showed zero inclination to rely on the legal skills of Dodo and Douglas, and hired Manatt less than 2 weeks later.


Next week: More Lady-in-Chief…


 



	

	
	


							


	

		
				

			Will he stay or will he go ? Bruce Golding lies and apologizes one more time…..
		

		
		

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E-lie Golding with friends James Robertson and Daryl Vaz


  


So the dust has more less settled on the Dudus affair. After Harold Brady revealed in October 2010 that the Prime Minister had asked him to set up the whole deal with Manatt to protect Dudus and prevent his extradition; and that Minister Daryl Vaz handled the money and payments;  the Prime Minister finally caved and announced a Commission of Enquiry .


Traditionally, Commissions of Enquiry take forever and thereby allow guilty parties to relax and exhale, knowing that by the time the Commission reports most people will have forgotten what they were so exercised about at the time (see the enquiry into the 2008 police killings in Tivoli …….)


It is clear that the Manatt/Dudus/Brady Enquiry is going to follow this long established pattern. The Enquiry won’t even start until January 17, 2011 making it almost impossible to finish by the supposed deadline of February 28, 2011…….. In the meantime, we can all refresh our memories by reading some of the pertinent letters and emails (thanks to the Gleaner for archiving these documents!)


What is particularly amusing (or annoying) about this Commission of Enquiry is that we are not supposed to need it. The Prime Minister has assured us on several occasions that he has already made a full confession. And if he knows he hasn’t yet told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, then why doesn’t he just have another press conference, tell us how it really went, and save everybody a lot of time and money ? Most likely, the only thing we don’t know is who paid the bill for the law firm of Manatt, Phelps and Phillips . And the PM has already told us that he’s NOT telling us……….


Bruce sits on a vendor


via badgals-radio.comvia badgals-radio.com


Out of the ashes of Tivoli we have a big decline in the murder rate (murders have fallen below 80 a month for the first time since 2002). Peter Bunting, the Opposition spokesman on National Security, has insisted  that the dismantling of the Tivoli garrison (referred to as the Shower Posse for the benefit of the US media) is the main reason that crime has declined. So if Bunting is right, we should:


    

  1.  be eternally grateful to Bruce for undoing what Seaga and his pals like Dudus’ daddy, Lester Lloyd Coke aka Jim Brown, had wrought, and,
    2. 

  2.  such gratitude should  translate into a second term
    3. 



After all, no one but the M.P. for West Kingston could have ordered the security forces to dismantle the garrison. Right ?


Right. Except for the niggling detail of all the effort, lies, money and political capital expended apparently to prevent what now seems to be an overwhelmingly positive outcome :-


    

  • Dudus gone to New York – he’s now the problem of the American rather than the Jamaican justice system
    • 

  • the police re-establishing control of previous no-go areas all over the island;
    • 

  • and most importantly our shameful murder rate is at last declining.
    • 



So is Bruce (aka Bruised, E-lie, Red Ras’) to be (A) thanked and congratulated on his Machiavellian skill in outmaneuvering the criminals that controlled his constituency; OR


(B) is he just what he appears to his detractors :-


a man so determined to get power and remain in power that  he was – and is– prepared to cooperate with anyone who is able to deliver one or the other (Daryl Vaz and James Robertson to become the leader of the JLP; Christopher “Dudus” Coke to become, and to remain, the M.P. from West Kingston; Harold Brady and  Manatt Phelps and Phillips to save his patron, “Dudus” Coke; the US DEA and the Obama administration to be allowed to remain Prime Minister even after trying their patience with  his increasingly desperate attempts to protect Dudus). 









Well, it appears that many in the JLP think that their Prime Minister is a desperate man, and therefore, while receiving their apparent support (he is, after all, the first JLP Prime Minister since 1989) he no longer has their confidence. Hence Bruce protege, Minister Daryl Vaz,  failed in his bid to become General Secretary of the party. That’s a pretty big “No Confidence” vote…..


And Bruce has shown what he thinks of his other champion, Minister of Mining and Energy, James Robertson, accused of all sorts (soliciting murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to send Dudus to Venezuela – see Johnson, Ian, Request for asylum in the U.S..) by removing the West Kingston power-plant-to-be from Robertson’s Energy portfolio.




According to our political weather-vane, Mark Wignall, it is already all over for Bruce and the JLP. There are only so many scandals any administration can ride out, especially with an economy in decline.


But, to my mind, a continued decline in crime in general, and murder in particular, might be enough to give E-lie and friends a second term.


Time will tell, I guess, even tho’ the Commission of Enquiry mostly likely won’t…..

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