The Romanian President Wants To Set Up His Own Secret Service

President Traian Basescu Friday addressed a meeting of young members in the Democrat Party, or PD, with an array of issues pertaining mainly to the national security.

He said he was disenchanted with the Government plan to place the Secret Service under the authority of the Ministry of Interior and to put the service in charge with secure communications lines under the authority of the Ministry of Communications and IT.

Sources in the PD said Basescu was planning to set up another Secret Service to protect him and visiting heads of state. He allegedly said he "did not want to be spied on, day and night, by Tariceanu’s people." Basescu’s stance can easily be understood in the context of constant bickering, parting him from Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, head of the National Liberal Party, or PNL.

Basescu took on the media campaign in the past few weeks dealing with the issue of making public the files of the former intelligence services, or Securitate.

"This transparency should make society come out stronger, not fractured," said Basescu. "The law which prompted this transparency was designed to make us come together, not turn one against the other." He added that the lustration law sstill not adopted, Trans. Notet is the one to penalize the cooperation with the communist times intelligence services.

Basescu also criticized the stance the liberals took on the issue and, without naming them, defended liberals Mona Musca and Ioan Ghise.

Both of them came under fire for their cooperation with the Securitate, and are likely to get ousted from the PNL ranks.

Basescu defended Musca saying he did not agree with those "jumping the gun and executing people before trial."

"With this kind of attitude we run the risk to compromise the whole transparency process," said Basescu.

Basescu recalled that Ghise, former Brasov city mayor, was elected on the liberal ticket after making public his former links with the Securitate.

"Now they tell him to get out from the party ranks, as during the Stalinist period the party guidelines changed, only people were found guilty to have marched ahead on the previous ones," added Basescu.

He also said the credibility of the Romanian intelligence services would grow after they would have completed handing over the files of the former Securitate in their custody, to the authority in charge with studying them, or CNSAS.

"The intelligence services are not loved in any country of the world, but in Romania they should turn into reliable authorities," said Basescu.

He also said that politicians, if willing to stay politicians, should post on the Internet the files drafted by the communist authorities on their activity at the time.

"The files from our former work places, or from the Central Committee of the Communist Party should become public too," added Basescu.

Translated by Anca Paduraru