P-1-C-15b
CALL TO DICK MC COY ABOUT BRINDLEY BEN AND THE ARTICLE IN THE WORKERG PEOPLES VANDGARD 21/1/78
-we asked him how he knew an article was coming out in the vandgard and he said someother Embassy Officer had told him, said it was just a rumour/claimed
-he didn’t remember which officer
-said he does know [Guyana political activist Brindley] Benn well, his son and daughter are in the US and he’s come to Dick for visas etc.
-said Brindly is a radical closely allighed with the Chinese
-said Brindley used to be in the PPP and broke with it 14 years ago, he was the Minister of Health in Jagan’s govt.
-know Brindley has a farm and grows pigs and chickens
-Brindley is allighned with U.C. Kwayuna [Eusi Kwayana] and the Rampersard Defense Committee which is an alliance of black and East Indians (Ramparsard [Arnold Ramperssaud] was accused of killing a policeman on Quarantee Rd, was declared on guilty)
-also is aligned with the Working Peoples Alliance and people that united for the Boxside [bauxite] strike
-people working with Benn are Malcolm Rodriquest a priest, and Walter Rodney a former teacher (Paula [Adams] met someone who knows Walter Rodney well and talked at length to this man)
-Benn was in the Dryclean trial which involved the fact that his newspaper is not legal in Guyana but he publishes it anyway, the govt dropped the charges, also with him on this was Thelma Reese
-he said that Benn’s paper and the PPP paper all have a funny way of distorting things
-he suggested we contact Carl Backmon of the Guyana Chronicle and ask if we can print an retraction in the Chronicle
-Benn always criticizes the US for it’s [its] policy of aid to Guyana (not enough money)
-he said the PPP paper the Mirror comes up with charges and say they want police to investigate but someone has to make a complaint, can’t investigate otherwise
-we said he did go in and talked to the Commissioner, Nick said the commissioner told Nick when Nick called him that he’d always be glad to talk to us
-Nick says Benn claims but Nick doubts it to have 10,000 people around the country of Guyana (support) but Nick doubts it
-Nick says Interpol is just an international police. farfetched about them being out to get anyone, they are just a clearing house located or prior were located in Paris
-said the Interpol has no enforcement authority, says they are just designed to help countries and protect them from international terrorism, said that even USSR, Cuba, VEnezuela, Turkey, US, middle east, Yugoslavia use it (Tim said that most of the funding is from the US and they can disseminate false info and that it was started in Nazi Germany by [Joseph] Goebbels), Nick said that maybe so but organizations can change
-Nick said he never heard any reference to us in Interpol, and if there were any law enforcemtn agencies in the US actively pursuing investigation or warrents out for us he would have heard of us and he didn’t
-I asked if he had contacted Foreign Affairs about his neutrality, he said he to Minister [Fred] Wills and told him that Nick was neutral on the [John Victor] Stoen case and Wills agreed
-he reminded us of our appt. with the amer. Ambassador Monday at 3:30/ said it was just a chance to get acquainted, said the Ambassador was bright and hard-nosed
-re Benn being willing to use the CIA, he sand Benn would use anyone he could, that’s why US has contact with China etc. not because they are alligned
-Ben’s group (not necessarily him personally) once came to the Amer. Embassy and asked for CIA assistance to help overthrow the govt. of Guyana