Ex-SSA director: I'm no enemy of the State

FORMER Strategic Services Agency (SSA) director retired Major Roger Best, who has been denounced as an enemy of the State by the Prime Minister, has been a soldier for most of his life.

At 56, he faces one of his toughest battles yet, not in the trenches, but with the very country he served with an unblemished record for the last three and a half decades.

As head of the SSA he ran an agency charged with gathering intelligence by intercepting communication and information through a network of spies to help police and other law enforcement agencies combat and prevent serious and organised crime and dismantle current and emerging threats to the country.

The agency is authorised to intercept phone calls, WhatsApp, e-mails and other modes of communication after obtaining court orders under the Interception of Communication Act or it can covertly gather information for intelligence. It was first established in 1995 primarily “to guide the formulation and implementation of national policies on illicit trafficking of dangerous drugs and related criminal activities.

The role and function was expanded in 2016, under the PNM, “to act as an office for centralising information that could facilitate the detection and prevention of serious crime, for co-ordinating operations for the suppression of serious crime and for co-operating with the services or the corresponding services of other countries.”

Five months ago he was removed from it, on the basis of as-yet-unproven allegations that he was part of a cult seeking to overthrow the government. Now, in his first full-length interview, Best has identified elements in the SSA itself, reportedly aligned to key politicians, as being responsible for his tumultuous fall from grace.

Best was sent on immediate administrative leave on March 2. He and 27 other SSA operatives were summarily dismissed between March and May, on the basis of the contents of a confidential Special Branch report which was reviewed by the National Security Council (NSC), which is chaired by the Prime Minister.

All the terminated employees intend to take legal action over what they deem unjust dismissals, and believe taxpayers will end up paying them millions.

“I felt like I went to sleep on one planet and woke up on another,” Best said, referring to the startling claims Dr Rowley made in Parliament on July 3, detailing why the government believed it had to act with haste to replace Best and purge the SSA of purportedly rogue elements.

Best said the event which followed his suspension has left him "disappointed and hurt."

Three weeks after Best was sent on leave, Rowley at a public event claimed state agencies have become one with criminal elements even as he says government has been grappling with the state’s contribution to the crime problem.

He expanded on July 3, in Parliament, stating an audit by the new director of the SSA retired Brig General Anthony Phillips-Spencer found the agency was being run under the influence of a religious cult comprising highly-trained military operators on a treasonous mission to overthrow the Government.

Phillips-Spencer, who was recalled as this country’s ambassador to Washington, DC, US, was appointed acting SSA director on March 2 by the President after Best was sent on leave that same day on the instruction of the Prime Minister.

Rowley, using Facebook, announced the sudden shake-up of the SSA leadership without giving any details. But in a co-ordinated operation, police moved in to secure SSA assets at Knowsley, Queen’s Park West, its St Vincent Street base, another at Piarco and one at Camp Cumuto in an attempt to prevent the removal of possible evidence by those loyal to Best. Knowsley was the base of the National Operations Centre (NOC). In 2016, all assests of the Security Intelligence Agency, those formerly owned by the Special Anti-Crime Unit of TT, and the NOC, including four helicopters, were assigned to the SSA, Best said.

Best believes his dismissal from office stemmed from his “resistance to political influence.”

He said the SSA was a key tool in the State’s armoury designed to combat serious crime and terrorism, not to spy on “political enemies.” He said he was on the verge of completing disciplinary action against a key member of the agency accused of manipulating polygraph results before he was sacked by acting President Nigel De Freitas on March 18 based on the advice of National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds, a day before Rowley returned from a trip to Ghana and India.

“I had one mandate, and that was the safety and security of TT.”

He said he spent 36 years of his military career “protecting TT” and was disappointed by the “preposterous and ridiculous” allegations made against him.

“At the end of the day, I feel sorry for the people of TT.

“Look at what TT has become in the few months they lick me up,” he said, referring to the explosion of gang violence, daylight murders and home invasions across the country.

Best was detained on May 16 along with Brown, former SSA security supervisor Susan Portell-Griffith and Sgt Sherwin Waldron on the now-defunct Special Operations Response Team, on suspicion of transferring four high-powered rifles but Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard SC advised police investigators to release them pending further investigations.

Brown, Portell-Griffith and Waldron were arrested on May 20 and later charged with multiple counts of misbehaviour in public office related to the alleged transfer and possession of firearms and ammunition.

Waldron faces four charges while Brown and Portell-Griffith face two offences.

They remain out on bail pending the hearing of the charges.

Police also questioned Best about an automatic rifle he had been loaned by the Chief of Defence Staff for personal protection but his status as a volunteer defence force reservist authorised him to carry the weapon.

Unblemished record of service till March

Best was appointed director of the SSA, he said, after he was hand-picked by then national security minister Stuart Young in 2019, initially for nine months, before a three-year contract was signed. He previously served as the chief operations officer of the SSA from 2016.

During his tenure as director, the SSA was credited with identifying threats against senior politicians, an investigative journalist and key office-holders. The intelligence gathered, and recommendations made, allowed national security agencies to prevent the threats from being carried out, Best said.

The agency has been instrumental in many successes of various police units over the last three years, including the now-defunct Special Operations Response Team (SORT); the Homicide Bureau; the Professional Standards Bureau, which investigates serious allegations against police officers; the Counter-Trafficking Unit (CTU); the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF); and the Transnational Organised Crime Unit (TOCU), among other divisions.

Best said during his tenure as chief operations officer from 2016-2018, he helped build the organisation.

He said the SSA’s mandate to treat with serious crimes came with an amendment to the SSA Act in 2016, which transformed the agency to “SSA 2.0.”

As director, Best led a team which reportedly saved countless lives and prevented serious crimes. Sources familiar with his work ethic said Best had the full confidence of the NSC and the Prime Minister.

There was a dramatic shift in April 2021, after Fitzgerald Hinds took over the national security portfolio, Best said.

Best said he began to get some "strange requests" coming across his desk. He did not elaborate on the grounds of national security.

In 2023, Best said, agencies under the National Security Council's umbrella, including the SSA, were given specific instructions to increase its capacity to aid the police and other agencies in suppressing crime, particularly gang-related murders, which accounted for at least two-thirds of the almost 600 murders that year.

He said the agency developed different techniques that proved useful proved useful in preventing murders, catching the murderers and confiscating guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

The agency is the only legal entity authorised by law to intercept phone calls and other modes of communication against those suspected of committing serious crimes.

Pastor Brown made me soldier of God

Best scoffed at the claim that he was part of “a cult” associated with the Malabar-based Jerusalem Bride Church, run by pastor Ian Brown, and had hired members of the church in breach of the SSA’s human-resource practices. He said of the 485 employees of the SSA, only eighth were members of the church.

“No nepotism was practised. The process was managed by human resources with almost no interference from the director,” he said.

He recalled he suggested two members of the church to the human resource team after an expensive exercise to hire information technology assistants crumbled after all the short-listed candidates failed the polygraph tests. He said he was later told the two people he suggested had passed and he was asked if there were any other people he could recommend.

Best recalled first meeting Brown in 2010 as an asset of the Special Anti-Crime Unit of TT (Sautt) under Brig Peter Joseph. Best was then a commander of a direct action team under Sautt and witnessed Brown’s connections with the underworld, which provided solid intelligence to aid in the fight against crime.

Brown joined the SSA in 2021 as a Special Reserve police officer

He said it was a close friend, Col Kester Weekes, who is godfather to one of his children, who took him to Brown’s church in Arima. He said on his second visit he accepted Communion, was overcome with emotion and “started to cry” for hours.

“After Communion, my whole life changed. I saw life with a new sense of clarity.

“I see myself as a soldier of God.”

He said he saw Brown as an example of someone who espoused “holiness, the will of God and the spirit of God.”

Asked what influence Brown had over him, Best said, “The only person who has influence over my mind, body and spirit is God.”

He recalled a life-changing event in 1995, when he was dispatched to Haiti as part of a multi-national force led by US soldiers, when he boarded an aircraft to get to the other side of the island with his platoon of 30 soldiers.

Best said the pilot miscalculated the runway, the landing gear broke off as it touched down in Haiti and the plane crashed. But every soldier walked away from the crash without serious injury.

“I took away the fleeting nature of life from that experience...God was very merciful,” he said. Best was awarded a commendation of bravery by the US military for his actions in that event.

Guns, ammo for other agencies

Addressing claims about the unsanctioned formation in 2023 of the Tactical Response Team a group of 12 former soldiers, who were among the employees dismissed on March 23 by Phillips-Spencer, Best said the unit was formed to protect members of the agency and its assets, including a $28 million mobile command unit nicknamed Mamba, and technicians employed to install CCTV cameras in key locations around the country. Two members of the tactical unit were retained, including the unit's supervisor and an operator.

Best said the team was formed after a request from staff for SSA personnel to be the first responders in the event of a break-in at their home or similar crimes.

One member of the team, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said part of their routine was to randomly “check on the SSA bases and the perimeter” to ensure they were secure.

On the claim that the SSA was amassing weapons and over 100,000 rounds of ammunition, Best said the ammunition was used to train over 3,000 officers from the police, defence force and prisons, among other law-enforcement units and other training operations.

He said since the formation of the SSA in 1995, officers assigned from the police service and defence force had carried guns. An amendment to the Firearms Act in November 2023, he said, allowed the director to grant firearm user’s licences, a power which only the Commissioner of Police had previously held.

“The procurement of certain weapons was done on behalf of other national-security agencies, the details of which cannot be disclosed.”

In the SSA itself, he said, “The truth is, there was actually a shortage of firearms in the agency.

“This standard was no different from intelligence agencies worldwide – including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US, MI6 of the UK, the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency of Jamaica, the National Intelligence and Security Agency of Guyana, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service…Mossad of Israel and the Australian Security Intelligence Service.”

Career highlights

Cadet at age 11 at Trinity College under then Cadet Darryl Daniel (now Chief of Defence Staff)

Entered military in 1988 and hand-picked to join to 10 Platoon Delta Company by then Anthony Phillips-Spencer (now director of SSA)

1995 deployed to Haiti as part of Peacekeeping Force

1991-1992 graduated with top honours from UK's Sandhurst Military Academy

1996-1998 assigned to Defence Force's training academy in Teteron, Chaguaramas

Topped assessment for Defence Force Intelligence Unit

2002 officer in charge of security for President and Prime Minister

2006-2009 commander of the Direct Action Team under the Special Anti-Crime Unit of TT

Served at National Operations Centre as Counter Terrorist Commander

2010-2016 deputy director of the National Security Training Academy

2016-2018 chief operations officer Strategic Services Agency

2019- March 2, 2024 director of the Strategic Services Agency