Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 25/Nov 14:35

Griffith: ‘Government shouldn’t ask others to revoke visas’

FORMER national security minister Gary Griffith has expressed concern over reports that Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander is seeking help from the US Embassy to revoke the visas of US-based social media users including bloggers, who have dual nationality, and who are targeting Trinidad and Tobago by spreading propaganda and fear. Griffith’s concerns came against the background of Fisherman and Friends of the Sea’s secretary Gary Aboud’s US visa being revoked. Aboud claimed this happened because of his public opposition to government’s support of US military deployment in the southern Caribbean which began in August. In a video posted on social media on November 24, Griffith said it was the right of any country to deny a visa to anyone who wishes to enter that country, if that person breached laws of that country. Griffith, also a former police commissioner and TT Regiment captain, added he has been engaged in public service over the last 30 years. “Never in my life have I ever seen a politician who holds a position of authority in a government write to another country to revoke the visas of citizens in their own country,” Griffith said. Griffith, who was national security minister and a national security adviser at different times in Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s May 2010-September 2015 administration, said he was certain Persad-Bissessar “would not endorse a situation where we are in a position now to try to get politicians to write to other countries to take action against citizens of TT.” He said this could be perceived as a dog whistle for citizens who express views contrary to the government to be muzzled. Griffith added he did not think this was the case. He said people are entitled to their views and if they break the law, police can take action against them. In a release on November 21, Aboud questioned whether the government had a hand to play in the visa decision. In a response on the same day, Persad-Bissessar denied her government’s involvement in the visa revocation and said Aboud’s comments were reckless. Persad-Bissessar has publicly supported the deployment of US military personnel and officers to the southern Caribbean Sea, with the Trump administration’s description of this being an anti-narcotics exercise aimed at stopping narco-trafficking originating from Venezuela. The post Griffith: ‘Government shouldn’t ask others to revoke visas’ appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.