THE FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SERVICE

REMARKS

In order to clarify the statements Mr Claudiu Săftoiu made in a number of television shows on January 20, 2009, we would like to mention the following:

Under the Law no.1 / 1998 on the organization and functioning of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE), the activity of this Service is overseen by:
    -  the Country’s Supreme Defense Council, before which the SIE Director presents reports on a yearly basis or whenever necessary;
    -  the Romanian Parliament, through the Joint Standing Committee of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate for the Exercise of Parliamentary Control over the Activity of the Foreign Intelligence Service. Under the Parliament Decision no. 44/1998, the Committee’s main goal is to check the way in which the Service complies with the Romanian Constitution and laws.

In light of the obligations incumbent upon the Service, in 2007 and 2008, following serious allegations made by some high-ranking public officials at that time, the SIE answered all the requests from both the SIE Committee and the Joint Parliamentary Inquiry Committee authorized to verify the information on the interception of communications. These requests related to the suspicion of the Service’s infringing upon the legal regulations on telephone wiretapping. We would like to mention that the parliamentary committees conducted three controls on these issues at the SIE Headquarters in 2007 (in March, April, and October), with two of these activities including visits to technical facilities.

The controls of the committees consisted of:
    -  hearing the SIE staff selected by the committees;
    -  checking the legality of all the procedural papers based on which the interception warrants had been obtained and acted upon;
    -  on-site checking of the technical equipment and the concrete way in which the SIE receives the results of interceptions.

The conclusions drawn by these committees, either publicly expressed or directly forwarded to the Service, have highlighted that the SIE fully complied with the Romanian laws in this field. It has also been concluded that the SIE does not intercept communications; it only turns to good account, by recording, the results of the interception made by the relevant national authority, and strictly in cases related to national security.

As we have repeatedly stated, including at the last meeting with the SIE Committee in December 2008, the Service strictly abides by the Romanian Constitution and the laws relevant to its activity.

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