Spy scandal hounds Uribe's last days in office

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Spy scandal hounds Uribe's last days in office
By LIBARDO CARDONA (AP) – 1 hour ago

BOGOTA, Colombia — A domestic spying scandal has reached Alvaro Uribe's inner circle, complicating the legacy of the popular two-term Colombian president who leaves office Saturday with 75 percent approval ratings.

Prosecutors have been questioning his closest advisers in recent weeks over allegations they illegally ordered warrantless wiretapping of the conservative president's political enemies by the DAS domestic spy agency.

Uribe's chief of staff, Bernardo Moreno, was deposed last week after jailed former DAS intelligence chief Fernando Tabares said Moreno told him in late 2007 that "the president was interested in having the DAS keep him informed" about four targets.

According to Tabares' sworn deposition, Moreno listed the targets as the Supreme Court; two opposition senators, Gustavo Petro and Piedad Cordoba; and investigative journalist Daniel Coronell.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jrC_4ZtHRpaX9av9qMqd0S0J4ZqQD9HCQTU80

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http://www.cbc.ca.nyud.net:8090/gfx/images/news/photos/2007/03/11/bush-colombia-cp-161514.jpg http://www.cbc.ca.nyud.net:8090/gfx/images/news/photos/2009/01/13/alvaro-uribe-cp-6085007.jpg

http://www.soberania.org.nyud.net:8090/Images/alvaro_uribe_y_george_bush_1.jpg

[rabs]

1. The uribista strategy to silence the witnesses

Throw a hand grenade into the patio (a former DAS detective and his two small children escaped unharmed.

Other witnesses, journalists, and investigating judges are getting death threats by phone,

Good article by Semana magazine this week. (Semana considered the TIME/NEWSWEEK of Colombia and it broke the DAS wiretapping scandal couple years ago.

Spanish

http://www.semana.com/noticias-nacion/estrategia-para-acallar-testigos-chuzadas/142575.aspx

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Other news tidbits from Colombia the past 24 hours:

-- An Ecuadoran prosecutor on Tuesday asked for the extradition of Juan Manuel Santos on charges of homicide (re the Colombian bombing raid of a FARC camp inside Ecuador in 2008). Santos is to be inaugurated as Colombian president on Saturday,

-- There is a census going on in Colombia. Not of people who are alive, but of those who are dead and who were disappeared (the vast majority by right-wing paramilitary groups that supported the uribe government) and buried in clandestine common graves. So far about 10,000 cases have been reported, but the figure could reach more than 40,000, according to Paz and Justica, a Colombian human rights organization investigating those deaths.

The appointment of uribe by the UN to be part of a four-person panel to investigate the Israeli commando raid on the Turkish ferry carrying aid to Gaza has come under criticism in Europe. A Spanish member of the Euro parliament today said it was a "bad joke" and cited the largest common grave in Latin America, La Macarena, where up to 2,000 bodies are said to be buried in NN (No name) graves. uribe was president all the time the bodies were buried at La Macarena.

[Judi Lynn]

3. The Semana articke says they are also going after high-ranking official witnesses with threats, too.

Looks like an all out effort to intimidate the witnesses so no one has the courage to testify.

Hope no one gets killed, and sure hope this vitally important prosecution won't fail.

Thanks for the updates.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Tomas Uribe accuses judge of obstructing justice

Tomas Uribe accuses judge of obstructing justice
Thursday, 05 August 2010 06:16 Kirsten Begg

Tomas Uribe, son of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, accused Supreme Court Magistrate Yesid Ramirez of obstructing justice by requesting that the prosecutor general open an investigation into his alleged involvement in a corruption scandal.

The president's son published a press release in which he announced that his father had reported Ramirez to the House of Representatives Commission for Investigation and Accusation, following the magistrate's petition for an investigation into the allegations.

"The same judge that claims that my father is a murderer is the one that is investigating me, without having the jurisdiction to do so," the press release reads.

~snip~
Tomas Uribe was allegedly involved in the naming of Luz Marina Ocampo as a notary in Tunja, Boyaca, a town north-east of Bogota, as part of a campaign to bribe congressmen to support his father's 2006 re-election.

According to the former superintendent of notaries, Manuel Cuello Baute, more than 30 notaries were assigned on government orders, and Tomas Uribe and Casa de Nariño officials were involved in the assignment.

More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/11180-tomas-uribe-accuses-judge-of-obstructing-justice.html