Hours after the Mid-Ocean News published revelations from the leaked BHC Police files the Premier was on national TV threatening to withdraw cooperation with the Governor unless he helped to catch the leakers.

That statement alone, made before Government stoked up the pressure further by attempting to gag the media from using more from the files, prompted viewers throughout Bermuda to ask themselves 'What is he so afraid of?'

In the same public address the Premier said the BHC investigation had exonerated him from any unlawful act.

Yet rather than leave it there Dr. Brown went on the offensive claiming a "politically linked conspiracy involving high offices" was behind the leak.

The Premier's handling of the whole affair has been questioned by numerous commentators including critics within his own party.

One PLP MP, speaking on condition of anonymity last week, told The Royal Gazette: "It is not so much what has been reported. Are there other things coming? No one has anyway of knowing. They don't know, that's the point.

"People are very concerned, they want to see what else is there, they want the gag lifted."

Last week the Premier indicated he wasn't afraid of further revelations.

He told Hott 107.5 radio: "I want to repeat — they can reveal anything they have in the file about me personally.

"I know that we are totally in the clear and have been exonerated after an investigation that apparently included Scotland Yard, the FBI and Homeland Security, so there was no issue there."

However he dismissed calls for him to answer specific allegations levelled at him in the leaked Police dossier.

He said: "Where do I start? Am I supposed to start answering allegations just because they're included in a Police investigation? 'When did you stop beating your wife?' and then it becomes ridiculous and I think it's demeaning, it's embarrassing, it's insulting."

Dr. Brown has also issued a writ in conjunction with Nelson Bascome for libel and slander against the Island's media organisations over reports of material from the Police file. The writ has not yet been served and the specific details of the allegations against the media are not known.

Assessing the aftermath of a tumultuous month for Bermuda, former Independent MP Stuart Hayward said: "I am inclined to wonder why the big spike in reaction?

"If this is old news then the thing it seems to me to do is to is to say we have looked at this before and say 'I denied it then and I am denying it again'.

"But looking back I don't think there has been a point by point denial so I do have grave concerns given the Premier's habitual style that he's not answering questions that have been asked and he's using other issues to divert attention.

"I think his skill is that he knows many of his audience, he knows that they will respond emotionally rather than necessarily to the logical and he's pushing the emotional buttons of the people who he wants to continue to support him.

"Unfortunately for him I think not all of us are distracted from what to me is an issue that was never resolved."

Mr. Hayward said when the BHC case first came about there seemed to be so many people involved but ultimately only one person, who was low on the totem poll, was charged.

The call for a Royal Commission was not about repeating the investigation but to get an understanding of why others weren't called in for questioning, said Mr. Hayward.

"Why was $8 million written off? That's public funds. There's been no satisfactory answers to these types of questions despite the protestations and red herrings. These concerns and these questions still need to be answered."

Opposition leader Michael Dunkley said: "I was surprised at the reaction from the Premier of the country — that kind of reaction is like you are trying to cover things up when the opposite reaction should be it's about time we had full and frank open discussions on the subject."

He said the Premier should have acknowledged concern was in the community and assured people that things were on the mend.

"But it has manifested into something quite different from that so the questions remain."

Asked if the Premier had used the Mid-Ocean story as a device to take on perceived enemies including the press, the Governor and the Auditor General, Mr. Dunkley said: "If that is the case then it doesn't show the type of leadership we need in Bermuda in this day and age.

"If you are elected in Bermuda, especially at the highest level of Premier or Cabinet you have the responsibility to be open and straightforward. You need to make sure you are beyond reproach."

But he said the Premier's handling of the matter did Bermuda's reputation no good on the international stage.

Former Bermuda Sun editor Tom Vesey said he too was perturbed by the Premier's handling of the BHC fall-out.

He said: "If I was him I would have yawned and kept quiet about it but he drew attention to it which raises obvious questions of why he is so scared or upset by this which makes you think what does he have to hide?

"You always have to be really, really suspicious of any activity by Government which it is so keen to keep quiet.

"I cannot think of anything that a Premier or Cabinet minister could or should do that he should be ashamed of or unwilling to have in the open."

Some apologists for the Premier have said publishing accusations from Police files sets a dangerous precedent — that anyone so named could have their reputation shredded by someone keen to divert blame while they were being grilled by Police.

But Mr. Vesey said: "That's completely ridiculous. I cannot think of any other incident where this has happened. It isn't a trend or a problem we have with missing Police records."

He said the leaked documents raised strong questions about the behaviour of the nation's leader and needed to be examined no matter how they reached the public.

Of the Premier's protestations that he had been exonerated, Mr. Vesey said: "That's completely untrue, all that happened is the acting Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to prosecute.

"That's not the way to judge our political leaders — whether or not they are convicted criminals. Our standards are far higher than that."

He said in life plenty of illegal things went un-prosecuted.

"And just because something is not illegal or prosecuted doesn't mean it is the right or good that our leaders should be doing it."

He said there were so many unanswered questions from the allegations which had just been vaguely dismissed. "That's not good enough. Like it or not these allegations are out there."

And if some make the case that the allegations pale into insignificance compared to the good that the Premier is doing in other areas Mr. Vesey said: "He might have done amazing things for tourism but that is completely separate from BHC.

"It doesn't give him the freedom to do whatever he wants with BHC."

In taking on the Governor, Auditor General and press, the Premier tackled in one fell swoop three of his perceived enemies. Mr. Vesey said it was no coincidence.

"If he's done anything wrong, these are the people who are going to expose it."

He said only the Police were left to expose potential wrongdoing.