Former Presidential Adviser Gets Full Access To Classified Info

Former presidential adviser Elena Udrea is relentlessly inching her way to power and control. She was named minister for tourism but that was not enough for President Traian Basescu favored former adviser.

She managed to set her quarters in the same building with the Prime-Minister's office, in spite of having the ministry under her authority at a different address in the city. She also managed to put on the list of tasks the Ministry for Tourism performs a very unlikely one: preventing and fighting terrorism.

This is enough of legal leeway for Udrea to have free access to top secret and classified information. The novelty stays in the wording of the provision. Until now ministers could ask for information, while the intelligence services were under no obligation to provide it; this time around, they are.

However, this new Government decision collides with the law designing the national security system, which does not have the Ministry for Tourism on the list of authorities fighting terrorism.

The vice president in the House Defense Committee George Scutaru (of the National Liberal Party), said any official get intelligence on a need-to-know basis, but that the new Government decision gives Udrea access to classified information far beyond that principle.

During the communist regime was the last time the hospitality industry had a role in the intelligence gathering. In the '70s, former leader Nicolae Ceausescu appointed Ion Stanescu as minister for tourism, and Ion Doicaru as his deputy. The former had been heading the Intelligence Office, and the latter had been leading the espionage division in that office.