The Observer PDF Print E-mail
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Wednesday, 07 September 2011 02:27
According to Wikileaks, not merely Buddy Shivraj…
Glenn Lall fingered many colleagues to US officials as having drug links
- may have initiated investigations against Roger Khan
DOUBLE-CROSSERS, historically, especially those who engage in shady dealings and have been discovered to be double-dealers – with the latent threat to life and property, most often attempt to eradicate rivals or former associates out of the equation through strategic manoeuvres.
[Mr. Glenn Lall, in an updated photo he sent the Chronicle two days ago that was meant to be reflective of his current elevated position] One manoeuvre that may have been found to silence, or to create synergies to facilitate the removal of Roger Khan may have been to link him to the drug trade through clever subterfuge, such as innuendoes or outright accusations in diplomatic ears.
A United States cable emanating from the Georgetown embassy to Washington, according to the whistle blowing website, Wikileaks, has quoted Presidential hopeful Peter Ramsaroop, who claimed to have spoken at length with Kaieteur News publisher Glenn Lall after the murder of the five Kaieteur News pressmen in the Eccles Industrial Site on August 8, 2006 – a conversation and subsequent communication that have proven very revealing.
The Wikileaks expose revealed that then Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy, Michael Thomas, had informed Washington that, although the motive for the seemingly incidental murder of the Kaieteur News pressmen remained unclear to law-enforcement authorities, Ramsaroop had intimated to him during an August 19, 2006 telephone conversation that Lall had related to him his (Lall’s) suspicion that the murders were either a retaliatory measure by Roger Khan, whom he said had been blackmailing businessmen.
Which begs the question: Why would a convicted drug dealer be blackmailing Glenn Lall, by his own admission to Peter Ramsaroop as conveyed by the latter to the US Embassy Deputy US Chief of Mission, Michael Thomas?
There is current speculation, based on these revelations, on the person who may have directed US attention to Roger Khan
Another US embassy cable from a US embassy official to Washington had indicated that Lall had met with him on August 13, 2006 and that, during their discussion, Lall had divulged that he knew some of the gang members, some of whom he said were as young as twelve years of age, and that the attackers might have expected to find weapons at the printery.
Which also begs the question: Why would gunmen from a criminal gang seemingly related to drug operations expect to find weapons in a newspaper production unit?
And this was related to a US official by no less than the publisher of the newspaper involved.
According to Wikileaks, the US official had cabled to his superiors that Glenn Lall had also alluded to a previous grenade attack on his printery.
One cable also referred to several mini prison riots that had erupted in the Camp Street prison between August 8 and 14, seemingly as diversionary tactics to draw attention away from several murderous attacks that also left Agriculture Minister Sash Sawh and several of his siblings dead or severely injured, along with his security guard.
Wikileaks has revealed that Glenn Lall had fingered several of his business colleagues to US diplomats as having drug links.
Among these was Omprakash ‘Buddy’ Shivraj. In a cable to Washington, Political Officer in the US Embassy in Georgetown, Benjamin Canavan revealed that Glenn Lall had related to him that Shivraj had run into financial difficulties when he was building his combination hotel/gym/nightclub/restaurant and bar and could not access funding from anywhere, including the commercial banks; so he sought funding from business colleagues whom Glenn Lall described to the US officials as the “drug kingpins” in Guyana, whom he also named.
However, in a letter to this newspaper, a greatly disturbed Buddy Shivraj repudiated Glenn Lall’s assertions, as told to Benjamin Canavan and exposed by Wikileaks.
Shivraj said that Glenn Lall’s allegations to the US official are complete fabrications and misrepresentation of facts surrounding the financing of the project involving the construction of Buddy’s International Hotel.
In his response Shivraj wrote: “It (Glenn Lall’s allegations of Shivraj’s financing problems) seems to be a deliberate attack on my person and is erroneous and untruthful in content.
“I wish to make it pellucidly clear that at no time did I approach anyone, as suggested by the cable; nor am I in any way involved with narco-traffickers.
“The Buddy’s International Hotel Inc. successfully secured financing from the local banking sector to the tune of over one billion Guyana dollars.
“It is a matter of public records that several debentures over the hotel’s assets were issued to a leading commercial bank.
Furthermore, other assets held in my name were leveraged to raise further financing from another commercial bank and mortgages had been established to secure the additional financing.”
With all these revelations through Wikileaks, members of the private sector have been left wondering who else may have been identified by Glenn Lall as having links to “drug kingpins”; and who else may be targeted next by the US state machinery as Roger Khan has been.