INTERVIEW

BY SIE DIRECTOR GHEORGHE FULGA, Ph.D.,

WITH THE "JURNALUL NATIONAL" DAILY,

ON 11 NOVEMBER 2004

Question: Mr. Fulga, you are a sociologist as a professional, which means you are fond of human and humankind. Have the values that you believe (or used to believe) in not been overturned, by any chance, by the raw actualities as they are depicted in the intelligence reports?

Answer : You are right, I view myself as a person fond of humankind and its values, and as a sociologist I closely monitor the social and political developments, which I consider in terms of my own system of values. In my capacity of Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, I believe, however, that my most outstanding role is to advance the basic democratic values of the Romanian state and society, to ensure a specific contribution by the SIE to their safeguarding against any potential threats, which unfortunately cannot be avoided by any country or community.

Fulfilling my duties has afforded me to strengthen my own value system and made me sensitive to other facets of the realities in contemporary world and, particularly, to Romania's stand within the present geopolitical framework.

Question: Who has been struck by the idea to appoint you to the incumbent office?

Answer : Although at the respective moment I was not very well aware of the processes and functioning mechanisms of a secret service, the arguments and trust by the President of Romania have persuaded me to accept the new office.

Question: You will be recalled by history as the SIE director since Romania joined NATO. There is no doubt that you have already reaped the fruit of your forerunners. The NATO momentum also coincided with the SIE re-structuring and the afore-announced de-militarization. What exactly did you have in view?

Answer : I have never ever considered a historical connotation to my work, whatever institution I was employed in. Apart from the significance of having attained a strategic goal of the entire homeland, Romania's accession to NATO was a reward for the consistent work by the Foreign Intelligence Service to safeguarding and advancing the national interest. Our stake was enhanced credibility by switching to the values, goals, and missions characteristic of the Euro-Atlantic intelligence community.

In the process, we also needed to keep abreast with the shifts occurred within the world security environment entailed by 11 September 2001.

That accounts for the SIE re-structuring along some basic parameters. As regards de-militarization, I would say it is not an end in itself, but rather a natural stage to be covered in a phased-out process of institutional reforms, given the commitments undertaken by our country as a member of the Euro-Atlantic community.

I would like to highlight, however, that the process under discussion has to be tackled with rich shades, and it cannot be carried out at any time and at random. It is merely a strong organizational culture – which is now being built up within the foreign Intelligence Service – that can underlie such a great change, which does not mean renouncing of discipline and full severity of laws and rules, but on the contrary highly consciously assuming the strict rules that are specific of an intelligence agency.

Question : You have been discreet ever since you have been at the helm of the SIE. Shall we take your statements that you wanted the SIE to become transparent as an approach by Politician Fulga or Professor-Sociologist Fulga?

Answer : Being discreet belongs to the set of values characteristic of an intelligence agency. Under the law, the SIE may not release to the public any information pertaining to the work performed, the sources or means and ways used. To observe such limits and get an accurate image of the Service, in the press included, have been my priorities as Head of the Service. The ones who would like to “see” us can also access our web-site ( www.sie.ro ), which has been accessed this quarter alone – providing the figure could be relevant to your readers – by over 10,500 individuals, out of which 2,000 from abroad.

Question: How ready to cooperate with counterpart agencies can the SIE stand? Is “isolationism” not the golden rule with a foreign intelligence agency?

Answer : One needs to take into account that any threats to the allied and community security are threats to homeland security as well, and referring to “isolationism” at this very moment seems to me utterly unproductive.

Given the development of cross-border phenomena such as terrorism and organized crime, the SIE tasks aimed at defending national interests are getting ever more complex.

That is the reason why cooperation with partner intelligence agencies, mainly the ones belonging to the Euro-Atlantic states, has become a resource for the SIE work.

Question: How vulnerable is Romania in terms of organized crime, cross-border trafficking, espionage by other countries with regard to the situation in the region where we live first of all?

Answer : National security is viewed as a dynamic process with a varied geometry, which requires a steady adjustment to the new types of foreign threats: terrorism, proliferation of the weapons of mass destruction, illegal migration, ethnic and religious conflicts, a.s.o.

Most of them are highly unpredictable, get ever more intertwined and, depending on the peculiarities of various zones, they are prone to get moulded on particular vulnerabilities or unlikely local action, with enhanced risks to security.

Whether we refer to South-East Europe or the Caucasus, or Central Asia, or Northern Africa, or the Middle East the indivisible nature of security requires joint action for an efficient management of the main threatening vectors. Currently, such an exercise equals to the consensus forged by the Alliance to “project stability”, which is one of the reasons why NATO has got involved in, for instance, Afghanistan.

Question: Transdniestria is a region appealing to the terrorist movements and organized crime. To what extent do we have to feel threat and revolt at the regime over there?

Answer : The question of Transdniestria, still unsettled 12 years since an armed conflict was triggered on the Dniestr, which has turned the area, of late, into o “haven” for cross-border organized crimes, poses a major security risk on the eastern borderline of the European and Euro-Atlantic community.

From such a perspective, the settlement of the Transdniestr conflict and  re-establishment of territorial integrity to the Republic of Moldova are essential for securing a stable environment in the neighborhood of the European Union and NATO.

As a NATO border-state and forthcoming EU fledged-member, Romania is directly interested in having a predictable development steered to the events in the region.

Question: Given Romania's new status that you have referred to, would you, as the SIE Director, outline the image of the new realm?

Answer : The issue area is highly complex. Briefly, should Romania get permanently connected to the developments on the European continent particularly, the meaning of the border concept would operate to our advantage. The borderline can become a realm of positive interference, capable of favoring compatible cultures, which theoretically are separated, and intensified dissemination of the values of freedom and democracy. If we take into account the experience by the Western Balkans, we can read out the importance that commanding the process may have for national security.

Question: What is the SIE contribution to monitoring the hotbeds where Romanian troops are engaged?

Answer : The Foreign Intelligence Service is mainly focusing on the tense countries and regions that are marked by conflicts, especially the ones where Romanian troops and citizens perform their activities.

We work both individually and jointly with our partner services, in view of the difficulties posed by gathering intelligence information in the hotbeds. Last but not least, we actively work with the other Romanian institutions having representatives assigned to the areas concerned, while the SIE has been mainly tasked with providing security to the Romanian diplomatic missions abroad as well as protection to their staff.

Question: What are you going to do after the elections?

Answer : Within the community of strong democracies, any shifts at the helm of the special services do not usually follow the elections schedule since the work in the field is uninterrupted. So, it is untimely for me to answer your question. What, I can tell you now is what is not going to happen: I will not go abroad as an ambassador. I will stay at home.

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