Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for Trinidad and Tobago
Newsline: US Embassy investigating ex-employee following aircraft deal
The United States Embassy has been conducting queries into a former employee who is a director of the Trinidad and Tobago Air Support Company (TTAS), the company with which Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs signed a TT$900,772 lease for light aircraft services. The US Embassy confirmed that Daniel Condon, an airline pilot, was previously assigned to the Embassy’s Military Liaison Office, Port of Spain, and that he was employed at the US Embassy from October 2009 to July 16, 2011. On July 14, 2011, Condon was appointed director of the TTAS, a company which its managing director Dirk Barnes incorporated on June 16, 2011, with Kevon Stafford. Both Barnes and Stafford are former soldiers. By December 2011, the TTAS was given the contract by Gibbs. Sources told the Express investigations were being conducted by the US Embassy’s Military Liaison Office into Condon’s alleged business transactions. While employed with the Embassy, Condon was paid by Deputy Commissioner of Police Jack Ewatski on two occasions—June 12, 2012, and July 3, 2010—to go flying with him. Condon resigned from the Embassy on July 16, 2011.
http://www.stabroeknews.com/2012/news/breaking-news/03/08/us-embassy-investigating-ex-employee-following-tt-top-cop-aircraft-deal/
Newsline: US Embassy seeks fugitive in Trinidad
United States law enforcement is on the hunt for a violent fugitive believed to be hiding in Trinidad and Tobago. The man who has been identified by the US Embassy in Port of Spain as Sean Lopes, 46, is believed to be hiding in this country, the Embassy said in a press statement which showed three photographs of Lopes, who is described as a violent fugitive. Lopes was sentenced to 15 years in jail on charges of kidnapping and attempting to murder his ex-girlfriend who is the niece of a US Federal Judge. In 2008, Interpol in Guyana issued a wanted bulletin for Lopes who is said to have Guyanese and Dutch nationality for alleged kidnapping and other crimes involving the use of weapons and explosives. In 2006, Lopes, including eight other men and one woman were labelled by the New York Police Department as the city’s most wanted fugitives. A reward is being offered for information leading to Lopes’ capture, the US Embassy said.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/US_fugitive_being_sought_in_Trinidad-138535089.html
Newsline: Security Breach Probed at State Dept.
A long-time State Department official with top security clearance is under investigation by his own agency for allegedly possessing and illegally transporting classified information, including “extremely sensitive” documents related to national security, according to court documents. Reginald Hopson, a 30-year veteran of the State Department, had been stationed overseas for the past 12 years, but he is now working in Washington, with his clearance suspended, as the investigation continues. Most recently, Hopson was “Information Management Officer” at the U.S. embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, where he was in charge of securing and managing classified information, particularly electronic information. Until August 2009, he was assigned to the U.S. embassy in Trinidad and Tobago. Before Hopson left for his post in South Africa, State Department investigators working on an unrelated case in Trinidad and Tobago discovered that he had brought sensitive documents to unauthorized locations.
http://foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=22995&content=36180489
Newsline: US Embassy: Query visa refusals via e-mail
People who want to query the reason why they were refused a visa to go to the United States should contact the Consular Section of the US Embassy in Port of Spain. This was the advice after a new wave of complaints by locals came in response to a report done by the US State Department on the operations at the local embassy. The report found that non-immigrant visa workers at the embassy were being trained, up to February this year, to refuse visas to certain groups of applicants. Among those who were being refused-pregnant women, women who already had a child in the US, and locals working with multi-national corporations and going to America for job training. The non-immigrant section (NIV) stated ’Please direct all persons with questions to enquire by sending an e-mail to ConsularPOS@state.gov.’
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161567438
Newsline: Trinidad warns SA on Fake visas
The High Commission for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago warned against fraudulent visas circulating in South Africa and other African countries. It called on travel agencies to register with the commission to protect their clients. The commission asked the public to liaise directly with it, or only with travel agencies registered with it, when applying for visas to enter the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
