WIKILEAKS PRESS RELEASE Sun Jul 19 20:28:57 GMT 2009 "Big Trouble in Little Paradise: the Turks and Caicos Islands takeover" WikiLeaks has released a suppressed report laying at the center of UK plans to seize direct control of the Turks & Caicos Islands, a popular Caribbean tourist destination and tax haven. A British warship on patrol in the Caribbean sea, the HMS Iron Duke, is expected to support the takeover once the report is released.[1] Following corruption allegations last year made against the Islands' political elite, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) commissioned Sir Robin Auld to head up a Turks & Caicos Islands Commission of Inquiry. Come March this year, and the release of an interim report, the Commission found itself in court, with the release of the full findings injuncted. As a conclusion to that action, yesterday, the Commission briefly released on its website what it called its Redacted Final Report[2]. According to the Commission's accompanying press release, the- Governor's redaction results from the direction of the Hon Chief Justice Gordon Ward in the current litigation between Mario Hoffmann and Cem Kinay against the Governor and me (and an assurance given by the Hon Attorney General in proceedings brought by Jak Civre). Yet only hours later, the 266 page report was removed. WikiLeaks has obtained the full report-and restored the redacted text. Included in the redactions are the findings relating to ex-Premier Misick, Hall and Hanchell. Based on the report there does appear to be genuine grounds for the corruption allegations. Yet it is not clear that the Turks & Caicos Islands is an exceptional case. Many British protectorates have corrupt leadership, which means that the FCO can pick and choose its interventions at whim, something that corrupt but assertive leadership in British protectorates such as Bermuda must be noting with alarm. Whether the leaders of such former colonies choose to stop looting their countries or choose to placate the U.K. government in other ways remains to be seen, but it is clear which way the incentives lay. Source document: * Turks and Caicos Islands Commission of Inquiry into grand corruption, Final Report, unredacted, 18 Jul 2009: http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Turks_and_Caicos_Islands_Commission_of_Inquiry_int... References: 1. -^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6626641.ece 2. -^ http://www.tci-inquiry.org/ Online at: http://tinyurl.com/wlislands Enquiries: julian@ljsf.org +-------------------------------------------------- | Why you receive this mail and what to do with it: | | You are receiving this mail because you were invited to | the Wikileaks Press Release list run by the transparency group Sunshine Press. | | Releases ensure you are aware, before the rest of the world, | of significant geopolitical and other disclosures released | by Wikileaks, an international platform for the first release of | of classified, confidential or censored materials of political, | diplomatic, ethical or historical interest. | | We rely on you to distribute the content of this mail to your | community, industry, press and regulators, to defend us in your | country and to invite people of integrity and commitment via | via https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/wl-press | | Our materials range from secret Guantanamo documents to political | assassinations to confidential reports of children's hospital | corruption, and have spawned tens of thousands of press articles, | many reforms and changed electoral outcomes. | | Releases average one per week but can be higher or lower depending on | events. 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