Sriracha is a 'sauce piquante', SRI is the Romanian Secret Service, fall is autumn, and in Romanian "picant" could also be derived from 'to fall' which is 'a pica.' We look at the consecutive declarations of Romania’s president, an allied journalist and finally, the candidacies of other president-hopefuls, from the head of the Romanian Secret Service, Melescanu and to the former Justice Minister, Macovei. But most of all, the title is a tip of the hat to Vlad Petreanu and his excellent expose, with a title that translates roughly as “The [secret] Services Autumn.”

A few days ago, Traian Basescu appears in an interview with Turcescu (widely considered a journalist friendly to him) and stated that among the candidates for president there may be an undercover secret services officer. Then, in a lowly show of abject lacrimal manipulation, Robert Turcescu went on TV to ask for forgiveness after revealing that he is a lt-colonel undercover (see also Banciu’s take or ctp-secu).

Last but not least, Teodor Melescanu, former foreign affairs minister, former defense minister, former justice minister, current freshly resigned chief of foreign intelligence announces his candidacy.

My take is that Basescu’s accusation is silly and it makes no sense. If indeed there was an undercover officer among the candidates he may have no right to disclose it, because that amounts to “outing” that agent, which, if our laws are based on an American model, is probably illegal and amounts to treason. The same goes for Robert Turcescu, he would not have the right to “out” himself, without permission from his superiors.

1. One explanation (my first thinking), strengthened by his photo having been seemingly floating around the net for a while, is that this is a silly scheme with a most-likely flimsy logic and he may have photoshopped his ID, after having released his own photo himself. Why go through this circus, though? Who would take him seriously after this? It’d be like the prank of staging his own death, pulled by Andy Kaufman.
2. Another possibility is that Turcescu regretted this Faustian bargain, perceived it as shameful and increasingly constricting and conflicting with his conscience and ethics and seized the moment of Basescu’s revelation to make his own, hoping that insofar as Basescu is not prosecuted for his “betrayal” he won’t be prosecuted for his either (or may have acted in conjunction with Basescu, who came up with his “agent” theory precisely to offer him cover). The latter hypothesis is further strengthened by his publishing of his pay stubs, which are meagre even by Romanian standards – seemingly to attenuate the criminality of his gesture. If that’s the case, why was he recruited in the first place? What kind of [secret, non-public] information could he have possibly collected for the army as a journalist in Romania?!
3. One final possibility is that he was vaguely threatened by the release of his photo, by an unknown blackmailer who may have or may not have requested anything for the information. Feeling that he could no longer square off his secret identity with his public persona, he did seek to combine them in one dramatic swan song thus pre-empting any upcoming revelation or blackmail. The aforementioned question would still remain: why was he recruited and paid by the taxpayer? How can the expense of paying Turcescu be justified? Are there any other journalists in this position?

And those are great suppositions, except that none are true. The truth is that Turcescu is [simultaneously] a narcissistic, self-hating imbecile.

After going through all these motions, I remembered that he had been involved in a similar scandal in August 2012. Back then, the National Defence Ministry published a list of local celebrities who had been made Lieutenant-Colonel for no reason other than fame. Turcescu replied that he could not be that because he never joined the army. He even went so far as to threaten a lawsuit if the “mistake” of having awarded him a military degree wasn’t corrected. In the end, the army supposedly “took back” some of those honorary military degrees; as it turns out, Turcescu’s went dormant, in reserve, which may also explain his low remuneration. Once again, the question is why would the army bestow all these military degrees on individuals who, by their own admission, had nothing to do with it? Why spend all this money, as little as it was, on them, and who was responsible for it? Did the army spend this on men and women, or was it only on men?

Far more important and interesting is how Melescanu collected the signatures needed for his candidacy, and here, Vlad Petreanu has some very interesting revelations:

1. Friday, 3 days before the deadline, Melescanu gave up his position in the spying organization and announced he will run for president if he manages to collect all 200000 signatures. (hn-melescanu)
2. He used Mircea Dogaru, colonel (r) who, according to Petreanu, has a long history of political interference. Dogaru confirmed he collected signatures on request from NGOs. (d24-dogaru)
3. The 200K signatures were collected in secret through “Social Justice Party” (Partidul Dreptatii Sociale or PDS) which I covered before MEP elections, discarding it with “too new, seems silly”; it obtained 13537 votes (roaep.ro)
4. Romania has Europe’s most restrictive political party founding regime – one needs 25000 signatures in 18 counties. Many have tried before to start, but failed. PDS website is today “under construction.” (arguments & facts)
5. Monica Macovei (my and implicitly this blog’s endorsement) obtained through honest, back-breaking work and a serious attempt at publicity, over 300000 signatures. Teodor Melescanu, in his quasi-secret campaign, supposedly got over 400000 signatures.

I’m sick and tired of this BS. Back in 2010, I was writing about Romania having more Secret Service workers than under Ceausescu’s police state regime.

The Manchurian Candidate is an old movie, remade in 2004, about a presidential candidate in US elections who is a Chinese puppet.

LE: Here's what needs to be done:

1. Forget about Base & Turcescu’s “revelations” – they are irrelevant distractions – “patsies”, as Lee Harvey Oswald described himself.
2. Focus on Melescanu and how he got his signatures.
• How did that party (“Social-Justice” smells cryptocommie) got formed??? Has anybody checked if it met the requirements? Have all the people who tried and could not pull it off checked on it?
• Has anybody checked Melescanu’s signatures? Each candidacy was contested, wasn’t his as well?
3. Seriously modify that shameful law (political parties).
4. Significantly reduce the size of the security apparatus.
5. I’m also curious about Octav Cozmanca and this Dogaru character, but the issues at 2 and 3 need to be addressed first. And then reassess the need for all these “secret” spies.

One possible argument for all these spooks is that the Romanian society is simply not mature enough to be left free and to its own devices. Also, Base’s assertion, as reproduced by CTP, that a spook loves his country more, is perilously close to the spirit of that movie on CIA founding (with Angelina Jolie).

Additionally, I found from Adevarul (adv-melescaNU) the following:

• VP BEC (central electoral bureau) Marian Muhulet announced that PDS called him to tell him that they will back MelescaNU for president, but the latter did not confirm
• PDS is led by Traian Rece, former Senator and PSD Treasurer in late 90s. He was implicated in a network of illegal tax refunds the syphoned off over 50 billion ROL, but did not go to jail.
• Colonel (r) Mircea Dogaru said live at Realitatea TV that the Union of Military Cadres in Reserve which he leads helped with collecting 200000 signatures. He had worked during Traian Basescu’s suspension for the removal of ANI (National Agency for Integrity/Ethics), DNA (National Agency Anticorruption) and Constitutional Court.
• MelescaNU’s desire was to run for PNL, but the latter declined, choosing Klaus Iohannis instead. Some insiders see him as a PNL candidate in-waiting, to be used in the event Iohannis loses his incompatibility fight with ANI.

I commented on Petreanu’s new article on Petreanu’s new article (full of speculations), shaving conspiracy theories with Occam’s Razor:

The simplest interpretation is that individuals attracted today by a career in “intelligence” tend to be dim. In Ceausescu’s era, being a “Securist” had tangible, pecuniary effects, but today there are many other routes to a materialistic paradise. The only ones who manage to wear shades as a uniform are those with issues to resolve in terms of self-confidence and their own intelligence, those who have this to prove. Just like Asia Carrera felt the need to join MENSA to prove to herself and those close to her that there still was a brain behind her ample organs, those who join the huge cohort of “intelligents” in Romania are motivated by a desire to affirm themselves as “brainiacs” – these are precisely the people with a deficit there. Henceforth, these scandals can be simply explained by idiocy. And now we can go back to Melescanu and how he obtained signatures not just him but also the “party of social justice” which has as a logo, if I’m not mistaken, PLM.

For a more colloquial take on this issue (but punctuated, nonetheless, by some good points, see Liviu Mihaiu’s article (adv-matrix).

Sources / More info: vp-ts, ctp-secu, turcescu-confession, hn-dobritoiu, a&f-prag, cdep-39753, hn-melescanu, d24-dogaru, gandul-dna,ccr,ani,usl, dogaru-dughin, roaep-pse, adv-melescaNU, adv-matrix