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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