LULA’S GESTAPO: “Without a judge’s order, federal police intrude on the privacy [of TV Globo journalists in a bid to violate journalist-source confidentiality!]” Apparent source: A leaker from inside the leak investigation. How ironic is that?
The Painel column of the Folha de S. Paulo today plays up the paper’s own reporting, according to which journalists have been the victims of illegal police wiretapping without the benefit of a court order. See
The accuracy of that reporting has been contested.
The Folha’s own Andrea Michael was the subject of a search and arrest warrant application in the Satiagraha case, which arrested banker Daniel Valente Dantas — a warrant application that was denied.
Michael had published a story in April tipping investigation targets to the existence of a police investigation into their activities. As the Folha wrote at the time, after the final report in the case leaked:
O documento se refere à jornalista da Folha Andréa Michael como “integrante da organização criminosa”, “travestida de correspondente da [sic] jornal Folha de São Paulo na cidade de Brasília”. Michael foi autora de reportagem, em abril, que antecipou, com exclusividade, a operação da PF.
The document refers to Folha journalist Michael as “a member of the criminal organization,” “disguised as the correspondent of the Folha de S. Paulo in Brasilia.” Michael published an exclusive report in April that predicted the federal police operation [against executives of the Opportunity group and others.]
As I said, the federal police deny the putative facts that the Folha columnist describes here as a “revelation” — one of the most overused terms in the vocabulary of yellow journalism.
A revelação de que a Corregedoria da Polícia Federal obteve a quebra do sigilo telefônico de jornalistas sem autorização judicial reanimou a decadente CPI dos Grampos, que já tinha os dias contados para ir parar no arquivo morto da Câmara.
The revelation that federal police internal affairs succeeded in intruding on the telephone privacy of journalists without judicial authorization has revived the decadent congressional commission of inquiry [CPI] into wiretaps, whose days had been numbered, and which seemed fated to disappear into the scrap heap of history.
Os integrantes da comissão acertaram a votação de requerimentos do deputado Gustavo Fruet (PSDB-PR) para convocar o delegado Amaro Vieira Ferreira e o procurador Roberto Dassié, que atuam no caso, além de pedidos de informação ao juiz Ali Mazloum, autor das ordens de busca e apreensão contra o delegado Protógenes Queiroz. Mais: a CPI também tem pronta uma ofensiva contra a Nextel, operadora que forneceu os dados telefônicos à PF.
Members of the commission agreed to vote on motions by federal deputy Gustavo Fruet (PSDB-Paraná) to summon police constable Vieira Ferreira and prosecutor Dassié, who are active in the case, and to request information from Judge Mazloum, who issued the search warrants against police investigator Protógenes Queiroz. There’s more: The CPI is also preparing an offensive against Nextel, the cellular operator that furnished the telephone data to the federal police.
One of the members of the CPI is a Rio police inspector overheard on a court-ordered wiretap suggesting to a policeman later indicted for putting the fix in for the gambling rackets that a colleague investigating police corruption ought to be “whacked out.”
Someone later tried to whack that colleague out. The police inspector, later elected to congress, believes the use of wiretaps to combat official corruption and organized crime is an outrage against democratic liberties!
- Rio: Things Get Messy for Maggessi?
- Rio: “Marina Maggessi Is a Victim of the Police State and the International Communist Conspiracy”
Reação. Do presidente da CPI dos Grampos, Marcelo Itagiba (PMDB-RJ): “É praticamente impossível haver grampo sem autorização judicial e sem colaboração das operadoras. A notícia é gravíssima. Vamos convocar todos os envolvidos, aprovando requerimentos na terça-feira”.
Reaction. CPI president Marcelo Itagiba (PMDB-Rio) said, “It is practically impossible for wiretapping to occur without a court order and without the cooperation of the telephone operators. This is a grave matter. We are going to summon everyone involved, voting the motions on Tuesday.”
Daniel Dantas and Kroll employees are currently on trial for wiretapping various and sundry without a court order and without the official cooperation of the telephone companies (although Dantas actually RAN a telephone company, Brasil Telecom, at the time, it should be recalled.)
There was a case in São Paulo a year or so ago in which it was found that Telefônica personnel responsible for implementing court-ordered wiretaps were getting paid off to tip the targets of those taps.
In counterpoint, the Folha runs this brief interview with a federal police investigator by reporter Lilian “Puta Sacanagem” Christofoletti, author of the original report, based on leaked confidential information from a police investigation into the leaking of confidential investigation from a police investigation.
O delegado da Polícia Federal Amaro Vieira Ferreira, responsável por investigar o vazamento da Satiagraha, afirmou ontem que o sigilo da fonte é uma questão restrita a jornalistas e que seu dever é descobrir a fonte policial que avisou a TV Globo que a operação ocorreria na madrugada de 8 de julho.
Federal police constable Vieira Ferreira, in charge of investigating leaks in Satiagraha, said yesterday that confidentiality of sources is an issue exclusive to journalists and that his duty is to uncover the police source that tipped off TV Globo that the arrests warrants would be served on the morning of July 8.
“Se a investigação levar a A, B ou C, não me interessa. O sigilo da fonte não é meu, é do jornalista. Posso chamar o jornalista e perguntar quem o avisou. Ele pode se manter em silêncio. E eu, como policial, posso buscar outros caminhos para descobrir quem vazou”, afirmou.
“If the investigation identifies A, B, or C, I don’t care. Confidentiality of the source is not my problem, it’s the journalist’s. I can call the journalist in and ask who tipped them off. The journalist can keep quiet. And I, as a policeman, can try to find other ways to find out who leaked,” he said.
It was Scooter Libby, said the late NBC anchor Tim Russert, pointing his finger straight at Dick Cheney’s right-hand man.
If journalists have a duty to protect their sources, does that duty extend to obstruction of justice if their sources have committed crimes or misconduct? Tough question. Should sources continue to be protected if they lie to you or otherwise burn you?
If the “Puta Sacanagem” case is any indication, the Folha’s ethical compass seems to point in the direction of actually out and out lying to its readers in order to protect the identity of sources in the sleazy leak journalism that is its stock in trade.
A Folha informou ontem que a PF conseguiu, sem ordem judicial, a quebra do sigilo telefônico de dezenas de aparelhos Nextel usados na madrugada em que a operação foi deflagrada. Os pedidos foram focados em quatro locais onde havia equipes da TV Globo à espera da polícia na madrugada da operação.
The Folha reported yesterday that the federal police managed to break the confidentiality of dozens of Nextel devices used on the morning the arrests were made. The requests for information focused on four areas where TV Globo teams were waiting for police to arrive on the morning of the operation.
The PF denied the accuracy of that report.
“Não houve pedido de quebra de sigilo à Nextel, muito menos de quebra de sigilo de jornalistas. Pedimos apenas que a empresa nos informasse quais antenas servem determinados lugares, e para isso não é necessária uma autorização judicial”, afirmou Amaro.
“There was no request to Nextel to violate privacy, much less to violate the privacy of journalists. We merely asked that the company inform us of which antennas were in which locations, and for this you do not need a court order,” Amaro said.
They used the same technique in a case in Rio: The assassination of a police inspector who led the militia in Rio das Pedras.
Nos autos, segundo a Folha apurou, a PF pediu a relação completa de “todos” os celulares e antenas usadas nas imediações da sede paulista da PF e em três locais alvos de buscas durante a deflagração da Satiagraha. Há ainda o horário em que as antenas foram usadas.
In the case file, as the Folha was able to discover, the federal police asked for a complete accounting of “all” the cell phones and antennas used in the area around police headquarters and the three areas where warrants were to be served. And also the time at which the antennas were used.
Questionado sobre o objetivo de identificar as antenas que captaram ligações feitas e recebidas apenas onde havia jornalistas à espera, o delegado afirmou que o caso está sob sigilo. “Mas posso assegurar que nenhum jornalista mora nesses locais”, disse, em tom irônico.
Asked what the object was of identifying antennas that capture calls made and received in areas where journalists were waiting, the policeman said the case is under seal. “But I can assure you that no journalists live at those locations,” he said, in an ironic tone.
Durante a madrugada do dia 8 de julho, foram presos o banqueiro Daniel Dantas, o investidor Naji Nahas e o ex-prefeito Celso Pitta, entre outras 14 pessoas, todos investigados por supostos crimes financeiros. A prisão de Pitta, às 6h e de pijamas, foi filmada pela TV.
Summary of events on July 8.
“Sou um policial sério e não concordo em mostrar na TV alguém sendo preso. Quem vazou cometeu um crime, e é isso que investigo”, disse Amaro. Segundo a Folha apurou, a PF queria descobrir se o delegado Protógenes Queiroz, que comandou a Operação Satiagraha, ou algum dos seus subordinados avisou os repórteres.
“I am a serious police professional and I do not agree with showing someone being arrested on TV. Whoever leaked information on the arrests committed a crime, and that is what I am investigating,” Amaro said. As the Folha was able to discover, the feds want to know whether or not Queiroz, who commanded the arrests, or one of his subordinates, tipped off reporters.
A reportagem encontrou ontem com Amaro por acaso no prédio da Justiça Federal. Ele deixava o sétimo andar pela escada de incêndio, ao lado do superintendente da PF de São Paulo, Leandro Daiello Coimbra. No sétimo andar funciona a 7ª Vara Federal, do juiz Ali Mazloum, que autorizou os pedidos de Amaro para busca e apreensão contra agentes que atuaram na Satiagraha. Amaro, que falou com a Folha no subsolo do prédio, após descer nove lances de escada, não confirmou se esteve com Mazloum.
This newspaper met Amaro yesterday by chance in the federal courthouse. He was leaving the seventh floor by the fire stairs. The 7th Federal Bar, presided over by Judge Mazloum, who authorized Amaro’s requests for search warrants against investigators in the Satiagraha case, is on that floor. Amaro, who spoke with a Folha reporter in the building’s basement, after walking down nine flights of stairs, would not say whether he had met with Mazloum.
The Folha has dedicated a huge editorial package to this tempest in a teapot today. Among the items are this comment from Supreme Court Chief Justice Gilmar Mendes, who says while he has no information about what happened, he has a strong opinion in the case nevertheless.
It reminds one of Justice Mello’s remarks about the election eve 2006 “mountain of money” scandal, when he said that, while he had no information on the scandal — except what he had read in the Folha de S. Paulo — he believed it was “a Brazilian Watergate” that warranted the impeachment of the federal president.
The Brazilian Supreme Court is not shy about making ex parte remarks about cases it may eventually have to sit in judgment on.
This is what Alberto Gonzalez had in mind for us back home. Thank goodness he has been consigned to the scrap heap of history.
Indagado sobre a quebra de sigilo telefônico sem autorização judicial realizada pela Polícia Federal, o presidente do STF (Supremo Tribunal Federal) Gilmar Mendes disse que não tinha conhecimento sobre os detalhes do caso, mas afirmou que “não se combate ilegalidade cometendo ilegalidade”.
Asked about the invasion of privacy without a court order by the Federal Police, the Chief Justice said that he did not know the details of the case, but said that “one does not combat illegality by committing illegalities.”
Mendes não fez comentários diretos sobre a conduta da Polícia Federal: “Não tenho elementos específicos sobre o assunto, então não posso emitir opinião”. Porém afirmou que, “se houve (quebra de sigilo sem permissão judicial), certamente isso será censurado pelo próprio Judiciário”.
Mendes made no direct comments on the conduct of the federal police: “I have no specific information on the case, so I cannot express an opinion.” However, he said that, “if there was (invasion of privacy without a court order), then this will certainly be censured by the Judiciary.”
I do not have an opinion, and my opinion is the following.
Filed under: Brazil, Journalism, Media, Organized Crime
