Volney accuses Rowley of mischief, says report Rowley circulating is bogus

Acting Minister of National Security Herbert Volney said on Tuesday the report that Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley has been using to discredit the alleged plot to assassinate Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and three other ministers is bogus.

The minister said it "is of unknown qualitative value, conjured out of limited information by a second division officer of the Police Service, opinionated only, unauthorised, doctored, (and) unvetted".

And he said the leaking of the report "is indicative only of nothing short of treachery."

Rowley called the Government's response to the alleged plot "hysterical political expediency". He has sent a copy of an "evaluation report" on the alleged threat to President Max Richards, advising the president that in his view and based on the details in the report there was no credible plot to kill the prime minister.

"The contents of the report of November 23 is damning of the actions of the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Security," Rowley's Dec. 8, 2011 letter to the president said.

Rowley claimed that the documents were from "a highly credible source", whom he did not name.

Speaking in San Fernando at the opening of the new district office of the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority (LAAA) Volney said, "I have the authority as Acting Minister of National Security to advise the national community that the so-called report said to have been passed on to his Excellency by the Leader of the Opposition in recent times is not, and I repeat, is not an official document of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service."

He added that neither the Commissioner of Police nor his "ranking uniformed staff" had seen these documents.

"Its use in the circumstances by the Leader of the Opposition without first authenticating its authority, smacks of nothing short of mischief in public office and an act itself of the very treachery that spawned it," Volney said.

He called Rowley's actions an abuse of his office and "irresponsible behaviour to gain cheap political points".

Volney added, "The fact is that the Rowley report is not given under the office of the Commissioner of Police.

"There is sensitive intelligence in the bosom of the Commissioner of Police and unknown to the author of the Rowley report. No doubt the author of the report based an opinion on the limited intelligence then in front of him."

Volney also commended Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs "for a job well done" and added that Gibbs is facing "unjustified criticism" since the statistics show a reduction in crime.

Rowley has also called for Gibbs to be fired, suggesting that he has not performed.