EDITORIAL
All Grenadians at home or abroad should watch closely the recent turn of events in the Briefcase issue in the United States.
This latest and dramatic turn of events could overshadow the so-called Cheltenham Inquiry to determine whether Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell did accept a bribe of US$500, 000.00 from a con man in exchange for a diplomatic position.
It's now official that the American multi-millionaire oil investor, Jack Grynberg is spearheading efforts to try and obtain a copy of the much talked about video-tape that allegedly depicts the Prime Minister accepting the money from one Eric Resteiner.
This bombshell news is further proof that the world is indeed a very small place - a global village, as some people tend to refer to it.
It is quite clear that the Grynberg Group is closely monitoring developments in Grenada and on top of reports making the rounds about the briefcase and its location.
One of the attorneys-at-law for the oil magnate has made a formal application to the judge hearing fraud charges in Boston against Resteiner to subpoena the fraudster to hand over a copy of the video-tape.
GRENADA TODAY understand that Resteiner who is due to be sentenced next month is co-operating fully in an effort to try and get a lighter sentence from the court after pleading guilty to the charges filed against him.
This disturbing turn of events is clearly causing some sleepless nights and a lot of anxiety to certain persons in Grenada.
It could turn out to be a situation of trying to kill two birds with one stone. The tape and its contents could in the end be devastating for both Prime Minister Mitchell and his deputy, Gregory Bowen.
GRENADA TODAY is confident that if the video-tape is indeed inside the U.S that it is only a matter of time before the prized asset falls into the hands of Grynberg who is trying to use it in another bribery allegation case involving the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy.
As the lawyer representing Grynberg indicated in his letter to Judge Cote who is presiding over the Resteiner matter, ".... Bribery is the norm at the highest levels of the Grenadian government....". What a sad day for Grenada.
The happenings in New York and Boston cannot be blamed on the opposition forces or media in the country.
The Mitchell government took a conscious and deliberate policy decision to open the doors to the likes of Eric Resteiner, Van Brink, Viktor Kozeny, Rita Regala, David Rowe and other international fraudsters.
There must be a reason why so many crooks came to do business with Grenada under the NNP administration. Is it a case of those who resemble must eventually assemble one day?
And it is rather unfortunate that those now running the NNP are trying to use the race card in their defense. The claim is that some people in the country are prepared to support and believe a group of white nasty folks over their own black brothers.
If one is aligned to communism and the Berlin Wall falls then they should expect a backlash from the imperialist west.
It was Prime Minister Mitchell who was flying all over Europe on the personal jet of Kozeny who is known internationally as the Pirate of Prague. It was Mitchell and his band in the NNP that took loads of money in the 1999 general elections from crooks in the offshore industry like Van Brink and David Rowe.
If the U.S and Canada decide to clamp down on the filthy money in the offshore banking business and arrest the players who were allowed to do business in Grenada then Mitchell and his Group have only themselves to blame for getting caught up in the trap that flamed on them.
Who did the highly questionable oil and gas business with the Russians that resulted in Grynberg bringing the bribery lawsuit against Minister Bowen? The NNP has lost all morality authority to continue governing this country.
A few months ago Minister Bowen was trying to assure the nation that there was no deal with the Russians but two weeks ago Finance Minister, Anthony Boatswain confirmed that there is existing an agreement and Grenada collected US$2.5 million from the Russians.
Did any of the Russians named in that New York bribery lawsuit with Deputy Prime Minister Bowen visit Grenada in the past week for "secret talks" with officials in the NNP administration?
So at the end of the day, no amount of pointing fingers in the other direction would exonerate Mitchell, Bowen and company from the bad name that Grenada inherited under their watch from 1995.
GRENADA TODAY has an uneasy feeling that something big is about to unfold that could have far-reaching effects and implications for our people in the coming weeks.
