Brazil nominates first woman spy chief to clean-up agency

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) -- Brazil's government on Tuesday nominated a woman to clean up the country's once-notorious spy service as it wrestles to purge all links to dictatorship and expose torturers and murderers on the payroll.

Marisa Del'Isola e Diniz, a former human resources director who helped hire and fire Brazilian spies, would replace the agency's former chief after he was forced out of office last week for tapping an alleged torturer to a top job.

Diniz -- Latin America's first female spy chief -- now must somehow find a way to mend the tattered image of the fledgling National Intelligence Agency (Abin), a civilian-controlled spy service created from the ashes of notorious military-run bodies last year.

Military sources describe Diniz as intelligent and discrete. The trained psychologist still has not spoken to the press.

Senators said Tuesday they would not give Diniz any special treatment at her confirmation hearing. The lawmakers described Abin as an organization that still must be feared and pointed to a recently flurry of allegations of illegal spying on civilians, including a respected journalist and the president's son.

"There are still some worries we need to put to rest... I can assure you she will be thoroughly questioned," said opposition Sen. Heloisa Helena, who sits on a newly formed Abin oversight committee. She did not elaborate.

One of the questions plaguing lawmakers and human rights groups is whether Abin continues to employ agents accused of torture and perhaps even the "disappearance" of some 3,000 civilians during Brazil's 1964-1985 dictatorship.

The lists of Abin employees are kept secret, and as many as half may have worked in Abin's reviled predecessor, the SNI.

Last week, a human rights group called "Torture Never Again" dropped a bombshell on Brasilia by denouncing that a former torturer, Carlos Alberto del Menezzi, was hired by Abin's fallen chief.

Menezzi was accused in witness testimony of beating kidnapped civilians on six occasions. He would supposedly bind their hands and feet together, hang them over a rod, and submit them to electroshock treatment and other types of torture.

President Fernando Henrique Cardoso said he was "horrified" to learn of Menezzi's nomination. Human rights groups were shocked.

"We couldn't believe he was there, working in Abin," said the head of Torture Never Again, Maria do Ampara Almeida Araujo. Her brother was tortured and murdered in 1971 -- allegedly at the hands of SNI agents. "This is proof the creation of Abin is nothing more than a cosmetic change. It is still the SNI, as far we are concerned," she added.

Worries surrounding Abin have been fanned by recent news reports of illegal spying on civilians. In testimony last week, Cardoso's chief security advisor said Abin had no official inquiry into the president's son, or any other civilian cited in the media. But he did not rule out extra-official spying by retired or even current Abin employees.

Helena said she and the Senate oversight committee would visit Abin on Thursday to demand a list of all Abin employees, which would be compared to more than 400 identified torturers. Any past offenders would be fired, she said.

Helena admitted cleaning up Abin "would not be easy."

For starters, there is legally no barrier in Brazil to torturers entering public office. Upon returning to democracy fifteen years ago, Brazil granted all military offenders as well as leftist activists immunity from prosecution.

Even a member of Cardoso's cabinet was a government minister during the dictatorship.

"But today, this is not a discussion of legality. It is a question of morality. We simply cannot have these people working at Abin," Helena said.

"The SNI was a monster that terrorized the people. Abin could become this... That is what we must prevent."

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