activity report 2011.pdf

ions; - Acts of terrorism; - Illegal information gathering to the benefit of foreign entities; - Risk factors against public order and personal security; - Protection of IT&C systems; - Impact on national security based on the developments of the international security environment. 17 The main results of cooperation between institutions were: - Timely information exchanges on different topics related to national security; - Joint missions that required complex measures to be taken by SRI; - Vetting and clearance; - Notifications and information reports sent to legally designated authorities; - Technical and operative assistance or support for high complexity missions run by other institutions within the national defense and security system. III.2. Foreign Cooperation In 2011 SRI reached a high performance level in bilateral and multilateral cooperation. Partnerships in all fields related to national and international security led to best results in terms of operative missions and intelligence diplomacy, as well. SRI has consolidated its strategic profile within NATO and EU, as a result of its participation in debates on security topics of great importance for the national interests, such as terrorism, cyber, energy security, etc. SRI was increasingly involved in providing intelligence to NATO and EU, thus placing itself and Romania among the main intelligence providers for the two organizations and developing a thorough analytical cooperation with its foreign partners. Multilateral cooperation between intelligence services facilitated intelligence and expertise exchanges regarding European impact security developments, and also allowed SRI to gain more expertise and visibility and assume a proactive role in cooperation. Developing foreign partnerships was a top priority of SRI in 2011, as threats to national, regional and global security were extensively dynamic. Observing the international objectives Romania assumed and the lines of action in the International Cooperation Concept of SRI, in 2011 foreign partnerships mainly aimed at strengthening relations with NATO strategic partners and developing cooperation with neighbor and extended Black Sea region states. The high number of cooperation agreements at the end of 2011 is a result of this approach: - 91 security and intelligence services in 64 states; - 28 law enforcement agencies having similar competence as SRI; - 7 coordination and oversight entities; - 3 security structures within EU and 2 intelligence entities within NATO Headquarters. SRI is also a member in 6 multilateral intelligence cooperation frameworks. SRI also cooperates with a number of other security institutions under international or European organizations (UN, OSCE, Interpol, etc.). In 2011, the number of expert level cooperation missions was similar to the previous year, when it had significantly increased. 18 III.2.1. Bilateral Cooperation Relations with strategic partners considerably developed in terms of fields, cooperation formats and complex joint actions. SRI also extensively focused on improving collaboration with intelligence services in the neighboring states in order to jointly prevent and fight against cross-border threats and also in the extended Black Sea region and in other strategic or potential risk areas. Information exchange has lately increased in quality and quantity, and it was 34% higher in 2011 as compared to the previous years. Cooperation focused on conventional topics, such as prevention and combat of terrorism, combat of cross-border threats, counter-proliferation, counter-espionage, and also on current topics with a major impact on security, such as cyber security. It is worth mentioning that analytical documents exchanges have become more intense in order to support operational cooperation on bilateral and multilateral levels, on topics related to developments impacting on security. III.2.2. Multilateral Cooperation In 2011, the Romanian Intelligence Service took part in many NATO/ NATO+ missions and provided substantiated intelligence so as to contribute to security assessments. SRI has continued to support the efforts our state has been making in order to strengthen NATO’s role in energy security. At the same time, it has intensified endeavors to know, prevent and counteract threats related to the current international security environment, as mentioned in the new NATO Strategic Concept, especially cyber threats. Nowadays, our state is one of the main intelligence providers for NATO and SRI has played an important part in creating and maintaining such a profile, as assessments and evaluations provided by the Service have been highly valued by NATO officials. On a national level, SRI has been actively involved in missions related to the NATO membership status, such as: - Hosting elements of the US anti-missile defense system on Romanian territory; - Providing security for the NATO Parliamentary Assembly that took place in Bucharest during October 7 – 10, 2011; - Issuing the draft of the Cyber Security Strategy of Romania. 19 Simultaneously, during the reference period, SRI’s profile in the EU environment was consolidated. The increasing relevance of its contributions to the Community initiatives and information requests from services within European national security structures was determined by:  SRI’s attendance, as Romania’s representative to the Work Group on Terrorism (TWP) within the EU Council;  Contributions to the support and promotion of Romania’s national interests in European affairs issues. - SRI was represented in different cross-organizational formats on EU related topics regarding SRI’s area of expertise and responsibilities; - Together with other competent national organizations, SRI took part in drawing up the national mandates of work groups on security matters which were established under the jurisdiction of the EU Council, COREPER II and the Justice and Internal Affairs Council; - SRI elaborated and promoted standpoints regarding the initiatives and projects debated in the EU Council and European Committee which were supported by EU member states. Also, SRI answered different specific requests formulated by competent national organizations;  Cooperating with EUROPOL in the field of preventing and countering terrorism. SRI’s partnership with the European agency included: - Answering the requests of the EUROPOL National Unit on terrorism related matters. - Contributing to the elaboration of EUROPOL assessments which included terrorism issues (TE-SAT); - An active involvement in EUROPOL projects and assuming the role of national coordinator of Romania’s affiliation to part of EUROPOL’s analytic initiatives;  As the national authority in Cyber-Intelligence, SRI took part in EU activities on cybernetic security, which is on EU’s priority list. SRI is a member of other formats of multilateral cross-services cooperation, but its most consistent involvement was in the Counter-Terrorism Group (CTG). Aside from exchanging information, our experts took part in all the relevant CTG initiatives and projects, which allowed a better knowledge of terrorism issues on a European level and, implicitly, the development of the action capacity in this field. It was the first time SRI coordinated a CTG project and the positive feed-back determined a continuance of the specific activities in the future. SRI was actively involved in multilateral structures which reunite the intelligence and security services in the region (Middle Europe Conference – MEC and South Eastern Europe Intelligence Conference – SEEIC), by encouraging the cooperation with neighboring partners for an efficient management of common security threats. 20 In 2011, SRI intensely engaged in an international academic cooperation, by initiating and developing partnerships with important organizations in the fields of defense and intelligence studies, thus ensuring the prerequisites for the cooperation on topics of mutual interest (educational projects, intelligence analysis, research by exchanging experience, etc.). SRI hosted the Regional Seminar of the Black-Sea Security Program, organized by the Harvard University, USA. SRI’s leadership and experts met representatives of the National Defense University and National Intelligence University, USA, and attended the annual convention of the International Studies Association, Canada, etc. 21 CHAPTER IV COORDINATION AND OVERSIGHT OF SRI’S ACTIVITY IV.1. Strategic Coordination of SRI’s Activity by the Supreme Council of National Defense In 2011, the Supreme Council of National Defense – as the strategic coordinator of activities in the national security field – conveyed to SRI a series of 16 decisions in the implementation of which SRI had direct responsibilities. Among these, there were decisions regarding:  knowing, preventing and countering criminal activities undertaken in sea ports;  necessary measures for implementing IT services and systems of national interest;  agreements on mutual protection of classified information concluded between the Government of Romania and other states’ governments.  Also, in the first half of 2011, the Supreme Council of National Defense approved SRI’s Intelligence Strategy, which allowed a unitary approach of the changes that occur in the security environment, by converging its missions, objectives and action strategies involving the intelligence activity for national security. In accordance with the activity program of the Supreme Council of National Defense for the year 2011, SRI– and the other organizations that are part of the national security system – contributed to the motivation of the strategic decision by conveying a series of 12 documents to this forum (in accordance with the activity program of the Supreme Council of National Defense, in addition to it or as an answer to the specific requests of the Supreme Council of National Defense Secretariat), 2 documents of which were analyzed in the Council’s meetings and approved by Supreme Council of National Defense Decisions. SRI – by remanding, endorsing documents or ensuring direct expertise - was involved in the elaboration of papers, including strategies, which were integrated and presented in the Supreme Council of National Defense by other organizations represented in this forum. This procedure was meant to commonly capitalize the respective elements with the purpose of improving the informational support of the strategic decision adopted in the Council. In accordance with its competencies, SRI contributed to the motivation of some documents referring to:  The quarterly assessment of the undertakings under the coordination of the cross-organizational work group dedicated to preventing and countering generalized or large scale tax evasion (established in 2010);  The protection of critical infrastructure, by motivating the related national strategy (as part of the cross-organizational work group coordinated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs);  Risks to nuclear energy security. 22 IV.2. Democratic Control IV.2.1. Parliamentary Oversight In order to ensure, in a transparent way, the parliamentary oversight of SRI’s activity, in 2011, the Joint Permanent Committee of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate for Parliamentary Oversight of SRI Activity received a series of 73 documents (reports, notifications, standpoints, the organization’s position), 46 of which were answers to specific Committee requests. The documents conveyed as answers to requests from the oversight committee included the following:  Documents referring to SRI’s activities in accessing and absorbing European funds, namely countering cross border organized crime;  Documents referring to SRI’s position regarding the litigation with Dan Costache Patriciu;  Documents referring to answers to the questionnaire regarding intelligence oversight and security services in EU member states. On the other hand, by informing the Committee voluntarily we have tried to comprehensively reflect the issues preoccupying SRI (technically and operationally), namely offering the oversight committee the necessary means to verify the efficiency and correctness of the activity. In order to improve the specific oversight activities, the Committee members undertook verification visits to SRI’s central and regional facilities, the direct approach of SRI representatives ensuring them the possibility to concretely verify the correctness and efficiency of the activity. Complementary to the informing activities, the relation between SRI leadership and Committee members has continued on an upward course, both parties aiming at the development of a national security partnership. An additional argument in this sense is the direct contacts initiated by the Committee that have taken place at its headquarters, with the purpose of clarifying new evolutions (such as: risk factors to the economic security and evolutionary trends; SRI’s activity on countering cross-border organized crime). IV.2.2. Legal Accountability SRI’s activity to ensure national security has taken place under constant and permanent supervision regarding the observance of the legislation applicable at a national and Community level and of the basic human rights and liberties provided by the domestic legislation and the international documents and treaties that Romania has adhered to. SRI’s legal department ensured the necessary expertise and assistance by developing standards and internal control procedures and auditing the specific activities from a legal standpoint. 23 The internal control activities undertaken during the entire intelligence process, especially in the operational area, have included the oversight of the observance of the applicable legislation and, implicitly, the prevention and removal of eventual side-slips from the legislation. In this field, the main objectives were identifying and eliminating eventual dysfunctions, in order to eliminate the exposure of the organization and its personnel to inherent and residual risks, internal or external, by closely watching:  the effectiveness and efficiency of the legal oversight activities;  the correctness;  the observance of the legal provisions and of the internal legal framework. In accordance with its competencies as national authority in the field of communications interceptions, SRI’s National Center for Communications Interceptions (CNIC) ensured the enforcement of interception authorization documents. Its activities were exclusively based on the authorization documents issued in accordance with articles 20-22 of Law 535/2004 regarding terrorism prevention and countering or in accordance with article 91 (1-5) of the Penal Procedure Code for all the structures that are part of the national security system and for the Public Ministry. The internal work procedure included preemptive compliance control regarding authorization documents for communications interceptions by verifying data accuracy and its compliance with the legal requirements. During the reference period, CNIC enforced 35,678 authorization documents for beneficiaries that are part of the national security system, 16.5% more than 2010. Positive dynamics was a main feature of the authorization documents for activities coordinated by the investigation and prosecution authorities, in compliance with the national strategy to counter tax evasion and organized crime which affect the public revenues to the consolidated state budget. The distribution according to the beneficiaries was as follows:  32,260 authorization documents for the defense, public order and national security system;  3,418 for SRI. The ratio of authorization documents for SRI is still low – only 9.58% - and dropping as compared to the previous year (when it registered 10.16%). At SRI level, data, information and documents obtained from authorized activities were capitalized in our institution specific activities as well as in motivating some preemptive measures or to inform the investigation and prosecution authorities. IV.2.3. Financial Control The economic and financial activities carried out at an organizational level were mainly focused on achieving the best operating parameters for SRI’s facilities. Special attention was paid to the use of budget appropriation within the provisions and approved destinations for expenses strictly related to the activity of the organization and by complying with the efficiency, effectiveness and economy requirements. 24 At SRI level, the observance of legality and regulation requirements and respecting the budget estimates and their destination was achieved by internal preemptive fiscal control which reflected in the periodic documents/reports, in accordance with the procedures issued by the competent authorities (mainly the Ministry of Public Finances). The balance and guardedness of the budget execution have been constantly monitored by the delegated controller appointed by the Ministry of Public Finances. Also, throughout 2011, the budget execution account was publicly and exte