I GOT an email from a former CIA operative who told me he is 90 years of age. He asked me to delete his email after completing this column. I checked up on him so I can assert he is real and was a former CIA operative. He told me he was the CIA officer that covered the Eastern Caribbean.
He explained that some of his more poignant memories as a CIA officer were in the Caribbean. He said since his retirement, he has kept abreast of happenings in Guyana and the many Caribbean islands.
He let me know that he has been reading my columns for years now. He said that after he was reassigned, his replacement was the woman who recruited Rupert Roopnaraine and courted George Odlum in St. Lucia.

He explained that this lady was responsible for dooming Odlum’s chances of being the Prime Minister of St. Lucia. He explained that the CIA was seriously afraid of Odlum and undermined him.
The former CIA operative wrote that the CIA at one time, poisoned Odlum but he didn’t die, he fell sick but the poison took a toll on Odlum’s health. It altered his cell system and he never recovered, dying a few years after.
She was in Grenada at the time of the internal dispute within the ruling New Jewel Movement (NJM) and so was Roopnaraine. I was there at the same time too but never met her but Grenadians suspected the CIA engendered the split in the NJM and that would have been her doing.
Don’t forget, someone chartered a special flight for Roopnaraine to leave the island after American forces invaded. That special favour for Roopnaraine had to come from her.
Details of this woman was provided to me but I am not going to reveal her name because she is alive and teaching at a university in the US at age 84.
How is that possible at age 84? If she sues me, I am bound to lose that case in Guyana because which judge is going to rule against her.
I am so taken back by not naming her because if her CIA activities in the Eastern Caribbean are known, it would add to Caribbean historiography. Her CIA husband was murdered and to this day, the rumour is that the CIA killed him.
He intoned that the CIA was very cruel in its sabotage of the Michael Manley Government. Though he said he knew about what was happening to Manley, he played no role in that operation because his jurisdiction was the Eastern Caribbean.
One must remember that Bob Marley’s son, Ziggy, in an interview said that he thinks the CIA was involved in the attempted assassination of his father.
I think for historical accuracy, the former CIA operative supplied me with no proof of the Roopnaraine recruitment. But he did say that she recruited Roopnaraine because that was her work in the Caribbean. He knew these things because as his replacement, she sought his knowledge of the Caribbean.
The problem with this column here is that I am worried if on its publication, the US Embassy may forward the column to the US government and he may be called for an interview. I stressed with him that angle and asked him twice in my response if I should go ahead and write this article.
He gave me permission to write what I am writing here. He explained the Official Secret Act of the US prevents government employees from writing about their work. He explained that nothing he told me and is reprinted here is based on his involvement so he did not tell me what he has done.
For example, he was not involved in the CIA activities in Jamaica so he cannot reveal anything about that. He was not involved in the CIA’s conspiracy against Odlum, so he cannot write about that.
He was not involved in the employment of Roopnaraine, so he cannot write about that. I quote him: “Mr. Kissoon what have I written to you in this email about my role as a CIA operative in the seventies in the Eastern Caribbean, nothing.”
I like the part when I kept expressing my fear, he noted: “What can they do to an old 90-year-old man like me?”
Then he mentioned Mark Felt, the Deputy FBI chief who gave Bob Woodword and Carl Bernstein information on the Nixon Government during the Watergate scandal. When it was revealed decades later that it was Felt, the FBI left him alone because he was 91 years old. It is based on this kind of reasoning I decided to compose his column.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited