SEERUS BUSINESS-Britain, Canada to move against Robertson — US official

Britain, Canada to move against Robertson — US official

TWO other countries are set to join the United States of America in revoking visas issued to Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) deputy leader James Robertson, a reliable US Government official has revealed.

“There is ongoing collaboration between Britain, Canada and ourselves, and it is almost certain that, like the USA, those countries will also cancel visas issued to him, as long as it is established that he has those in his possession,” the Washington, DC-based US official told the Sunday Observer toward the end of last week.

Britain, Canada to move against Robertson — US official

Businessmen linked to JLP among those also under scrutiny

 

Sunday, May 29, 2011

 

TWO other countries are set to join the United States of America in revoking visas issued to Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) deputy leader James Robertson, a reliable US Government official has revealed.

“There is ongoing collaboration between Britain, Canada and ourselves, and it is almost certain that, like the USA, those countries will also cancel visas issued to him, as long as it is established that he has those in his possession,” the Washington, DC-based US official told the Sunday Observer toward the end of last week.

 

ROBERTSON… resigned as minister after his US visa was cancelled

ROBERTSON… resigned as minister after his US visa was cancelled 1/1

The official, who said that he was not authorised to speak publicly and gave information to the Sunday Observer only on condition of anonymity, stated that the US was convinced that the right thing was done in revoking the former Cabinet minister’s visa. The official added that the final decision was taken after careful analysis of the situation and the impact that it was likely to have on the administration of Prime Minister Bruce Golding.

The prime minister, the Sunday Observer learnt, had been informed as a matter of courtesy, of the US’ intention to withdraw Robertson’s visa and that of his wife, before action was taken on May 20.

That information could not be confirmed by Golding’s office at

Jamaica House when contact was made on Friday.

Robertson, the member of parliament for St Thomas West and former minister of energy and mining, confirmed that his United States visitor’s visa was revoked, in a statement issued late Monday, a day after the Sunday Observer broke the story that a minister had lost the document.

“On Friday, May 20, 2011 the Government of the United States of America cancelled the visas of my wife Charlene and me,” Robertson said. “We readily acknowledge that as a sovereign nation it is the prerogative of the US Government to issue and revoke visas.”

Since the revocation, Golding has stated that his deputy, Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Ken Baugh, would be holding talks with US Embassy officials, led by that country’s ambassador to Kingston Pamela Bridgewater, to attempt to sort out the matter.

Robertson too, said that he had assembled a team of lawyers in the USA to handle the issue from that end.

The Washington, DC-based source admitted that every individual was entitled to legal protection or redress, but stopped short of

saying that Robertson was wasting his time by choosing to go that route.

“The withdrawal of his visa is one step along the way. There is more to come and other things will happen at other times,” the official said.

It is not customary for Cabinet ministers or members of parliament to be denied travel to the US. Updated records show that the move is unprecedented, as no other Cabinet minister has ever had his/her US visa revoked since Jamaica gained Independence from Britain in 1962.

Having a US visa makes the job of any government minister that much easier, and, in the case of Robertson, not having one would all but cripple his efforts at sorting out matters that pertain to areas under his portfolio, the bauxite and alumina sector in particular, as the companies that do business with Jamaica have strong boardroom clout in the US.

“Robertson would be like a fish out of water if he were to remain as

energy and mining minister without having a US visa,” a retired senior civil servant of the former Ministry of Mining and Natural Resources in a previous political administration told the Sunday Observer. It was a point that was backed up by Information Minister Daryl Vaz.

“The revocation of a visa to the United States makes your position as a minister of government almost untenable,” Vaz told journalists at a post-Cabinet news conference at Jamaica House last Wednesday.

The US Embassy in Jamaica, as a matter of course, does not comment publicly on visa-related issues, and speculation continues to make the rounds regarding the real reason for the withdrawal of the visa.

Robertson himself suggested that it might have resulted from allegations made by a former political ally, Ian Johnson, who made damaging allegations against the politician to US and Jamaican authorities.

“No details have been provided as to the

basis for the cancellations, although we are of the view that this could have resulted from the uncorroborated statements forwarded to various departments of the US Government in support of a failed application for political asylum. The allegations made in those statements have been, and remain, wholly rejected,” Robertson said in the initial statement confirming that his visa was cancelled.

Johnson, a self-styled JLP activist, sought political asylum in the US, but the world’s most powerful country refused.

Johnson also had, on December 17, 2010, filed a claim in the Circuit Court of the 17th Judicial Circuit in Broward County in which he put forward hair-raising allegations against Robertson.

A Florida court threw out the suit in January.

Information reaching the Sunday Observer is that the US is also moving to yank visas from other prominent Jamaicans, among them another key government official, two businessmen with links to the ruling JLP, one of whom has been under investigation for some time now for his alleged involvement in money laundering and human trafficking.

A member of the local customs department is also under scrutiny, the Sunday Observer was told.