AG: UNC could use data-mining info in Dec 2 elections

ATTORNEY General Faris Al-Rawi has charged that TT was the centre stage and birthplace of Cambridge Analytica, which admitted to using personal information obtained via social media to target political campaigns and individuals.

And the AG warned potential voters that the personal information derived by the United National Congress (UNC) when it was in government could be used in the December 2 local government elections.

Speaking at a People’s National Movement (PNM) meeting at CAL Skiffle Pan Theatre, San Fernando on Tuesday night, the AG, who deputised for an ailing prime minister, recalled two meetings he had with CA whistleblower Christopher Wylie, and his confession of links with the UNC to spy on citizens for political purposes.

The UNC has denied any involvement in any such scheme, but Al-Rawi told the audience he was invited to London to meet at the National Crime Agency headquarters with law enforcement and other intelligence agency including the FBI, Department of Justice, USA, the UK Crown Prosecution services among others.

“In a room filled with law enforcement and intelligence agencies, all of us sitting around a small-built man with pink hair and a nose ring, who goes by the name Christopher Wylie.”

Al-Rawi said in that room, and in the presence of his attorney, Wylie who has published a book titled Mind--k: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America, in which he detailed his dealings with TT politics, “That gentleman testified that TT was the centre stage and birthplace of CA.”

He said similar testimony was given when he met Wylie on another occasion in London.

He told the audience he was broaching this subject at a campaign meeting because: “It means that you must be aware of the campaign that is being run in this country.

“TT, wake up. We are going through a battle of our lives. Because the campaign that is being run by Kamla Persad-Bissessar – the promoter, according to Wylie, insofar as she was head of government, and a UNC government promoted this – Kamla Persad Bissessar has one mission. That mission is to create doubt.

He said what CA did was “was micro-targeting : stealing your web page info causing you to get e-mails and phone calls saying, 'It’s the PM calling we want to know about you,' and they eh tell you how they get your number, how they get your address.

“That kind of surveillance in the hands of the UNC then, and still in the hands of the UNC now, is intended to carry out one mission – create doubt.

“Lie, pretend to lie, tell a half-truth, make it up as you go. It is intended to cause doubt.”