Should Jack Warner step down? or should the PM just fire him?

[notorious saga]

Abdulah: Jack must step down

Jack Warner must step down as National Security Minister.
This is the view of leader of the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) David Abdulah, who said yesterday that Warner had placed the country in an embarrassing position, given the reports linking him to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) football corruption probe.
Speaking during a press conference at the MSJ headquarters in San Fernando, Abdulah said, “now we have yet another major crisis of which the allegations and an apparent investigation into a senior government minister is taking place. These investigations are talking place in the United States of America”.
Noting that there have been rumours about these issues for quite some time, Abdulah said: “We want to again congratulate the media for doing investigative work and bringing these matters to public attention. We are now in a very embarrassing situation as a nation as having the minister responsible for national security allegedly being investigated by the State agencies of another country and this will obviously have very significant implications for Trinidad and Tobago.”
Abdulah, whose party pulled out of the People’s Partnership coalition in June 2012, said the MSJ had called for removal of Warner since his supervision of the demolition of the protest camp set up by the Highway Re-Route Movement in Debe last year. He said since that time “it has gone from bad to worse and we have yet another reason for the Prime Minister to take action. She must investigate this matter thoroughly and take action urgently and immediately”.
The Reuters News Agency published a news exclusive on Wednesday, stating that Warner’s son Daryan, was a cooperating witness for the FBI and Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Daryan Warner was reported to be assisting in an investigation into corruption in football’s governing body FIFA. The article stated that among the issues being probed are allegations involving Jack Warner, a former FIFA Vice President, who resigned the position June 2011 amid allegations of bribery.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar issued a statement late Wednesday, in response to the Reuters article which was headlined “FBI has cooperating witness for soccer fraud probe: sources”.
She stated: “ I will not rely on published reports in the media, but will again seek to get official corroboration of the information now in the public domain before making any determination or pronouncement.”
Abdulah questioned why Persad-Bissessar had not acted and removed Warner from his ministerial post. He said the Prime Minister had investigated other ministers and axed them.
“The Prime Minister very quickly moved to investigate the issue for Section 34 and remove Minister (Herbert) Volney. She investigated other ministers and removed them. She had Cabinet reshuffled without investigation and she removed ministers, including minister John Sandy who did nothing wrong in terms of governance. He was removed as Minister of National Security and one could only speculate why she has not removed Minister Warner.”
Abdulah said Warner should do the right thing and step down.
He said, “Yesterday he (Warner) spoke to graduates of various academies and he was talking about doing what is right morally. I do not know if the Minister of National Security himself knows what is right or wrong or he would have resigned a long time ago. Clearly he does not know that and it is up to the Prime Minister to remove him from the Government and if she does not, she will pay the political price for keeping him in the Government.”

 

[Socapro]

He won't be sacked so I guess he'll have to step down and I don't see Jack stepping down! :scratch

 

[dedetriniking]

It look like Kamla really beholden to jack fer real. This man with a huge cloud over his head still presides over the armed services of the country. wow!

 

[notorious saga]

Jack Warner = The people partnership, Jack won't step down on his own and Kamla probably won't fire him. everybody else could get the axe but Jack, it look like he have some files on Kamla or something. if jack get the axe real files go buss.

 

[dev]

Jack doan waan me to bade on my beach..

oppps de wrong Jack!

The f.b.i putting a case togetrher against Jack and his son is a witness.

 

[Buhbayduss]

it is quite shameful that everytime you look around one minister keeps a negative look on the party and they are doing nothing wrong... or think the public is naive to their misdeeds...

 

[notorious saga]

Warner: I will not be crucified

Mar 30, 2013 at 10:01 PM ECT )

MINISTER of National Security Jack Warner, who was reported as being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States, says he will not be “crucified” by persons calling for his removal as minister.
There have been repeated calls for Warner to step down as minister or be fired by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar since foreign media reports stated he was being investigated.
Warner spoke with reporters yesterday at Central Division Police Youth Club’s sports and family day at Edinburgh 500 Recreation Ground, Chaguanas.
“I do not think you know of any other politician who for the last three years has been maligned and who has been crucified as I have been. The one objective in mind—to get rid of Jack Warner because there are those who believe that if you get rid of Jack Warner then you get rid of a major chunk or chink in the Government’s armour,” he said.
“At the end of the day, I don’t have to respond to them. Yesterday was the crucifixion. Today is not, and I will continue and I will do what I have to do. I have nothing to be afraid of and I sleep very soundly at night. If they get rid of Jack Warner today, tomorrow they go after somebody else and somebody else the following day. That is their modus operandi. That is what they want. I will not be in anyway at all assailed by what they are trying do in any way,” Warner said.
“Like Mervyn Cordner, like Vernon De Lima, that too shall pass and after that has passed there will be others that they will raise, but I am not fazed, not in the least.”
Warner also spoke about the power outage that kept the country in darkness for several hours two days ago.
“We had this blackout for two nights and the lowest crime rate we ever had were those two nights. The lowest crime rate, in fact. Last night, not a single murder. Night before and last night not one serious crime. It seems as if the blackout had a positive effect. I am saying that, of course, jokingly but the fact is one would have thought that we would have had major crimes over that period, but we had absolutely none.”
He said police patrols were intensified and there was aerial and land surveillance.
Warner said an investigation should be done and preventive measures should be put in place to prevent a similar outage occurring.
“I do not want it to seem as if there is somebody to blame for something there. We are going with an open mind to see where we went wrong and then to correct it as the case may be.”

 

[dev]

JACK reminds me of a wet rat trapped in a corner..scared while still looking dangerous...

 

[notorious saga]

PM ‘can’t touch Jack’

Apr 1, 2013 at 9:10 PM ECT

PRIME Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s attempts to “duck and hide” on the issue of a reported FBI corruption probe into Minister of National Security Jack Warner shows to this country and the international community “that she cannot touch (him)”, said Movement for Social for Justice (MSJ) political leader David Abdulah.
He noted that Warner himself had said he was not going anywhere and the matter shall pass like the Flying Squad issue.
Abdulah said, however, the MSJ will not allow this issue, the Flying Squad or Section 34 “to pass”.
The MSJ called on Warner to be removed as National Security Minister, as he cannot function in the position and interface with his US counterparts with the allegation of the probe.
On the Prime Minister seeking information about the probe, he said he does not believe a foreign government is obligated to divulge matters about which law enforcement officers are pursuing.
He was speaking yesterday during an MSJ media conference at the offices of the Communications Workers’ Union at Henry Street, Port of Spain.
He noted the Prime Minister was an integral part of the bad governance and her not censuring ministers who were out of line was a sin of omission. He also said she will ultimately pay the political price for keeping in her Cabinet people like Warner and Sport Minister Anil Roberts, who have abused their power to attack persons.
Abdulah said there was a danger to democracy when the Cabinet and Prime Minister were not “reining in” ministers using their office to attack citizens who have criticised them.
He spoke on three “examples of abuse of political office” by the Government:
• Roberts using a post-Cabinet news conference two weeks ago to “attack” Guardian investigative reporter Anika Gumbs-Sandiford;
• “Abuse of parliamentary privilege” by Warner and his statements about attorney Vernon De Lima and chief executive officer of the Tobago Regional Health Authority George Bell, with words that bordered on accusations of treason. The statements had not been retracted in spite of public denials by all persons named.
• MSJ member and farming activist Shiraz Khan who had a court judgment against him for allegedly defaulting on a loan from the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).
“And all of these set a certain pattern of behaviour by a Government which suggests that they are prepared to attack those who are criticising them,” he said.
He said if the Prime Minister were serious about not wanting a war with the press, as she had said, she would have publicly apologised to the media for Roberts’s “totally unacceptable comments” and stress it was not the position of the Government. He also said her reference about “rogue elements” in the media seemed to be coincident with Roberts’s claims.
He said her statements “ring absolutely hollow”, as does a statement by the Congress of the People (COP) disagreeing with the approach of attacking the media, because if it was serious it would have disciplined Roberts as a COP member.
Abdulah noted criticism and debate were an integral part of the democratic process, but as a society we must draw the line when an office is abused “to get at someone”.
On Khan’s case, he said contrary to the ADB’s claim, he had been making repayments.
Abdulah described it as a “clear case of political victimisation” as there were no other media reports of similar cases.
Khan also claimed an ADB official told him he could get a lower interest rate on the loan if he removed signs critical of building a judicial complex in Carlsen Field that were “attacking his (the official’s) Government”.

 

[dedetriniking]

Well ah see in the newspaper today that the Guyanese government has come to the defense of the Trinidad government.