[WikiLeaks] U.S. Embassy official in a 2004 diplomatic cable: Franklyn Wilson argued that the U.S. should support Perry Christie’s hope to become a regional leader since the Bahamian prime minister was America’s “Tony Blair” inside CARICOM

Cable: Wilson defended Christie to Americans

BY CANDIA DAMES
NG News Editor
thenassauguardian
candia@nasguard.com


Diplomatic cables reveal detailed discussions American diplomats had with prominent Bahamian businessman Franklyn Wilson who repeatedly defended the Pindling administration’s actions during the 1980s drug era, and also defended the Christie administration’s “record of inaction.”

“Mr. Wilson emotionally presented the case for Perry Christie, calling him the United States’ best friend inside CARICOM councils,” wrote a U.S. Embassy official in a 2004 cable.

The diplomat wrote that Wilson argued during a September 30, 2004 luncheon that the U.S. should support Christie’s hope to become a regional leader since the Bahamian prime minister was America’s “Tony Blair” inside CARICOM.

“Wilson again raised the prime minister’s belief that he was ignored and left exposed by the United States during events surrounding the resignation of Haitian ex-President Aristide and that he should have been consulted by senior [U.S. government] officials,” the diplomat wrote.

“Wilson claimed, however, that Christie bore no grudges at being left out of the loop by the United States and Canada.”

According to the cable, Wilson remained loyal to Christie, telling diplomats that Christie’s personality and manner made it possible for him to become friends with everyone, including President George W. Bush, thereby allowing him to exert a moderating and calming influence within CARICOM to counter the proclivities of that body’s more extreme members.

Wilson compared Christie to the late former prime minister Sir Lynden Pindling, saying Sir Lynden had quietly and effectively served as a moderating influence during the 1970s and thus served U.S. strategic interests, the cable said.

“What was true some 30 years ago, argued Wilson, was equally true today,” the embassy official said.

“The United States, continued Wilson, needed to ignore tactical deviations and remember that strategically Perry Christie was America’s best friend and supporter in the region.”

According to the cable, Wilson declared several times that the United States should support and enhance Christie’s stature within CARICOM in its own self-interest.

Wilson reportedly expressed the view that Christie believed that he had been in the forefront of the CARICOM effort to persuade the ex-Haitian president to peacefully resign his office.

“Given his leadership role in the effort, argued Wilson, the United States owed it to Christie to have received a call from senior [U.S. government] officials, or the White House, advising him ‘when the United States decided to change direction on Aristide’ and ‘remove him from power’.”

According to the cable, a U.S. Embassy official reminded Wilson that Christie had been briefed on the rapid spiral of breaking events leading up to Aristide demitting office and that CARICOM “was not an organization well-suited to handling crises.”

Noting that Prime Minister Christie was scheduled to speak at the approaching Miami Herald’s annual Americas Conference, the U.S. ambassador expressed the hope that Christie would take a positive position that reflected the deep, long-standing and overall positive relationship between the United States and the region, the cable said.

It noted that the theme of Christie’s remarks at the conference was ‘Friend or Foe? Can the Caribbean and the U.S. Repair Their Damaged Relations?’

The cable said Christie “feigned surprise” and dismay at the topic assigned to him when he had an opportunity to speak to a U.S. Embassy official before the trip.

The official expressed to Christie, according to the cable, the ambassador’s hope that he “would use his spotlight to focus on the overwhelmingly positive bilateral and mutually beneficial multilateral regional relationship and not engage in an unproductive negative analysis.”

SIR LYNDEN’S LEGACY

Referring again to Wilson, the embassy official noted that he has been closely identified with the PLP throughout his life and holds Sir Lynden “in a status close to sainthood.”

The official wrote that Wilson was a member of Christie’s “kitchen cabinet” and one of the PLP’s principal financiers and fundraisers.

“He is accustomed to serving as a transmission belt both to send, and to receive, messages intended for the prime minister,” the cable said.

The official wrote: “Wilson is very proud of his rise to meteoric wealth and, during the course of the meeting, repeatedly referred to his humble past, when, as the youngest of 11 children in a working class family, he had to sleep on the floor until his older sisters grew up and moved out of the house and a bed opened up for him.

“He is fanatically devoted to Pindling, who identified him, became his godfather, and opened the doors that allowed Wilson to be successful.”

In a 2003 cable, an embassy official described Wilson as a “bombastic speaker who frequently cuts others off in conversation.”

The official wrote that Wilson “spent much of the hour and half meeting offering a passionate defense of the record of Sir Lynden Pindling.”

“He insisted that allegations of narcotics corruption against Pindling were completely unfounded and claimed that the Commission of Inquiry bore him out on this point,” the cable said.

“He brushed aside questions about how Sir Lynden had amassed his obvious wealth during his years in office and the influence of notorious Colombian narcotics kingpin Carlos Lehder, and said that the stories about Pindling were the result of jealousy and ingratitude, a plot orchestrated by former U.S. Ambassador Carol Boyd Hallett and former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham who ‘wouldn’t have been anything without Pindling’.”

Wilson told the Americans, according to the cable, “no one has cooperated more” with the U.S. on drug interdiction than Pindling and said the seizure statistics bear him out on this assertion.

The diplomat wrote: “He expressed great scorn toward Hubert Ingraham for betraying Pindling then setting out to destroy his reputation after Ingraham became prime minister, which Wilson claimed destroyed Pindling’s health and led to his death.

“Wilson said that only when Pindling neared his death did Ingraham ‘repent’ and seek reconciliation with Pindling on the latter’s death bed.

“Wilson claimed that the impressive sendoff given to Pindling by Ingraham’s government when he died in 2000 was proof that Ingraham felt remorseful about what he had done to Pindling’s reputation.”

According to the cable, Wilson believed that the seeds of the PLP’s 2002 election victory were laid at Pindling’s funeral, as the state ceremony and effusive eulogies allowed the PLP to escape from its image of corruption.

In the cable, Wilson and Bishop Neil Ellis were described as “the two individuals outside of the Bahamian government considered to have the most influence on Prime Minister Perry Christie’s government.”

Jun 09, 2011

thenassauguardian