Colombia domestic spy chief probes alleged illegal wiretapping by 'mafia' within
Colombia's new domestic spy chief said Saturday that he is probing whether agency employees have been eavesdropping on Supreme Court judges, prominent journalists and opposition leaders.
Felipe Munoz, who took over the troubled DAS domestic intelligence agency last month, was reacting to a report by Colombia's leading newsmagazine of widespread interception of phone calls and e-mail by agency officials at least through late last year.
Munoz said he was attempting to establish the existence of a "mafia network that's threatening the security of the state," at a news conference called after the report was published online. (more)
UPDATE: Colombia's General Attorney ordered on Sunday a raid on the Department of Administrative Security (DAS) headquarters in Bogota after the media reported that agency employees have been eavesdropping on Supreme Court judges, prominent journalists and opposition leaders. (more)
UPDATE: Felipe Muñoz, director of Colombia's intelligence service DAS sacked the deputy director of the service's counterintelligence department amid a growing scandal involving illegal wiretaps of judges, opposition politicians and journalists. More people are expected to be fired.
According to the Government, the mafia is behind the widespread illegal use of wiretaps and blames alleged drug lords like 'Don Mario', 'El Cuchillo' and 'El Loco Barrera' of having corrupted the service. (more)
UPDATE: Two more top deputies resigned from Colombia's domestic spy agency on Tuesday as prosecutors investigate allegations of improper eavesdropping on journalists, Supreme Court judges and opposition members... (more) Colombia has had issues in the past with wiretapping. In May 2007, the head of police intelligence and Colombia's police chief were forced to resign after an illegal interception of calls of political figures, government members, and, you guessed it, journalists... (more)
UPDATE: Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe says he was unaware of the telephone bugging activities reportedly practised by the DAS domestic intelligence service... (more)
UPDATE: Uribe fingered as heads roll in wiretap scandal
President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia has been accused of ordering his intelligence agency to engage in illegal wiretapping of opposition politicians, members of the government, judges and journalists in a scandal that has rocked Colombia’s law enforcement apparatus. (more)
UPDATE: President Alvaro Uribe said Thursday that he has ordered a halt to wiretapping by Colombia's domestic intelligence agency as the fallout from an eavesdropping scandal prompted a fourth agency official to resign.
UPDATE: DAS director Felipe Muñoz accepted the resignation of his intelligence director, Muñoz said Thursday. Fernando Tabares if the fourth high official of Colombia's intelligence agency that is forced to leave after the institution was hit by its second wiretap scandal in half a year... The DAS director acknowleged that "there are USB sticks and cd's that have some evidence stored" of the illegal wiretapping of Supreme Court magistrates, media directors and opposition politicans.
UPDATE: Colombia spyservice to be allowed wiretaps again...
Colombia President Álvaro Uribe signed a law that returns the authority to conduct wiretaps to intelligence agency DAS, lawmakers say. The DAS was relieved from that authority ten days ago after news broke the agency was illegally wiretapping political opponents, judges and journalists. (more) (background 2007)
