The fact that the then Leader of the Opposition, now Leader of Government Business, Hon. McKeeva Bush, played no small part in the promotion and dissemination of the wholly false allegations of a corrupt relationship between the publisher of this newspaper and Deputy Commissioner of Police Anthony Ennis seems to be a highly inconvenient truth for Mr Bush.

As correctly pointed out by opposition members of the Legislative Assembly in a Finance Committee meeting last Friday, it was in fact Mr Bush who had also communicated to former Police Commissioner Stuart Kernohan the false allegations about an allegedly corrupt relationship between Deputy Commissioner Ennis and Cayman Net News publisher Desmond Seales, which had formed the basis of the subsequent Operation Tempura investigations.

Although Mr Bush may wish to deny any such involvement, it is an exercise in futility for him to contradict the plain evidence recited by the Chief Justice in his written judgments in the matter of the search warrant applications by the Operation Tempura team.

The judgments in question were published in their entirety by Cayman Net News in October of last year and what was said may therefore be verified by any reader who cares to do so.

In particular, on Thursday, October 23, 2008, in the second part of the series of transcripts of the Chief Justice’s judgments, the following passages may be found (the abbreviations in the original having been expanded here for clarity):

“Having claimed to have received these allegations from Mr Lyndon Martin, Deputy Commissioner of Police [DCP] Dixon brought them to the attention of the Commissioner of Police.

“The next day, 15th August 2007, DCP Dixon, reported, purportedly on Martin’s behalf, that Martin was willing to provide documentary proof of his allegations and a detailed statement detailing the information with respect to DCP Ennis. However, DCP Dixon reported that Martin was not willing to provide open testimony with respect to the evidence he would provide and that he wished to remain anonymous. This refusal to testify (even while being willing to provide the hard evidence) and wishing to remain anonymous; are factors which the Commissioner of Police in his statement, describes not surprisingly, as being important to his consideration of the matter. He states that he then asked DCP Dixon to arrange a meeting with Martin in order that he could make an assessment of his allegations.

“The Commissioner of Police states that before that meeting took place, he received a telephone call from Mr McKeeva Bush (the Member of the Legislative Assembly and Leader of the Opposition) who indicated that he wished to inform him of a ‘leak’ in the senior ranks of the RCIPS who was providing sensitive information to the media. The Commissioner of Police states that he arranged a meeting with Mr Bush in the public area of the Ritz Carlton Hotel that evening.

“At the meeting with Mr Bush, the Commissioner of Police states that Mr Bush informed him that one of his deputies, whom he did not name but described, was providing information to the Net News on a regular basis. When asked by the Commissioner of Police, Mr Bush confirmed that he has referring to DCP Ennis. Mr Bush also said that this information was ‘third-hand’ from an associate.”

It seems clear from the foregoing that Mr Kernohan had not yet been able to assess the reliability of the false allegations made by Mr Martin before he was contacted by Mr Bush, and subsequently met with him at the Ritz Carlton.

It must also be beyond doubt that the approach by Mr Bush to Mr Kenohan and the “information” provided by Mr Bush that one of Mr Kenohan’s deputies was providing information to Cayman Net News on a regular basis could only have lent far greater weight and credibility to the initial allegations by Lyndon Martin, which Mr Kernohan had up to that time no opportunity to evaluate.

Thus no doubt fortified by Mr Bush’s apparent endorsement and validation of the false allegations, Mr Kernohan and his colleagues embarked on the ill-fated “investigation”, including the unauthorised and clandestine entry into the offices of Cayman Net News.

For Mr Bush now to try to deny that he was an instrumental part of the events that led up to the hugely expensive Operations Tempura and Cealt, while at the same time pointing a finger at the Opposition, is hypocritical in the extreme.