Press Releases

U.S. Rep. McGovern called for better accounting and oversight of U.S. Aid to Colombia's Department of Administrative Services in a floor speech this morning, as well as in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cosigned by U.S. Rep. Janice Schakowsky on Wednesday.

A copy of McGovern's remarks as prepared and the letter are below.

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Prepared Remarks: Rule for the Consideration of H.R. 1892, the FY 2012 Intelligence Authorization Act

M. Speaker, I would like to talk about a serious intelligence issue.

For the past decade, Colombia's intelligence agency, the Department of Administrative Security - or the DAS - has engaged in illegal activities. Created to investigate organized crime, insurgents and drug traffickers, the DAS instead provided paramilitary death squads with the names of trade unionists to be murdered and carried out illegal surveillance on journalists, human rights defenders, political opposition leaders, and Supreme Court judges.

American cash, equipment and training to help shut down drug-trafficking may have been used for spy operations, smear campaigns and threats against civil society leaders in Colombia.

Several U.S. agencies aided the DAS - the State Department, Pentagon, DEA, CIA, and DIA - even as scandal after scandal after scandal became publicly known.

It was only in April 2010 when U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield suspended U.S. aid to the DAS, diverting those resources to the Colombian National Police.

Yesterday, Congresswoman Schakowsky and I sent a letter to the Secretaries of State and Defense, the U.S. Attorney General and the CIA Director asking them to provide Congress with a comprehensive report on all forms of U.S. aid to the DAS and to tell us what the DAS used the aid for.

It's not too much to ask, Mr. Speaker.

There has been a shocking lack of oversight over all the U.S. aid that poured into the DAS over the past decade. Getting to the bottom of this is what oversight is all about.

Colombia is doing its part. The Attorney General is carrying out an aggressive investigation and series of prosecutions. Six former high-ranking intelligence officials have confessed to crimes. More than a dozen other operatives are on trial, with more still under investigation. President Santos has promised to dismantle the DAS and replace it with a new intelligence agency. In the meantime, the old structures still remain. Witnesses cooperating with the Attorney General find themselves and their families threatened; and human rights defenders, even now, are STILL under surveillance.

Mr. Speaker, I'm sure that U.S. intentions were good. But I also believe that the DAS was generally -up to no good.- I find it impossible to understand how the State Department and embassy officials can say with certainty that absolutely no U.S. funding was ever used by the DAS for criminal purposes.

Congress must insist on safeguards to ensure that no funding, equipment, training or intelligence-sharing with ANY Colombian intelligence agency is used for illegal surveillance or criminal activities, now and in the future.

The Administration or Congress must prohibit any further funding for the DAS - including aid in the pipeline - until the Attorney General has completed all investigations and prosecutions, finds out who ordered these illegal activities, and President Santos has completely dismantled the current agency.

I ask the Committee Chairman and Ranking Member to guarantee the Members of this House that no further aid will be provided to the DAS, and if that prohibition is not explicitly in this bill that they will work with the Senate to include it in the final conference report.

Thank you M. Speaker - I yield back the balance of my time.

Inserts for the Record:

• 9/7/11 Letter to Administration officials from Reps. McGovern and Schakowsky
• 9/2/11 Los Angeles Times Editorial: Colombia's Spreading Scandal