Anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee, right, talks to lawyer
Telesforo Guerra, in Guatemala City. McAfee has sought political
asylum in
Guatemala, saying he fears for his life if returned to
Belize, where he is wanted as a 'person of interest' in the murder
of his neighbor, Gregory Faull. Guatemala has rejected his plea
and plans to return McAfee to Belize.
In John McAfee,
Prime Minister Barrow May have 'Met His Match' (The Belize Times, Belize)
"The prime minister
is very uncomfortable. McAfee is not an average American Joe that comes to
Belize. He is an American success story, a multi-millionaire scientist. The prime
minister is used to outsmarting and bullying people, but this time he may have
met his match. ... McAfee has cast a net and pulled the world in to watch. With
the economy in shambles, poverty expanding, draconian police measures being
imposed that infringe on human rights, and the murder rate rising
every year, this is the worst time to have so many eyes on Belize."
Belize City: Is John McAfee bonkers? He sure seems to be, at
least he seems way past the kind of eccentricity that most Belizeans are used
to seeing in tourists. He appears as wild as Ace Ventura and as intense as Bruce Willis in one of his Die Hard sequels. McAfee is living his
own movie, and while there seems to be no script, the main actors are clearly
himself and Prime Minister Dean
Barrow.
The prime minister didn't even know he had auditioned for the
role … but he's smack in the middle of it. This must make him very
uncomfortable and explains his soft "shooting down" of McAfee at his
earliest convenience [after the murder of MacAfee's
neighbor Gregory Faull], when he insinuated that McAfee seems “extremely paranoid”
and perhaps even “bonkers.” Since then, that became the news, and while
remaining in hiding and in disguise, McAfee has been trying to prove his
sanity.
So is McAfee bonkers, or is it that the prime minister wants
him to go bonkers?
McAfee has made very serious allegations against the prime
minister, his administration, and the ruling United Democratic Party.
Allegations that if false, could see him facing multiple libel suits
In fact, McAfee, who is now on the run from Belize police
authorities because “they would kill me if they find me,” bravely
claimed in one of his recent blog posts, that it all started in 2009 “with my
refusal to assist the prime minister's son, Shyne,
gain an early release from an American prison, or my refusal to donate to the PM's political party last year.”
The prime minister refused to respond directly to the
allegations about McAfee's involvement in these personal and political matters.
Instead he made a curved response, denying ever meeting McAfee or even knowing
“what he looks like.” McAfee never said they met.
The Shyne-deal could easily have occurred
without the prime minister's direct involvement - but with his full knowledge. Shyne's release and eventual deportation and brief return
to Belize was for the most part handled by his uncle, UDP
Minister Michael Finnegan. Finnegan's sister and prime minsiter
Barrow are Shyne's parents. Barrow and Shyne have had a tense relationship - if any. With Barrow
winning the 2008 election and becoming prime minister, it was imperative for
him to patch things up. So when Shyne was forced back
to Belize, his prime minister dad designated him Belize' official music ambassador.
This background would explain why the prime minister would be upset if McAfee,
a powerful and well-connected American businessman, refused to help Barrow patch
things up with his son.
McAfee has made repeated allegations that a UDP politician in Orange Walk harassed
him about election campaign donations. But he fell short of revealing who that
politician was. The prime minister responded by stating that neither he nor his party chairman
met McAfee, and that “I know of no individual in the UDP
who ever spoke to Mr. McAfee about contributions.” Well, the party chairman is
not from Orange Walk, and under the circumstances, who in his right mind would
admit to attempting to extort campaign money from a wealthy businessman?
But McAfee is adamant that this happened, and says his refusal to
give in to political pressure led to a raid of his property in the Orange Walk
district. During that incident, his huge property along the Tower Hill highway was
ambushed at 5am by 42 armed security officials.
“My hands were handcuffed behind my back and for 14 hours
and I sat in the sun without food or water while I watched my property being
destroyed and taken away,” writes McAfee. He was then taken to the Belize City police
station 52 miles away, and only after contacting the U.S. Embassy was he
released without charge.
Shortly after the raid, in an exclusive interview with the Belize Times, McAfee called out the prime
minister, who had justified the raid by claiming that McAfee refused to allow
health inspectors onto his property. McAfee called him “a liar” and someone who
“should be ashamed of himself.” At this point, things changed drastically for McAfee.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
McAfee writes on his Web site (www.whoismcafee.com) that
after the raid, he “knew that the government was recruiting friends, neighbors
and acquaintances for information about me and for help with dealing with me in
some fashion.”
McAfee went so far as to plant tiny microphones and video
recorders “everywhere I could,” including on his dogs, cars, boats, and trees
and bushes.
“I have many, many recordings - some 6,000 hours in total. They
are devastating.They are safely in the states,
and copies are in the vaults of Lombard Odie & Cie in Switzerland, and BancoPinchincha C.A. in Ecuador,” he writes.
One of those devices, McAfee claims, recorded former UDP Carmelita Village Chairman Anthony Rhaburn
“trying to convince one of my employees to help the government kill me.”
The audio is available on the Web site. It is a conversation
between two or three people. While it doesn't mention the name of McAfee, or Rhaburn for that matter, the men on the recording talk of
detonating a grenade and “we wah deal widdi
White man, and wiwah plant
di ting deh, and wihwah call di
high man deh when wi plant di ting.”
McAfee says he also has a recording of Prime Minister Barrow
responding, “Who does he think he is?” [in creole],
after he e-mailed him requesting an apology for the Orange Walk raid, and also
the police commissioner telling one of McAfee's lawyers that, “If Mr. McAfee
doesn't like the system here, he can f*^king leave”[edited].
Even if he doesn't show it, the prime minister is very
uncomfortable. McAfee is not an average American Joe that comes to Belize. He
is an American success story, a multi-millionaire scientist. The prime minister
is used to outsmarting and bullying people, but this time he may have met his
match. The raid on McAfee's property barely caught the attention of the
international media, but this current fiasco has. McAfee has cast a net and
pulled the world in to watch. With the economy in shambles, poverty expanding,
draconian police measures being imposed that infringe on human rights, and the
murder rate rising every year, this is the worst time to have so
many eyes on Belize.
No one knows how long McAfee will be on the run or how long
this saga will last. He doesn't seem to care how long it lasts. Perhaps this is
what it will take to show everyone that the emperor has no clothes.
