The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement leader Dr Hubert Minnis should either produce the evidence he has against the government concerning the National Intelligence Agency or stop creating public hysteria, Democratic National Alliance Leader Branville McCartney said yesterday.

Mr McCartney said while he also has some questions about the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and its responsibilities, if the FNM has proof that the government is “spying on Bahamians” or doing something illegal with the NIA, they should produce it.

“I cannot comment on whether or not the government is spying or not, but if the FNM has the evidence then they should bring actions and move post-haste,” he said.

“If they have the evidence they need to use it to ensure that the government is not spying on innocent people or the public.

“They should do what they did with the Darron Cash incident and take the government to court. If they have it, they need to execute.”

Mr McCartney also said he is not surprised that the PLP set up the agency without any legal framework because “they have a habit of doing things wrong”.

“There is no legal framework for the NIA to be in existence,” he said. “It is typical of the PLP to do things backwards. I do not want to say it is not a good thing because we do not know what it is. If they are there for intelligence and to monitor criminal activities we have to be careful that if it is not set up properly any information that they obtain can be thrown out in court.

“It seems the government is making a habit of doing things wrong. What I think is they need to let us know what their mandate is and outline the details and make it legal,” he said.

On Monday, Dr Minnis demanded a complete shutdown and full public disclosure of the NIA’s operations in the absence of a legal framework to govern the organisation.

Insisting that the FNM would not support an “illegal government programme”, Dr Minnis said it was important for the Christie administration to lay all of its cards on the table concerning the NIA.

According to Dr Minnis, the NIA has created too many unanswered questions that in his view pose a laundry list of threats for the Bahamian people.

It was suggested last week by Deputy FNM leader Loretta Butler-Turner that the text messages, emails and phone calls of civilians were being monitored by government. She raised the legality of the NIA’s existence during a party rally last Tuesday.