New evidence of US role in wiretapping scandal (in Colombia)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

New evidence of US role in wiretapping scandal
Monday, 05 September 2011 11:56
Natalie Dalton

New evidence has appeared that suggests the United States embassy provided espionage equipment to the Colombian intelligence agency DAS that was used in illegal wiretapping operations, reported Colombian news source Noticias Uno.

Investigators discovered a PowerPoint presentation put together by the DAS Director of Interior Intelligence that outlined the ways in which they were supported by the United States government.

The presentation showed that the U.S Embassy and the DAS worked together as a group called UTAC, which was “created in February 2005, by means of a verbal agreement between the DAS and the American Embassy."

It also asserted "all of the activity of this group is oriented towards the fight against terrorist organizations, and on that condition all of the technical and economic resources have been provided by the government of the United States."

Read more: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/18772-new-evidence-of-us-role-in-wiretapping-scandal.html

[Demeter]

1. It's Our Export Program

[formercia]

2. SOP n/t

[rabs]

3. A surprise for the U.S. ambassador

One morning in Sept. 2009 U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield was being driven to the embassy. The radio was tuned to the news on Bogota radio and to his surprise, he heard a wiretap of one of his legal officers, James Faulkner, speaking with Colombian Supreme Court judge Iván Velásquez. The two in the wiretap discuss the physical delivery of documents from Velásquez to Faulkner. (Faulkner's Spanish is pretty good, except for the accent.)


--------U.S. Dept. of Justice official wiretapped (about 2 minutes, Spanish)-----------

http://www.semana.com/multimedia-nacion/conversacion-entre-magistrado-auxiliar-ivan-velasquez-james-faulkner/2374.aspx

-----------------------------

By SIMON ROMERO
Published: September 16, 2009

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — President Álvaro Uribe, the top ally of the United States in Latin America, is enmeshed in a scandal over growing evidence that his main intelligence agency carried out an extensive illegal spying operation focused on his leading critics, including members of the Supreme Court, opposition politicians, human rights workers and journalists.

The scandal, which has unfolded over months, intensified in recent weeks with the disclosure of an audio intercept of a top official at the United States Embassy. Semana, a respected news magazine, obtained an intercept of a routine phone call between James Faulkner, the embassy’s legal attaché, and a Supreme Court justice investigating ties of Mr. Uribe’s political supporters to paramilitary death squads.

Other recordings obtained in investigations by journalists and prosecutors point to resilient multiyear efforts to spy on Mr. Uribe’s major critics by the Department of Administrative Security, a 6,500-employee intelligence agency — possibly South America’s largest — that operates directly under the authority of the president’s office.

More from NYT article of two years ago (Sept. 2009)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/world/americas/17colombia.html

[No Elephants]

4. Does our world gets more messed up every year, or does it only seem that way?

[Judi Lynn]

5. Uribe aides called to trial over illegal wiretapping

Uribe aides called to trial over illegal wiretapping
Tuesday, 06 September 2011 12:05
Alice Boyd

Colombia's Supreme Court calls former President Alvaro Uribe's former chief of staff and former intelligence chief to trial to respond to allegations they ordered the illegal wiretapping of government opponents.

According to Colombian media, the former director of Colombia's intelligence agency DAS, Maria del Pilar Hurtado, and the former chief of staff under ex-president Alvaro Uribe, Bernado Moreno, will be required to face court on September 13. Both have been charged with conspiracy, unlawful violation of communications, abuse of public office and fraud.

Hurtado, who fled to Panama before the Supreme Court charged her, has also been charged with embezzlement and falsifying public documents.

Moreno has spent the last month awaiting trial behind bars.

The two former officials have been barred from holding public office for 18 years because of their alleged role in the illegal wiretapping of supreme court magistrates, politicians, journalists and human rights activists.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/18802-uribe-aides-called-to-trial-over-illegal-wiretapping.html