ESTABLISHED 1965 www.caymancompass.com – 50 CENTS – WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 High of 90 Low of 80 Smooth with wave heights of less than 2 feet. EDITORIAL | PAGE 4 GLOBAL WARMING: ‘UNSETTLING’ THE ‘SETTLED SCIENCE’ WORLD & REGIONAL | PAGE 7 AT UN ASSEMBLY, TRUMP THREATENS ‘TOTAL DESTRUCTION’ OF NORTH KOREA Hurricane Maria devastates Dominica, aims at Puerto Rico ROSEAU, Dominica (AP) – Dominica’s leader sent out an emotional call for help as Cat- egory 5 Hurricane Maria smashed into the Caribbean island, causing “mind-boggling” devastation, but an ominous silence fol- lowed as the island lost all communica- tions on Tuesday and the hurricane took aim at Puerto Rico. The governor of the U.S. territory warned that Maria could hit “with a force and violence that we haven’t seen for several generations.” Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit sent a series of dramatic posts on his Facebook page as the storm blew over the tiny country late Monday – but then stopped suddenly as phone and internet connections with the country were cut. “The winds are merciless! We shall sur- vive by the grace of God,” Skerrit wrote be- fore communications went down. A few minutes later, he messaged he could hear the sound of galvanized steel roofing tearing off houses on the small rugged island. He said that even his own roof had blown away. In the last message before falling silent, he appealed for international aid: “We will need help, my friends, we will need help of all kinds.” The island’s broadcast service was also down on Tuesday and Akamai Technologies, a company that tracks the status of the In- ternet around the world, said most of Domi- nica’s internet service appeared to have been lost by midday. The Ross University School of Medicine in Dominica reported a widespread loss of communication on the island, and relatives of students posted messages on its Face- book page saying they had been unable to talk to their loved ones since late Monday evening as the storm approached. CAYMAN POLICE IN BVI BRACE FOR MARIA KEN SILVA ksilva@pinnaclemedialtd.com After Hurricane Irma devastated the British Virgin Islands less than two weeks ago, 16 Cayman Islands police officers de- ployed there were instrumental in helping restore law and order – efforts that included rounding up dozens of escaped prisoners. As soon as Hurricane Maria passes in the coming days, those officers will continue their work in the BVI, Matthew Forbes, the head of the Cayman Islands Governor’s Of- fice, who traveled to BVI with the RCIPS, said in a press release Tuesday. PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 » RCIPS officers take part in high-visibility patrols in BVI. - PHOTO: RCIPS PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 » Barkers ‘park rangers’ get government contract, form landscaping company BRENT FULLER bfuller@pinnaclemedialtd.com A group of people hired to help clean up West Bay’s Barkers area during 2011-2013 as government-sponsored “park rangers” later formed a private landscaping company, which re- ceived a public sector contract in mid-2015 that did not include the Barkers area. Now, according to members of the former rangers, no one is maintaining Barkers. Government paid 10 people approximately $560,000 be- tween April 2011 and February 2013 for grounds and mainte- nance services in Barkers – a re- mote section of beachfront and bushland that at one time was proposed to be designated as a national park. The payments for that pro- gram, which came from the con- troversial Nation Building Fund of the former United Democratic Party government, ended in 2013. According to the govern- ment’s Internal Audit Service, which reviewed the 2015 land- scaping contract, those workers were moved to employment in the Recreation, Parks and Cem- eteries Unit where they were paid lower rates. However, that situation was The entrance to Barkers park in West Bay. - PHOTO: BRENT FULLER PLEASE TURN TO PAGE 6 »2 LOCAL&REGIONAL WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS I Daily Matinees Every Day $8.00 Seniors, Mon-Fri Before 6pm Cayman Cinema@cbcinema6cbcinema6 *Additional charges will apply per 3D ticket requested. 640-FILM (640-3456) SATURDAY NIGHT: For your viewing pleasure, minors under the age of 18 will not be admitted to any film starting after 6pm, unless accompanied by their parent. - WEDNESDAY - IT (R) 12:30 VIP I 3:50 | 6:30 VIP | 7:00 | 9:40 VIP THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD (R) 1:00 I 3:45 I 7:05 I 10:00 GIRLS TRIP (R) 4:00 I 9:55 DARK TOWER (PG13) 1:30 THE NUT JOB 2 3D (PG) 12:30 2D | 2:50 I 5:10 2D I 7:30 2D | 9:50 AMERICAN ASSASSIN (R) 12:55 I 3:40 VIP I 7:10 I 10:05 MOTHER! (R) 1:05 I 3:55 I 6:55 I 10:00 7.1 magnitude quake kills 44, collapses buildings in Mexico New panel seeks to improve HSA operations Man admits carrying ganja to prison SOUTH SOUND BOARDWALK CONSTRUCTION BEGINS CUSTOMS OFFICERS ARREST THREE IN DRUG BUST A new Patient and Family Advisory Committee of the Health Services Au- thority met for the first time this month in an effort to improve patient care at health facilities. Members will help in- form the agency about pa- tient experiences and advise on possible areas of improve- ment. They will also serve as a community connection to promote Health Services Au- thority initiatives, said HSA Chief Executive Officer Liz- zette Yearwood. “Your role [on the com- mittee] is to help our orga- nization see things through the patient’s eyes, giving us valuable input and perspec- tive to deliver quality health- care to our patients. The pur- pose of the group is to give patients and families a voice in their healthcare,” Ms. Yearwood said. “As healthcare providers, we have the best of inten- tions and we do a really good job. But there is room for im- provement, and we want to hear directly from patients and families to learn how we can provide the most ex- traordinary patient experi- ence every time.” Advisory council members include families and patients who have been hospitalized at the Cayman Islands Hos- pital or who have used other HSA facilities, such as the district health centers, within the last three years. Other representatives will come from service pro- viders and stakeholders such as CINICO, the Health In- surance Association of the Cayman Islands and the Sea- farers Association. To join the committee, ad- visers must complete an ori- entation on roles and re- sponsibilities, and patient confidentiality. The council meets monthly and members serve for two years. Defendant needed money for sick child, attorney says CAROL WINKER cwinker@pinnaclemedialtd.com Sean Luke Dunbar, 23, was remanded in custody on Tuesday after pleading guilty to possession of 3.9 pounds of ganja at Northward prison on Feb. 16. Defense attorney Jonathon Hughes said Dunbar regretted his action but had let himself get talked into it be- cause his child was very ill at the time and he was desperate for money. Mr. Hughes asked that the defen- dant be allowed to remain on bail pending the preparation of a social inquiry report. Magistrate Valdis Foldats asked how the attorney proposed to mitigate for the offense of taking that amount of ganja into the prison. He referred to the sentence of 16 months he had handed down the previous day for about 3 ounces of ganja at the prison. The magistrate said pressure to commit the offense was not mitigation. Further, Dunbar was on a suspended sentence for possession of ganja with intent to supply, which had been im- posed in January. “Six weeks later, he is moving 3.9 pounds into prison,” the magistrate remarked. There was no discussion as to how the ganja was to be supplied or how it was discovered. “Your lawyer has tried valiantly to keep you on bail, but the law does not support that,” the magistrate told Dunbar. He remanded him in custody, with sentencing set for Oct. 30. Construction of a boardwalk along the water side on South Sound Road begins this week. Temporary road align- ment changes are being im- plemented from the South Sound boat ramp to the entrance of Bel Air Road, near the “Flip Flop Tree,” the National Roads Au- thority advises. Customs officers arrested two people for drug offenses at Owen Roberts Inter- national Airport on Friday, and later ar- rested another man in West Bay. The two departing passengers bound for Cayman Brac, a man and a woman, were detained on suspicion of possession of cocaine and ganja with intent to supply. In a follow-up operation, Customs of- ficers searched a residence in West Bay and arrested a man on suspicion of pos- session of ganja following the recovery of ganja, weighing scales and other utensils from the residence. All three suspects are Caymanian. Customs said the two suspects ar- rested at the airport remained in custody Monday while the male who was ar- rested at his residence in West Bay was granted bail. MEXICO CITY (AP) – A mag- nitude 7.1 earthquake rocked central Mexico on Tuesday, killing at least 44 people as buildings collapsed in plumes of dust and thousands fled into the streets in panic. The quake came less than two weeks after another quake left 90 dead in the coun- try’s south, and it occurred as Mexicans commemorated the anniversary of a 1985 quake that killed thousands. Mexican media broadcast images of multiple downed buildings in densely popu- lated parts of Mexico City and nearby Cuernavaca. A column of smoke rose from a structure in one central neighborhood in the capital. Morelos Gov. Graco Ramirez reported on Twitter that at least 42 people had died in his state south of Mexico City. Gov. Alfredo del Mazo told the Televisa news network that two people died in the State of Mexico, which also borders the capital: a quarry worker who was killed when the quake unleashed a rock- slide and another person who was hit by a falling lamppost. Rescue workers rushed to the site of damaged or col- lapsed buildings in the cap- ital, and reporters saw on- lookers cheer as a woman was pulled from the rubble. Rescuers immediately called for silence so that they could listen for others who might be trapped. The quake caused build- ings to sway sickeningly in Mexico City and sent panicked office workers streaming into the streets, but the full extent of the damage was not yet clear. The U.S. Geological Survey calculated its magnitude at 7.1 and said it was centered near the Puebla state town of Raboso, about 76 miles southeast of Mexico City. Puebla Gov. Tony Gali tweeted that there had been damaged buildings in the city of Cholula including col- lapsed church steeples. In Mexico City, thousands of people fled office build- ings and hugged to calm each other along the central Reforma Avenue as alarms blared, and traffic stopped around the Angel of Indepen- dence monument. Earlier in the day work- places across the city held readiness drills on the anni- versary of the 1985 quake, a magnitude 8.0 shake, which killed thousands of people and devastated large parts of Mexico City. In the Roma neighbor- hood, which was hit hard by the 1985 quake, piles of stucco and brick fallen from building facades littered the streets. At least one large parking structure collapsed. Two men calmed a woman seated on a stool in the street, blood trickling form a small wound on her knee. At a nearby market, a worker in a hardhat walked around the outside warning people not to smoke as a smell of gas filled the air. Market stall vendor Edith Lopez, 25, said she was in a taxi a few blocks away when the quake struck. She said she saw glass bursting out of the windows of some buildings. She was anxiously trying to locate her children, whom she had left in the care of her disabled mother. Pictures fell from office building walls, objects were shaken off of flat surfaces and computer monitors top- pled over. Some people dove for cover under desks. Local media broadcast video of whitecap waves churning the city’s normally placid canals of Xochimilco. Mexico City’s interna- tional airport suspended op- erations and was checking facilities for any damage. Dramatic video showed one mid-rise building collapsing into a cloud of dust amid cries from onlookers. It was not clear whether anyone was inside. A man enters a building damaged by the powerful earthquake in Mexico City on Tuesday. - PHOTO: AP3 LOCAL NEWS CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 Sixteen months for ganja in child’s diaper Court asked to consider welfare of child CAROL WINKER cwinker@pinnaclemedialtd.com A woman who admitted carrying ganja to Northward Prison in her child’s diaper was sentenced on Monday to 16 months’ imprisonment. With half-credit for time on curfew and electronic mon- itor, defendant Daniella Tib- betts is to serve 13 and a half months, Magistrate Valdis Foldats told her. Tibbetts pleaded guilty to possessing 85.4 grams of the illegal vegetable matter (about three ounces) with in- tent to supply it to a serving prisoner in August, 2016. The magistrate cited a U.K. case in which a young female received an immediate sentence of one year for car- rying four wraps of ganja to her partner who was in prison. Local cases based on this decision have been en- dorsed by the Grand Court, Magistrate Foldats noted. The amount Tibbetts car- ried was not a few wraps that would be used up in a day or two, he pointed out, so both the quantity and the location were aggravating features. Defense attorney John Furniss had said that Tib- betts was pressured into carrying the ganja by her partner, who is serving a lengthy sentence. In mitiga- tion, Mr. Furniss had asked the court to consider the wel- fare of the child in deciding what sentence to impose. The magistrate said the scheme to get the ganja in- side prison was planned and coordinated. Tibbetts had fol- lowed instructions. She met with a drug dealer who sup- plied the ganja, wrapped a certain way. “This was not an impul- sive act, even if the defen- dant did not plan it. She had plenty of time to reflect on her actions. The ganja was then placed in her child’s diaper. I stop the narrative here, as this leads to the third aggravating factor. At this point, any right-minded mother would say ‘Enough is enough, this is madness.’ But the defendant did not stop.” Using the child as an ob- ject or a conduit for delivering the drug was “a shocking and reprehensible abuse of her parental responsibilities,” the magistrate declared. According to the social inquiry report and personal references, Tibbetts was a responsible and productive person, quiet and respectful, someone who assisted her family and a special-needs relative. People who knew her questioned her judg- ment regarding male part- ners, he said. Magistrate Foldats dis- played, but did not read, a letter he had received from Tibbetts that morning; he said he accepted it as genuine remorse. He also expressed the hope that she would get counseling in prison. As to the child, the mag- istrate said prison sentences almost by definition interfere with family life. The needs of a family have to be con- sidered along with the needs of society for deterrent sen- tences. There cannot be dis- parate sentences based on the circumstances of the de- fendant, he indicated. “The defendant’s actions, which are properly charac- terized as an exploitation and corruption of her role as a mother, make it difficult to afford any weight to the sep- aration of mother from child as mitigation. But that ap- proach would be reactionary – punishing the child for the mother’s behavior. The re- ality is stark – this innocent child will now have both mother and father in prison. It is the child I must focus on here,” he said. Mr. Furniss previously ad- vised that family members were taking care of the child. The magistrate’s starting point for sentencing was three years. Mitigating fac- tors took that down to two years – the shortest term in proportion to the gravity of the offense, he said. He then subtracted one-third for the guilty plea, resulting in a term of 16 months. For supplying drugs to a serving prisoner, a lengthy sentence must be handed down, he said. Tibbetts had spent 18 weeks on curfew and electronic monitor, so the magistrate gave her two and a half months credit, about 50 percent. The result is that Tibbetts still has 13 and a half months to serve. The magistrate empha- sized the seriousness of sup- plying drugs to someone in prison, describing the evil they do behind bars as worse than the evil they cause in open society. Drugs are like currency, he pointed out, and can be used to ex- tort or bully; they can lead to injury of other inmates or even staff. The magistrate emphasized the seriousness of supplying drugs to someone in prison, describing the evil they do behind bars as worse than the evil they cause in open society. The defendant was caught trying to sneak 85.4 grams of ganja to her child’s father in Northward Prison. – PHOTO: TANEOS RAMSAYThe islands’ most-trusted news source 4 – EDITORIAL – Opinion&Letters The Cayman Compass welcomes comments, opinions and viewpoints from readers. Letters to the editor can be emailed to editor@pinnaclemedialtd.com, submitted via www.caymancompass.com, sent by post or hand-delivered to the Compass office. Call it an “inconvenient oops.” As it turns out, the sky is not falling, after all — at least not as quickly as global warming alarmists assured us it would. As The Times of London recently reported, for the first 15 years of the 21st century, global temperatures did not rise as rapidly as climate scientists had predicted. The culprits: computer models, which overstated the impact of carbon emissions, on the “hot side,” compared to actual weather data. The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, is a welcome (if rare) “course correction” in the specula- tive world of climate change, where activists and politi- cians weaponize evolving scientific observations in order to push a specific agenda. (“Carbon bad.”) The process of scientific inquiry is not simple, espe- cially when it comes to an incredibly complex subject such as the world’s future climate. Zeal undaunted, environmentalists are already spinning the findings to conclude it still is possible for governments to reach the arbitrary goal, set out in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, of limiting global warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages. Back then, Michael Grubb, professor of international energy and climate change at University College London, said achieving that goal would require cutting carbon emissions so rapidly and drastically as to make the goal “incompatible with democracy.” This week, he told The Times he was wrong, saying: “When the facts change, I change my mind, as [John Maynard] Keynes said.” We don’t often find ourselves agreeing with preemi- nent demand-side economist Mr. Keynes, but his quo- tation serves to remind us that the difference between “facts” and “beliefs” is the difference between “science” and “religion.” Although scientists generally agree that our climate is changing, historical data and myriad contributing factors make it difficult to determine exactly how much of that change is affected by human activity, or to predict how (or if) it will affect human populations. Try telling the above to an ardent group of climate change theory adherents, and chances are you’ll face a rising sea of protest signs and torches. (Thankfully, unlit — we mustn’t forget about minimizing carbon emissions.) As we regularly see with hurricane models, even the most sophisticated scientific predictions have their limits — with potential margins of error spiking into “Who knows?” territory over a matter of days … much less years or decades or centuries. Nevertheless, one of the most popular nonscientific pastimes on the internet right now is for social media users to state as fact that there is a direct link between climate change and the devastation or formation of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and now Maria. (“It’s global warming, stupid!”) That of course does not mean that science is “junk” — but it does call for skepticism whenever an interested group tries to parlay a sympathetic theory into public policy. Unfortunately, environmentalists, some politicians and other climate alarmists have turned “skeptic” into a dirty word, comparing anyone who would consume (limited) climate predictions with a grain of salt to “flat- earthers” who deny the globularity of the globe. Attempts to demonize dissenters and quash debate are not without consequence. The solutions proffered by the rectors of the climate change congregation oftentimes border on the extreme (“incompatible with democracy”) and have severe practical and economic consequences. Here’s the deal: Almost everyone wants to protect the environment — it’s our home. However, considerations of conservation and climate change cannot be the corner- stone of public policy or personal behavior. In the Cayman Islands (population 65,000), we would be far wiser to devote our energies to hurricane prepara- tion than to theoretical hurricane mitigation. Compared to the planet’s population centers such as the United States, China, India, etc., the contributions to the world’s carbon output by Cayman is for all practical purposes, zero. And that’s exactly how much thought our officials should give it when formulating plans for the country. Our territory may play an outsize role in global finance, but we don’t play any role in global warming. Global warming: ‘Unsettling’ the ‘settled science’ WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS Improved preparation and response to extreme events JORGE FAMILIAR Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have lived through trying days. First it was Irma, a Category 5 hur- ricane, which wreaked havoc in the Caribbean. Then came hurricane Katia, which landed over the weekend in the coast of Veracruz, Mexico, while Jose hovered as the third hur- ricane to form over the At- lantic in a week. And if that was not enough, an 8.2-mag- nitude earthquake struck Mexico, leaving over 90 people dead and hundreds of vic- tims, especially in the poorest states of the south, close to the epicenter. While we continue to mourn the dead, and to as- sess losses and damages, it is not too early to note how far our region has come in terms of preparation and recovery from natural disasters. Let me start with the earthquake in Mexico, which brought back powerful mem- ories for those us who lived through its 1985 quake. That catastrophic 8.0-magnitude event left thousands of people dead in Mexico City, around 30,000 injured, 250,000 people homeless, and 900,000 with damaged homes. By Thursday, the death toll of last week’s quake stood at nearly 100. That is already too many, but clearly it is not a repetition of 1985. The key dif- ferences between both earth- quakes is that the one last week was more than twice as deep and the epicenter was farther from the capital of the country, one of the most popu- lated cities in the world. Also, markedly different were the preparation and the response. Thirty years ago, few knew how to act, and had little ad- vanced warning of what was coming. This time, seismic alarms, heard through the 8,200 megaphones deployed throughout the capital, went off more than 60 seconds be- fore the tremors started. As they had been instructed in many earthquake drills, mil- lions of Mexicans went to the safest point inside or out- side their homes. There is no question that more than 30 years of preparation have made a difference. Following the 1985 earth- quake, Mexican authorities adopted earthquake-resistant building codes. The country rebuilt in a resilient way, to avoid catastrophic results in a future earthquake. In many ways, the 1985 disaster was a turning point for the country. It marked the emergence of organized civil society to face a formidable challenge. Thou- sands of students and volun- teers dug out victims from the wreckage, organized relief efforts, and helped the home- less. In addition, the country also took measures to pre- pare people for catastrophic events. In a nutshell, Mexico adopted a brand new, for- ward-looking urban develop- ment plan to protect people from future catastrophes. Fortunately, Mexico is not alone. In the Carib- bean, prone to deadly storms and hurricanes, great prog- ress has been made to pre- pare and respond to natural threats. Over the last decade, most countries have enacted laws and implemented pol- icies to improve prepara- tion and coordination across sectors. They have estab- lished new agencies to better manage emergency response and recovery. Countries such as Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which were fortunately mostly spared from Irma and Jose, drew lessons from past experiences and took proac- tive action. Hundreds of resi- dents in the most vulnerable areas were evacuated, alert broadcast systems were acti- vated, and shelters and sup- plies were put in place. But despite these efforts, vulnerability remains. Since 1980, eight countries in the Caribbean have experienced a natural disaster with an economic impact that ex- ceeded 50 percent of their an- nual Gross Domestic Product. In response, countries now also can count on new instruments to help them better prepare and recover. All Eastern Caribbean coun- tries, as well as Jamaica and Haiti, for instance, are mem- bers of an insurance mecha- nism, which takes advantage of risk pooling to provide fi- nancing to respond quickly to disasters. Thus, less than 15 days after Irma swept through the region, Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Turks and Caicos Islands, Haiti and The Bahamas will be re- ceiving payouts amounting to US$29.6 million. Some of these new instru- ments not only provide emer- gency lending but do so to countries that adopt specific actions to strengthen their disaster risk management. Just as in 1985, when the World Bank supported Mexico to recover from the catastrophic earthquake though a reconstruction loan, today we stand ready to as- sist countries in assessing damage and losses, and ac- cessing emergency financing after natural disasters. We are also helping them better insure against future cata- strophic events and be better prepared when they happen. Jorge Familiar is the World Bank’s Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean. Editor’s note: Shortly after this column was received Tuesday, central Mexico was struck by another major earthquake. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY: Caymanian Compass Limited (a subsidiary of Pinnacle Media Ltd) Compass Centre Shedden Road, George Town SEND US YOUR VIEWS OR NEWS: P.O. Box 1365 Grand Cayman KY1-1108, Cayman Islands Telephone: (345) 815-0095 Email: newsdesk@pinnaclemedialtd.com ADVERTISE WITH US: Telephone: (345) 949-5111 Email: sales@pinnaclemedialtd.com Website: www.caymancompass.com PUBLISHERS DAVID R. LEGGE AND VICKI L. LEGGE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DAVID R. LEGGE EXECUTIVE EDITOR PATRICK BRENDEL A MEMBER OF THE INTER-AMERICAN PRESS ASSOCIATION “Give light and the people will find their own way”5 LOCAL NEWS CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 ✔ We’ll pay your switching costs up to USD$5000 ✔ Enjoy flexible payment terms ✔ Green energy loan also available ✔ Get a pre-approved credit card or switch your existing credit card too ✔ Property Insurance† available–one stop shop! *Conditions and normal lending criteria apply. †The CIBC FirstCaribbean Insurance Program (“Program”) is distributed by the CIBC FirstCaribbean Insurance Agent. The Program is underwritten and administered by Massy United Insurance Ltd, the insurer. The CIBC logo and “Banking that fits your life.®” are registered trademarks of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, used by FirstCaribbean International Bank under license. Imagine the possibilities Imagine what you could do with more money in your pocket! Switch your mortgage to CIBC FirstCaribbean and we’ll pay your switching cost.* Talk to one of our Sales Specialists today or email CX48CaymanRetailBanking@cibcfcib.com CLICK cibcfcib.com CALL 949-7300 POST cibcfcib TWEET cibc_fcib Police service holds open recruitment Nearly four dozen Cayman Islands residents who wanted to learn what it was like to work as a police officer showed up Saturday at the Royal Cayman Islands Police training unit for an open recruitment drive. In 2016, only a few partici- pants turned out for the event. On Saturday, officers from the marine unit, neighborhood po- licing, scenes of crime, finan- cial crimes and family support unit were there to talk to resi- dents about career options. The RCIPS “open day” was one of two events the police service is hosting to boost recruitment on island. The other will be on Saturday, Sept. 23, in Cayman Brac. Recruit classes in 2015 and this year have brought in a total of 13 new officers, far fewer than the number RCIPS sought. Police Constable Joel Ebanks, who works in the RCIPS K-9 Unit and partici- pated in the open house with his K-9 partner, Shadow, said, “I think that [people] often don’t realize the range of op- tions that exist in the service, and the specialized training available to you as a po- lice officer. You can become highly skilled in a relatively short span of time.” The recruitment campaign ends Oct. 11. Police Commissioner Derek Byrne has put signifi- cant focus on recruiting more Caymanians into the service. Man sentenced to 10 years for unlicensed firearm Gun was not in working order CAROL WINKER cwinker@pinnaclemedialtd.com Michael Fernandes Jef- ferson, 24, was sentenced on Monday to 10 years’ impris- onment for possession of an unlicensed firearm – a gun and ammunition – which the jury was told was not in working order. The sentence was the mandatory minimum after a not guilty plea; Justice Charles Quin found no ex- ceptional circumstance that might lower the term of im- prisonment imposed. The jury found Jefferson guilty of having a .38 Bryco pistol and two rounds of am- munition at his Newlands residence on June 11, 2015, when officers with a search warrant recovered it. In passing sentence, Jus- tice Quin noted his instruc- tions to jurors, who tried the case in July. The question was whether the item was a le- thal-barrel weapon. He asked the jury whether it could so easily be adapted as to be ca- pable of discharging a mis- sile. It was up to the jury to decide if it was a firearm, he said, and the verdict returned had been unanimous. There was evidence during the trial that the firing pin had been deliberately cut so that the gun could not op- erate, but it would be easy to fix or replace. Defense attorney Laurence Aiolfi argued that a member of the public might find in- formation on the internet about how to put the gun in working condition, and then get a new firing pin, but that process would require re- search, effort and time to ac- quire the new part. The gun was not some- thing that could be imme- diately repaired, he pointed out, and there was no evi- dence that Jefferson had the knowledge or the tools or had made any inquiries. Without the knowledge or the tools, the gun was useless, he submitted. Further, there was no ev- idence that Jefferson had any intent to injure anyone and no evidence he was in- volved in any illegal activity. He had good personal refer- ences and no previous con- victions for firearms. Senior Crown counsel Nicole Petit said the fact that the gun was not used by Jefferson in the commission of an of- fense was not a special cir- cumstance. “We say mere possession is prohibited,” she told the court. Further, she argued, strong personal mitigation on its own was unlikely to be an exceptional circumstance. Otherwise, those who wanted to hide weapons would choose people “who might excite the sympathies of the court,” Ms. Petit suggested. Justice Quin said he had considered all the fac- tors raised by Mr. Aiolfi, but none was an exceptional cir- cumstance. Being a good provider for one’s family is not an exceptional circum- stance, he noted. It was well known what a scourge guns are to any society, he pointed out, and people who contra- vene the law must expect that a sentence will impact their family. Protection of the public demanded nothing less than the minimum sentence, he concluded, and, regrettably, he could do nothing but apply the law. “I don’t have any choice in the matter,” he said in handing down 10 years. Dozens of local residents showed up to learn about the RCIPS during Saturday’s open recruitment drive. - PHOTO: RCIPSThe islands’ most-trusted news source 6 WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS Officials on the neigh- boring French island of Gua- deloupe reported at least one death: a person hit by a falling tree. They said two other people were reported missing after their boat sank off La Desirade island, just east of Guadeloupe. About 40 percent of the island – 80,000 homes – were without power and flooding was reported in sev- eral communities. Next in the storm’s path was St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which was largely spared the wide- spread damage caused by Hurricane Irma on the chain’s St. Thomas and St. John is- lands just two weeks ago. Authorities in the U.S. ter- ritory of Puerto Rico, which looked likely to take a di- rect hit, warned that people in wooden or flimsy homes should find safe shelter be- fore the storm’s expected ar- rival on Wednesday. “You have to evacuate. Otherwise, you’re going to die,” said Hector Pesquera, the island’s public safety commissioner. “I don’t know how to make this any clearer.” Gov. Ricardo Rossello warned that the storm could knock out power for days across the island. “This is going to impact all of Puerto Rico with a force and violence that we haven’t seen for several generations,” he said. “We’re going to lose a lot of infrastructure in Puerto Rico. We’re going to have to rebuild.” In the capital of San Juan, streets and beaches that were normally bustling with people were empty Tuesday afternoon, with only the oc- casional sound of a hammer pounding nails into plywood sheets interrupting the si- lence. Shelves were bare after Puerto Ricans filled shop- ping carts with the limited amount of water, batteries, baby formula, milk and other items they could find. Iris Tosado, a 64-year-old widowed housewife, scanned the nearly empty shelves be- fore heading back home. She and her disabled son planned to spend the storm with relatives because their home is made of wood, and she prayed that it would not be destroyed. “God, it’s the only thing I have,’” she said. “This is not looking good.” Maria had maximum sus- tained winds of 160 mph late Monday when it slammed into Dominica. The U.S. National Hurri- cane Center said Maria weak- ened briefly before recov- ering sustained winds of 160 mph. Its eye was about 110 miles southeast of St. Croix Monday afternoon and was moving west-northwest over the Caribbean at 10 mph. Forecasters warned Maria would remain a Cat- egory 4 or 5 storm until it moves over the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The storm’s hurricane- force winds extended out about 35 miles and tropical storm-force winds out as far as 125 miles. Forecasters said the storm surge could raise water levels by 6 to 9 feet near the storm’s center. The storm was predicted to bring 10 to 15 inches of rain across the islands, with more in isolated areas. To the north, Hurricane Jose stirred up dangerous surf and rip currents along the U.S. East Coast, though forecasters said the storm was unlikely to make land- fall. Big waves caused by Jose swept five people off a coastal jetty in Rhode Island and they were hospitalized after being rescued. A tropical storm warning was posted for coastal areas in Rhode Island and Massa- chusetts, and tropical storm watches were up for parts of New York’s Long Island and Connecticut. Jose’s center was about 255 miles east-northeast of Cape Hattaras, North Caro- lina, on Tuesday afternoon and moving north at 7 mph. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph. only temporary, and Public Works Director Max Jones told auditors that the long- term plan was to “support the employees in becoming established as a private sector entity.” This occurred with the es- tablishment of a company called Tropical Landscaping. “In order to achieve that aim, the Cayman Islands gov- ernment agreed to guarantee Tropical Landscaping work for a fixed period at the same cost as was paid while the workers were employed by [the government],” auditors reported. The government stated that two payments to- taling about $130,000 were made in 2014 and 2015. After that the landscaping services were bid competitively. Tropical Landscaping won the competitive bid process in July 2015 and has main- tained the contract since. Internal auditors were concerned over a lack of ten- dering for the government landscaping work initially, which “makes it difficult to ascertain if value for money was received for goods and services procured by the Public Works Department.” Failure to bid for such projects could result in ex- cess spending and “missed savings,” auditors said. Mr. Jones responded to the audit’s findings, stating that the Tropical Land- scaping Ltd. contract “was a very successful endeavor.” “[It] shows enormous value for money when com- pared with the starting point of the Cayman Islands gov- ernment directly paying the park rangers,” Mr. Jones said. “It is also one of the few sit- uations where [the govern- ment] has successfully priva- tized employees who were previously effectively on the [public payroll].” That method of outsourcing public sector employees was recommended in a 2014 consultant’s report by the Ernst & Young ac- counting firm. It appears the landscaping contract is the only example, thus far, of that type of outsourcing. Miguel Smith, one of the former park rangers who founded Tropical Land- scaping, said the company is still struggling along with five employees, all former rangers, but about half of the public areas it was main- taining, including Barkers, were “taken away” from the company and given back to the Parks and Ceme- teries Unit to maintain. He said that happened about 18 months ago. Mr. Smith said, from his perspective, Barkers looks like a mess now. “I don’t think anybody is doing any- thing out there,” he said. Not all of the original 10 park rangers ended up working for the new company. Some, like Sarah Orrett of West Bay, left to pursue other endeavors, including seeking public office in the May gen- eral election. Ms. Orrett said much of the work done by the park rangers crew during 2011-12 has not been kept up and that many of the Barkers beaches that were cleared have become overgrown. “It’s a shame,” Ms. Or- rett said. “Most of us in the rangers had a close family connection to that land.” “The RCIPS officers are continuing to do a fantastic job in BVI and are a credit to Cayman,” he added. Police Commissioner Derek Byrne said the offi- cers are in a secure location with U.K. officers and Ma- rines. Freeman Rogers, the editor of the BVI Beacon, said the Marines are sta- tioned at the territory’s main airport. Mr. Byrne commended the deployed officers for their dedication. “We are proud of the sense of duty displayed by the officers, all of whom wanted to stay in the BVI throughout Hurricane Maria in order to be on hand when needed most, right after the storm,” he said, “and we also want to thank their families for their support of this mis- sion, and assure them that the safety of the of- ficers is always foremost in our minds.” Meanwhile, residents in the BVI, the U.S. Virgin Is- lands and Puerto Rico are bracing for Maria, which is forecast to hit the ter- ritories Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. While Maria was not on track to directly hit the BVI or USVI, it was ex- pected to bring to the al- ready devastated territories 6 to 12 inches of rain, with a possibility of 20 inches in some areas. With most of the veg- etation in those territo- ries stripped away, the rain could cause life-threat- ening flash floods and mas- sive mudslides, warned the BVI Department of Disaster Management. On Tuesday morning, BVI residents were scrambling to repair the homes on the island that were not com- pletely destroyed by Irma. “A lot of houses lost their roofs,” Mr. Rogers told the Compass. “It’s worrying be- cause people are putting up tarps, and now a lot of places are fitting five to 10 people to a room.” Pictures were posted on BVI news sites and Face- book pages of soldiers from the U.K. helping to board buildings in the hours be- fore the hurricane was due to arrive. Some 90 miles west of the BVI, Puerto Rico is on track to be directly hit by Maria. Authorities there warned that people in wooden or flimsy homes should find safe shelter be- fore the storm’s expected ar- rival there on Wednesday. “You have to evacuate. Otherwise, you’re going to die,” said Hector Pesquera, the island’s public safety commissioner. “I don’t know how to make this any clearer.” San Juan resident Ros- iris Cuadrado spoke to the Compass Tuesday morning, describing a tense situation as the territory prepares for the worst. Ms. Cuadrado said she spoke to her neighbor that morning who told her that he saw a man punch a woman at a nearby store in a tussle over the few re- maining groceries. As supplies dwindle, “things are getting feisty,” she said. Most residents in San Juan should be safe if they stay indoors, according to Ms. Cuadrado, since the tall buildings there should be able to shelter residents from the 160 mph winds. Nevertheless, Maria is expected to cause an is- landwide power outage that could last for weeks, if not months, she said. If that is the case, she said, she would have to move to the U.S. mainland. Hurricane Maria devastates Dominica, aims at Puerto Rico CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 People check out the shore of Sainte-Anne on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe early Tuesday. - PHOTO: AP Cayman police in BVI brace for Maria Residents in the British Virgin Islands bring back supplies to their homes in preparation for Hurricane Irma. – PHOTO: BVI BEACON CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Barkers ‘park rangers’ get government contract, form landscaping company CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 A woman walks along Barkers beach in West Bay. Former park rangers said the cleared beach areas have become overgrown again. - PHOTO: BRENT FULLERThe islands’ most-trusted news source 7 CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 2018 National Heroes Day Awards PIONEERS IN SPORTS These awards will honour those who have signicantly contributed to Sports in the Cayman Islands. The 2018 National Heroes Day Committee has dened sports as “all forms of competitive organized activities or games, either physical or mental, conducted through individual or group participation, whether amateur or professional. Sport is usually governed by a set of rules or customs which serve to ensure fair competition and allow consistent adjudication of the winner.” Nomination forms are available online at www.ministryofhealth.gov.ky. Completed forms must be submitted by 30 SEPTEMBER 2017 Join us on 22 January 2018, in celebrating our Sports Pioneers. Email: NHD@GOV.KY for more information NOMINATIONS ARE NOW OPEN! 2018 Russian navy conducts drills The Russian military says its warships have test-fired cruise missiles in an exercise that comes along with weeklong war games held by Russia and Belarus. As part of the drills, crews launched the Bastion anti-ship missiles. At UN Assembly, Trump threatens ‘total destruction’ of North Korea UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Pres- ident Donald Trump, in a combative debut speech to the U.N. General Assembly, threatened the “total destruc- tion” of North Korea if the nation’s “Rocket man” leader does not abandon his drive toward nuclear weapons. Trump, who has ramped up his rhetoric throughout the escalating crisis with North Korea, told the mur- muring crowd of world leaders on Tuesday that “it is far past time for the nations of the world to confront” Kim Jong Un and said that Kim’s “reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons” poses a threat to “the entire world with an un- thinkable loss of human life.” “Rocket man is on a sui- cide mission for himself and his regime,” said Trump, using a belittling nickname for the North Korean leader. He said of the U.S.: “If it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to to- tally destroy North Korea.” In dark language remi- niscent of his “American car- nage” inaugural address, Trump touched upon hot spots around the globe, de- claring, “The scourge of our planet is a group of rogue re- gimes.” Elected on the nation- alist slogan “America First,” Trump argued that individual nations should act in their own self-interest, yet rally together when faced with a common threat. He urged nations to join to stop Iran’s nuclear program – he declared the deal to re- strain it an “embarrassment” for the United States – and defeat “loser terrorists” who have struck violence across the globe. He denounced “radical Islamic terrorism,” the inflammatory label he has recently shied away from. He denounced the Syrian government and warned that some violence-plagued por- tions of the world “are going to hell.” He made little men- tion of Russia. North Korea drew most of Trump’s attention and anger. His lashing was a vigorous restatement of what’s been said by U.S. leaders before, but was likely to hit home harder for being intensely de- livered in diplomatic prime time at the U.N. General As- sembly. After a litany of ac- cusations – the starvation of millions, the abduction of a Japanese girl – he questioned the legitimacy of the commu- nist government by referring to it as a “band of criminals.” Though he used belli- cose rhetoric rare for a U.S. president at the rostrum of the United Nations, the speech was textbook Trump, a stark depiction of good-vs- evil and a broadside against America’s foes. Trump, who has previ- ously warned of “fire and fury” if Pyongyang does not back down, claimed that “no one has shown more con- tempt for other nations and for the well-being of their own people than the de- praved regime in North Korea.” And he scolded na- tions that it was “an out- rage” to enable and trade with North Korea, seeming to slight China, though he did not mention it by name. No call for regime change Trump, however, stopped short of calling for regime change, which North Korea regards as the ultimate Amer- ican intention and treats as a reason for its development of nuclear weapons. That may offer some reassurance to China and Russia, which have urged the U.S. to tone down its rhetoric and restart dialogue with North Korea. Addressing the General Assembly is a milestone mo- ment for any president, but one particularly significant for Trump, a relative new- comer to foreign policy who has at times rattled the in- ternational community with his unpredictability. He has pulled the United States out of multinational agree- ments, considered shrinking the U.S. military footprint in the world and deployed bom- bastic language on North Korea that has been criticized by other world leaders. Trump frequently belit- tled the U.N. as a candidate and some within his White House believe the U.N acts as a global bureaucracy that infringes on the sovereignty of individual countries. He urged the world leaders to embrace their own “national sovereignty to do more to en- sure the prosperity and secu- rity of their own countries. But the president stood before world leaders and a global audience and declared that U.N. members, acting as a collection of self-interested nations, should unite to con- front global dangers. “I will always put America first. Just like you, the leaders of your countries, should and always put your countries first,” said Trump, who as- sured the U.N. that the United States would not abdicate its leadership position in the world but needed other coun- tries to contribute more. “We can no longer be taken advantage of or enter into a one-sided deal in which the United States gets nothing in return,” he said. World leaders, many of whom were seeing Trump in person for the first time, were certain to take the mea- sure of the man and parse his every word for clues on how he views the U.S. role in the world. His remarks some- times produced surprised chatter in the crowd. As he lambasted North Korea, the nation’s two front seats for delegation leaders were empty. Two officials sat a row back, one taking notes. Iran: A ‘reckless regime’ On Iran, Trump called the government a “reckless re- gime” that is running an “ec- onomically depleted rogue state” whose chief export is “violence, bloodshed and chaos.” He accused Tehran of squandering Iran’s wealth by supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad, Lebanon’s He- zbollah militia and Yemen’s Houthi rebel group. Trump called the U.N.- backed Iran nuclear deal “an embarrassment” to the United States and suggested it was “one of the worst” in- ternational pacts ever struck. And he hinted that his ad- ministration, which has ac- cused Tehran of aiding ter- rorism in the Middle East, could soon declare Iran out of compliance with the deal, which could unravel it. “I don’t think you’ve heard the end of it,” Trump said. “Believe me.” The administration must decide in mid-October whether it will certify that Iran is still in compliance with the agreement. Trump vowed again to take the fight to terrorists but warned that parts of the world were so plagued by vi- olence and poverty, they were “going to hell.” He also de- cried the “disastrous rule” of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and urged the U.N. to step in. “To put it simply, we meet at a time of both immense promise and of great peril,” he said. “It is entirely up to us whether we lift the world to new heights or let it fall into a valley of disrepair.” The speech drew varying reactions from leaders. Is- raeli Prime Minister Ben- jamin Netanyahu, a Trump ally, wrote on Twitter, “In over 30 years in my expe- rience with the UN, I never heard a bolder or more courageous speech.” But Swedish Foreign Affairs Minister Margot Wallstrom told the BBC that “It was the wrong speech, at the wrong time, to the wrong audience” Outside of an oblique reference to a threat to Ukraine’s sovereignty, Trump made no mention of Russia or its president Vladimir Putin. He again chastised the U.N. for what he said was its bloated budget and bureaucracy but did not threaten Washington’s com- mitment to the world body. He pledged the United States would be “partners in your work” to make the organiza- tion a more effective force for world peace. President Donald Trump addresses the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday. - PHOTO: AP8 WORLD&REGIONAL WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 • CAYMAN COMPASS Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims being ‘wiped off map’ at home YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – For generations, Rohingya Mus- lims have called Myanmar home. Now, in what appears to be a systematic purge, the minority ethnic group is being wiped off the map. After a series of attacks by Muslim militants last month, security forces and allied mobs retaliated by burning down thousands of Rohingya homes in the predominantly Buddhist nation. More than 500,000 people – roughly half their population – have fled to neighboring Ban- gladesh in the past year, most of them in the last three weeks. And they are still leaving, piling into wooden boats that take them to sprawling, monsoon-drenched refugee camps in Bangladesh. In a speech Tuesday, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi did not address a U.N. statement that the army has engaged in a “textbook case” of ethnic cleansing. In- stead, she told concerned diplomats that while many villages were destroyed, more than half were still intact. U.N. General-Secretary An- tonio Guterres told the Gen- eral Assembly on Tuesday that “I take note” of Suu Kyi’s speech. ‘Worst crisis in Rohingya history’ “This is the worst crisis in Rohingya history,” said Chris Lewa, founder of the Arakan Project, which works to im- prove conditions for the ethnic minority, citing the monu- mental size and speed of the exodus. “Security forces have been burning villages one by one, in a very systematic way. And it’s still ongoing.” Using a network of moni- tors, Lewa and her agency are meticulously documenting tracts of villages that have been partially or completely burned down in three town- ships in northern Rakhine state, where the vast ma- jority of Myanmar’s 1.1 mil- lion Rohingya once lived. It’s a painstaking task because there are hundreds of them, and information is almost impossible to verify because the army has blocked access to the area. Satellite imagery released by Human Rights Watch on Tuesday shows massive swaths of scorched landscape and the near total destruction of 214 villages. The Arakan Project said Tuesday that almost every tract of villages in Maungdaw township suf- fered some burning, and that almost all Rohingya had abandoned the area. Sixteen of the 21 Rohingya villages in the northern part of Rathedaung township – in eight village tracts – were targeted. Three camps for Ro- hingya who were displaced in communal riots five years ago also were torched. Buthidaung, to the east, so far has been largely spared. It is the only township where se- curity operations appear lim- ited to areas where the attacks by Rohingya militants, which triggered the ongoing crack- down, occurred. Separated from the other Rohingya town- ships by mountains, and with more Buddhists and more sol- diers, Buthidaung has histori- cally had fewer tensions. In her speech, Suu Kyi noted that most Rohingya villages did not suffer vio- lence, and said the govern- ment would look into “why are they not at each other’s throats in these particular areas.” Rohingya refugees an- grily viewed that as the gov- ernment deflecting blame for attacks by its own forces. Long and troubled history in Myanmar The Rohingya have had a long and troubled history in Myanmar, where many in the country’s 60 million people look on them with disdain. Though members of the ethnic minority first arrived generations ago, Rohingya were stripped of their cit- izenship in 1982, denying them almost all rights and rendering them stateless. They cannot travel freely, practice their religion, or work as teachers or doc- tors, and they have little ac- cess to medical care, food or education. The U.N. has labeled the Rohingya one of the world’s most persecuted reli- gious minorities. Still, if it were not for their safety, many would rather live in Myanmar than be forced to another country that does not want them. “Now we can’t even buy plastic to make a shelter,” said 32-year-old Kefayet Ullah of the camp in Bangla- desh where he and his family are struggling to get from one day to the next. In Rakhine, they had land for farming and a small shop. Now they have nothing. “Our heart is crying for our home,” he said, tears streaming down his face. “Even the father of my grand- father was born in Myanmar.” This is not the first time the Rohingya have fled en masse. Hundreds of thousands left in 1978 and again in the early 1990s, fleeing military and government oppression, though policies were later put in place that allowed many to return. Communal vio- lence in 2012, as the country was transitioning from a half-century of dictatorship to democracy, sent another 100,000 fleeing by boat. Some 120,000 remain trapped in camps under apartheid-like conditions outside Rakhine’s capital, Sittwe. But no exodus has been as massive and swift as the one taking place now. The military crackdown came in retaliation for a se- ries of coordinated attacks by Rohingya militants led by At- taullah Abu Ammar Jununi, who was born in Pakistan and raised in Saudi Arabia. Last October, the militants struck police posts, killing several officers and triggering a brutal military response that sent 87,000 Rohingya fleeing. Then on Aug. 25, a day after a state-appointed com- mission of inquiry headed by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan released a report about the earlier bloodshed, the mili- tants struck again. They attacked more than 30 police and army posts, causing casualties. Buddhist mobs help burn villages It was the excuse se- curity forces wanted. They hit back and hard. Together with Buddhist mobs, they burned down villages, killed, looted and raped. That sent a staggering 421,000 fleeing as of Tuesday, according to U.N. estimates. “The military crackdown resembles a cynical ploy to forcibly transfer large num- bers of people without pos- sibility of return,” Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the U.N. high com- missioner for human rights, said earlier this month in Ge- neva, calling it a “textbook ex- ample of ethnic cleansing.” It could be months be- fore the extent of the devas- tation is clear because the army has blocked access to the affected areas. Yanghee Lee, the U.N. Special Rap- porteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, said at least 1,000 civilians were killed. The government claims more than 400 died, the vast majority Rohingya militants. They put the number of civil- ians killed at 30. Whether it’s the end game for the Rohingya in Myanmar remains to be seen, said Richard Horsey, a political analyst in Yangon. It depends in part on whether arrange- ments will be made by Ban- gladesh and Myanmar for their eventual return and the extent of the destruction. “We are still waiting for a full picture of how many villages are depopulated versus how many were de- stroyed,” he said. More than 500,000 people – roughly half the Rohingya population – have fled to neighboring Bangladesh in the past year, most of them in the last three weeks. A Rohingya man carries two children to shore in Shah Porir Dwip, Bangladesh, after they arrived on a boat from Myanmar. - PHOTOS: AP Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi has angered Rohingya refugees with comments that seem to deflect blame from government forces in the attacks.9 WORLD&REGIONAL CAYMAN COMPASS • WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 2017 CLOSED FOR INVENTORY We Would Like to Inform Our Customers That On Saturday September 23, We Will Be Closed For Our Annual Inventory Count. Please Stop By Our Store, Located In Industrial Park Across From Tortuga Rum, To Pick Up Any Needed Supplies Before This Saturday. Pool Patrol The Pool & Spa Professionals Serving The Cayman Islands For Over 30 years North Sound Plaza, North Sound Rd. Tel: 949-8543 Email: pools@poolpatrol.ky WikiLeaks releases files on Russian surveillance system Documents expose spying on internet and mobile users WikiLeaks, the secret sharing organization ac- cused of playing a key role in Russian attempts to influ- ence the 2016 U.S. election, has released documents that it claims offer details of how Moscow uses state surveil- lance to spy on internet and mobile users. The release, dubbed “Spy Files Russia,” appears to mark a shift for an organi- zation that has long been accused of a reluctance to publish documents that could be embarrassing for the Russian state. As Edward Snowden, a National Security Agency whistleblower who himself now lives in Russia, put it in a tweet: “Plot twist.” However, other experts are less impressed. “I don’t think it’s a real expose,” said Andrei Soldatov, a Rus- sian investigative journalist and co-author of the “The Red Web: The Struggle Be- tween Russia’s Digital Dic- tators and the New Online Revolutionaries.” “It actually adds a few details to the picture, [but] it’s not that much,” he said. The documents released on Tuesday appear to show how a St. Petersburg-based technology company called Peter-Service helped state entities gather detailed data on Russian mobile users, part of a national system of online surveillance called System for Operative Inves- tigative Activities or SORM. “This system [SORM] has been known for some time, though the documents seem to provide additional tech- nical specifications,” said Ben Buchanan, a postdoc- toral fellow at Harvard Ken- nedy School’s Belfer Center and author of the book “The Cybersecurity Dilemma.” Buchanan added, how- ever, that he was intrigued that WikiLeaks would re- lease it at all. “I’m cu- rious if there is more to come,” he said. Though WikiLeaks has shared secrets from a va- riety of other countries’ gov- ernments, it has been ac- cused of refusing to publish leaks on the Russian gov- ernment. WikiLeaks has also been publicly critical of the Panama Papers – a leak about offshore banking enti- ties that is believed to have embarrassed Russian Presi- dent Vladimir Putin. In interviews, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has suggested that as his or- ganization lacks Russian speakers, whistleblowers prefer to leak to local media. The latest leak is unlikely to dispel the impression that WikiLeaks turns a blind eye to Moscow’s failings, said Andrew Weiss, a vice presi- dent for studies at the Carn- egie Endowment for Interna- tional Peace. “It’s very hard for WikiLeaks to somehow exonerate itself or remove the very clear pattern of co- operation with Russian au- thorities,” Weiss said. “This looks like a classic attempt to change the sub- ject,” he added. Perhaps the most in- triguing part of the doc- uments is who they were leaked by – a detail WikiLeaks generally refuses to discuss. Soldatov said that it may well have been leaked by someone who un- derstood the lack of major revelations contained. “I would say it’s coming from the company, sent by people who obviously under- stand it doesn’t constitute a state secret, so it’s safe,” said Soldatov. Although the release was not a bombshell, it could still prove to be a positive force, some observers said. “If it prompts people to talk about SORM, so be it,” said Soldatov. © 2017, The Washington Post The release, dubbed “Spy Files Russia,” appears to mark a shift for an organization that has long been accused of a reluctance to publish documents that could be embarrassing for the Russian state. MOTORISTS TRAPPED AS SUSPICIOUS OBJECT SHUTS MAIN UK HIGHWAY LONDON (AP) – Hundreds of motorists were stuck for hours on one of Britain’s main highways after it was closed Tuesday due to a “sus- picious object.” The M1 motorway was shut along a 10-mile stretch near Milton Keynes, 50 miles north of London, after the ob- ject was found under a bridge at around 7:30 a.m., Thames Valley Police said. Photographs on social media showed people playing Frisbee and kicking a soccer ball on the empty road. “There’s a five-a-side foot- ball competition, a bit of rugby, a guy cycling up and down in the wrong direction,” said Tim Mayer, who was caught up in the delay. Seven hours after the ob- ject was found, police said the bomb-disposal squad had determined it contained “no explosive element” and appeared to be “some form of chemical.” Chief Inspector Mark Lewis said the object con- tained “a highly corrosive substance” that had leaked across the road. “There is no evidence to suggest that this is a terrorist incident,” he said. By late afternoon, police said the northbound highway had reopened and vehicles that had been trapped in the southbound lanes were being allowed to leave by a detour. GERMANY ARRESTS TWO ISLAMIC STATE TERROR SUSPECTS IN BERLIN BERLIN (AP) – Two Iraqi men have been arrested in the German capital on suspicion of membership in a terrorist organization and war crimes as part of the Islamic State group, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. A 31-year-old, identified only as Raad Riyadh A. A. in line with privacy laws, and 19-year-old Abbas R. were both arrested Monday in Berlin, prosecutors’ spokes- woman Frauke Koehler said. They’re both alleged to have joined IS in Mosul in June 2014 and partici- pated in the killing of two Shiite Muslims. Four months later, pros- ecutors said, they were in- volved in the execution of a captured Iraqi mil- itary officer. While in Iraq, Raad Ri- yadh A.A. is also accused of extorting money from busi- nesses to support IS and pro- curing weapons from the Iraqi army and police forces for the group. After arriving in Germany in July 2015, Raad Riyadh A.A. tried to recruit two other Iraqis and convince a third to carry out a suicide attack, Koehler said. In a separate case, a 24-year-old Syrian was ar- rested in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein on al- legations he was a member of multiple foreign terrorist organizations, including IS. Majed A. was arrested Sept. 13 and is also accused of weapons violations. The M1 is seen with three carriageways closed after an incident involving a ‘suspicious object’ near Milton Keynes, England, on Tuesday trapped hundreds of motorists for hours. - PHOTO: APNext >