Why this unjustified attack on military intelligence and my person?

SIR—I wish to respond to The Monitor editorial of September 8, 2001 “CMI a dirty word” and The New Vision of September 6, “MPs want CMI probed,” which unjustifiably attack the military intelligence and Mayombo the person. 1. The recent success in anti-terrorism was not the work of military intelligence alone but the Joint Anti-terrorism Task Force which is composed of all the services namely, CMI, Police, Internal Security and External Security. 2. The CMI has no cells in any police station in Uganda. The cells talked about by The Monitor were reserved for terrorism suspects by the National Security Council and are under the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force accessible to all the people of Uganda including the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC). 3. Save for one Besigye supporter called Okwiri Rabwoni who brought conflicting intelligence information, no person or supporter of any candidate was ever interrogated or terrorised by military intelligence in the last presidential or parliamentary election as alleged by The Monitor. 4. The budget of military intelligence is from the UPDF and is not being competed for by any other intelligence service. We do not compete for a pool of intelligence funds because no such pool exists. Each service falls under a line ministry with funds approved by Parliament. 5. The intelligence services in Uganda are enjoying a cordial working relationship in the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force chaired by the CMI joint intelligence committee chaired by ISO, and the National Security Council chaired by the minister of Internal Affairs on behalf of the President. 6. Since the presidential elections in March, no single person has accused military intelligence of torture or illegal detention to UHRC. We have evidence to prove that the Owino office you published in your newspaper on Monday September 3 does not belong to military intelligence; neither do the suspects of that heinous act. They are available for interview at CPS. 7. I have never been on a diplomatic mission abroad which is not connected to my military intelligence and security work. 8. The ADF and LRA rural and urban terrorism have greatly been curtailed and Ugandans can testify to this. 9. My picture appeared in the newspapers as a student leader in Makerere politics, during my contributions to the Constituent Assembly, the 6th Parliament and as ADC to H.E. the President much before my deployment in military intelligence. 10. Finally, I want to assure my friends at The Monitor that I have no political ambitions. After my retirement from military service, I will go into legal practice and continue to uphold the sanctity and inviolability of human life and the rule of law, which principle I have always cherished and I am willing to die for. Lt Col Noble Mayombo (MP) Ag CMI and Security