The Romanian Intelligence Service ( ro, Serviciul Român de Informații, abbreviated SRI) is
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
's main domestic
intelligence service
An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives.
Means of informatio ...
. Its role is to gather information relevant to
national security
National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military atta ...
and hand it over to relevant institutions, such as
Romanian Government
, image =
, caption=Logo of the Government of Romania
, date = 1862
, state = Romania
, address = Victoria PalaceBucharest
, appointed = President
, leader_title = Prime Minister
, mai ...
,
presidency
A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified by a ...
and
law enforcement departments and agencies. The service is gathering intelligence by ways such as signals intelligence (
SIGINT
Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ( ...
),
open-source intelligence
Open-source intelligence (OSINT) is the collection and analysis of data gathered from open sources (covert and publicly available sources) to produce actionable intelligence. OSINT is primarily used in national security, law enforcement, and busi ...
(
OSINT
Open-source intelligence (OSINT) is the collection and analysis of data gathered from open sources (covert and publicly available sources) to produce actionable intelligence. OSINT is primarily used in national security, law enforcement, and busi ...
) and human intelligence (
HUMINT
Human intelligence (abbreviated HUMINT and pronounced as ''hyoo-mint'') is Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence gathered by means of interpersonal contact, as opposed to the List of intelligence gathering disciplines, more technical ...
).
History
Previous intelligence services in Romania
In 1865, the Great
Chief of Staff
The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...
of Romania created (inspired by the French system) the 2nd Section (''Secția a II-a'') to gather and analyze
military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...
.
By 1925, after several years of efforts,
Mihail Moruzov
Mihail Moruzov (8 November 1887 – 26 November 1940) was the founder and first head of Romania's modern domestic espionage agency, the Secret Intelligence Service (SSI), forerunner of today's SRI.
Biography
Early life
Moruzov was born in Ze ...
managed to convince the
Chief of Staff
The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...
about the necessity of a
secret service
A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For ...
that uses civilian employees to gather intelligence for the
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
.
In 1940 it was founded as the Special Service of Intelligence (''Serviciul Special de Informații''), with
Eugen Cristescu
Eugen Cristescu (3 April 1895 – 12 June 1950) was the second head of the Kingdom of Romania's domestic espionage agency, the Secret Intelligence Service (SSI), forerunner of today's SRI, convicted in 1946 as a war criminal. He previously se ...
as director.
Through the
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
period, the service was used as an oppressive instrument against the anti-communists and people who opposed the government's official policies. The ''
Securitate
The Securitate (, Romanian for ''security'') was the popular term for the Departamentul Securității Statului (Department of State Security), the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. Previously, before the communist regime ...
'' ("Security") was the
political police
Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of a ...
that was involved in repressing
dissent
Dissent is an opinion, philosophy or sentiment of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or policy enforced under the authority of a government, political party or other entity or individual. A dissenting person may be referred to as ...
. During the
Romanian Revolution
The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred i ...
, soon after taking power,
Ion Iliescu
Ion Iliescu (; born 3 March 1930) is a Romanian politician and engineer who served as President of Romania from 1989 until 1996 and from 2000 until 2004. Between 1996 and 2000 and also from 2004 to 2008, the year in which he retired, Iliescu ...
signed the decree which integrated the Securitate into the Ministry of Defense, thus bringing it under his control.
, the head of the Security, together with some of his deputies, were arrested on December 31, 1989; Iliescu named
Gelu Voican Voiculescu Gelu may refer to:
People
* Gelou, 10th-century leader of the Vlachs and Slavs in Transylvania
* Gelu Barbu (1932–2016), Romanian-born Spanish ballet dancer and choreographer
* Gelu Lisac (born 1967), Romanian water polo player
* Gelu Radu (b ...
as the new head of the Securitate.
Voiculescu assured the Securitate agents that he does not intent to wage a war against individual Securitate officers and, by mid-January 1990, the Securitate officers continued their activity in their old headquarters.
The press was informed (but not allowed to verify) that the equipment for tapping phones has been decommissioned.
Creation
The Romanian Intelligence Service was officially created on March 26, 1990, taking over the buildings, staff, equipment and virtually everything that belonged to the Securitate.
Its creation occurred only a few days following the
ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureș
The ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureș (also called ''Black March'', hu, Fekete Március) refer to violent incidents against the Hungarian ethnic group in Târgu Mureș and surrounding settlements in Transylvania, Romania in March 1990. The clash ...
, being quickly created through a decree. Its first director was
Virgil Măgureanu
Virgil Măgureanu, (; born March 19, 1941) is a Romanian sociologist that was the head of the main intelligence service of Romania, Serviciul Român de Informații, or SRI (Romanian Intelligence Service) between March 26, 1990 and April 25, 1997 ...
.
At that time, there were two other intelligence services:
UM 0215 UM 0215 (Military Unit 0215, colloquially known as ''Doi și-un sfert'', "Two and a quarter," or "Quarter past two") was a Romanian intelligence agency in the 1990s that was built upon the Bucharest branch of the Socialist Republic of Romania's Secu ...
and the
Foreign Intelligence Service.
Securitate archives
SRI inherited Securitate's archives and it has been accused of destroying parts of it or supplying sensitive parts to certain politicians.
On June 22, 1990, SRI officers unloaded a truck full of Securitate documents in a forest in
Berevoești
Berevoești is a commune in Argeș County, Muntenia, Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hunga ...
,
Argeș County
Argeș County () is a county ('' județ'') of Romania, in Muntenia, with the capital city at Pitești.
Demographics
On 20 October 2011, it had a population of 612,431 and the population density was 89/km2.
* Romanians – 97%
* Roma (Gypsi ...
, after which they buried them with soil.
The documents intended to be destroyed were discovered by locals and, a year later, a group of journalists began digging the decaying documents and the ''
România Liberă
''România liberă'' ("") is a Romanian daily newspaper founded in 1943 and currently based in Bucharest. A newspaper of the same name also existed between 1877 and 1888.
History and profile
The name ''România liberă'' was first used by a dai ...
'' newspaper published several of them, including information on dissidents, being not only Securitate, but also of the newly created SRI.
This led to the adoption of a law on state secrets, which banned publication of any SRI documents.
It was only in 2005 that the archives of the Securitate began to be transferred to an outside institution (
CNSAS) with a first batch containing two-thirds of the total number of documents.
The goal was to transfer all Securitate documents which "do not affect national security".
Involvement in the Mineriad
The extent of the involvement of the Romanian Intelligence Service in the violent repression of the
1990 anti-government protests has been a matter of debate. On June 12, 1990, the government decided that the Police and Army, in collaboration with the Intelligence Service, evacuate the protesters of University Square.
During the violence that followed, the protesters attacked the headquarters of the Romanian Intelligence Service with rocks and
Molotov cocktail
A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flamma ...
s.
The following days, miners brought by the government from the
Jiu Valley
The Jiu Valley ( ro, Valea Jiului ) is a region in southwestern Transylvania, Romania, in Hunedoara county, situated in a valley of the Jiu River between the Retezat Mountains and the Parâng Mountains. The region was heavily industrialised and th ...
violently repressed the protesters (killing several people and wounding thousands) and destroyed the opposition parties' headquarters.
According to a letter to President Iliescu drafted by then-Prime Minister
Petre Roman
Petre Roman (; born 22 July 1946) is a Romanian engineer and politician who was Prime Minister of Romania from 1989 to 1991, when his government was overthrown by the intervention of the miners led by Miron Cozma. He was the first prime ministe ...
, the whole repression was organized by the secret services under the leadership of Virgil Măgureanu using the network of the Securitate. This view is supported by military prosecutor
Dan Voinea, who said that all the miner groups were escorted by police and SRI agents who led them to the headquarters of parties and NGOs.
During the 2000s,
Virgil Măgureanu
Virgil Măgureanu, (; born March 19, 1941) is a Romanian sociologist that was the head of the main intelligence service of Romania, Serviciul Român de Informații, or SRI (Romanian Intelligence Service) between March 26, 1990 and April 25, 1997 ...
, the head of the SRI at the time, has been investigated by prosecutors (together with other leaders including President
Ion Iliescu
Ion Iliescu (; born 3 March 1930) is a Romanian politician and engineer who served as President of Romania from 1989 until 1996 and from 2000 until 2004. Between 1996 and 2000 and also from 2004 to 2008, the year in which he retired, Iliescu ...
) for several counts including
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
and
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...
, however they decided in 2009 not to charge him with any crime.
Phone tapping
![Detasamentul Brigazii Antiteroriste](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Detasamentul_Brigazii_Antiteroriste.jpg)
In 1996, a former SRI employee,
Constantin Bucur was the
whistleblower
A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
who alerted the media that the Romanian Intelligence Service was performing illegal phone tappings of politicians, journalists and other public figures.
Bucur was convicted for revealing
top secret
Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to know, ...
information,
but he won a trial against the Romanian state after appealing at the
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
.
Mircea Toma, one of the journalists whose phone had been tapped also sued the Romanian state for wiretapping and preserving private conversations with his daughter, Sorana. He also won a compensation the disrespect of the
Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides a right to respect for one's "private and family life, his home and his correspondence", subject to certain restrictions that are "in accordance with law" and "necessary in a democratic ...
.
The Romanian Intelligence Service refused to collaborate with the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that its documents are state secrets.
["România plătește la CEDO telefoanele ascultate în țară"](_blank)
Apador-CH, January 10, 2013
The president of the Group of Political Investigations (a Romanian organization that independently monitors the activity of state agencies), Mugur Ciuvică, has stated that he has evidence of ongoing illegal phone tappings.
According to
Ilie Botoș, a former Attorney General of Romania, between 1991 and 2003 the phones of 20,000 people have been tapped.
Between 1991 and 2002, a number of 14,000 authorizations were given by the government for
national security
National security, or national defence, is the security and defence of a sovereign state, including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of government. Originally conceived as protection against military atta ...
-related issues.
Between 1996 and 2003 further 5500 authorizations were given related to organized and white-collar crime; out of these 5500 suspects, only 238 were convicted.
For the year 2005, a number of 6370 phones belonging to 2373 people were tapped, the average tapping being of 220 days.
In 2006, a new illegal wiretapping scandal erupted after transcripts of businessman
Dinu Patriciu
Dan Costache ("Dinu") Patriciu (; 3 August 1950 – 19 August 2014) was a Romanian billionaire businessman and politician. At the time of his death, Patriciu was the richest man in Romania. His wealth was based on the Rompetrol company (the seco ...
's phone discussions with his associates were leaked to the press.
Patriciu sued the Intelligence Service and won a compensation of 50,000 lei in 2011.
A further case of potentially illegal wiretappings is the one of European Court of Human Rights judge
Corneliu Bîrsan Corneliu is a Romanian given name, derived from Latin '' Cornelius''. Corneliu may refer to:
*Corneliu Baba
* Corneliu Bogdan
*Corneliu Calotescu
*Corneliu Carp
*Corneliu Chisu
*Corneliu Ciontu
*Corneliu Zelea Codreanu
* Corneliu Codreanu (football ...
, whose wiretappings under the guise of "national security" are now being investigated by a parliamentary commission created by the Romanian Senate on April 8, 2013.
Relationship with the press
The Romanian Intelligence Service had an uneasy relationship with the press, which it monitored, infiltrated and accused of being a national security liability. In 2010, "the press" has been included in the list of national vulnerabilities in the "National Strategy for the Defence of the Country".
An early controversy occurred in 1996, when Tana Ardeleanu (a journalist for ''
Ziua
''Ziua'' (''The Day'' in Romanian) was a major Romanian daily newspaper published in Bucharest. It was published in Romanian with a fairly sizeable and often informative English section. ''Ziua'' was founded in 1994 by Sorin Roşca Stănescu, eve ...
'' who had published some articles about President
Ion Iliescu
Ion Iliescu (; born 3 March 1930) is a Romanian politician and engineer who served as President of Romania from 1989 until 1996 and from 2000 until 2004. Between 1996 and 2000 and also from 2004 to 2008, the year in which he retired, Iliescu ...
) had been
shadowed
''Shadowed'', also known as ''The Gloved Hand'', is a 1946 American film noir crime film directed by John Sturges and starring Anita Louise, Lloyd Corrigan, and Robert Scott.
Plot
Salesman Fred J. Johnson manages to hit a hole-in-one as he p ...
by SRI agents.
Amid press anger, SRI director
Virgil Măgureanu
Virgil Măgureanu, (; born March 19, 1941) is a Romanian sociologist that was the head of the main intelligence service of Romania, Serviciul Român de Informații, or SRI (Romanian Intelligence Service) between March 26, 1990 and April 25, 1997 ...
admitted that SRI agents followed Ardeleanu and argued that the surveillance was a "mistake" and that the agents thought they were following two suspected spies.
The existence of infiltrated SRI agents in the press has been publicly known since 2006, when the press officer of SRI claimed that the Service has always had
moles Moles can refer to:
*Moles de Xert, a mountain range in the Baix Maestrat comarca, Valencian Community, Spain
*The Moles (Australian band)
*The Moles, alter ego of Scottish band Simon Dupree and the Big Sound
People
*Abraham Moles, French engineer ...
in the Romanian press arguing that it's not illegal.
This claim has been quite controversial, as, according to
Cristian Tudor Popescu
Cristian Tudor Popescu (; often referred to as CTP; born October 1, 1956) is a Romanian journalist, essayist, engineer, short-story writer and political commentator. Author of science fiction stories during his youth, he also hosted talk shows f ...
, journalists are not a threat to national security
and, according to historian
Marius Oprea
Marius Oprea (; born 1964) is a Romanian historian (specialized in recent history), poet and essayist.
Born in Târgovişte, he studied history at the University of Bucharest and he has a PhD with a thesis on the role and evolution of the Co ...
, this leads to suspicions about whether the SRI has
political police
Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political, religious, or social opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of a ...
activities.
The ''
Jurnalul Național
''Jurnalul Național'' is a Romanian newspaper, part of the INTACT Media Group led by Dan Voiculescu, which also includes the popular television station Antena 1. The newspaper was launched in 1993. Its headquarters is in Bucharest
Bucharest ...
'' newspaper fired its
editor-in-chief
An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies.
The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...
,
Valentin Zaschievici, in August 2012, accusing him of being an infiltrated SRI agent, following the leak of some SRI documents by ''
Cotidianul
image:Cotidianul.png, The logo used between 2003 and 2007
''Cotidianul'' (meaning ''The Daily'' in English) is a Romanian language newspaper published in Bucharest, Romania.
History and profile
Founded by Ion Raţiu, ''Cotidianul'' was first ...
''.
The Romanian Intelligence Service admitted that the documents were indeed genuine, but it claimed that their agent was only monitoring the leaking of secret documents to the press.
In 2013,
George Maior
George-Cristian Maior (16 November 1967, Cluj-Napoca) is a Romanian politician and diplomat. He was a member of the Romanian Parliament, elected as a senator from the Social Democratic Party (Romania), Social Democrat Party. He was the head of ...
, the Director of the Service, accused the press of organizing an attack campaign against the Romanian Intelligence Service, giving as example the investigations over the illegal CIA prisons in Bucharest (
Bright Light), which he argued that is exposing Romania to terrorist attacks.
Known operations
In March 2005, three Romanian journalists were kidnapped in Iraq by unknown abductors (later described as members of the Muadh ibn Jabal Brigades) in the
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
's al-Mansur district. A few weeks after being kidnapped, the terrorists broadcast a tape on Al-Jazeera stating that they would kill the journalists if Romania did not withdraw its 860 troops from Iraq. However, due to efforts of the Romanian intelligence community and the collaboration between several intelligence agencies, the group were freed on May 23, 2005, when they were placed in the hands of the Romanian Embassy in Baghdad. It is believed that
Florian Coldea
Florian may refer to:
People
* Florian (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname
* Florian, Roman emperor in 276 AD
* Saint Florian (250 – c. 304 AD), patron saint of Poland and Upper Austria, al ...
(the former deputy director of the SRI) coordinated the rescue operation.
On 28 February 2008, the Romanian counter-intelligence officers arrested a Bulgarian military attache, Petar Marinov Zikolov, and a Romanian NCO, Floricel Achim. They have been prosecuted with charges of espionage. It is believed that the leaked information might have been sent to Russia or Ukraine. The Bulgarians have denied any connection with Zikolov. This has been one of the few espionage cases that have received media attention.
Programs
Integrated Information System
The Integrated Information System (Romanian: ''Sistemul Informatic Integrat,'' SII) is a computing system that allows SRI to aggregate data from various governmental agencies. It was created in 2003 under the initiative of SRI director
Radu Timofte Alexandru-Radu Timofte (; 7 April 1949 – 19 October 2009) was a Romanian soldier, politician and spy chief. A member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), he sat in the Romanian Senate from 1990 to 2001, representing Neamț County. From 2001 t ...
, who sent a request to the
Supreme Council of National Defence (CSAT) led by President
Ion Iliescu
Ion Iliescu (; born 3 March 1930) is a Romanian politician and engineer who served as President of Romania from 1989 until 1996 and from 2000 until 2004. Between 1996 and 2000 and also from 2004 to 2008, the year in which he retired, Iliescu ...
.
The system has its activities based on
secret law Secret law refers to legal authorities that require compliance that are classified or otherwise withheld from the public.
Secret law in the United States
Since about 2015 the branches of the United States federal government have accused one anot ...
s that were not published in ''
Monitorul Oficial
''Monitorul Oficial al României'' is the official gazette of Romania, in which all the promulgated bills, presidential decrees, governmental
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, general ...
''.
The only public information on the system is found in the government decision that followed, which mandated all state institutions to give the system all the information they have.
The public law does not include any kind of control mechanisms or ways to prevent abuses.
As such, all information on Romanian and foreign citizens that the state has (such as dates of entering/exiting the country, what car one owns, what phone numbers or phone metadata or what taxes you paid) is fed into the system.
The names of the members of the Integrated Information System council and its headquarters are a state secret.
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
NGO
APADOR-CH (Human Rights Defense Association of Romania) contested in justice the way it worked, arguing that such a government institution couldn't have been legally created by the way of secret laws and that it broke the
Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides a right to respect for one's "private and family life, his home and his correspondence", subject to certain restrictions that are "in accordance with law" and "necessary in a democratic ...
.
The NGO lost the trial.
In 2016, the SRI obtained a 25 million € EU financing for a project called ''SII Analytics.''
The project is financed by the
e-government
E-government (short for electronic government) is the use of technological communications devices, such as computers and the Internet, to provide public services to citizens and other persons in a country or region. E-government offers new ...
program of the EU, but parts of it such as "interception of communications" and "facial recognition" show that one of the goals is
surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as c ...
.
The project includes a "good behavior" file for each citizen, which aggregates data from all government agencies.
APADOR-CH argued that these citizen files can be used for nefarious purposes against some citizens (MPs, judges, prosecutors, businessmen, etc.).
National Alert System
The National Alert System (Sistemul Național de Alertă Teroristă in
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
) is the Romanian terrorist barometer. SNA is a system that, based on existing intelligence from SRI,
SIE and possibly other agencies, ranks the risk of a terrorist attack on Romanian territory. The system is color based (green-low to red-imminent). The color can be changed (and therefore security measures increased) with the prior approval of the executive of SRI.
Currently, SNA is colored blue-cautious; this means that the intelligence on hand suggests there is a relatively low risk of a terrorist attack.
The color has only been changed once (to yellow-moderate) at the
2008 NATO Bucharest summit.
Resources
Personnel
The Romanian Intelligence Service is a
militarized
Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the mili ...
institution, although it is not a part of the
Romanian Armed Forces
The Land Forces, Air Force and Naval Forces of Romania are collectively known as the Romanian Armed Forces ( ro, Forțele Armate Române or ''Armata Română''). The current Commander-in-chief is Lieutenant General Daniel Petrescu who is managed ...
. The hierarchy from the service is defined by
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
ranks. The highest ranking employee has the rank of
general officer
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED O ...
(with four stars).
Civilian
Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...
personnel is composed mostly of accountants,
IT and
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
specialists.
The number of employees is classified. However, rumors about the number of employees exists. The newspaper ''
Adevărul
''Adevărul'' (; meaning "The Truth", formerly spelled ''Adevĕrul'') is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in Iași, in 1871, and reestablished in 1888, in Bucharest, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published dur ...
'' was able to find in 2006 an estimate of 12,000 agents, a figure confirmed by former SIE director
Cătălin Harnagea.
According to former DIE general
Ion Mihai Pacepa
Ion Mihai Pacepa (; 28 October 1928 – 14 February 2021) was a Romanian two-star general in the Securitate, the secret police of the Socialist Republic of Romania, who defected to the United States in July 1978 following President Jimmy Carter' ...
, this figure is double the number of agents of the similar service of France (which has a population three times larger than Romania's) and larger than Germany's secret services, Pacepa noting the unusual size of Romania's secret services,
leading to claims that Ceaușescu's
police state
A police state describes a state where its government institutions exercise an extreme level of control over civil society and liberties. There is typically little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the exe ...
has been incompletely dismantled and that the number of officers has actually increased since 1989.
In an interview in "
Jurnalul Naţional", George Maior denied the numbers Harnagea claimed, saying that the SRI has an estimated number of 3000 operative employees. According to Maior, the average salary in the service is 2500 RON (560 Eur), a salary above the average income in
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
.
To become an employee of the SRI, a person has to fulfill several conditions, including having Romanian citizenship, matching the age criteria, clean criminal record and no serious medical conditions. If so, the person is allowed in the
recruitment
Recruitment is the overall process of identifying, sourcing, screening, shortlisting, and interviewing candidates for jobs (either permanent or temporary) within an organization. Recruitment also is the processes involved in choosing individual ...
process. This process consists of background checks, medical exams,
aptitude
An aptitude is a component of a competence to do a certain kind of work at a certain level. Outstanding aptitude can be considered "talent". Aptitude is inborn potential to perform certain kinds of activities, whether physical or mental, and ...
tests,
personality
Personality is the characteristic sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that are formed from biological and environmental factors, and which change over time. While there is no generally agreed-upon definition of personality, mos ...
tests,
physical fitness
Physical fitness is a state of health and well-being and, more specifically, the ability to perform aspects of Outline of sports, sports, occupations and daily activities. Physical fitness is generally achieved through proper nutrition, moderate ...
tests and a
paper
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...
exam (for example, a
general knowledge
General knowledge is information that has been accumulated over time through various mediums and sources. It excludes specialized learning that can only be obtained with extensive training and information confined to a single medium. General kn ...
test).
The main gate to enter the
intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can b ...
service is the
National Intelligence Academy
The National Intelligence Academy (Romanian: ''Academia Națională de Informații'') is a Romanian university run by the Romanian Intelligence Service intended to train intelligence officers. In its 20 years of existence, it had trained over 4000 ...
(''Academia Naţională de Informaţii „Mihai Viteazul'') from
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
.
The Anti-Terrorist Brigade
The
Anti-Terrorist Brigade (
Brigada Antitero), also known as ''BAT'' is SRI's
Special Actions Unit
The Special Actions Unit ('','' Jawi: اونيت تيندق خاص), commonly known as and abbreviated to UTK is a tactical unit of the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP). The unit is headquartered at the RMP buildings in Bukit Aman, Kuala Lumpur. T ...
and the main
anti-terrorist unit
Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...
from
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
. Created during the mid `70s (as a response to the
1972 Munich Massacre
The Munich massacre was a terrorist attack carried out during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, by eight members of the Palestinian people, Palestinian militant organization Black September Organization, Black September, who i ...
) under the name of ARTA, the unit has changed its name later into ''The Special Anti-Terrorist Unit'' (''USLA -
Unitatea Specială de Luptă Antiteroristă'').
Eight USLA members were killed during the
Romanian Revolution
The Romanian Revolution ( ro, Revoluția Română), also known as the Christmas Revolution ( ro, Revoluția de Crăciun), was a period of violent civil unrest in Romania during December 1989 as a part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred i ...
in December 1989.
The size of the brigade is
classified, but it is known that the unit has in ranks the best operatives from the Romanian
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
and
law enforcement
Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term en ...
sector. Most of them are
athletes
An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance.
Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-develo ...
, with excellent results in sports such as
boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...
,
karate
(; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...
,
rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
,
judo
is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...
and other
combat sports
A combat sport, or fighting sport, is a competitive contact sport that usually involves one-on-one combat. In many combat sports, a contestant wins by scoring more points than the opponent, submitting the opponent with a hold, disabling the oppo ...
.
Also, the brigade is providing security on all important airports from
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
and members of the brigade are working as air marshals on all Romanian flights.
Budget
References
External links
*
Official site*
Chronology
* Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces,
* Balkanalysis.com
The Romanian Secret Services, Politics and the Media: a Strategic Overview
{{Authority control
Government agencies established in 1990
1990 establishments in Romania
Romanian intelligence agencies
Domestic intelligence agencies