David Heath
Monday, 31 August 2009 18:14
Opinion and Analysis
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In recent months the Turks and Caicos Islands (Caribbean: beautiful one day, beautiful the next) have suffered all kinds of political upheaval. Unfortunately, the whistleblowers are rapidly becoming the victims.
Let me begin by saying that Google are the innocent intermediary in all this.
The problem is that a bunch of 'interesting' people were trying to assert their will upon the Crown colony and were found out. Wikileaks has of course been very happy to host any material related to the issue right up to and including the current
contretemps .
According to WikiLeaks, this civil action "issued by the Superior Court, County of Santa Clara, as part of a 'libel tourism' action taken by non-US property developers, demands detailed information about the operators of 'tcijournal @ gmail.com.' The account is the main email address of the TCI Journal, the most influential journal covering the Turks & Caicos Islands.
"A trail of evidence dug up by the TCI Journal, a UK commission of inquiry, and others, showed that foreign property developers were giving millions in secret loans and payments to senior Islander politicians, including an alleged $500,000 cash payment to the Island's now former Premier, Michael Misick.
"The Commission of Inquiry Final Report was released on the 18th of July this year in significantly redacted form. A full version was released by WikiLeaks. A High Court case ensued which initially enjoined all media in the Islands from reporting the redacted findings, however within a few days this restriction was overturned.
The story continues…