This morning the offices, newspaper and personal home of PRD (opposition party) syndicated Journalist Guillermo Gomez were raided by SWAT, Government Intelligence Agency (DNI) and District Attorney's office's staff looking for evidence on a illegal wiretaps case supposedly done against email accounts of the first lady and the wife of president of the biggest and most important private bank (Banco Popular)

Digital Newspaper elsiglo21.com was also raided as they had announced a series of reports (It is supposed that mainly based on the wiretaps) about corruption regarding the president, the first lady and some of the government main officers, the use of government funded credit cards for personal use amongst other scandalous charges.

The digital newspaper announced yesterday it would suspend its reports supposedly due to pressures being made by the government even though they gave no reasons for the suspension.

Guillermo Gomez has said his newspaper was raided to avoid the reports from becoming public and that while they seized "evidence" of the crimes being reported, they have not acquired the names of the sources which they will protect. He has said this is an attack on freedom of speech.

They have also said they will now restart the reports and face the government.

With elections in 3 months, this is about to get ugly.

http://yfrog.com/nwjmfwkj

http://diariodigital.com.do/articulo.php?id=15615

http://sombreropuesto.blogspot.com/2012/02/uno-de-los-articulos-que-provoco-el.html

Protests emerge after PRD (opposition party) regional leaders arrests in Santiago this morning...

http://7dias.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=115337

Guillermo Gomez blames the president personally for the raids.

http://www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2012/2/10/221260/Guillermo-Gomez-culpa-al-presidente-Leonel-Fernandez-de-allanamientos-a

Periodico El Nacional's director calls raids abuse of power.

http://www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2012/2/10/221261/Director-de-El-Nacional-dice-allanamiento-a-propiedades-de-Guillermo-Gomez

That's precisely what some of us fear.

If the source of these leaks were not soooooooooo obviously linked to the PRD, I would be slightly less disturbed by developments; even-though, if the evidence is that an illegal hack accrued then the information should put everyone on the side of protecting private flows of information. Remember, protecting individual private communications is not a political colored stance, we are all in danger if such schemes are allowed to operate without penalty.

Some details are hard to explain or justify.

Why did they take videos of interviews made to Jacobo Majluta and Peña Gomez 20 years ago? They took all of Guillermo Gomez's video files from years of interviews (his program is an interview program) what for?

He is saying in a live interview right now that the district attorney supervising the case said "we have found nothing" to the Attorney General by phone. The reply was "take it all", he said "but we found nothing", reply was "take it all, those are your orders, and they come straight from the president"

This has not been seen in the last 30 years. Lines have been crossed. Dangerous lines. Elections are in three months. elsiglo21.com digital newspaper is directed by the son of El Nacional newspaper director. Hoy newspaper has reported false allegations against it by Government officials.

They had decided to suspend the reports after being warned of how their announcement had been received in the government. After this, they are now saying, that unless they're killed before it happens, the reports are coming out and they directly involve the president, the first lady and many ministers.

Will the Government cross their arms? I doubt it. This will get ugly.

It does not matter what political affiliation any hacker has ,,if they are breaking the law then they have to be punished ,,,laws are there to be obeyed not disregarded

It is also against the law to raid a private home or business without a judge's order.

It is against the law to seize material not related to any crime, especially without a judge order.

It is against the law to not allow lawyers to be present.

It is against the law to pressure journalists to shut them up, to seize their documents and to

It is against the law to arrest someone without an order (some are being held right now without warrants or orders of any judge)

Colegio Dominicano de Periodistas (CDP) - Dominican Journalists Association regrets today actions against journalists and requests a report from Authorities.

http://www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2012/2/10/221269/CDP-lamenta-accion-contra-periodista-Guillermo-Gomez

Remember that under the Terrorism Acts, AND I DON'T KNOW IF SUCH ACTS ARE IN FACT ESTABLISHED LAW IN THE DR-THE GOVERNMENT Has enormous powers.

I'm not a lawyer nor a Constitutional lawyer, but we must first know what the charges, under what law(s) were these searches conducted under and so forth. Perhaps Generoso might give us his take on these matters. I think he's a lawyer.