Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Some people's collaboration with ex Securitate may remain unknown



Ladislau Csendes, a president of the CNSAS (National Council for Research on the Communist Secret Service Archive), admitted yesterday for the BBC that some people's collaboration with the ex Securitate (Communist Secret Service in Romanian) might remain unknown, because of the things the CNSAS had failed to accomplish.
This was unveiled last Saturday, when Democrat Razvan Murgeanu, a vice-mayor of Bucharest, admitted for the same BBC that he had signed a collaboration agreement with the ex Securitate when he was 20, but he insisted he hadn't informed against anyone. According to the law, the CNSAS should have checked on the vice-mayor's record in 2004, when he was elected a member of the General Council of Bucharest, which did not happen. But the CNSAS must not check on ex Securitate records in a certain order.
According to the CNSAS president, there are several cases of MPs, judges and more whose records still existed, but were not analyzed. He commented: "Yes, categorically. I know there are such delays. When I saw such great delays, my first idea was to proceed to sanctions and my second was to correct the delays". He confirmed: "It is no pleasure to me, but I am confirming it: this is true. It is us who are now to settle the delays, unfortunately".
Csendes explained: "If the technical staff didn't put some names on the list, then it is about cases of severe neglectfulness." (...)

Anca Hriban
Ziua Marti 31 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

65% of Romanians go for Basescu



The President of Romania Traian Basescu is the main favorite of the electorate, as 65,8% of citizens would vote for him. Mircea Geoana, leader of the PSD (Social-Democrat Party), is second, due to 6,6% and Adrian Nastase, the ex PSD leader, is third (5,5%), according to the opinion poll released by the Public Policy Institute.
According to the research, the Democrat Party tops vote preferences (47,9%). The PSD is next (19,8%). The National Liberal Party is third (9,2%), then there follow the New Generation Party (7,8%) and the "Greater Romania" Party (5,1%).
Most Romanians would participate in a referendum meant to change the means to elect the MPs and they are for a one-Chamber Parliament, the research also mentions.
It is to be noticed that most Romanians don't know those MPs coming from the districts they inhabit, nor have they ever met a senator or deputy.
The research concludes that 65,5% of the population think President Traian Basescu should chair government meetings more often and 78,3% opine he is not dictatorial. 61,6% of Romanians dislike the President's habit of drinking alcohol in public places, whereas 36,8% have got nothing against it.

Roxana Andronic
Ziua Marti 31 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

The imperial way



The Patriarch Teoctist was the most enduring head on the patriarchal throne (21 years) out of the 5 patriarchs Romania had since 1925 till now. In the history of the national Church, he is a record possessor too: 57 years of ceaseless episcopate.
The Patriarch Teoctist is a typically Romanian clergy profile, coming from a family of Moldavian peasants who dedicated one son to monasticism. The Patriarch Teoctist chose monastery life when 15 and he wore the "angel face" until passing to the everlasting life. His connection to the monastery endowed him with that feature specific to the imperial way: vigilant serenity and inner balance.
While an episcope-vicar in Bucharest for 12 years, after being educated at the school of Patriarch Justinian, the Patriarch Teoctist applied the evangelic rule "mild as doves, cautious like snakes" as the beginning of his service to the Church coincided with the arrival of Communism. At that rough times when priests and monks would be thrown behind bars, Church officials had to mime adaptation to the regime. But what they actually did was fight for the survival of the Church deeply rooted in the being of the Romanian people. The caution of the post-war Romanian patriarchs, of patriarch Justianian and the patriarch Teoctist in particular, proved lucid and realistic and this is one reason to mention an imperial way.
The Patriarch Teoctist was a bridge between two difficult epochs. He was annointed in November 16, 1986 and he guarded the National Church for 3 years, under the Communist regime. At times of strong atheism, in the autumn of 1989, when returning from India, the Patriarch Teoctist had the idea to pay a visit to Pope John Paul II, which drove Communist authorities and the Romanian ambassador in Rome crazy. I myself could hear the Patriarch recounting the episode in Caldarusani Monastery in the early December of 1989. The patriarch was aware that Ceausescu would fall. Under the regime following after December 22, 1989, the Patriarch Teoctist proved his skill in not keeping the throne at all costs: in January 18, 1990, he stepped back. But just a few months later, in April, the Church asked him to come back, which he did.
As for the post-communist agitation, the Patriarch and the Synod had to face overwhelming challenges: sect proselytism, strong Catholic pressure and political temptations. Teoctist was no party's man and no politician. He was a clergyman and remained so. The Patriarch and the Synod flattered popular piety by canonizing numerous Romanian saints. They also established lots of monasteries and cloisters and paid attention to theological education.
The Patriarch Teoctist was receptive to the present. He developed the connections with the other Orthodox Churches, he established hundreds of parishes in the Diaspora, he cultivated ecumenical and interreligious dialogue. The Ecumenical Patriarch visited our country about 10 times in the last 17 years and Pope John Paul II could see his dream of brotherly visiting a National Orthodox Church come true due to the Patriarch Teoctist, who strongly opposed the idea that certain politicians should get the laurels. President George W. Bush, the most powerful man on the planet, bowed to him when visiting Romania.
When enshrined on the patriarchal throne, the Patriarch Teoctist confronted reticence. But he is now leaving the world triumphantly. Due to help from the Synod and the faithful, he left a flourishing Church, maybe the most flourishing one among the Orthodox Churches. May God rest him together with the just ones !

Dan Ciachir
Ziua Marti 31 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Monday, July 30, 2007

Vice-mayor of Bucharest collaborated with ex Securitate



Democrat Razvan Murgeanu, a vice-mayor of Bucharest, admitted for the BBC that he had signed an agreement on collaboration with the ex Securitate (Communist Secret Service in Romania) when he was 20. But he insisted he hadn't actually collaborated. He said that when appointed a vice-mayor he claimed he hadn't been involved in the political police because this was the question on the fill-in forms he had to answer. (...)
Murgeanu said he had been taken to a dungeon together with a foreign colleague and he had been forced into signing for collaboration. He mentioned he hadn't attended any conspiracy meeting he had been summoned to, which can be read in his Securitate record. He added: "They gave me a conspiracy name, but I don't know it. I never wrote anything against anyone for them. It is all written in the record. That officer or what a hell he was came and he wrote: this guy won't write, he won't give a thing, I suggest we should send him out of the information network".

Anca Hriban
Ziua Luni 30 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Desert Romania


The clime red code now in Romania shouldn't have taken authorities by surprise, because the progress towards boiling temperatures ceased to be a mystery here a long while ago. But given the traditionally poor efficiency of Romanian administration, regardless of hierarchy positions and political orientation, population, cattle and agriculture have all been left in good God's care. Who can make it makes it, who cannot gets registered in minister Nicolaescu's documents as "less insured". The global heating effects are growing more and more visible in Romania. As far as short-term estimations are concerned, the predictable consequences of the heating climate can harm Romania severely. (...)
Given the record temperatures hitting southern Spain, Portugal and Romania, the authorities here, both central and local, had enough reasons to draw strategies and plans to diminish the devastating effects of the drought and heat. But no one in charge of it has cared about the desert menacing to invade a significant part of the Romanian territory.
Climate changes may be irreversible

Experts don't share views on whether the heating of the planet is irreversible or not. Some think it won't lead to the extinction of mankind and human life such as we know them today and they believe this is a transient phenomenon. The others claim the opposite.
Professor Sterie Ciulache, dean of the Meteorology and Hydrology Department in the Faculty of Geography, the University of Bucharest, also a head of the Center for Physics-Geography Research and Environment Impact, argues measures are urgently needed: "Since it is situated in the temperate region of Europe, Romania will reach the same situation reached by the other states in the temperate continental area. It will grow warmer and warmer, there will follow hot summers and floods and fast switching between the two. It may last a few decades. Temperatures may grow either too high or too low as compared to the average. And then everything will get normal again. There are several climatologists and geophysicists who trust this theory. But they believe in the atmosphere system there are retroversion resources, meaning there will follow processes able to neat the climate differences".
Politicians' carelessness
Even if nature can find resources to counter the effects of the true murders politicians commit by killing the environment, things will be worrying for future generations too. The state of things is very serious in Romania, as in the 17 years elapsed since the 1989 Revolution the only positive measure taken was to close down some industrial mammoths because they were great pollution producers.
Romanian authorities have done very little to improve the state of the environment, they have just been glad that Romania can sell fresh air. Professor Ciulache warns: "(...) Measures must be taken now, even if they cost a lot! Stop the deforesting and start massive foresting, especially in southern Romania, but in the mountains too. And there are all the other measures, well known, but too little applied. They can make the heating climate of Romania normal again".
South is most jeopardized
Cristian Hera, a president of the Agriculture and Forestry Sciences "Gheorghe Ionescu-Sisesti" claims agriculture will he harmed by such changes too: "The structure of the plants grown will certainly change, especially the kinds and hybrids to follow in the next 50 years. (...) Rights now the desert coming phenomenon is harming Dobrogea most. But the desert is also reaching the south too. Its intensification depends a lot on the technological culture means to be used. Due to the quality of its soils, Romania can be sure of its food security. But unless forests are grown on large surfaces to prevent the desert from spreading, serious difficulties may follow. In the south there have already come longer and longer times of drought. To diminish their negative effects we must add to the water in the soil water from irrigation". (...)
Saving up water
Experts say it is already time for measures to save up water and use it reasonably. Professor Mircea Dutu, an expert in ecology, explains: "Romania's water resources, limited anyway, will diminish drastically. If things go bad, that is if the heating goes on, Romania should expect terrible consequences, at least in terms of water and food supplies. But unlike in other areas of the planet to become impossible to inhabit, Romanians won't have to leave these lands. Romania won't become impossible to inhabit. But unless adaptation measures are taken as soon as possible, unless this evolution ceases, the future will be gloomy. Adaptation measures must be taken on time: saving up water and using it reasonably, modernization of the irrigation system and adaptation of cultures. They will need many resources, but this is the only way to survive".

Marian Ghiteanu
Ziua Luni 30 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Basescu, the retired and the plane



The President of Romania Traian Basescu attended yesterday's Congress to establish the Federation of Romanian Retired Associations and he did it in order o explain his view on the pension law. His messy dialogue with the Romanian retired got applause, opposition and reproaches and it was difficult for the President to keep it under control.
President insists on financial source

The head of state reiterated obsessively his request that the government should mention the financial source for the pension raise due in 2009. He argued: "I can avoid you, if I want to. But I see my mother and parents-in-law every day and it will be hard for me to say 'I lied to you, mother!' " He meant a possibility such as the government not keeping the promise.
The retired would ask him questions at the same time and then they queued for the microphone. One retired woman complained her neighbor's pension was larger and a man who had been a coxswain addressed the President with "Commander" (which pleased him), asking why weren't the additions taken into account for pensions. Basescu suggested they should put it on the Federation's agenda, as he himself would be a beneficiary of it too. The President had several suggestions for the retired there, the most important one pressure on the government so that they would provide a clear and detailed account of the financial sources for the pension raise "Otherwise, you are running the risk of postponements and in the end they will tell you priorities are different", the President concluded.
He thus admitted his concern about the impact of a possibly unkept promise on his own popularity: "My mandate is over in December 2009 and I don't want you to say I lied when promulgating the law." The audience was in frenzy when the head of state announced his preference for the elimination of discrimination from the pension system. He was cheered for "I am a true adept of the unification of the pension system".
Toy aircraft, the Voiculescu kind
But presently things didn't continue as harmoniously. The most embarrassing moment was when he was handed in a paper plane as gift to reproach him for the acquisition of a new presidential aircraft. He commented: "I knew I would get this plane because you talked to Voiculescu and, together with Mr. Iliescu, he encouraged you to do this. But if it is a joke, I give you two more to make. This is the first, maybe there are more coming up".
Still it didn't prevent an elderly lady from reproaching him that the money paid to buy planes could have been used to raise the pensions of the Romanian disabled. Basescu replied: "Nowadays the President flies by a plane built 32 years ago. I don't know how many Romanians would step on such a plane".
The retired attending the meeting were also displeased with the President's reticence to the redistributing of some funds set for development to the social insurance budget. "Money has been wasted on transports", someone cried out in the room.

Adrian Ilie
Ziua Sambata 28 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

US keeps Romanians waiting at the door


US authorities are working on a surprise for their Romanian strategic allies. Together with Poland, Romania may be excluded from the Visa Waiver program that eliminates the visa compulasory if you want to pay a visit to the US. This is because the number of dismissed petitions is over the 10% limit admitted. Warsaw officials expressed disappointment last Thursday, but Bucharest authorities seem to be still working on a response. So far Romania's foreign minister Adrian Cioroianu has just recommended the Romanians wishing to travel to America to ask for visas, provide complete documentation for it and leave the US territory on time.
The International Herald Tribune reported on it yesterday, explaining the solicitations for visas in the two states exceed the 10% limit set in the draft on the Visa Waiver expansion. The number of solicitations for US visas in Romania and Poland is larger than 25%.
According to the statistics in the US State Department, provided by the office of independent senator Joe Lieberman who chaired talks on the final version of this law, in the first 6 months of 2007 countries such as Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia and Hungary didn't meet the requirement. The International Herald Tribune mentions Bucharest and Warsaw are special cases, because the number is over 25%. On the other hand the Czech Republic, Estonia and South Korea meet the US criteria to join the Visa Waiver, the report outlines.
Last Thursday the US Senate passed the final version of this draft on security and visas are no longer required from the citizens of some states who want to travel to the US. The House of Representatives was to pass the draft too yesterday and the President George W. Bush is to promulgate it. (...)

A.M.L.
Ziua Sambata 28 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

High officials, secret emails





One more scandal is making spirits hot in Romania. The private and even very private emails of some high officials were intercepted, then disclosed and then talked about publicly. The reply or the explanation has consisted in the insistent invocation of fraud, which is indeed true, and of the interference in the private life sanctuary. This second point is arguable, especially in a country where the intercepting of mail and phone calls has been a permanent and troubling possibility. Is there a real moral difference between the indiscretion of the secret services, meant for possible blackmails (any person who becomes an official gets subject to it, theoretically) and the indiscretion of an individual turned into a prosecutor and addressing public opinion as jury ? Both types are to be blamed. The potential victims' abnormal, implicit acquiescence is noteworthy in the first case and, in the second one, this brings their protests to derision.
Of course everyone has got the right to respect for their private lives. But on the other hand, a public official, who is the object of all sorts of curiosity due to the nature of his position, must make sure that his private life is inviolable. By protecting himself and avoiding making way for such intrusions, all he does is protect his country, after all. The fact that fragments of some high officials' privacy could be on display for the public eye (probably by primitive technical means) shows their lack of caution. As far as state interests are concerned, this is a lot more severe than the indelicacy of the person who grabbed and got them printed. When a public official, and a diplomat in particular, is guilty of lacking caution, he/ she is no longer worthy of title or official position. And the trust invested in him/ her becomes pointless. To use an ordinary email address, violable by anyone, for messages meant to be confidential is an infantile mistake. Had it happened somewhere else, it would have interrupted the respective people's careers at once.
This unspeakable prose (let me briefly and sadly notice our superiors' so plain style) was certainly translated and read in certain offices of some foreign capital cities some time go. The bad reputation we thus build ourselves in the world and our officials' vulnerable image should have been the first things to trouble us, but not the publication of their poor dialogues in the Romanian press! In case where it was first read the Romanian representatives' mail caused explainable stupor, it is not only because of its contents, which is in between fishy and ridiculous, but first of all because of the spontaneity due to which the emails sent by unsafe ways offered themselves to the eyes of those interested and somehow skilled.
Apart from the moral, juridical or deontological aspects involved, this affair leaves observers, the foreign ones in particular, with the unpleasant feeling that this is because of amateurishness. Therefore we have once again managed not to let down those watching us, ready for critique.

Radu Portocala
Ziua Sambata 28 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Friday, July 27, 2007

Laffing Romania


myspace
Animated GIFs

Red code, orange code

Mr. Basescu's interview for 'Politique Internationale', a magazine that awarded Mr. Adrian Nastase the 'Political Courage' prize a few years ago, irritated ex President Ion Iliescu, who hastily decided to write a letter at times when Romania is seized with heat. As we are under the ceaseless invocation of warning codes, we can take this letter as part of the red code. On the other hand, the reply expressed by the Presidency spokesman together with the reply belonging to Mr. Boc, a Semper Fidelis (until proved otherwise), would be part of the orange code, at least because of its plainness and predictability.
Did we know nothing about the assumed authors of the two texts, we could think they are quarrelling, mainly about the way power is being used. In fact, as far as this is concerned, their conflict is not at all irreconcilable, even aside from the fact that both of them had power for a long time, one as President and the other one as minister, and that shoulder to shoulder they went through their mandates and two coal miners' attacks. They both are the beneficiaries of support from 'good oligarchs', who invented them as politicians and 'helped them be elected for the highest official position in state", as Mr. Iliescu says. They both expressed as clearly as possible their preference for the same kind of prime minister and even for the same person, that is Mr. Stolojan. Mr. Iliescu grabbed both the government and the Parliament in his booming years. Mr. Basescu tried it too, but he wasn't as successful as he wanted to be. But both of them "stopped the evolution of the national reconciliation process, replacing it with revenge and grudge". Both of them incited "obedient prosecutors, turned into a kind of new political police, against political adversaries." Both Mr. Iliescu and Mr. Basescu "made out of all those they disagreed with their personal enemies to be destroyed at all costs", they "legitimated hatred and revengeful attitudes as instruments of the political battle", making use of state institutions to this end.
Therefore the difference does not consist in the two Presidents' views on power. It is rather the attitude at the opposition that makes this difference. Mr. Iliescu never admitted the legitimacy of the opposition. Had there been no opposition, Mr. Iliescu would have been happy. Were there no opposition, Mr. Basescu would invent it. He admits its legitimacy neither, but he is perfectly aware of its usefulness. Just like in jujitsu, he has found out that he can increase his power more easily amidst the raucous cries of the opposition rather than in the silence of a repressed or absent opposition.
The slogan due to which Hugo Chavez won his mandate was "Let's kick all of them out!" In the same manner, Mr. Basescu, who, just like Mr. Jourdain, is a prose writer although he doesn't know it or perhaps on the contrary, has systematically been encouraging state dysfunctions, in a strategy ceaselessly defying and challenging the opposition. Behind his urges to fight - the villainous system, pales, the 322, demonization of the political class - there is a void of projects and ideas, which makes such slogans be as difficult to dismember as Mr. Iliescu's fake rhetoric passion.
Mr. Iliescu adapted democracy to the imperative survival of the nomenclature, whereas Mr. Basescu is adapting it to an authoritarian regime. Mr. Iliescu's particular democracy was based on "our tranquility", whereas Mr. Basescu's efficient democracy is based on scandal. The only difference between the red code and the orange one is the level of the risk expressed. No matter how faithful to his own biography, Mr. Iliescu can no longer edit it again: his code is as red as the setting sun.

Zoe Petre
Ziua Vineri 27 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Foreign minister stands by 'sex ambassadress'




The information ZIUA unveiled about Manuela Vulpe, the Romanian ambassadress to Mexico, and her traffic of influence meant to get her a flat belonging to the Romanian state has caused scandal in the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the PM's Chancellery and Presidency Administration too. Manuela Vulpe's emails to various people in the Foreign Ministry and other state institutions show some officials pursue solutions to personal problems and abuse their transient positions to this end rather than see to professional activities. The employees of some state-owned institutions seem constantly interested in wealth, upstarting and fun in the countries they are sent to work in. It is the emails of Mrs. Ambassadress Manuele Vulpe, posted on the www. spiritofromania.com, that reveal it.
After ZIUA published the "Sex ambassadress" report, people sent us more emails by Manuela Vulpe, proved to be have sent from her personal email address.
The ambassadress sent us a reply announcing she would take legal action against those who had accessed her email address illegally. This diplomacy scandal has burst out at times when some important parliamentary delegations headed by Liberal Bogdan Olteanu, speaker for the Chamber of Deputies, is in Mexico. It is on this occasion that we have learned about the latter official's schedule. Apart from meetings with the representatives of various Mexican institutions, there is a lot of tourism.
We have got latest information claiming that Mrs. Ambassadress has got a more than conventional relationship with a small state in Oceania. (...)
Vulpe summoned to Bucharest
The Foreign Ministry made an official announcement yesterday, critical of the action to intercept and disclose a private person's private mail. There is mentioned that Mrs. Ambassadress and the other people pointed to in the printed reports are free to take all legal measures to defend their broken rights, if they assume so.
The press release goes that the Ministry is analyzing the situation and, depending on the conclusions, the officials will provide information about a decision. Ambassadress Manuela Vulpe is to come to Bucharest for explanations next week. (...)

Ziua
Ziua Vineri 27 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

EU estimates Romanian agriculture heads disaster

Despite Bucharest officials' statements, Brussels scientific reports show the drought may have very severe consequences on short, medium and long term. You can now read a presentation of an extremely serious document proving beyond any doubt a very worrying state of things jeopardizing Romania's survival. In statistics terms, this is about a phenomenon Romanian authorities do little talking on or they just belittle it: the continuous decrease of Romania's agriculture production. It is despite the yearly predictions that have proved either amateurish or lying, given their intention to cool people down and send partners a very sweetened message. (...)
Satellites and mathematical patterns
The JRC (Joint Research Center) experts author this complete analysis accompanied by maps and statistical data. It is a prediction for the European production of cereals in 2007 that uses satellite teledetection and mathematical patterns simulating the growth of crops.
The question Romanian authorities should answer is why the lack of elementary precaution measures has once again caused the present state of things. Why haven't they contacted European institutions in the field for such prospective analyses that possess the appropriate detection and prediction procedures? We hope the information here will be an argument decisive for a responsible debate.
The question at stake is why the degradation has been allowed for and why has Romania got the greatest production losses in the entire EU, since the weather forecast hasn't been a mystery? This year's wheat production confirms it. The Romanian production's decrease is dramatic, although the 2005 wheat production in the EU is 2,3% superior to the average of the last 5 years. (...)
As far as the major cereal production is concerned, the corn is the only cereal providing Romania with a position such as the first before the last, as Bulgaria seems to be worst. (...)
The estimations on the 2007 production of sunflower, cole, sugarcane and potatoes are also pessimistic, because of great losses. Romania is one of the European states most harmed.

Cristian Unteanu, Brussels
Ziua Vineri 27 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Letter war between President and ex President



The ex President of Romania Traian Basescu started yesterday an unprecedented offensive against President Traian Basescu, accusing the latter of abusive conduct, lying, hypocrisy and swindling. In his open letter the leader of the PSD (Social-Democrat Party) claims the ruling President shares interests with the group of 'good oligarchs' who made him a politician and helped him become a President. Iliescu's anger is because of Traian Basescu's interview for the French press, when the President explained Ion Iliescu was being investigated for the murders committed during the 1989 Revolution and the coal miners' attacks in 1990. Presidency replied that Ion Iliescu's letter was "full of hatred and lies".
"You are not Hercules with a call for eliminating corruption"
"This interview proves you to think of yourself as of someone aspiring to Romania's throne, like in the Phanar epoch. (...) As far as corruption is concerned, Romania can't be taken for some sort of 'Augean stables'. You are not Hercules with a call for eliminating corruption. In such a case, you should be an example of morality, honesty and honor. But this is not the case!" This is how Ion Iliescu argues in his letter.
He accuses the head of state of making prosecutors obey him and turning them into a kind of new political police. He goes on: "You can't keep on preaching. You can't always play the incorruptible, the fighter against the villainous system, since you have fully contributed to making the system so".
Condemnation of communism as hypocrite and profiteering decision
The ex President argues as follows: "Just like the citizens of this country, you know it very well that your decision to condemn communism is hypocrite and profiteering, having the only purpose to attract the revengeful anti-Communist electorate on your side." He accuses President Basescu of turning the fight against corruption into a TV show and approving that prosecutors and the secret services should break fundamental rights and manipulate data in the records of the ex Securitate (Communist Secret Service in Romania). Ion Iliescu calls President Basescu's comments on him "just swindling", as they ignore the real state of things. And the conclusion follows: "Ever since you became a head of state you have managed to destroy the slight national consensus we have painfully been building. You have dismembered social peace, making social categories reach enmity, bringing hatred and discord. As a President, you have stopped the evolution of the national reconciliation process, replacing it with revenge and grudge".
Presidency: A typical example of Soviet inspiration
Presidency spokesman Valeriu Turcan replied yesterday: "It is a letter full of hatred and lies, headed against a President who pursues a state different than the one pictured by Ion iliescu together with all those who confiscated the 1989 Revolution for themselves".
In the press release there is argued: "The President thinks Mr. Iliescu's public statement to be a typical example of propaganda of Soviet inspiration, unworthy of an ex President. By the national reconciliation he claims to be his, Mr. Ion Iliescu probably means inciting the coal miners against other social categories, toleration for the oligarchs and the groups of illegitimate interests and of the local barons".

Roxana Andronic
Ziua Joi 26 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

US ambassador: Culture of corruption harms Romania's image


In his interview to the "Academia Catavencu" publication, the US ambassador to Romania Nicholas Taubman advises the Romanian government to continue investigations on those officials who used power on personal purposes. According to ambassador Taubman, they are politicians unaware of how much the culture of corruption harms Romania's image abroad.
When asked about what he dislikes about Romania, the US ambassador answers he gets upset when thinking about the millions of hard-working Romanians whose work is harmed because of a small number of corrupted officials. The diplomat mentions latest efforts to fight it, but many delays as well.
As for foreign investments in Romania, he mentions the rate is high and it would be even more significant, if the many foreign investors weren't reticent, fearing they would lose equality. In his opinion, corruption slows down the so necessary infrastructure development.
When asked if he can feel the corruption in Romania in a certain way, ambassador Taubman says he is relatively protected, but that in various meetings he was offered examples of corruption: million dollar cases recounted by businessmen and bribe to the medical staff recounted by ordinary people.
As far as the conflict between Romanian President Traian Basescu and PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu is concerned, the US officials comments there shouldn't be too much fuss about it, since some aspects are predictable in a republic. He reminds that President Bush faces opposition from the Congress too. As long as people continue to act responsibly, he adds, this is not something to make us worry a lot.

L.P.
Ziua Joi 26 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Basescu strikes from France



-- "A revision of the Constitution seems indispensable to me (...) We must choose between a parliamentary system and a presidential one, with the possibility for the head of State to dissolve the Parliament" (T.Basescu)
In an interview given to journalist Arielle Thedrel and publiched in "Politique internationale", president Traian Basescu accuses the whole Romanian political class and the most important institutions in Romania, except for the Democrat Party (PD). Here are some excerpts of this interview.
When asked about the reasons three quarters of the PMs wanted to depose him, Traian Basescu listed three reasons. The first is, according to the Romanian president, the fact that he had condemned the crimes of the communist regime in the Parliament on the 7 December 2006. Or, they refused such a gesture since a great number of ex-communists are still active in the political or economic sphere in Romania. The second reason would be the transfer of approximately one million files of the ex-communist secret police Archive to the National Council for Study of the Ex-Communist Secret Service Archive (CNSAS). The third reason is related to the fight against corruption, "one of the priorities" of the president's mandate.
As for what some of the analysts have qualifies as a "parliamentary putsch", Traian Basescu said that it was more than a putsch. He said the action had two stages. At first, with the help of Mircea Geoana, head of the Social Democrat Party, and of lui Ion Iliescu, the PM has eliminated from the Government the ministers proposed by PD as well as the independent Macovei. After PD had been removed from the governing, most of the PMs voted for the president's suspension. (...) Or, the Constitutional Court has ascertained the president hadn't violated any article of the fundamental law.
Traian Basescu said that most of the people incriminated within this crusade against corruption were from the Opposition and also from PD, as the mayors coming from PD had passed "that test", one of them being under arrest and several PD MPs being under investigation as well.
(...)
The president pointed out the fact that it was not about a personal conflict, as this crisis was not a conjectural, but a structural one. In Romania, as well as in other communist countries, the transition to a market economy allowed the coming out, in the 1990s, of an oligarchic system. Some businessmen had rapidly accumulated fortunes with the help of some politicians. These influence networks still persist and they are resistant (...). The State shouldn't be an institution under influence any longer and that is why it is imperative to continue the institutional reform.
Although the resistance to change is still powerful, Romania is not a country close to the Ukraine model, said the President. This recent crisis gives the sensation that Romania keeps belonging to a grey area, somewhere between the West and the East, he added, and that is why we need to get rid of this oligarchic system that had maintained in spite of the country's accession to NATO and EU.
The president accused again the PM of having abandoned the political program that made them win the elections together. (...)

Ziua
Ziua Marti 24 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Coldea effect

-- President Basescu has availed himself of the notes written by the Maior's first deputy to clear SRI (Romanian Intelligence Service) of the old guard. The first to disappear is General-lieutenant Ionel Marin
The deputy of the SRI director, also coordinator of anti-terrorism and international cooperation fields, was put in reserve yesterday, by the means of an Order in Council. He was put in reserve on the grounds of Article 85, paragraph 1 (e) of Law no 80/1995, which is about the discharge due to reorganization. Marin asked to be pensioned, and Basescu restructured the position of deputy director of SRI. The three stars general, accused of having repressed the revolutionaries in December 1989, leaves SRI with almost 100,000 RON in his pocket, as an old age allowance. During the notes scandal, Marin started war against Maior whom he denounced to the SRI Committee. General Dumitru Ion Zamfir, the last Mohican of the old guard of the Securitate (Communist Secret Service), another one of Maior's deputies, is on the purging list as well. The head of the Counterespionage, General Ionel Bidireci, and the head of the Department for Preventing and Combating Terrorist Activities, General Ion Stefanut shall accompany Zamfir outside the SRI gate. Director George Maior announced a decrease in the leading positions in SRI at the 28 June CSAT (Supreme Council of National Defense) meeting. Colonel Coldea, the source of the whole scandal, was reinstalled in the position of prim-deputy of the SRI director. (...)

Ziua
Ziua Sambata 21 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Politics shit


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SCAMP ? WHEN SHALL WE HEAR "DRIP THAT YOU ARE, DRIP" ?



Following the model of the intellectuals he surrounded himself with, Traian Basescu started to crib from. No, not from Heidegger or from Corbin, but from Gigi Becali, whom he has stolen the well known addressing formula: SCAMP.
The way we proceeded in the case of the "oligarchs", we are trying now to show the president the real meaning of the words he uses in public discourses. The last entry into Traian Basescu's basic word stock is SCAMP. This way, the president plagiarizes Gigi Becali, not because the latter would have invented the word, but because Steaua's owner turned it long ago into a real personal brand. When one says SCAMP, he says Gigi Becali ! In this case, Traian Basescu finds himself into a misfortunate situation, as Becali (who, in his turn, borrowed it from his cousin, Giovanni) ennobled the word SCAMP, giving it a humorous connotation, even a somehow likeable one, a king of "you, little jack..."
It's good to know that, rigorously, SCAMP is defined as being the "person with no scruples, no character, light-minded; a rascal" (DEX- Romanian Explanatory Dictionary, 1996 edition, under the supervision of the Romanian Academy, p. 441), and has an unknown etymology ! It is one of the rare words that have absolutely no derivative, operating just for it and it may have come from a simple echo-word. We come with these learned explanations because, especially in the case of plagiarism, words are borrowed without their true meanings, what may create a dangerous confusion. For instance, one could address the Queen of the United Kingdom by saying: "You are welcome, your SCAMP !", and he would think he only being quaint.
In the interview where he experienced SCAMP as an ontological operator of the political discourse, Traian Basescu confirmed his beginning to be bothered by the intellectual elite. How else could we take the launching of SCAMP on the presidential orbit for, only few days after Liiceanu had condemned him, at GDS (Group for Social Dialogue), for that "stinky gypsy" ? After Basescu had had a tedious time with Plesu at Cotroceni Palace, it seems that it's Liiceanu's turn now, and he can see for himself the man is to deinotaton, without being forced to plagiarize from Heidegger ! Beyond joke, easiness with which president Traian Basescu used SCAMP to speak about some MPs democratically elected by the people shows that either it was a blunder, and in that situation he should have come quickly with a public excuse, or an experiment in view of the future electoral campaigns and that's not good at all. Becali's SCAMP is somehow privileged, being now used in humorous programs satirizing the author, in his quality of an owner of a football team, while Basescu's SCAMP wears a royal crown and will generate effects that even Tatulici or Turcescu won't be able to prevent in a moralizing broadcast. Anyway, the two are on top of the people's options for the next presidential election. But I'm afraid that a battle between the SCAMPS of the two candidates will cut off our envy for laughing for a long time from now on and, the way thing go, I'd rather believe the Steaua owner give up his brand than Basescu, as the intellectuals around him may speak highly of a positive change of Becali from few years ago, while those around the president can only witness the fact that they had taught him how to plagiarize the classic ones !
However, after the gentle presidential journalist Traian Ungureanu wrote that he licked democracy, it won't be a big deal in hearing Traian Basescu telling the PM on the TV: "drip that you are, drip" !

Ion Spanu
Ziua Miercuri 18 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

"CIA prisons" inquiry, relaunched


-- I think this the most concise and correct definition of what happened yesterday in the European Parliament, during the exchange of views the MEPs had with Dick Marty, the special observer of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
In the presidium, next to Marty was Claudio Fava, chairman of the European Parliament ad-hoc committee on the CIA prisons matter, and the two also appeared together at the press conference that followed. First of all they congratulated one another for the conclusions they had reached, "a report of synergies that has made us reach, by different ways, to equivalent outcomes", as Marty said. Fava replied, on behalf of the European Parliament, that this institution "supported almost in its entirety the conclusions of the excellent report Dick Marty had drawn up".
Both accused that, in the course of the investigation activity, they had to face a real silence wall the European governments had built up on the matter of the CIA prisons and of the illegal extradition of persons charged with terrorist activities; they announced as well that there were European countries that haven't answered so far the questionnaire they had been officially addressed by the two committees. After that, Marty resumed the grand themes of the two reports already released, but insisted on the way the information and evidence that founded the conclusion were collected. He did it in order to answer the harsh criticism that had accused just the fact that almost all that had existed under the label of evidence were but either compilation from the international press, or evocation of clues offered by unknown informers.
Marty explained that the principle of the work done with the help of informers under cover had been accepted by vote in the Human Rights Commission of the PACE, and that hearings, statements of high rank officials directly involved in the American secret programme were possible only this way. Marty added that had informed on that commissioner Franco Frattini, first verbally and then in a written way. He reminded that he also asked Frattini to send the information to all the ministers of Justice of the European countries. Some of the MEPs had contested the procedure, saying that in the and, there would inevitable be just a list of presumptive guilty persons. However Marty kept on having his own position arguing that it was the only realist method to come into the possession of the high rank personalities testimonies. Thus, the investigation might have considerably accelerated its pace after President George W. Bush had publicly admitted that such CIA prisons had existed, though he hadn't specified their location. Marty also said that he was in contact with persons from the CIA leadership, "which had had serious conflicts with the military system Rumsfeld had run at the time", thus indicating one of the possible sources of confidential information he had access to.
Marty continued his attack on the NATO theme, institution accused that, after the 9/11 attack and invoking Article 5 of the North Atlantic Organization Treaty, had drawn up a framework document defining the terms of a collaboration with the CIA, a text based on which bilateral agreements would have been signed by the Americans and some of the European states. Answering to another question, Marty added that, even though NATO made public a part of the 8 points agreement, it was crystal clear that there was another part as well, an ultra-confidential one, describing in detail the operational aspects. Among these aspects, he made a precise reference to the fact that all the signatory governments had agreed upon the US party principle, i.e. a complete immunity granted to their own agents and thus creating a kind of a "judicial apartheid". According to Marty, this would be perfectly coherent with the Americans' action after September 11, when they had sent to all their partners that the anti-terrorist war needed a complete transgression of the existing judicial systems and their replacement by exceptional measures.
As a scenario, everything can be claimed as in a thriller. However, what about the evidence ? As they are still in an area of circumstantial or of presumptive, both Marty and Fava said in one voice that, if that is how things are, then, who is to blame ? It's the European institutional state, they say, as it practically confers no power of investigation to the European Parliament bodies. That is why, Marty goes on, point 19 of the resolution adopted in Strasbourg expressly provides the creation of a true inquiry system, efficacious from the operational standpoint at European level, able to benefit of extended powers in the course of its investigations, to ask for documents, etc. Moreover, Fava accused in unusually harsh terms the lack of political will and of action the European Commission and the Council of Ministers had shown. (...) Even though both Marty and Fava tried to say that the mentioning of Romania and Poland did not turn them into targets, it was obvious that the MPs of the two countries would react, especially that among the personalities Marty quoted there was a Pole who was also vice-president of the EP and a Romanian who was vice-president of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Unfortunately, Ioan Mircea Pascu's justified protest and coherently argued had no effect, as the explanations received were vague and unconvincingly, the same as the retorts Toberta Anastase and Adina Valean had, during the interpellations.
Marty added: "I bet that no one of those mentioned in my report would dare to come up here, in front of you, and say officially that s/he knew nothing of the CIA prisons and the illegal extradition. That is why Ioan Mircea Pascu's gesture at the end of the press conference seemed quite unusual: he came forward with a handwritten letter that he tried to hand to those in the presidium. They didn't want to take it, and the gesture rouse the protest of Lorenzo Consoli, president of the International Association of the Press Correspondents in Brussels. Despite the confusion that was created, he said that the rules of the press conferences were being violated ... Except that many of his colleagues took the episode as an extra proof in favour of the Romanian MPs statements. Pascu complained that, in spite of his repeated demands, Marty didn't approve his direct hearing before the Committee.
What will happen from now on ? It is sure that the second Fava Report will be finalized in September and a decision will be made concerning the formula to go on further. The first suggestion is to change the format, that of an ad-hoc committee, in favour the already set up committees. This would suppose, from the very beginning, the extension of the problem and the involving of at least two committees, the Foreign Affairs one and the one for Justice, Home Affairs and Civil Liberties. That is why, in exclusivity for ZIUA, Jean-Marie Cavada, president of the Committee on Justice, Civil Liberties and Home Affairs, and also the one who chaired the yesterday meeting in Brussels said that, "for the time being, it was not about accusing states of having participated, in a way we knew or we didn't know, in the actions perpetrated by the American Administration. (...) Our problem, as Europeans, is to establish a level of truth from the member states that had signed a number of treaties involving, first of all, the observance of human rights. Subsequently, it's over this matter that a true debate must take place in which truth should be brought to light and explained, and the states that harboured such secret actions are able to remain into the EU. We are not prosecutors, we just have to establish a level of truth. Romania is better placed than anyone in the EU to know that long liver lies give birth to suffering and, I would say, a regression of the historical truth that doesn't do good to anyone.(...)" Ioan Mircea Pascu, also in exclusivity for ZIUA, said that, in his opinion, "even this discussion was organized so that the game may go on. There are many people who wish to accuse the United States, the US allies, and this is the best pretext. I believe this was obvious today. (...)"

Cristian Unteanu, Brussels
Ziua Miercuri 18 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Fight against corruption, repeatable masquerade


-- It is time the judicial masquerade every government opened against political adversaries formerly in power stopped. Who is guilty must be sentenced. Who is innocent, but charged, must get official apologizes and moral damages.
When the PDSR (Democrat Social Party in Romania) ruled, Viorel Hrebenciuc was thought to be "the measurement of corruption". After the Romanian Democrat Convention had taken over, Hrebenciuc paid some visits to the Prosecutor's Office, but he wasn't charged. Razvan Temesan spent some years in prison for having committed fraud against the Bancorex. It was a black hole of $ 2,5 billion, left by the Vacaroiu Cabinet and filled by the Ciorbea Cabinet with funds from the budget, therefore from citizens. A sacrifice that cost the rightwing rulers a lot. The PNTCD (National Christian Democrat Party) no longer made it to the Parliament. The Romanian Democratic Convention ruling at the time could have raised pensions with the money they used to rescue the financial-banking system, to save Romania from collapse.
When the Romanian Democratic Convention was in power, the Hrebenciuc of the right, depicted by the PDSR as public enemy number 1, was Christian-Democrat Radu Sarbu, the last president of the State Property Fund. The tandem made up of the PDSR and Greater Romania Party demonized the latter institution that, when getting power, the PDSR had to change its name. It became the PSD (Social-Democrat Party) and Radu Sarbu was for a few years the laughing stock of a criminal scenario (see the minutes of the PSD meeting when they asked that he be fixed) on the privatization of the Bucharest Hotel. The case was returned to the Prosecutor's Office in the end. The man is also accused in the Fleet case, together with more 79 persons. They have been kept in standby and described in dark colors for three years now, because general prosecutor Daniel Morar, the man who speaks on the phone with the President of Romania, said Basescu had immunity and might not be charged. Therefore this may not be !
When the PSD ruled, the most corrupted of all the corrupted was PM Adrian Nastase. After the "Truth and Justice" Alliance took over, the ex PM got to pay visits to investigators for a ridiculous case: his house windows. And one more case: the inheritance from aunt Tamara, a few hundred thousand dollars. It was huge money, as compared to the standards of life of most Romanians. But the money was embarrassing as compared to the great fortunes. If Justice is to search the ex PM's properties, authorities should search the real ones instead of the information provided by criminals not wishing to go to prison. They are farces played for the sake of the image.
Now when Traian Basescu, the fighter against corruption, is reigning, apart from the ex presidential opponent Adrian Nastase, there were and have been incriminated other personal adversaries of his, from the Democrat Union of Magyars in Romania and the Conservative Party, who didn't stand by him in his games. Marko Bela is charged, because he can't justify some money he got from authorship rights, about as much as the one month salary of a Presidency adviser. Ex minister Zsolt Nagy and Codrut Seres are charged for reasons on which prosecutors haven't agreed yet. Sorin Rosca Stanescu, owner of a press group, is also charged, because he is a friend of the man the President takes for his main enemy: Dinu Patriciu. The latter is claimed to be a capitalist (in Communist language, it means profiteer).
In brief, the fight against corruption inherited from minister Monica Macovei: house windows, allegations and authorship rights. And high treason by the Hungarians. This is an accusation later on taken back. This is real Justice ! And the fight against corruption is a piece of work too !
Minister Tudor Chiuariu can and must change the state of things into a just state of things. I will develop upon it as soon as possible.

Roxana Iordache
Ziua Marti 17 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Pell mell seizes Interior Ministry

-- Prosecutor Santion, a personal adviser of the Romanian interior minister Cristian David, denounced four officials in the Ministry who had committed abuse at work. General Virgil Ardelean, known as 'The Fox', tops the list.
According to the complaint, Virgil Ardelean, Constantin Darna (deputy chief of the General Department for Information and Interior Protection), Cristian Baci (chief of the Juridical Department in the Interior Ministry) and chief commissioner Valeriu Dinca (formerly a head of the Protection Department) obstructed the making of the National Center for Integrity Volunteering (the CNI).
The latter institution enjoys EU appreciation and British and Dutch financial support and it is meant to see that the fight against corruption is fought in the Interior Ministry.
Minister David's personal adviser demanded investigations should also reach Irinel Paun, chief of the DGA (National Anti-Corruption Department).
The war between Santion and Paun burst out officially two months ago, when the DGA chief denounced the minister's adviser for abuse at work too. Santion claims the war against himself "is a technical stage of obedience to an order to the new DGA officials from some very important people in the Interior Ministry and not only, looking for allies to cope with crimes committed under the auspices of the Interior Ministry. (...)

S.A. & D.D.
Ziua Marti 17 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Monday, July 16, 2007

I'm the boss....


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The scum in Cotroceni Palace and the fear of lustration



Of course President Basescu won't believe that I am now bored with writing about his tricks. He said we would have had nothing to write about, had he not been a President! A President-player. He is a bragger as haughty as a peacock and he makes a show of himself. He would do anything to arrest people's attention so that people would think it is him who does and undoes things. He thinks he is the player of all players, but he is just a toy president of the service at the end of the leash. Does anybody really think that one could head the agency in Anvers and not be an agent, an under cover one, like so many diplomacy members were, of the Securitate (Communist Secret Service in Romania)? As for those who may say the Romanian Secret Service is not the Special Security Department and the Foreign Intelligence Service is not the Foreign Intelligence Department, I am reminding them about the demonstrations arranged by the Front for National Salvation in November 1990 in Bucharest, when Dan Iosif was crying out that the Front for National Salvation was not the Romanian Communist Party! In other words, an under cover officer of the Securitate is not an under cover officer of the Romanian Secret Service. He is one used in games played by the 'intelligence', which some intellectuals take for authentic, when they are not participating in tricks.
The unmasking of the (anti) national impostor called Traian Basescu, accompanied by the Democrat Party, is a must. It is a party of the presidential assemble. When Basescu is out of Romania's public stage, we will be able to write about truly important things. But for the time being, we have to cope with the plays of the presidential diversion, either implicitly or explicitly. It means we have to take him into account. Some have to praise him, some to criticize him. Some have to validate his impostorship by claiming it is providential stance. The other have to prove this impostorship.
The target of such impostorship is to dismember the right completely (it started with the National Christian-Democrat Party and it has now reached the National Liberal Party) in order to replace it with a made up left group, the Democrat Party, originating from the Front for National Salvation. It is also aimed at taking over the main topics of the right and compromising them. Basescu and the Democrats sabotaged them successfully when the Romanian Democratic Convention was in power. The campaign against corruption, the return of stolen properties, the condemnation of communism as murderous regime and lustration - all these have been systematically opposed by the Democrats, Traian Basescu the first of them. And the National Christian-Democrat Party got to an end because of surrendering and committing fratricide and also because, when President, Emil Constantinescu was not firm, like Calin Popescu Tariceanu is now.
At stake is not only the rescue and the victory of a political party that made Romania modern, the National Liberal Party. At stake is not only to make the authentic right and left clear. At stake is the very normalization of social, political and daily life in Romania.
President Traian Basescu is obstructing the process of making Euro-Atlantic Romania normal. He was panic stricken when he saw the Liberals were taking the whipped cream of the cake. Liberals' decision to raise pension took him by surprise and the Democrats got into the embarrassing situation of voting for the law, because they were afraid of the retired population, and then they got to criticize it, because they were afraid of President Basescu. He wouldn't agree to the pension raise because he wants enmity. He has shrewdly invoked the uninominal vote against parties and parliamentary democracy. He has publicly mentioned "the scum in parties", overtly insulting them so that he can play the victim of press critique afterwards. Did the press ignore him, Basescu would fall like a dry leaf. The secret services would learn that Romanian society has reached maturity and they would act accordingly. They wouldn't be playing God via the so-called presidents-player. But we are unable of embargo. We are waiting for the lustration law, which, just like usually, Basescu has invoked for bluff. But he is afraid of it, like the devil is afraid of incense. This is why he is doing his best so that it would be forgotten.

Roxana Iordache
Ziua Luni 16 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Plotter Theodor Stolojan



-- Theodor Stolojan, now a president of the PLD (Liberal-Democrat Party), is trying hard to hide the activity he had before 1989. In today's newspaper you can read about his true face. Theodor Stolojan, now a president of the PLD (Liberal-Democrat Party), is trying hard to hide the activity he had before 1989. In today's newspaper you can read about his true face.
Theodor Stolojan was a deputy chief of the currency operations department in the Ministry of Finance until 1986. From this year until 1989 he was a general chief of the institution, which was directly subordinate to dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and also a source coordinating his currency.
According to his attributions, Stolojan was to approve or disapprove of all operations performed: the special currency operations in a bank account belonging to the Securitate (Communist Secret Service in Romania), and currency operations of the Communist Party. It is to be mentioned that in late 1989 in the latter bank account there were $ 139 million.
After the 1989 Revolution Stolojan was involved in the redirecting of the money still to be found there: $ 19 million, after Romania had paid its foreign debt. Still the PLD president's involvement in it is kept secret.
Coordinated by colonels
Before 1986, Stolojan collaborated with the AVS department in the Foreign Information Office. He was employed as "expert adviser" and coordinated by reserve colonels Andronic and Anghelache. In the 70s he was also present in the list of the Institute for World Economics, an under cover institute of the UM 0920. His double membership became visible years later too. After he left the World Bank, after having been a prime minister of Romania, there was comment on his involvement, in exchange for money, in sending confidential information to British company Solomon Brother.
"Medicine provider"
After having been dismissed from the currency operations department together with deputy minister Vasile Iuga, he became a general inspector in the State Income Department, headed by Nicolae Sandulescu. When dismissed, Stolojan had a nervous breakdown and spent some time in the Mental Hospital in Predeal, Romania. His health troubles are well known. Together with the fact that he could be blackmailed because of his communist past, they made him 'renounce' his candidacy in the presidential elections in 2004 and allow Traian Basescu go for it instead.
There are persons who worked together with him in the ministry who claim he used to ask for money in order to facilitate currency exchange operations that would be justified, in agreement with the respective persons, as "medicine providing". (...)
Traffic of influence
Theodor Stolojan has been a user of traffic of influence for years. Apart from famous cases such as ALRO Slatina and RAFO, a few years ago Stolojan persuaded Viorel Catarama, Crin Antonescu and Calin Popescu Tariceanu into supporting Roma-origin Anghel Sandu, a mafia man, to buy a gas station in Dolj at an advantageous price. Later on Anghel Sandu fueled substantial funds to the National Liberal Party in 2000, meant for the electoral campaign. Had Stolojan been elected a President of Romania, he would have got protection for the illicit business he was in.
Controversial businessman Petre Paul Tardea is another character in ties with Stolojan. The businessman paid Democrat officials (1-3 billion ROL) for an eligible place on the electoral lists of the Liberal-Democrat alliance. Friends of Tardea say he gave enough money to both Valeriu Stoica and Theodor Stolojan, at that time a president of the National Liberal Party, in order to become a MP and represent the district of Gorj. (...)

Mihnea Talau
Ziua Luni 16 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Promulgate or resign



The leaders of Romanian Liberals have asked the head of state to promulgate the pension raise law or resign. Varujan Vosganian, a Romanian minister of economy, has overtly demanded the Romanian President Traian Basescu to quit unless he agrees to the pension raise, decided by the Cabinet in power. The minister argued yesterday that the budget was able to cover for this measure, claiming that any opposite opinion, the President's included, was ungrounded. He commented: "It is clear to me that Mr. President is angry that the pension raise idea isn't his. The budget law for 2008 will show if this decision is possible or not. If the Parliament passes it, but the President doesn't promulgate it, I think he should resign. Unless the Parliament passes it, it is us who should quit." According to the minister, if the system is able to fuel raised pension in 2008, it would manage to do the same afterwards, because of a reliable economy growth, as expected.
Liberal Teodor Atanasiu announced his party wanted extraordinary session on it to be held and the Social-Democrats joined the initiative. Social-Democrats Viorel Hrebenciuc and Ioan Stan have recently threatened the President that, unless he promulgated the pension raise law, they would open procedures to suspend him. (...)

Anca Hriban & R. I. P.
Ziua Luni 16 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Our Politicians


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President can't bear "gang of braggers"



Yesterday the President of Romania Traian Basescu developed upon his favorite topics once again. He explained his view on the pension raise, Bordei Park, the uninominal vote, the Constitution change and especially on why journalists were so hard to bear. He did all this talking in a show on the public radio post.
The head of state insisted that he would promulgate the pension law, on condition that the government provided him with the documentation so that he would make sure the pension funds would be enough till 2013. Basescu outlined it would be "a unique show", had the Parliament been summoned for extraordinary session to pass a new pension law. He commented: "I think it would be a unique show to have Mircea Geoana summon the Parliament once more. (...) Mircea Geoana, Bogdan Olteanu and the whole gang of braggers were asking me to promulgate the law before I received it." (...)
Enraged against journalists
The President let loose his abhorrence of journalists again. He argued: "The thing I would never give up for nothing in the world is my family's privacy. When I am with my wife, I am a private person, even if we are out in the city. I am not with politicians or state structures, I am not doing anything of public interest. And my wife doesn't have to bear what I personally took responsibility for. (...) I will respond every time the press disturbs me and my wife. It is my life and I am not giving it to them. As for the rest, journalists are as free as the birds".
He admitted: "I am at tense terms with those who offend me. But if I tease them a bit, they think a mountain has collapsed. Just watch TV and you will see people go mad when someone dares express an opinion resembling the President's".
President Basescu's rage was obvious: "Journalists are intrigued if one of them gets a depreciative word. But please try to count in one single day how many times you run into words as follow in newspapers: drunkard, stupid, idiot and more. In one single day such words are used 10 times more than I will say in 5 years of mandate. As journalists, you can't address a President this way. On the other hand, the President is supposed to tell himself: 'How brave you are. I like it.' This is impossible".
Bordei Park affair
According to the head of state, the target of the Bordei Park affair was the following: Costica Costanda, owner of the park, wanted to grab the piece of land under the French Village, at present property of Bucharest City Hall. President Basescu explained that it was the Bucharest inhabitants who were actually the owners of the French Village and the buildings there, reaching about 200-300 million Euro. He tried to explain why he had informed the Superior Council of Magistracy and why he had demanded inquiry on the court sentence reached in the Bordei Park case, asking the Bucharest City Hall and General Council to modify the general city plan. The president added that, according to the latter plan, Costanda was allowed to build on only 15% of the green area in the Bordei Park and the buildings were disallowed to have more than 3 floors. He mentioned, according to the plan, in the Floreasca Lake quarter they intended to build restaurants and entertainment places, but not office and bank buildings.

Anca Hriban
Ziua Sambata 14 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

President does money laundry




-- The President of Romania Traian Basescu was involved in fishy business both in 2000 and 2002.
In October 2004, the ONPCSB (The National Office to Prevent and Fight Money Laundry) demanded analysis of the transactions involving Traian Basescu and businessman Costel Casuneanu. The very same day in 2000 the two had bought lands from the very same owner. Although the pieces of land were close to each other and almost equal as surface, Basescu paid much less than Casuneanu.
In 2002, the President sold his property to his sister-in-law of Costel Casuneanu for 4 times more money. He used the money to buy a villa he donated to his daughter Ioana a few days later, but also a Mercedes, bought from the same Casuneanu.
Basescu chose such tricks in order to avoid stating some properties in his statement on personal properties, the above-mentioned Office assumes.
The Office proposed the reactivation of a work related to the same case, in 2003 categorized as "passive case". The case was to reach the Prosecutor's Office, but it was muffled shortly after Basescu had become a President. The National Anti-Corruption Department searched on the monkey business too, but prosecutor Camelia Sutiman buried the issue in January 2005. (...)

D.C.
Ziua Sambata 14 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Minimum pension, a whisky bottle for Basescu



-- President Basescu's attitude at the pension raise is really filthy. He lied to people even live on TV. He lied in his letter to PM Tariceanu. He lies as he breathes, hopeful that he can fool people forever.
Those who said the President was opposing the Liberals' draft on the pension raise, unanimously voted by the MPs, he called liars. And then he said he wouldn't promulgate "a lying law". Therefore on the one hand he promises to promulgate the law because the Constitution requires him to, even if he has to send it back to the Parliament first. And on the other hand he says he won't promulgate it if it proves having no financial resources. This is impossible.
Basescu is twice a liar this time. Because of the Constitution, he must promulgate the law, whether he likes it or not. Did he not do it, President Basescu would break the Constitution so severely that even the Constitutional Court would announce the crime that may call for his suspension or even resignation. You don't play with 5,5 million retired Romanians who are mocked. This is why President Basescu won't even risk sending the law back to the Parliament.
The request he sent PM Tariceanu, asking the latter to inform him on the funds able to cover for the norms on the pension raise law, is a presidential self goal and a ball for the Liberal government to catch. The latter is a government brave enough to overcome a psychological limit - or a (macroeconomic) vicious circle - and to do what should have been done a long while ago. The pension raise is a possible, necessary and moral measure. One can't possibly keep millions of people hardly surviving for 18 years because there are no resources. Hence there will be resources only when they are dead. Many of them passed away in the meantime anyway.
Another lie of Basescu's, the one that has fooled some, is that the large pensions will actually raise, whereas the small ones will be raised too little. 1. He wanted to enrage people, because those with large pensions don't get them from the social fund. 2. I would like to see President Basescu and his wealthy daughters who spend in one week as much as one poorest retired Romanian gets in 10 years, how he can manage to live on a minimum pension one single month: this is 350 RON, 3 bottles of Chivas. He can't even pay his taxes with it. As for medicine, food or hygiene products, they are out of question. On the money Basescu spends every day on a bottle of whisky a poor retired Romanian can survive a week. Therefore to those retired getting the minimum and average pensions this raise matters a lot. It makes them feel human beings instead of starving animals.
When it was about the promulgation of his salary raise, President Basescu signed it at once. He did the same when promoting Democrat general Stanca, formerly a member of the Communist Secret Service. Let the poor man get some more money! He out-heroded Herod by pleading for lustration.
The Tariceanu Cabinet must be brave enough to prove moral all the way. If the case, they should proceed to an emergency ordinance to cut as much as possible on the pensions of the ex Communists and of those involved in the political police. Mind you again: this is about criminal villains like general Plesita, enjoying pensions of thousands greens for having tortured and killed people, including these millions of poor retired Romanians, whose pensions President Basescu refuses to raise.

Roxana Iordache
Ziua Vineri 13 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Question of the Day: When ROMANIA will be an democracy ?


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Madmen's trial




The President of Romania Traian Basescu sued the Liberal health minister Eugen Nicolaescu and the trial is due in September 7, 2007. A statement made by the minister harmed the President's dignity.
"Basescu suffers from several diseases categories as mental diseases" are the words the President complained against, asking to be paid 500 million RON damages for harm done to his right to honor and reputation.
President Basescu demands the court to decide that minister Nicolaescu should pay for the printing of the court's decision in two editions of two national dailies. He also requests that the accused should pay for the trial expenses as well.
Minister Nicolaescu replied yesterday: "I think the President of Romania is again doing some exercise for the sake of his image, trying to assail the National Liberal Party one more time. I think that, if they had had time for complaints, like Mr. President has, all those harmed by Traian Basescu's political statements would have made him spend his time in courthouses only. I have taken up a sound Romanian principle: the smarter one gives up. As for the rest, I wish him my best".

Anca Hriban
Ziua Joi 12 Iulie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english