Some questions:
1. At what point did the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) become aware of the intentions of the Jamaican security forces [Operation Garden Parish] which would have prompted them to offer a surveillance plane? [Holness said categorically that plane was offered and the offer accepted by the Jamaican government]
2. Were the DHS and the DEA involved in planning the operation?
3. What role did former prime minister and minister of defence Bruce Golding play in the granting of permission for this surveillance plane to be brought into the operation?
4. Why did Mr Golding give a categorical denial in parliament?
5. Why was National Security Minister Dwight Nelson, who is also a member of the Defence Board, not told about the granting of permission for the DHS plane to be brought into the operation, certainly by the Prime Minister with whom he seemed to have had very close relations?
6. How was it possible for him not to have known about it?
7. Why would Colonel Rocky Meade have made a similar denial when he was well aware of the facts?
8. What was the ‘sensitive nature’ of the operation according to Prime Minister Andrew Holness?
9. Can Dwight Nelson and Rocky Meade be trusted as honest employees of the state having been found to be lacking in credibility and caught telling lies? Should they be allowed to continue in their present positions?
10. Will Prime Minister Andrew Holness ensure that the surveillance tapes be made public so that a determination can be made as to whether the security forces were in fact engaged in a firefight as they claim? [The DHS has said according to Mat Schwartz in his New Yorker article that the tapes were viewed at a "tactical operations center"]
Lloyd D'Aguilar
