Equipo Nizkor - What Colombia Did With American Spy Tools.

Old habits die hard, so there's something sadly unsurprising in the news that a Colombian army unit used American surveillance equipment, provided to fight Marxist guerrillas and drug traffickers, to spy on journalists, political opponents and public figures. It's entirely possible that one important goal was to conceal that the fight was dirty and not going particularly well.

The targeted journalists included Nicholas Casey of The New York Times, who created a stir a year ago when he reported that the head of the Colombian army had ordered troops to double the number of criminals and militants they kill or capture, an order reminiscent of the excesses in the army's decades of conflict against rebel and paramilitary groups.

Though the government reached a landmark peace deal in 2016, illegal armed groups and criminal gangs, most of them linked to illicit coca cultivation and drug trafficking, have remained a major scourge. The Trump administration has put heavy pressure on Colombia to crack down, but despite $10 billion in American aid the struggle has shown little progress. Land under coca cultivation has been steadily increasing, and according to the United Nations, the gangs killed 86 community leaders and 77 former members of the guerrilla group that signed the peace pact with the state.

That poor showing is one plausible reason the army would go to great lengths to show results. And though it remains unclear who ordered the surveillance operation, which the Colombian government and senior army brass insist they knew nothing about, it is not hard to figure out why at least some elements in the army would want to watch those watching them.

In all, according to the magazine Semana, which first published the allegations, the military compiled elaborate dossiers on more than 130 people, including former generals, politicians, trade union leaders, social activists and at least two dozen journalists. Using computer tools and software, the magazine wrote, "they carried out searches and massively and indiscriminately collected all the information possible about their objectives to prepare military intelligence reports." The targets included some Semana reporters and, in addition to Mr. Casey, reporters for The Wall Street Journal and NPR.

The unit's tools, according to The Wall Street Journal, included listening devices and other equipment supplied by the United States; The Journal also reported that members of the intelligence unit helped themselves to American aid money. That resources supplied by the United States to combat drug smuggling to the United States were used to spy on American reporters is especially galling. The Pentagon must also address how it monitors its aid.

But Colombia's status as one of America's main allies in the region is also at stake. For its own sake, and its future, Colombia needs to ensure that its army abide by strict rules of behavior. There appears to have been some progress in that regard. Semana's reports have led to the firing of 11 officers of the intelligence unit. The magazine also reported that the resignation of the top army commander, Gen. Nicacio Martínez Espinel, was related to the allegations of illegal surveillance, though he has denied this. The government of President Iván Duque, a major recipient of U.S. aid, has condemned the secret surveillance and has directed the defense minister to investigate intelligence work done over the past decade.

Mr. Duque's own credibility is also at stake. A conservative, he campaigned against the peace deal because he thought it was too soft on the rebels. He was a senior officer in northeast Colombia in the years of the illegal killings, and it was he who appointed General Martínez Espinel as commander of the army last year over opposition from groups like Human Rights Watch. From 2002 to 2008, nearly 5,000 civilians or guerrillas were killed outside of combat, according to the United Nations. More than 1,100 members of the security forces have been convicted of crimes related to the deaths, according to the government.

Illegal wiretapping likewise has a history in Colombia. Less than 10 years ago, the country's intelligence agency was dismantled in a scandal over secret surveillance.

Colombia needs to address not just malfeasance in its military when it is exposed by the press, but also the culture of abuse and the sense of being above the law that continue to infect the army. It makes little sense to denounce human-rights violations and at the same time appoint an officer with General Martínez Espinel's history to lead the army.

The struggle against rebel groups, no matter how exasperating or how urgently pushed by the Trump administration, cannot be a return to the civil wars that ravaged the country for at least half a century. That is something President Duque, and his main foreign ally, should make abundantly clear.

08may20

What Colombia Did With American Spy Tools

[Source: By The Editorial Board, The New York Times, 08May20]

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