$ 4.8 million to strengthen information exchange between US and Panama

The transfer of a fund of $4.8 million dollars to provide continuity to an elite program for exchanging information between Panama and the United States was approved by the Budget Committee of the National Assembly, to the Ministry of the Presidency. This move was questioned by opposition PRD lawmaker Benicio Robinson, who did not hide his concern that this program will be used to monitor telephone calls or to intercept text messages sent on BlackBerry telephones. "They have tapped the phones of lawmakers, of politicians, but I hope this is to strengthen security and not to be approving intelligence services from the Israelis that the country does not know about," he warned. The $4.8 million dollars was segregated from the budget allocated to the project of Metro Line 1 for fiscal 2010. Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of the Presidency, Maria Fabrega, denied that the strengthening of security looks to intercept telephone calls, nor did she respond to statements made by the former U.S. ambassador to Panama in Wikileaks, but said it was to to bring better security control to prevent drug trafficking and weapons. (La Critica)

Editor's Comment: Panama is going to spend $4.8 million dollars on a system to improve information sharing with the United States? And according to the Ministry of the Presidency (who is getting the money) it's a system to combat drug trafficking and weapons smuggling. Hmmm. Well, it could be that Panama is getting tied into a regional intelligence network that's being built, with most of the money coming from the US, but each local country has to put up a part to participate.