This would appear to be confirmed by the lobbyist’s presence in a photo with the Uighurs legal team (described as a Consultant) as they arrived in Bermuda.  So was he working for the Uighurs or Bermuda?

If this is correct, it would appear that Dr. Brown is still not telling the whole truth about this engineered little circus.

There is another protest in Bermuda today at 12:30 outside the House of Assembly.

From the UK, where they have real parliamentary questions and a Hansard:

Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when his Department was first notified by the Governor of Bermuda of the Bermudan government’s discussions with the US on the transfer of four former detainees from Guantánamo Bay; and if he will make a statement. [280865]

David Miliband: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office received notification from the Governor of Bermuda on 11 June 2009 that the Government of Bermuda had been in discussion with the US on the transfer of four former detainees from Guantanamo Bay. The Government of Bermuda acted outside their competence.

Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the government of Bermuda notified his Department that it had agreed to accept the transfer of four former detainees from Guantánamo Bay before the former detainees arrived in Bermuda on 12 June 2009; and if he will make a statement. [280867]

David Miliband: The four former detainees arrived in Bermuda early on 11 June 2009. The Government of Bermuda notified the Governor a few hours earlier that some Muslim Uighur refugees were on their way, without mention of the United States or Guantanamo Bay.

Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when the security assessment of the four former detainees from Guantánamo Bay who have been transferred to Bermuda is expected to be completed; and if he will make a statement. [280868]

David Miliband: We are working with the Government of Bermuda and the US to ensure that the security assessment will be completed as soon as possible.

Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on what date the government of Bermuda began discussions with the US administration on the transfer of detainees from Guantánamo Bay to Bermuda . [280869]

David Miliband: The Government of Bermuda began discussions with the US Administration on or about 20 May 2009.

Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when the review of the legal basis of the Government’s relations with Bermuda following the transfer of four former detainees from Guantánamo Bay is expected to be completed; and if he will make a statement. [280880]

David Miliband: We are not reviewing the Bermuda constitution, but in light of the of this case we are reviewing the operation of the General Entrustment which is the agreement that delegates to the Government of Bermuda the authority to conduct external negotiations in specified areas. We expect to complete this by the end of July 2009.

Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with the Bermudan authorities on the four people released from the US detention centre at Guantánamo and resettled in Bermuda; and what steps he plans to take on the matter. [281316]

Chris Bryant: Discussions are ongoing between the Governor, the Government of Bermuda and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office over the transfer of four former detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Bermuda. We are considering next steps with all interested parties.

Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he had discussions with his US counterpart on the recent transfer of four detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Bermuda before the transfer took place. [281591]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: There were no discussions between my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary and his US counterpart on the transfer of four detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Bermuda before the transfer took place.

This is an interesting approach, as more words have been spun about Bermuda in the last week than ever in our history.  And most of them show little perspective of what is going on here.

We have yet to have an explanation from our Government other than “it felt good”.  The output of the spin machine and PLP has been to protect Dr. Ewart Brown, rather than to protect Bermuda.

The PLP have an opportunity here: to allow Dr. Brown to retire with some “humanitarian” glow … rather allow than allow him to increasingly earn a murky reputation from the many controversial actions of his tenure.

Nearly 60% persons who voted for the PLP in the 2007 general election, and nearly 90% of those who voted for the UBP, disapproved of the decision.

In the face of such widespread rejection, you can count on the pot being stirred a lot more this week to try and rebuild some solidarity based on race.  See Bud’s breathless pulp fiction on the PLP website today.  You have to ask yourself – do I trust people who are so willing to resort to emotional manipulation to avoid discussing the situation like adults (never mind the political representatives they are supposed to be)?

Every day this circus continues is another day that Bermuda’s political elite are not focused on Bermuda’s real business.  That will have a penalty one day.

Note from today’s media, we have spent more than $10 million on noise abatement for the dolphins but don’t have the budget to build the homeless shelter.  Of course they have to divert attention.

UPDATE:  The PLP bloggers are trying it on for size that I might be a media or opposition insider.  Nice spin.  I heard it on the radio this morning like everyone else, and the email is winging it around far and wide on this island.  You think people aren’t talking about this?  Now, how about employees of the Cabinet Office posting on a political party website during civil service hours …

“Because it breaches the Constitution, this exchange of notes [leading to the Premier's Great Uighur adventure] which was negotiated and sent on June 10, was in our view, invalid. In other words, the Bermuda Government’s action to solicit the arrival of the four Uighurs was unacceptable. I talked to the Bermuda Government yesterday, June 16, and suggested to them that they should now consider carefully their next steps.”

However he adds that the Uighurs “cannot and should not go back” to Guantanamo Bay, adding that the UK, US and Bermuda needed to work with one another to find the right outcome.

The Uighur episode must be seperated from the conflict regarding Ewart Brown’s leadership.

Meanwhile, the Sun is reporting that the PLP backbenchers are backing off support for a no confidence vote for fear of losing the PLP’s majority in the House. They are at no risk of losing their majority.  Just their credibility.  If they don’t act, they are sowing the seeds for immense future problems for their party … and for all of Bermuda.  Their withdrawal would show that there is no action – no matter how irresponsible, harmful, or illegal – for which they’d be willing to act as a check or balance.

Moreover, the PLP’s spin tactics of pushing this all as a racial issue is further deepening the poison in Bermuda’s soul.  Today the Premier depicted the protests as “a perceived loss of privilege that has driven our whites into extreme anger”.

He knows better.  The whole idea of Rule of Law is that it provides equity of treatment for all.  The Rule of Law was key to breaking segregation.  When the that Rule of Law is bent to the changing desires of a single politician – and his party falls over in sycophancy – then no-one can count on this country.  And what do we have then?

(I find the silence of Bermuda’s lawyers regarding this Constitutional issue to be amazing and reprehensible.)

Well, maybe not.  As it turns out – like everyone else in Bermuda, the Police only learned about the uighurs on the radio news on Thursday morning.

“So far the Commissioner and his experts in the Bermuda Police Service have not had from the Bermuda Government, who brought the Uighurs here and without any advance notice to the Police, the information they need to make a proper assessment.”

“Their provisional assessment, to a handful of Ministers and Government House, made clear that the Bermuda Police Service have been given neither the political background nor any available criminal background on the four men; nor have the Police been given any detailed psychological assessments. Without a good deal more information the Police cannot make a professional assessment of the likely future intentions of the four Uighurs.”

Is it not a crime to “bend the truth” in a statement to the House of Assembly?

The crowds at Parliament at lunch today – which spilled onto the surrounding streets – were noisy and fed up particularly compared to the meagre team of Brown supporters that gathered in his stage-managed appearance.  It will be untenable for the PLP to retain support for the Premier in the face of such public displeasure.  The constant circus surrounding him has become a debilitating distraction for Bermuda.

Don’t expect much from Dr. Brown.  His comment on the protest:  “As some of you might know, I grew up in the protest era. This is nothing new to me. I have seen them larger and longer.”   Be careful what you ask for Dr. Brown.

Know we know why the Sally Bassett statue was placed in front of the Cabinet building:  so the Premier can stand in front of it whenever he is in hot water to try and shift the dialogue to one of racial martyrdom.  Nice try.

International groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are freely tossing around humanitarian plaudits driven by their deep concerns about Guantanamo Bay and everything that it represents.  However, they are incorrect if they assume that the backlash towards Dr. Brown is based on the Uighurs alone.  It is not.  The backlash is based on the accumulation of “unethical but not necessarily illegal” acts under his tenure.  If there is no respect amongst our top leadership for the Constitution, then there is no Rule of Law.  And if there is no consistent rule of law, then there are degrading and unreliable human rights for Bermudians.

In short, it is fundamentally wrong to undermine the Bermudian Constitution so that the American Constitution can retain its lustre.

There is a protest march gathering at Parliament today at 12:30 pm.  Dr. Brown’s supporter has called for a PLP “counter-attack” gathering next door at Cabinet at the same time.  Given the proximity, it will allow both sides to claim massive support.  In true Bermuda style, it will either be a big party, or one hell of a scrap.

In a highly unusual move, a senior US official said Washington opted to keep details of the deal from London until the last minute to enable Britain to deny all knowledge of the deal and thus avoid China’s anger.

You can read this in several ways – one view is that Dr. Brown was looking for an angle to push the independence agenda with the UK.  Another view is that Dr. Brown got played way out of his league:

• The US knew they had an anti-UK zealot with a huge ego and hunger for attention and exploited it.  They offload a few Uighurs, create plausible deniability for their real ally (the UK), and leave Ewart to deal with the mess he’s created.
• Or they really don’t give a rats ass and are just shoving Uighurs in any tin pot country that will take ‘em, screw the consequences.

Dr. Brown doesn’t come out looking very good.  He told Parliament today that he did not tell his Cabinet and he did not tell the Governor because he knows to keep his mouth shut for top secret info!

It reminds me of that scam here a few years ago, when an overseas private detective convinced an expat accountant that he was being recruited as a UK secret agent, and should quietly leak all sorts of highly sensitive information, sssh don’t tell a soul. It was a tremendous embarrassment all round when  it was found out how easily impressed our so-called experts were, and willing to violate their positions of responsibility.

Picture this scenario:  “a little thank you call from the President and Ewart’s singing Yankee Doodle all around the Cabinet Office and getting Glenn to send a write up to the Howard alumni mag.”

Even if you don’t believe that Dr. Brown was used, it is undeniable that his little games with the Constitution have badly undermined the Rule of Law in Bermuda.

This fuss is not really about the uighurs.  It’s about the consistently murky and inappropriate behaviour of our political leadership.

Don’t stop the carnival.

The idea of independence is currently unpopular in Bermuda … and has declined consistency as the scandals have mounted surrounding Dr. Brown’s leadership.  The Uighur incident allows Dr. Brown to push independence – both literal and de facto – without any public mandate.

The whole affair raises many questions about governance in Bermuda.

Under Bermuda’s Constitution, the UK maintains control over Bermuda’s foreign affairs and external security working in consultation with the Bermuda Government.  Moreover, the UK has control of naturalisation in Bermuda.  The UK was purposefully cut out out of this transfer by both the Bermuda and US Governments.

In short, I believe Dr. Brown did not have the legal right to undertake the commitments he has taken on Bermuda’s – or the UK’s – behalf.  And from the perplexed reaction on the street, he certainly does not have the moral right nor popular support.

1. The Bermuda Government knows the constitutional arrangements.  It speaks VERY BADLY about Bermuda that our own Government will openly defy our constitution.  It says that our Government is run by personal agenda rather than rule of law.
2. From his quotes in the local media, it appears that US Consul General to Bermuda Greg Slayton knew of the Uighur transfer. Mr. Slayton is also well aware of Bermuda’s constitutional arrangements as well as Dr. Brown’s ongoing skirmishes with Government House.  Did he inform the US State Department of this background? If so, it would be clear that the US did actively snub the UK by not engaging them in the discussion.  Moreover, it could be argued that the US abetted the political destabilisation of a neighbouring country in its clamour to solve its Guantanamo problem.
3. Local media alleges that not even the local Cabinet was informed of the transfer.  It’s hard to talk about “collective responsibility” when important decisions like this are made in secrecy.
4. Neither Dr. Brown nor the Attorney General will confirm if the Bermuda Government took legal advice over the transfer.  It is damning if Government did not take the advice of the Attorney General on such a major issue.  It is even more damning if the Attorney General allowed such defiance of the Bermuda Constitution.

This week, Bermuda had a leg up with the good OECD news.  That has been totally destroyed – and then some  – by the folly of Dr. Brown’s Great Uighur Adventure.

They also point out that the little contratemps was probably engineered “by some in Bermuda’s government” to cause a fight between the UK and Bermuda.

Gee, ya don’t say?  What a devious, half thought out, incredibly damaging, attention junkie fiasco this is.

Bermudian reactions to this range from the bewildered to the outraged.  Most see it as political manoeuvring by Dr. Brown to put egg on the faces of the English and to create a massive diversion away from the myriad of other scandals brewing around him (including his fading support amongst his own parliamentary backbenchers).

Parliament should be fun today.   Call your MP to tell them what you think of this.  Better yet, call your PLP branch chairman.  And if you have the patience to deal wiffit, call those tedious radio talkshows.

An interesting side note.  Shortly after this blog began in 2007, the hits suddenly “disappeared” from the Bermuda Government network.  I always assumed they had blocked www.vexedbermoothes.com, not wanting to contaminate the civil service with deviations from the Party line.  Well, in all the Uighurian excitement, someone opened the door again. Hoo boy, was there some traffic coming from Bermuda Government yesterday.

Errr, and a few other governments too.

[Update - someone from Government disputes that the site is blocked.  It maybe that changes on their side recently started broadcasting their network location again.  I welcome any Government reader.]

Brown brings Guantanamo to Bermuda

Bermudians today woke up to the news that four detainees from Guantanamo Bay have been re-settled in their midst as a result of a decision by the Premier – a decision the US Attorney General said “will make America safer.”

Bermudians learned that these men will be given the opportunity to become naturalized citizens. They also learned the Governor had been informed of the decision this morning and that he was assessing its ramifications.

I can recall no other decision that so blatantly disrespects the people of Bermuda as this one.

I can recall no other decision that so publicly disrespects and challenges the Bermuda Constitution as this one.

Certainly, no other decision better captures the type of one-man autocratic rule that this Premier has been allowed by his party to exercise.

When we first heard the news we thought it was some sort of journalistic mistake, or so some sort of joke going around.

But this is no joke, and Bermuda is not amused.

How this decision was made and enacted – are matters of grave concern.

To tie Bermuda so explicitly into the world of terrorism is an extremely serious step. To do so without any consultation whatsoever is unnecessarily dangerous and unprecedented.

That the Premier folded the issue of independence into the Guantanamo decision – by challenging the governor to reverse it after making the announcement – brings a level of cynicism and manipulation into the equation that is simply appalling.

The United Bermuda Party believes in the vital importance of maintaining and growing the best possible relationship with the United States of America, but we should never do so at the expense of our own best interests.

Clearly, Bermudians should have been consulted about this decision, because it is their country, not the Premier’s to do with as he wants.

If the Premier had any respect for the people, he should have – at the least – made his statement in the House of Assembly before the elected representatives of the people?

If he respected government structure of Bermuda, at the very least he should have given the Opposition Leader prior notice as well as the Governor, who, by the Premier’s own words, was informed after the fact.

Who are we are accepting into our midst? The Premier says the four men have been cleared of terrorism charges and yet the United States will not allow them to settle there. Indeed, the US Attorney General said the transfer of the detainees to Bermuda “will make America safer” – a statement that does not give us comfort that it makes Bermuda safer.

What is the mental state of the men? When asked this question, Senator David Burch said: “Their mental state appears to be quite fine.” While we appreciate his view, we are, however, not convinced. These men have been held in Guantanamo for seven years. They may have been subject to torture.  They may be deeply angry. We do not know. Again, the government has given us no assurance that these men are psychologically ready to live and work in Bermuda.

By this Guantanamo decision, the Premier is disrespecting Bermudians across the board, reducing them to mere spectators with no say, no input into what happens in their island. He has presented us with a fait accompli. That he has done so on a matter of national security is unacceptable.

We urge all Bermudians to speak out on this issue, if for no other reason than to get this government and its Premier to respect their views and the democracy in which we live.