DAS CONTINUES DOMESTIC SPYING

C O N F I D E N T I A L BOGOTA 000569 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/28/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER PHUM KJUS CO SUBJECT: DAS CONTINUES DOMESTIC SPYING REF: 08BOGOTA3888 Classified By: Political Counselor John Creamer Reasons 1.4 (b and d) SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) Colombia's leading news magazine reported that the Department of Administrative Security (DAS) illegally spied on a wide range of the GOC's domestic political opponents, including Supreme Court magistrates, opposition leaders and journalists. Some DAS officials reportedly monitored private phone calls and emails, destroyed evidence of the monitoring, and may have sold information to narcotraffickers and other criminal groups. The Prosecutor General (Fiscalia) and Inspector General (Procuraduria) are investigating, and DAS Director Felipe Munoz set up a special commission of outside intelligence experts to conduct an internal probe. The DAS's counterintelligence deputy also resigned following the story. Former DAS Director Andres Penate told us the DAS has a tradition of spying on the domestic opposition that far predates the Uribe Administration. End Summary. SEMANA BREAKS ANOTHER DAS DOMESTIC SPYING STORY -------------- -- ¶2. (U) Leading news magazine "Semana" reported on February 21 that the Department of Administrative Security (DAS) continued to intercept phone calls and emails of the GOC's domestic political opponents--despite a similar scandal in October 2008 that had brought down the DAS director (reftel). The list of those illegally monitored included Supreme Court justices, federal prosecutors, journalists, and both opposition and Uribista politicians. Internal DAS sources told "Semana" that the DAS (roughly an FBI equivalent) intercepted about 1900 communications in just one three month period. Some officials at DAS headquarters reportedly destroyed evidence of the monitoring before new DAS director Felipe Munoz took office. DAS officials also reportedly sold intercept information to narcotraffickers and insurgents. DAS counterintelligence deputy Jorge Lagos resigned on February 22, and Colombian media reported that Munoz said more heads would roll. GOC SHOCKED BY NEW REVELATIONS -------------- ¶3. (U) President Uribe told the media that he had not ordered the monitoring and declared himself "deeply hurt" and a "victim" of the scandal. Uribe said he had always played fair with his political opponents. Uribe added that those who committed the spying were part of a "mafia" that damaged Colombian democracy and the Government. Minister of Interior and Justice Fabio Valencia Cossio also denied that the GOC had anything to do with the spying, and called on "Semana" to cooperate with authorities investigating the reports. INVESTIGATIONS MOVING FORWARD QUICKLY -------------- ¶4. (C) The Fiscalia and Procuradoria are moving swiftly to investigate. Ten investigators from CTI, the Fiscalia's investigative unit, took over the DAS's electronic monitoring facilities and began collecting evidence. Fiscal General Mario Iguaran announced that CTI investigators will undertake a thorough probe, including detailed examinations of all of the equipment alleged to have been used for domestic wiretaps and interviews with all personnel working in the units involved in the charges. Semana editor Alejandro Santos told Iguaran that his staff would cooperate with the Fiscalia, but wanted to protect his sources. Separately, DAS Director Munoz announced the creation of a technical committee to investigate the charges, whose members will include intelligence specialists from the Armed Forces and the NationalPolice. ¶5. (C) Inspector General (Procurador) Alejandro Ordoneztold the Ambassador on February 23 that he had consulted with his office's special investigative unit on the case and expected good results quickly. The Ambassador told Ordonez that he could count on full cooperation from the Embassy, adding that the allegations against the DAS damaged the institution and ongoing U.S. cooperation with the DAS. Ordonez said the DAS had been effectively "decapitated" by losing so many leaders in previous scandals, yet the problems remained, leading one to conclude that more than just the DAS leadership was to blame. USG NOT INVOLVED -------------- ¶6. (C) The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) runs one intercept and monitoring facility within DAS, and has doublechecked its equipment and records to confirm that all previous monitoring was done in accordance with established legal mechanism. All legal Colombian communications monitoring must be approved by a Court magistrate or a prosecutor. DEA officials noted that CI Deputy Lagos had been less-than-fully cooperative with USG law enforcement authorities. DAS'S PERVASIVE TRADITION OF DOMESTIC SPYING -------------- ¶7. (C) Former DAS Director Andres Penate told us that DAS has a long tradition of spying on the internal legal opposition which predated the Uribe administration. Penate said Uribe did not support the use of the DAS for political purposes, because the DAS had spied on him when he was governor of Antioquia in the 1990s. Still, he said some members of Uribe's government, including Secretary of the Presidency Bernardo Moreno, senior advisor Jose ObdulioGaviria, Legal Advisor Edmundodel Castillo, and Interior Minister Valencia Cossio, continued to press the DAS to remain in the domestic spying game. Penate told us Uribe nver pressured him to report on the domestic opposition, but did encourage him to coordinate with Gaviria when the GOC began to encounter political problems because of the reelection debate. Penate said he resigned from the DAS rather than deal with the pressure exerted by Moreno and other presidential advisors. Ivan Velasquez, the Supreme Court's lead auxiliary magistrate in the parapolitical investigations, told us the night before the "Semana" story broke that DAS's surveillance of him had become so intense t it had begun to impede his work. BROWNFIELD