Evidence in Colombia’s intelligence agency wiretapping scandal gone missing
Evidence in Colombia’s intelligence agency wiretapping scandal gone missing
Jun 19, 2014 posted by Nicolas Bedoya
An inspection by agents from Colombia’s investigation unit discovered that evidence was missing from the National Archive in Bogota regarding the wiretapping scandal of Colombia’s former intelligence agency.
The disappearance of the evidence in the wiretapping case against Colombia’s now-defunct intelligence agency, DAS, was confirmed by journalist Claudia Julieta Duque, who claims to have been “psychologically tortured” and harassed by the former agency, Colombia’s Caracol Radio reported on Thursday.
“When the database was handed over, it had 40 modules with information and now there are only three. In that database were two resumes of my harassment conducted by the DAS, and now those archives are gone,” said Duque according to South American news outlet teleSUR.
To date, more than seven former officials of the DAS are under investigation over Duque’s case, according to Caracol.
More:
http://colombiareports.co/evidence-colombias-intelligence-agency-wiretapping-scandal-disappeared/
= new reply since forum marked as read
We know this because, a) there was testimony in this investigation about an American liaison between DAS and U.S./Bush Junta Ambassador to Colombia, William Brownfield; b) testimony of former DAS officials about significant U.S. (Bush Junta) technical assistance and equipment for the spying**; and c) a Wikileaks cable revealed that the president of Panama--a crony of Alvaro Uribe (the Bush Junta's 'made man' in Colombia, who ran Colombia as a criminal organization)--demanded that the U.S. (Bush Junta) give him the same spying capabilities they were giving Uribe!
This was one of the Bush Junta messes that Leon Panetta (member of Bush Sr.'s "Iraq Study Group," i.e., "old CIA"
went to Colombia (in his first weeks as CIA Director for Obama) to clean up. One of the things I suspect Panetta of doing is arranging for instant asylum in Panama for one of the directors of DAS (Maria Hurtado****) whom Colombian prosecutors were pursuing. DAS's illegal spying (they were spying on judges and prosecutors, for godssakes, as well as journalists and targeted-for-death trade union leaders) was also undoubtedly one of the reasons that Uribe was considered too blatantly dirty to allow him to continue running Colombia. I'm pretty sure that it was Panetta who yanked Uribe from the stage, in his early visit to Bogota, but landed him on a silk cushion (academic sinecures at Harvard and Georgetown, for instance), probably because of what he knows about Bush Jr. and pals. (Panetta's visit coincided with Uribe's efforts to stay in power, which included bribing legislators to extend his term of office.)
I am not surprised at all that "files are missing." And it could as well have been the CIA that stole them, as Uribe's crime gang.
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**** ("The Washington Post reported that William Romero, a former director of the Human Resource department of DAS, received CIA training and said in an interview that DAS relied on “US-supplied computers, wiretapping devices, cameras and mobile phone interception systems, as well as rent for safe houses and petty cash for gasoline.” ....// One unit that reportedly relied heavily on US equipment was in fact the GONI unit who’s main objective was spying on Supreme Court magistrates." http://colombiareports.co/das-colombia-wiretapping-scandal/ (my emphasis) (This is a good basic primer on the spying scandal.)
** (The OP mentions this: "Colombia is also attempting to extradite the former director of the DAS, Maria del Pilar Hurtado, from Panama for her key role in the scandal. Maria del Pilar Hurtado would be essential in uncovering the depth of the scandal but has eluded authorities thus far." I didn't know that Panama's Supreme Court just this week declared her asylum unconstitutional. She's been hiding out in Panama for about four years now. Her situation is currently unclear but she's headed toward extradition, unless the CIA intervenes again--or maybe they've already done all they need to do by disappearing the DAS documents that would implicate the U.S. and its honored law professor, Alvaro Uribe. See: Panama repeals asylum for Colombia’s former spy-chief, June 18, 2014, at http://colombiareports.co/panama-repeals-asylum-colombias-former-spy-chief/ )
