Good book to dust off and re-read: Figueiredo's "The Ministry of Silence."
Após grampo no STF, Lula manda demitir e enquadra a Abin: “After bugging of the Supreme Court, Lula orders firings and pressures ABIN.” The Estado de S. Paulo reports.
The remarkable thing about this entire saga — a contemporary Brazilian version of COINTELPRO — which broke in Veja magazine based on a single anonymous source, is the insistence by many news organizations that picked it up that it was a proven fact that ABIN, the Brazilian federal intelligence agency, conducted the wiretaps.
This is by no means a proven fact, as Luis Nassif pointed out yesterday.
What there may be in this case is another spectacular case of insubordination by permanent state bureaucrats to democratically elected leadership.
In the wake of an astonishing protest recently against the possibility of reviewing Brazil’s 1979 amnesty law for “political crimes” — see Rio de Janeiro: “Scenes from an Old Folk’s Home for Traumatized Cold Warriors” – it may not be surprising that former elements of the military dictatorship still hanging onto their public-sector sinecures might be running little coup games again.
That is what this Estado report suggests: That the “R2s” were behind the bugging.
O ministro-chefe da Segurança Institucional, general Jorge Felix, à qual a Abin é subordinada, disse ao Estado que já conversou com o presidente Lula sobre as providências a serem tomadas. “Conversei com o presidente e pedi ao procurador-geral da República (Antonio Fernando de Souza) que, da parte do Ministério Público, investigue o que está havendo”, disse o general.
The minister of Institutional Security, General Felix, to whom ABIN is subordinated, told the Estado that he has spoken with President Lula about the measures to be taken. “I talked with the president and asked the federal attorney (Mr. Souza) to investigate what is going on here, through the Public Ministry (federal prosecutor’s office).
“Paralelamente, está sendo feita uma sindicância na Abin. Uma coisa é certa: tudo indica que houve uma gravação, porque os dois interlocutores reconheceram o teor da conversa. Se foi a Abin, pode ser e pode não ser. Mas que houve a gravação, houve. Quem fez isso será punido”, afirmou o general. Ele disse que condena esse tipo de atitude e que ela não será tolerada. “Não tem nenhum sentido fazer alguma coisa fora da lei”.
“At the same time, an internal investigation is going on at ABIN. One thing is certain: All indications are that there was a recording of a call, because the two participants in that call recognize the content of the conversation. Whether or not it was ABIN, it could be or it could not be. But that there was a recording, there’s no doubt. Whoever did it is going to be punished,” said the general. …
No Palácio do Planalto e entre funcionários da Abin, no entanto, existe a grave suspeita de que agentes egressos do antigo Serviço Nacional de Informações (SNI), o serviço secreto criado pelo governo militar, estejam por trás dos grampos nos telefones do Supremo.
Inside the presidency and among ABIN employees, however, there is a serious suspicion that former agents of the old National Intelligence Service (SNI), the secret service of the military regime, are behind the wiretaps on the telephones of the Supreme Court.
Filed under: Brazil, Organized Crime, Politics | Tagged: abin, dictatorship, espionage, geisel, golbery, lucas figueiredo, luis nassif, lula, military regime, scandal, sni, surveillance, veja, wiretapping | Leave a Comment »
