February 17, 2010, Kaieteur News, Letter 'CIA office to be used for spying on opposition parties' a figment of their imaginations, by Mike Meyers,

Allow me the space to express my utter astonishment and disbelief at the recent utterances of opposition forces of this nation on the establishment of a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Guyana; the opposition sees this as an agency spying on political opponents and the citizenry.

This view is a whole new echelon of incongruity even for the opposing elements of this country. How they made such a quantum leap from clear and concise logic to absurd postulations is anyone's guess.
At one end of the spectrum they are vociferously calling on the administration for more assistance to be provided to the Armed Forces so that they can effectively carry out their functions, and at the other, when this help is being afforded, they jump on their bandwagons and call it "spying on the opposition and citizens".

The Administration has, yet again, made it clear what the functions of this office will be; mainly for the gathering and assimilation of intelligence on criminal activities in Guyana, hence supporting the Guyana Police Force and the Army in their fight against crime and its prevention.

The President also rightfully pointed out that the formation of such an intelligence unit is a normal occurrence in other countries.

To name a few: The New Scotland Yard of England performs the same functions that this agency is intended to carry out; the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) of the United States of America carries out similar if not the identical functions; the CIA in the USA is another agency that has a parallel mandate.

These agencies were all established with a view to assisting their respective forces in their fight against crime and to bring closure to many unsolved crimes.

The CIA in America functions as an independent agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior policymakers. Correspondingly, the mission of the FBI is to uphold the law through the investigation of violations of federal criminal law; to protect the United States from foreign intelligence and terrorist activities; to provide leadership and law enforcement assistance to federal, state, local, and international agencies; and to perform these responsibilities in a manner that is responsive to the needs of the public and is faithful to the Constitution of the United States.

The New Scotland Yard serves as an overall data collection agency of criminal activities in the different boroughs in London; its correlation and dissemination to the various police headquarters.

These are some of the parallel functions that this new body will carry out in Guyana, and any claim to the contrary is preposterous.

Many in society constantly shout and preach that crime in Guyana is on the rise, nothing is being done to curb criminality in the land, yet when something is being done they spew incredible imaginings about its proposed functions.