Dillon: I was ashamed of former SSA officer Dennie

FORMER national security minister Edmund Dillon has denied there was any meeting in which the Prime Minister ordered former Strategic Services Agency (SSA) officer Carlton Dennie to fire all East Indians in the agency, and he said he was ashamed of Dennie's conduct.

He was speaking at a media conference on Tuesday at the National Security Ministry, Port of Spain, where he responded to allegations Dennie made at a UNC public meeting on Monday in Debe.

Dillon, MP for Point Fortin, said Dennie was from his constituency, had been a member of the regiment for 12-14 years and then got a job at the SSA.

"Carlton Dennie was then a very respectable young man. However (Monday) evening...when I sat in front of my television and I looked at (him) on the podium of the UNC, I was in fact ashamed that Carlton Dennie was in fact a soldier of the TT Regiment."

He said on Tuesday morning he had several calls from former and current members of the regiment who could not understand that a person who left the regiment at the rank of corporal could address the Prime Minister and himself as "Rowley" and "then minister Dillon."

"There was no form of respect. It showed a lack of discipline, for someone who had gone through training in the Defence Force."

Dillon described Dennie's appearance as desperation on the part of the UNC and said this will increase as the country moves towards the local government elections and the general election.

He said at no time during his tenure did Dennie attend any National Security Council meetings and he was telling "vast untruths."