Dear Editor,

Amid all the tumult and shouting, questions, answers and apologies over this Dudus/Manatt mystery thriller, two questions have struck me as significant but have neither been asked nor answered.

(1) Governments all over the world hire lobbyists every day to help in their dealings with the US government. Instead of asking ad nauseam whether it was the GOJ or the JLP that hired this law firm, the real question should be: why did the GOJ not hire this law firm and why has there been this emphasis by the PM on denying that GOJ hired the law firm when it would have been perfectly normal, appropriate and legal for GOJ to have hired the law firm in the first place? And why would a junior minister feel he had to resign for having contact with a lobbyist which the GOJ could have hired in the first place? This makes no sense.

(2) Former commissioner of police, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, asserts that he is confident that the wiretap evidence at the centre of the controversy was passed on to the US authorities in accordance with Jamaican law and protocols and was authorised by the police chain of command. The legality of all this will doubtless be one of the matters on which the courts will adjudicate in due course. Should he not have awaited the determination of the courts before this startling admission? Where would it leave the “chain of command” if it turns out that the courts determine that he is wrong? What if protocols don’t supersede law? Just asking.

Errol WA Townshend

Canada

ewat@rogers.com