Colombia scandal: Police wiretapped Uribe's main opponent during campaign

BOGOTA, Colombia: An illegal police wiretapping operation against journalists, opposition figures and government members included the man President Alvaro Uribe defeated in the last election, his defense minister acknowledged Tuesday.

Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos insisted that the Uribe administration was unaware of the police spying operation. "We don't know who ordered these interceptions and the government has never learned what they contain," he said.

Santos refused to reveal all the known victims of the wiretapping, but he did acknowledge that Carlos Gaviria of the Polo Democratico Alternativo party, who finished second in May 2006 presidential elections, was spied on. "That's as much as I'm going to say. I saw others but I don't think it merits giving the names," he told a news conference.

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"It's impossible to think that Uribe didn't benefit from this," said Sen. Juan Fernando Cristo, a spokesman for the opposition Liberal party. "A middling rank officer didn't come up with this ... someone gave the order and someone received the transcripts."