Colombian newscast Noticias Uno on Sunday confirmed a report by U.S. newspaper The Washington Post that the U.S. embassy was involved in the illegal wiretapping conducted by the Colombian intelligence agency DAS.
In its Sunday broadcast, Noticas Uno showed the Supreme Court hearing of a DAS agent in which the official said he and his colleagues received U.S.-funded “psychological operations” training in 2005. “The training always was supervised by a man from the American embassy,” said DAS detective Jose Gabriel Jimenez.
Before the court, the DAS agent, detective Jose Gabriel Jimenez, testified that an American agent from the U.S. Embassy regularly visited the DAS office to check up on the activities of the DAS unit “Game,” which included the illegal wiretapping.
According to Jimenez, the U.S. Embassy provided an estimated $56,000 to the Game unit. He claimed that the American agent reviewed the activities with the Colombian unit’s leader.
The Noticias Uno report confirmed an August 20 Washington Post article, which said that United States money, equipment and training were supplied to DAS, which was then used to carry out the illegal wiretapping and smear campaigns against opponents of the administration of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
The Washington Post claimed it can support its allegations with “law enforcement documents obtained by The Washington Post and interviews with prosecutors and former Colombian intelligence officials.”
“[The United States government] has not participated in any way in such violations or had information about it,” a U.S. Embassy statement said last week in response to The Washington Post article.