Colombian President Alvaro Uribe says that a “mastermind” has been “plotting against the government in the issue of illegal wiretaps,” following reports by Semana magazine which implicated the government in the wiretapping scandal enveloping security agency DAS.
The information obtained by Semana indicates that the results of illegal wiretapping of Colombian judges, politicians, journalists and trade unionists were reported to the government. A former official in DAS’s analysis department alleges that he “received orders with the objective of working on issues that were sensitive for the government.”
Uribe claims that the allegedly incriminating documents presented to Semana by DAS officials featured forged signatures, such as that of the president’s lawyer, Jaime Lombada, who Uribe says was “astonished” by the news.
“Where is the proof that the president of the republic or the palace officials have given an illegal order? Who had given it? And when? There is all this pursuit to discredit the government,” Uribe said on radio station, Ondas del Meta.
The president said that on another occasion “someone from DAS delivered a tape to Semana magazine, which featured a DEA agent talking to an assistant court judge, to discredit the government.”
“Why are they doing this illegal recording and immediately taking it to the media to try to discredit the government? How do they that?” the president asked.
Uribe asked the Colombian Supreme Court “not to act upon lies.”
