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EUobserverhas revealed details of an alleged covert operation by Colombia’s secret service (DAS) to undermine the EU. According to documents seized by the Colombian Attorney General’s office, a DAS mission known as “Operation Europe” sought “to neutralise the influence of the European judicial system, the European Parliament's human rights sub-committee, and the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights”. News of the operation, which included wire-taps and email intercepts, first broke in Colombia in 2009, after which the then president Alvaro Uribe introduced legislation to investigate and overhaul the agency. While the European Commission has expressed faith in the current inquiry, several MEPs, NGOs and Brussels insiders critical of Colombia’s human rights record are concerned that the campaign to thwart Bogota’s critics in Europe is far from over. Paul Emile Dupret, a Belgian political advisor to the European Parliament’s United European Left group, aims to take a case against the Colombian agency this July along with victims of DAS wire taps and intimidation.
