Daniel Valente Dantas. Graphic: Veja magazine, May 2006, when it reported: “Daniel Dantas has a list that may show illegal offshore bank accounts controlled by the president and party bigwigs.” Veja had plenty of evidence that “almost certainly does not” was the word to use instead of “may.” Ecce Veja.
“Our target acts in a highly strategic manner. When we seized his laptop (at his home), there were handwritten notes: At the federal police, go see so-and-so, talk to so-and-so. In the courts, go see so-and-so. For the journalist, we will hire Mangabeira to approach the news media. It was all charted out there.”
The Brazilian news media is overrun with information, presented as journalistic reporting, whose principle motivation is to serve the commercial interests of third parties, without the reader, viewer, listener or Internet user being made aware of this. –Ricardo Kaufmann
Satiagraha: Documentos apreendidos mostram que propinas chegariam a R$ 18 milhões: In the case of Daniel Valente “The Quiet Brazilian” Dantas, leaks continue to dribble out from the recording of a three-hour meeting between federal police leadership and the lead investigator in the case.
Over the weekend, Veja magazine, echoed by the Estado de S. Paulo and Folha de S. Paulo, published very highly selective excerpts from the conversation in which the investigator was interpreted as admitting he bugged the Supreme Court to obtain information on Dantas’ legal defense strategy.
The recordings were delivered to federal legislator Raul Jungmann last week — I know I read that, in Noblat and Josias de Souza, the Hedda Hoppers of Brazilian online disse que disse cut-and-paste journalism, I think — although Veja (typically) does not state a source for its information on their contents.
Today, O Globo lets another (sensational) aspect of the recordings dribble out: the police at the meeting discussed alleged evidence that R$18 million in bribes were paid to politicians, judges and journalists by the Dantas organization.
If that were really true — the version of the preliminary report that leaked out referred to an appendix specifically on the so-called “Dantas communications system” –I wonder what journalists got bribed?
It seems astonishing that a news organization (Veja, for example) with access to the full conversation would only report information helpful to Dantas’ defense while pointedly omitting information not necessarily helpful to it.
Or it might seem astonishing, if you were not familiar with the sort of so-called journalism practiced at the Editora Abril’s flagship newsweekly.
A verdict is expected shortly on charges that the Dantas organization attempted to pay off a federal police agent for US$1 million to keep it out of the so-called Satyagraha case and incriminate a business rival. The agent reportedly set up a sting operation and filmed the bribe being negotiated, Abscam style.
RIO – Documentos apreendidos na Operação Satiagraha indicam a existência de um esquema que movimentava R$ 18 milhões apenas em propinas para políticos, juizes e jornalistas. A revelação foi feita pelo delegado Carlos Eduardo Pelegrini Magro, um dos responsáveis pelo inquérito que resultou na prisão do banqueiro Daniel Dantas, durante reunião de três horas com a cúpula da Polícia Federal, no dia 14 de julho. Os registros desse encontro começaram a ser publicados pelo GLOBO no último sábado
Documents seized during Operation Satyagraha indicate the existence of a scheme that paid out R$18 million in bribes to politicians, judges and journalists. The revelation was made by federal police investigator Carlos Eduardo Pelegrini Magro, one of the investigators in the case that led to the arrest of banker Daniel Dantas, during a three hour meeting with senior federal police officials on July 14. The transcripts of this meeting began to be published in O Globo last Saturday.
Apparently, O Globo is edited by the same people that produce the media conglomerate’s TV soap operas.
Rather than giving it to you all at once, they feel the need to keep the reader in suspense. Will Débora flash her tits as promised? Tune in for the next episode! Same bat time! Same bat channel!
Pelegrini diz ter apreendido, na operação, bilhetes e informações digitalizadas detalhando o esquema de propina. E classificou o grupo que orbita em torno de Dantas de “muito forte”. ( Os personagens da Satiagraha )
Pelegrini said that during the operation he seized notes and digital information detailing the bribery scheme. He characterized the group that orbits around Dantas as “extremely powerful.” …
” Nosso alvo é extremamente estrategista “
“Our target acts in a highly strategic manner.”
- Nosso alvo é extremamente estrategista. Ao pegar o laptop (na casa dele, na hora da apreensão) estavam os manuscritos: na PF vai a pessoa tal, falar com tal. No Judiciário vai a pessoa tal. No jornalista, a gente contrata o Mangabeira para chegar nos meios de comunicação. Estava todo o organograma dele lá.
“Our target acts in a highly strategic manner. When we seized his laptop (at his home), there was [a handwritten note]: ‘At the federal police, go see so-and-so, talk to so-and-so. In the courts, go see so-and-so. For the journalist, we will hire Mangabeira to approach the news media. It was all charted out there.’”
Mangabeira Unger, the Harvard law professor, worked as a trustee representing Dantas in his bid to retain control of Brasil Telecom.
In a 2005 op-ed for the Folha de S. Paulo, he called the Lula government — in which he now occupies a cabinet post — “the most corrupt administration in the history of Brazil.” The op-ed imitated the rhetorical form of Zola’s famous “j’accuse” letter in the Dreyfus case. How corny can you get?
Mangabeira Unger later apologized, saying he was wrong. His defenders (lamely) argued he had made the understandable but fatal mistake of believing what he read in the Brazilian press. This from Brazil’s leading (reputed) public intellectual. So much for the critical faculties of the Harvard faculty.
( Áudio: Delegado conta que havia acordo entre a equipe de Protógenes e o juiz De Sanctis para manter o segredo na operação )
([LINK TO] Audio: Police official says there was an accord between Queiroz and the judge to keep the operation secret.)
O superintendente da PF em São Paulo, Leandro Coimbra, na conversa, pediu cautela ao se fazer acusações sobre distribuição de propina.
São Paulo federal police superintendent Leandro Coimbra called for caution in making accusations about the distribution of bribes.
- As organizações hoje se caracterizam por tentar entrar nos órgãos públicos. Temos que ter sobriedade nesses julgamentos.
“Organizations today are characterized by their attempts to infiltrate public agencies. We have to be sober in our judgments.”
O diretor de combate ao crime organizado, Roberto Troncon Filho, foi claro ao expor a irritação com o silêncio do delegado Protógenes Queiroz, responsável pela execução da operação, sobre os detalhes da investigação. Para ele, as desconfianças dentro da PF criaram um “clima virulento”.
Federal police organized crime director Troncon expressed obvious irritation with the silence of Queiroz, the agent in charge of the investigation, regarding the details of the operation. In his view, his mistrust of the federal police had created “a poisonous atmosphere.”
Queiroz said he did not trust his superiors with information on the case because he feared leaks. Given the astonishing amount of stories you read in the press here that are leaked from police sources, this does not seem like an insane fear.
- Você, Queiroz, tem uma mania de perseguição, uma paranóia, que contagia todo mundo. Essa virose da desconfiança, não vejo com bom desfecho. Me senti bastante chateado – disse Troncon.
“You, Queiroz, suffer from a persecution mania that is contaminating everyone else. This mistrust of yours, I don’t see it ending well. I am pretty mad about it,” said Troncon.
- Eu, de forma cautelosa, não fui muito feliz ao me dirigir ao Troncon. Eu disse: o conteúdo da investigação, prefiro não te repassar, para te resguardar. De janeiro para cá, houve fatos que me deixaram apreensivo. Fatos que não eram paranóia – reagiu Protógenes.
“It was somewhat unfortunate, the cautious way I spoke when addressing Troncon. I said, ‘The contents of the investigation I would prefer not to pass along, to spare you. From January until now, things have happened that have made me apprehensive. Things that were not just my paranoia,” Protogenes responded.
Filed under: Brazil, Journalism, Media, Organized Crime, Politics Tagged: | bribery, corruption, daniel dantas, estado de s. paulo, folha de s. paulo, o globo, opportunity, veja
