T&T considered setting up covert intelligence agency: Report

Gary Griffith

The Express newspaper reported on Sunday that the government was thinking of setting up a covert agency under the National Security Operations Centre (NSOC), citing unnamed sources and quoting National Security Advisor Gary Griffith.

The Express said it learned from Griffith that if the unit was established it would have been under the leadership of Garvin Heerah, who became NSOC director in November.

The paper quoted Griffith as saying that he had no problem with such a unit. 

"There are dozens of initiatives as National Security Adviser that I would like to see implemented so that we can go after the 'big fish', corrupt politicians and any high ranking people we want," he told the Sunday Express ."What we need to be able to do is analyse information and turn it into intelligence," he said.

However, he insisted that any intelligence unit must have a legal structure and the blessings of the Commissioner of Police. They must have transparency and legal standing similar to agencies like the Criminal Intelligence Agency (CIA) or the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) or the MI6, to gather proper intelligence.

"We depend on snapshots, roadblocks and raids to get information. The technology is more advanced than that. There are scientific strategies to fight crime," he said.