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.
The measure, allowing the DAS to no longer intercept phonecalls without Police authorization, will be retracted after the law takes effect that reorganizes Colombia’s intelligence structure.
The law was agreed upon by both Colombia’s House of Representatives and Senate more than two months ago, but wasn’t sent to President Uribe until after the wiretap scandal. Uribe will now, according to the new law, return the authority to intercept phonecalls to the DAS.