The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

HEADLINE reports broke in May alleging that the United States (US) was intercepting and storing all of the Bahamas’ cell phone calls through the Somalget and Mystic programmes.

The leaked reports are the work of Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agent (NSA) contractor who blew the whistle on some of the questionable activities of the US.

Since the story became public, we have heard several high ranking government officials say that they will get answers from the US on these reports.

The honourable Philip Davis said that he expected an answer from the US several weeks ago and Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell has continuously failed in his attempts to get clarity for the Bahamian people.

Just last week, despite Fred Mitchell again telling the Bahamian people that an explanation from the US was not forthcoming, we still hope for an answer as to why our sovereignty was violated.

Some Bahamians believe that the US will never issue a report as to why they chose to spy on our country and to date this viewpoint holds truth.

But amidst all of this controversy, what has the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) been doing? They issued a statement saying that neither they nor its parent company Cable and Wireless Communications (CWC) are “complicit in any breach of customer information”.

The US has continually said that they have not broken any laws so it will not be a stretch for us to believe that the spying continues unabated. But what is BTC’s role in this tragedy of epic proportions after the fact?

As the telecommunications company of the Bahamas, shouldn’t BTC play a more critical role in providing answers to the Bahamian public?

Shouldn’t BTC have launched their own investigation and report the results to the Bahamian people? Isn’t BTC responsible for the security of our cell phone network?

There is an abundance of well trained fibre optic technicians, leased line specialists and network engineers at BTC who would be willing to make a patriotic attempt to get to the bottom of this debacle. But have they been tasked to provide their expert services to the country?

Inexplicably, BTC has stood silent and their silence has not drawn criticisms from the Bahamian people and surprisingly Mitchell. Even the opposition has not chastised BTC.

It appears that it is business as usual. I say to the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Leon Williams that finding out how the US was able to spy on us should be at the top of BTC’s priorities.

BTC shouldn’t be allowed to just brag about the millions of dollars of revenue that it is making, distract us with the BTC Star Maker Show or boast of their expanding cell phone network which I might add is rife with customer dissatisfaction.

They should be the catalyst in providing technical expertise to the government and the Bahamian people in trying to figure out what happened.

It boggles the mind that BTC and the Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA’s) roles have not been called into question. It has been two months since we were made aware of this national breach. Someone has to know something at this stage.

These agencies need to take a more expressive role with an aim to providing answers to the public because it is evident that our diplomatic efforts are not bearing any fruit.

DEHAVILLAND MOSS

Nassau,

July 10, 2014.