Behind the Music: The Estadão on the Leaky Police

Has Brazil’s federal police really evolved from airplane to starship? The Estado de S. Paulo invites us down the rabbit hole for a look at the men, the myths and the murky madness.

Atrás dos holofotes da Navalha, guerra na Polícia Federal (Estado de S. Paulo): “Behind the spotlight on Operation Straight Razor, war inside the federal police.”

The lede gets buried in a lot of mumbo-jumbo here, but it boils down to this: A federal judge says that Operation Straight Razor was born as an investigation into crimes by federal police, but that high-ranking PF officials stifled those investigations.

The judge does not name names.

The Estadão does not seek reaction from the police agencies mentioned or evaluate recent, public and notorious cases in which the PF has arrested its own agents for tipping off criminals.

Angêlica Santa Cruz of the conservative daily invokes the films of Martin Scorsese to describe massive maracutaias uncovered during a federal police investigation into the twilight zone between legal lobbying and illegal kickbacks in federal public works contracts.

Which I applaud.

I am constantly telling Neuza that only a Scorsese could do justice to São Paulo’s Italo-Tupi mafia zeitgeist.

On the other hand, life is not the movies.

See also Infotainment Crisis at the Jornal do Brasil! From the Fact v. Fiction File.

I have complained constantly that the Estado, like other news organizations, seems to be basing a lot of its coverage on anonymous leaks from insiders in the case, putting itself at the service of personal agendas.

See Brazil: Spreadsheet B “May Implicate Senators!” and For Our Enemies, The Law: The Estadão Practices Judy Millerism.

Meanwhile, Veja magazine’s use of anonymous leaks to tie an unrelated story in the case is one of the sleaziest cases of journalistic malpractice I have ever seen — even compared to its election-eve “high-risk coverup” cover story. See Veja: The Senator Had Sex! But Is He Screwed?

And that issue has been widely debated after a federal legislator made a speech on the floor of the Senate about favoring privately owned news organizations with selective release of information gathered on the public dime. See Brazil: Globo and the Leaky Police. Again.

In that light, this “behind the music” promises to do us a valuable service: it promises to help us “consider the source.”

But again: the MTV “behind the music” metaphor used to frame it does not inspire immediate confidence in its grasp on the reality principle.

The PF has made a lot of spectacular cases — including spectacular busts and suspensions of senior federal policemen — in recent months. Between 1994 and 2002, it conducted 40 full-scale operations of this kind. From 2003-2006, it conducted nearly 400.

At the same time, there are federal policemen like Edmilson “Bruno Surfistinha” Bruno — who leaked photos of the infamous “mountain of money” to a select group of media outlets, including the Estadão, on election eve.

The PF union has called several “folded arms” days and other mini-strikes recently as a law regulating strikes by public servants works its way through the congress. Muted clashes over alleged abuse of law enforcement powers for political purposes have occasionally broken out. Arrest, Detain, Then Discover the Crime.

And there has been quite a bit of other press recently questioning the “gangbusters” public relations the agency has enjoyed — starting with a James Bond-style IstoÉ cover story late last year.

The problems in passport control, where a glitch recently affected the rollout of a new high-tech green ID for itinerant Tupis, is made much of.

But is the federal police really “in crisis,” as we are told in the lede here? Maybe.

But the real substance of this story — once you get past the elaborate “narrative lede,” with its glittering generalities — is simply to publish the versions of two senior federal police officials who have just been suspended, and the judge who authorized the surveillance.

Put that in the lede. If I want to read about Scorsese, I will turn to the entertainment pages.

Also, in its recital of facts and setting of the stage, the story focuses on two cases of insider leaking, but makes no mention of the elephant in the room here: PF agents caught trying to foil the two big judicial and police corruption cases, Themis in São Paulo and Hurricane in Rio de Janeiro. That might suggest that the PF does not always fail to investigate its own, might it not?
Here’s how Caros Amigos, for example — the folks from the Yellow House practice some of the best investigative journalism in Brazil — would have framed this story:

Q: You have just been suspended from your post. Why was that, do you think?
A: Look, Operation Straight Razor was originally set up to investigate federal police agents suspected of leaking information to investigation targets …

That is actually quite a revelation, if true.

In the Estadão story, it’s buried about nine paragraphs in.

The infotainment-driven phony crisis is a high Brazilian art form.

So filter this “narrative journalism” carefully before consuming.

SALVADOR – Com 230 pessoas grampeadas, pelo menos 700 linhas telefônicas monitoradas e 16 meses de duração, a Operação Navalha exibiu publicamente os enroscos entre políticos e a turma de Zuleido Veras – mas deixou em seus bastidores um amontoado de trocas de acusações entre delegados de primeiro escalão e vazamentos de informações que mostram uma Polícia Federal em crise, incapaz de investigar seus próprios quadros e metida em uma disputa interna pelo poder.

With 230 persons wiretapped and at least 700 telephone lines monitored over 16 months, Operation Straight Razor has put the cozy relationships among politicans and the lobbyists of Gautama on public display. Backstage, however, it has produced a bitter exchange of accusations among high-ranking PF officials and leaks that show a federal police in crisis, incapable of policing its own ranks and enaged in an internal power struggle.

Vista a partir de Salvador, onde tudo começou, a linha do tempo da operação mostra uma vasta rede de intrigas entre policiais e um punhado de trapalhadas – um enredo que lembra os filmes de Martin Scorsese.

Seen from Salvador, where it all began, the operational timeline shows a vast network of intrigues among police and a handful of hapless crooks — a plot that recalls the films of Martin Scorcese.

When The Departed passed through town recently, the Folha critic was grudgingly lukewarm. But then again, the Folha critic’s favorite movie of the year was 007: Casino Royale (Sony Entertainment). It seems you can buy Brazilian movie critics — cheap — to vouch for crap.

A Polícia Federal começou a ser oficialmente investigada em janeiro do ano passado, por causa de vazamentos de informações em outra operação, a Octopus. Criada para monitorar oito empresários que costumam freqüentar denúncias na cidade há mais de uma década, a Octopus foi montada em uma casa alugada do bairro de Itapuã – uma grampolândia oficial cheia de equipamentos de escuta e agentes federais encarregados de operá-los.

The federal police came under official investigation in January of last year because of leaks in another operation, Operation Octopus. Created to listen in on eight businessmen who had been the subject charges for more than a deacde, Octopus was set up in a rented house in Itapuã — a sort of official Disneyland for buggers full of listening equipment and the federal agents in charge of running it.

Lá pelas tantas, os empresários investigados foram flagrados nos grampos fazendo ironias sobre o pequeno quartel general. ´Já esteve na casinha de Itapuã hoje?´, brincou um deles ao telefone.

At one point, the investigation subjects were caught on the wiretaps mocking the PF’s branch office. “You been by the little house in Itapuã today?” one of them joked.

Como ficou claro que o grupo sabia da investigação – e o vazamento só poderia ter saído de agentes da PF -, o juiz da 2ª Vara Federal de Salvador, Durval Carneiro Neto, mandou desativar a casa da arapongagem em Itapuã e avisou a Divisão de Contra-Inteligência da PF em Brasília, setor que investiga policiais. Foi criada, então, a Operação Navalha – para investigar apenas policiais federais.

When it became clear the group knew they were under investigation — and that the leak could only have come from PF agents — Salvador, Bahia federal judge Carneiro Neto ordered the house Itapuã dismanteled and warned the PF Counterintelligence Division in Brasilia, which investigates police. That was when Operation Straight Razor was conceived — to investigate federal police agents, exclusively.

Quinze policiais de três Estados foram monitorados por colegas de Brasília. Os superintendentes da Polícia Federal no Ceará, em Sergipe e na Bahia tiveram escutas ambientais colocadas em seus gabinetes. ´E aí foi uma confusão atrás da outra…´, resume o juiz Durval Carneiro Neto, que autorizou as escutas.

Fifteen PF agents from three states were monitored by colleagues from Brasilia. PF state superintendents in Ceará, Sergipe and Bahia had their offices bugged. “And then it was just one fubar after another,” as Carneiro, who authorized the listening devices, sums it up.

Em poucos meses, a iniciativa de investigar policiais federais foi por água abaixo – por conta de vazamentos dentro da própria polícia ou até de episódios surreais. Em abril, por exemplo, investigadores da Divisão da Contra-Inteligência de Brasília apareceram na Infraero do aeroporto de Salvador pedindo cópias de registros de imagens.

Within a few months, the investigation into federal police went down the drain — because of leaks inside the police or sometimes on account of surreal episodes. In April, for example, invetigators from the Counter-Intelligence Division showed up at the Infraero office at the Salvador airport asking for copies from the image banks.

Os funcionários da Infraero ligaram para o então superintendente da Polícia Federal da Bahia – um dos grampeados – perguntando se os homens eram mesmo policiais. ´Eu lá no meu gabinete, sem saber que estava com escutas colocadas por eles, e a Infraero me perguntando se eu sabia quem eram! Uma coisa de outro mundo. Mandei segurar aqueles homens lá e liguei para todo mundo, perguntando se eles eram mesmo policiais ´, reclama Paulo Fernando Bezerra, hoje secretário de Segurança Pública da Bahia.

The Infraero employees called up the PF superintendent at the time — an investigation target — asking if the men were really police officers. “Me there in my office, not knowing they were bugging me, and Infraero asking me if I knew who they were! I had them hold the men there and called everyone I knew, asking if they really were police agents,” complains Paulo Fernando Bezerra, currently state secretary of public safety in Bahia.

Bezerra afirma que telefonou para Renato Halfen da Porciúncula, diretor da Inteligência Policial em Brasília, para saber o que era aquilo. “Ele dizia apenas: ´é galho fraco, pode soltar´. E eu agora sei que galho fraco quebra com macaco gordo!”

Bezerra says that he called Renato Halfen da Porciúncula, director of Police Intelligence in Brasilia, to find out what was what. “He just said, ‘it’s just a weak branch, you can let it go.’ And now I know that a weak branch breaks when a fat monkey sits on it!”

Two popular expressions are invoked here: “Every monkey on his own branch” (mind your own business) and “breaking off a branch” (doing someone a solid).

The latter comes from trail etiquette. When you are walking Indian file on a trail, you do not release a springy branch to smack the guy behind you. You break it so the next guy doesn’t get smacked in the face.

Um mês depois da trapalhada, outro incidente: dois graúdos policiais investigados deixaram seus cargos. O superintendente da PF do Ceará, João Batista Paiva Santana, foi exonerado. Outro delegado, de Sergipe, pediu para sair.

One month after that foul-up, another incident: Two high-ranking police being investigated left their posts. The PF superintendent in Ceará was fired Another inspector, from Sergipe, resigned.

Os investigados foram dispensados mesmo com a operação estando sob ação controlada – mecanismo jurídico que permite que pessoas monitoradas pela polícia não sejam presas em flagrante, para não atrapalhar investigações maiores. ´Ficou claro que todos os policiais investigados já tinham conhecimento da operação, ou por vazamento de informações ou por operações desastrosas. E altos dirigentes da Polícia Federal apressaram-se em tomar medidas administrativas para afastar os investigados. Foi uma operação abafa´, diz o juiz Carneiro Neto.

The two were let go even though the operation was being conducted as a “controlled action” — a legal mechanism that lets the police refrain from arresting monitoring subjects in flagrante delicto in order to protect wider investigations. ‘It was clear that all the police being investigated already knew of the operation, either from leaks or through operation disasters. And high officials of the PF were in a hurry to start administrative proceedings to fire the investigation targets. It was a cover-up,” says judge Carneiro Neto.

Quite a charge.

Who is he accusing of this?

What do they have to say to the charge?

Or is this just one of those “he says, she says” stories?

Segundo ele, a investigação de policiais na Operação Navalha passou a ser lentamente esvaziada. Em abril do ano passado, conta Carneiro Neto, os delegados da Contra-Inteligência pediram a suspensão do monitoramento de um dos superintendentes investigados. O juiz determinou que o delegado continuaria sob investigação. ´Mas, nos relatórios que se seguiram, a polícia não deu mais nenhuma informação sobre ele – e passou a dizer que as escutas tinham problemas técnicos´, conta.

According to Carneiro, the investigation of police in Straight Razor began to be slowly emptied out. In April of last year, he says, Counter-Intelligence inspectors asked that monitoring be suspended on one of the superintendents being investigated. The judge ruled that the inspector should continue to be investigated. “But in the reports that followed, the police gave no more information about him — and started saying their listening devices had technical problems.”

Em relato de quatro páginas que escreveu para resumir a maneira como a PF deixou de investigar seus quadros, o juiz anota o seguinte: ´Por estrita opção da Divisão de Contra-Inteligência, todas as investigações posteriores voltaram-se para alvos externos aos quadros da Polícia Federal.´

In a four-page report he wrote to summarize the way the PF has omitted to investigate its own, the judge notes the following: “In the sole discretion of the Counter-Intelligence Division, all subsequent investigations were directed at targets outside the ranks of the Federal Police.

Meses depois, e por acaso, as escutas chegaram até Zuleido Veras – e acabaram revelando a máfia das obras em toda a sua extensão. O caso saiu das mãos do juiz federal e foi para o Superior Tribunal de Justiça (STJ) porque alguns dos suspeitos tinham foro privilegiado. ´Aí transformaram a investigação em outra coisa – e os policiais saíram de cena´, diz o juiz.

Months later, completely by accident, the wiretaps turned up the Gautama owner, Zuleido Veras — and wound up revealing the public works mafia in its entire dimension. The case was taken out of the hands of the federal judge and given to the [U.S. Circuit Court-equivalent] because some of the suspects had the right to a privileged forum. “And that is when the investigation turned into something else — and the police exited stage right,” said the judge..

No fim das contas, o pedaço da Operação Navalha dedicado aos policiais resultou em relatório produzido pela Contra-Inteligência da PF e usado pela ministra Eliana Calmon como base para pedir o afastamento por dois meses do diretor-executivo da instituição, Zulmar Pimentel, do atual superintendente na Bahia, Antonio Cesar Fernandes Nunes, e do ex-superintendente Paulo Fernando Bezerra.

In the end, the piece of Straight Razor dedicated to police generated a report by the PF Counter-Intelligence Division that was used by Justice Calmon to petition for the two-month suspension of Zulmar Pimentel, the executive director of the PF, Fernandes Nunes, the PF superintendent in Bahia, and former superintendent Paulo Fernando Bezerra[, currently state public security secretary in the Wagner government.]

A Polícia Federal está em plena disputa interna pela sucessão de seu diretor-geral, Paulo Lacerda – que já avisou que pretende sair do cargo depois dos Jogos Pan-Americanos. Por isso, os afastados apontam no relatório um festival de intenções políticas. ´Estou perplexo, fui pego de surpresa por esse ato vil, pela inclusão do meu nome em um relatório que não vi, para o qual nem fui ouvido´, diz Zulmar Pimentel, segundo homem na hierarquia da PF, afastado do cargo sob acusação de ter ido a Fortaleza exonerar o superintendente do Ceará e avisá-lo de que estava sob investigação.

The PF is in the middle of a full-bore internal dispute over the succession to Paulo Lacerda, its No. 1, who has already said he plans to leave after the Pan-American Games. For that reason, the suspended officials point to the report as a festival of political maneuvering. “I am perplexed, I was taken by surprise by this vile act, by the inclusion of my name in a report I never saw, and which I was never interviewed about,” says Pimentel, the PF’s No. 2 man, suspended after being accused of going to Fortaleza to relieve the PF’s Ceará state superintendent and warn him he was under investigation. 

‘Fui exonerá-lo em missão oficial, a pedido do diretor, porque ele não estava correspondendo às expectativas da direção. E não conversei nada, nada, nada com ele sobre ele ter sido alvo de investigação. Eu tinha ouvido falar disso, mas só por alto – e não sei de onde podem ter tirado isso´, diz.

“I went to relieve him. It was an official act, at the request of the director, because he was not living up to the expectations of the national leadership. I said nothing, nothing at all, to him about being the target of an investigation. I had heard that, but only in passing — and I do not know where they got this,” he says. 

Mantido na Secretaria de Segurança pelo governador Jaques Wagner (PT), Paulo Fernando Bezerra também aponta motivação política. ´Eles grampearam meu gabinete por meses e me deram parabéns porque não havia nada contra mim. Agora apareço lá nesse relatório. Isso é má-fé, uma coisa deliberada mesmo. Desde que o diretor-geral anunciou que vai sair da PF, começou esse desconforto.´

Kept on as state public safety director by Gov. Jacques Wagner, Bezerra also points to political motivations. “They bugged my office for months and congratulated me on not having anything against me. Now this report shows up. This is bad faith, a deliberate thing. Since the No. 1 announced he is leaving, this kind of has started up.”

No relatório, Bezerra é acusado de conhecer o empresário baiano Francisco Catelino, pego nos grampos negociando o pagamento de R$ 7 mil de Zuleido Veras para a festa de posse do superintendente da PF em Sergipe, Rubem Patury. ´Vão ter de investigar a Bahia inteira, porque esse homem conhece todo mundo, é um falastrão´, diz Bezerra.

In the report, Bezerra is accused of knowning Bahia businessman Francisco Catelino, caught on a wiretap negociating a R$7,000 payment by Veras for a party celebrating the swearing in of the PF superintendent in Sergipe, Rubem Patury. “They will have to investigate everyone in Bahia, because this man knows everyone, he is a real big talker,” said Bezerra.

O atual superintendente da Bahia, Antonio Cesar Fernandes Nunes, também foi afastado do cargo porque o relatório o acusa de conhecer Francisco Catelino. Apontado como espécie de homem-bomba, Catelino afirma que não pode falar do assunto porque nunca foi informado de que está sendo investigado. E declarou, por e-mail: ´Felizmente, tenho diversos amigos em todos os setores da sociedade, preferindo não os nominar, pois correria o risco de esquecer de alguns.´

The current PF super in Bahia, Fernandes Nunes, was also suspended, accused of knowing Catelino. Pointed to as a sort of “suicide bomber,” Catelino says he cannot comment on the matter because he has not been informed he is under investigation. He said, in an e-mail: “Happily, I have various friends in all walks of life, I prefer not to name them because I might forget to mention some of them.”

It sounds like an Oscar acceptance speech, does it not?

This is a fascinating story in its own right, and well told, once you get into it. About nine or 10 paragraphs in..
But it raises more questions that it answers, or even tries to answer, in partbecause it chooses to lead with entertainment value rather than news value.

The problem is not so much in the reporting as the packaging. The effort to make it mean something grand and sweeping gets in the way of an orderly presentation of the facts.

Teally, it hammers on a broad generalization — “power struggle in the PF!” — that turns out to be based on one specific case.

Formally speaking, it is a “one-sparrow spring” story — as we say here at the NMM(-TV)SNBCNNBS Foundation for the Dystopian Future of Journalism 2.0 at San Narciso Community College.

Also know as the “trend of one data-point” or “the noise of one fact clapping.”

This narrative journalism thing they are teaching over there at Masters em Jornalismo, apparently, has gone too far.

Fundamental Zeitgeist reference texts for Martian media anthropologists in the Lusophone antipodes: The Estado de S. Paulo style guide — I collect these from all over — and Carlos Lacerda’s The Power of Ideas.