activity report 2009.pdf

y generate security risks;  To make the best of multilateral cooperation in order to increase the expertise and action capabilities of the Service in preventing and countering security risks and threats; The efforts to strengthen and develop cooperation with counterpart services in the European and North Atlantic area, or in partner states led to positive results: new cooperation relations were started and cooperation activities became practical and pragmatic in nature. At the end of 2009, SRI cooperated with:  87 security and intelligence services in 63 states;  23 law enforcement agencies;  8 coordination / control bodies;  3 EU security structures and one NATO security structure. Also our Service is involved in cooperation activities organized within 5 multilateral structures. III.2.1 Multilateral cooperation The experience accumulated throughout the cooperation within NATO structures and through liaising with NATO security bodies have secured for our Service a position which reflects its efforts and capabilities within NATO's intelligence gathering process. NATO cooperation activities were effectively carried out by:  Participating in various conferences - in different formats on NATO's transformation process;  Delivering analytical contributions to or coordinating assessments for NATO Special Committee, NATO Office of Security, and the Terrorist Threat Intelligence Unit (TTIU);  The contributions, i.e. analytical products delivered by SRI, approached a wide array of security topics or developments relevant for the Alliance (the situation in various conflict zones, threats to NATO or Members States, etc.).  Representing Romania at NATO Special Committee (AC/46);  Ensuring the participation (at leadership or expert level) in various NATO meetings or in meetings with partners;  Providing support in the modernisation of intelligence sectors of NATO aspiring countries. The liaison with dedicated EU security bodies, but also with other EU structures had a positive development in 2009. The Romanian Intelligence Service ensured:  The adequate representation of Romania at the Working Party on Terrorism (TWP) - domestic aspects.  SRI's contribution included:  Replies to specific requests by the Group, its members, or other EU bodies;  Drafting Romania's positions to TWP initiatives and participation in the Group's meetings 16   Presentations on various issues within the Group's meetings;  Romania's participation in CT expertise transfer missions to Western Balkans states and drafting the contribution to the final assessment report.  The support for other state institutions in their mission to efficiently promote Romania's national interests within the EU. SRI drafted standpoints/general instructions regarding security-related issues debated within various EU working groups, and also within inter-institutional panels convened in order to ensure coherence in addressing various European issues of wide-ranging interest. The most consistent activities of this kind have been carried out with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and with The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (the European Affairs Department). The delivery of analytical products in reply to intelligence requests by specialised EU structures (such as the EU Situation Centre – SitCen). 2009 was marked by a significant increase of contacts with EU structures, the Service being involved not only in the cooperation with dedicated intelligence organisations, but also with other security-related bodies. In conjunction with intelligence exchanges and participation at SitCen activities, SRI has consolidated the cooperation relationships with the European Defence Agency, the Directorate-General for the External Relations (DG RELEX) and the EU Situation Room, one of the prime topics of cooperation being OSINT. SRI got increasingly involved into multilateral cooperation mechanisms with its EU counterparts; special attention was attached to the security engagements undertaken by our country in relation with international bodies and organisations.  Among the most intensive cooperation formats in 2009, the following stood out: - The Counter Terrorist Group (CTG): within this cooperation body, SRI had the most intense multilateral intelligence exchange; - The Middle European Conference: starting June 2009, in conjunction with SIE, our Service assumed the Presidency of the Conference; - South East Europe Intelligence Conference (SEEIC) and South-Eastern Europe Defence Ministerial Process (SEDM): the Service participated in several projects and seminars on security-related topics.  The Service also contributed to: - Projects under the aegis of EUROPOL, The Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), The Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (GICNT), aimed at improving coordination and threat response; - The implementation of the Prüm Convention provisions, according to SRI's remit (intelligence exchanges on terrorism and the air marshal programme)  SRI's recognition as a trusted partner and obtaining membership of certain intelligence cooperation bodies highlighted an important development in the international cooperation efforts of our Service. Thus, as authority specialised in OSINT, the Service actively participated in exchanges of expertise, seminars, and reunions in this field; the efforts undertaken have resulted in obtaining membership of the International Open Source Working Group (IOSWG). 17 III.2.2 Bilateral cooperation By focusing on achieving pragmatic objectives, the consistency of the Service's cooperation with EU and allied states has increased, especially in the operational field. Moreover, in order to support national security objectives and the interests of EU and allied states, SRI has developed relationships with similar institutions from neighbouring countries and from areas outside the Euro-Atlantic region. SRI efforts have resulted in deepening the expert-level cooperation, especially with EU and NATO partner services, not only through intelligence and expertise sharing sessions, but also throughout joint operations, addressing a vast array of topics within the remit of our institution. The statistics indicate that 66% of our cooperation actions have been carried out with NATO and EU partner services, 21% within multilateral cooperation bodies, and 13% with services from other states. As in the previous year, cooperation activities were focused on preventing and combating international terrorism, counter-intelligence, economic security (especially in the energy sector), countering cross-border threats (organised crime and proliferation) and risks associated to tensioned situations in neighbouring areas. The development of cooperation forms and the increased number of foreign partners have determined a positive dynamics in the exchange of analytical documents (a rise by 38% from the previous year). Throughout 2009, international cooperation has proven to be a useful tool in the training process of SRI personnel and in ensuring full compatibility with Euro-Atlantic standards. Thus, several training and expertise sharing sessions have been conducted with NATO and EU partner services in various fields such as intelligence operations (especially on counter-terrorism), intelligence analysis, OSINT exploitation, and linguistic training. On the other hand – capitalising upon the expertise gathered over the recent years – SRI has provided assistance and delivered training courses (in fields such as technical operations and combating terrorism) to various non-EU and non-NATO partners, within bi- or multilateral forms of cooperation. 18 CHAPTER IV COORDINATION AND CONTROL OVER THE ACTIVITY OF THE SERVICE IV.1. Strategic coordination by the Supreme Council of National Defence In 2009, given its responsibilities to coordinate the intelligence, counter-intelligence, and security efforts, the Supreme Council of National Defence (CSAT) issued 12 directives within SRI's remit. Among those directives, the following can be highlighted:  The approval of the National Intelligence Priorities Plan for 2009 (drafted by the Integrated Intelligence Office, as part of the National Intelligence Community, with SRI's participation);  The approval of the functional and operational regulation of the CYBERINT National Centre;  The means of increasing the efficiency of preventing and combating cyber- crime.  The set of actions aimed at the protection of classified information - SRI has provided assistance and expertise to government authorities, national companies, as well as legal and natural persons that have access to classified information SRI sent 26 documents to be included on the agenda of CSAT meetings, expressing SRI comments/positions with regard to certain documents submitted for CSAT debate and approval. Thirteen such documents were directly forwarded to CSAT, and the other 13 were contributions to documents forwarded by other institutions. These documents referred to the following topics:  Briefings of decision-makers in 2008 with regard to actions, situations, and phenomena with the potential to generate risks and threats to national security.  Terrorist risks to national security, identified by SRI as national authority in the CT field;  Developments in the field of cyber-crime and briefings on the stages of rendering the CYBERINT National Centre operational'  The protection of classified information;  International cooperation activities carried out by SRI in 2008, as derived from Romania's role as EU and NATO member. Moreover related with and in addition to CSAT activities for 2009, SRI forwarded nine documents on national security topics (some of those were replies to CSAT requests) These documents addressed topics such as the fulfilment by SRI of CSAT directives for 2008, critical infrastructures, especially from the point of view of economic security. IV.2. Democratic control IV.2.1. Control by the Parliament SRI forwarded to the Joint Standing Committee of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate for the exercise of parliamentary control over the activity of the Romanian 19 Intelligence Service 74 documents (briefings, reports), out of which 49 were replies to specific requests addressed by the Commission. The following kind of documents can be mentioned, regarding:  Risks and threats to Romania's national security in the context of the economic crisis;  The status of the SRI reform process;  Replies to petitions forwarded to the Commission or other state institutions;  Security strategies and legislation items related to foreign intelligence and security services. The evolution of the transformation process has been a topic of interest for the Commission members; two meetings with our leadership were held in 2009, addressing in detail the measures implemented to this end. Moreover, SRI forwarded to the Commission briefings on the activities that had been carried out. Also, other briefings were forwarded to the Commission in reply to requests from the President of the Chamber of Deputies, as well as from other parliamentary commissions (such as the Chamber of Deputies Commission for defence, public order and national security) or other parliament inquiry bodies. IV.2.2. Legal control The Romanian Intelligence Service has carried out its activity strictly within the provisions of the Romanian Constitution, national regulations, EU and international laws referring to the fundamental rights and liberties of citizens, which ensured the legality and fairness of its actions aimed at achieving national security goals. To this purpose, an important role has been played by the Service's dedicated department, which provided the legal expertise and support required by all the stages of the intelligence process, and also ensured the representation or legal argumentation of the Service's points of view/position within national or EU consultations. The main activities on this line were as follows:  Efficient representation in Court of SRI's interests;  Ensuring legal public tender procedures;  Drafting of analyses, comments and proposals on various bills of general applicability, either at national or at EU level;  Drafting the position of the Service – and, implicitly that of Romania – on various EU projects relevant for national security;  Assimilating and implementing within SRI the EU legal norms in the field of national security;  Internal oversight of the legal process throughout the entire intelligence process. By strictly observing the legal provisions, SRI has enforced – as the national authority in the field of interception of communications– the technical implementation, through the National Centre for the Interception of Communications (CNIC), of orders authorising the interception of communications (as seen in articles 20-22 of Law no. 535/2004 on the prevention and countering of terrorism or in art. 91 from the criminal 20 procedure code) for all the structures within the National Security System and for the Public Ministry. In 2009, 22,176 legal interception orders obtained by the members of the national security body were forwarded to CNIC. The statistics of the institutions employing legal interception orders is as follows:  19,397 orders were issued for defence, public order and national security institutions;  2,779 were obtained by SRI. As seen in the previous years, the percentage of legal interception orders obtained by SRI was low – only 12. 53%; the main beneficiaries of SRI's technical exploitation capabilities being the other defence, public order and national security institutions. Our analyses indicate that the occurrence of instances generating risks and vulnerabilities is growing relatively slow; however, the level of complexity and interconnection of actions with potential impact on our national security has increased. Thus, compared to 2008, the number of legal interception orders obtained by SRI increased with 28.82%, due to thematic requirements in the fields of preventing and countering terrorism and combating transnational organised crime (generally described as illegal actions involving multiple CI aware individuals who play different roles and who frequently change their phone numbers). In each and every case, the request for a legal interception order was submitted after careful analysis and assessment of available intelligence gathering capabilities and security risks associated with the concretion of such activities. IV.2.3. Financial control Throughout the process of streamlining the management of available resources, the dedicated department of our Service has ensured – in close cooperation with beneficiary structures – the correct allotment of the Service's funds by distribution according to the established priorities. In order to ensure the correctness and efficiency of this process, regular auditing of expenditure and management of funds and patrimony has been carried out. The main audited processes/fields were:  Determination of required resources (by implementing the integrated planning system);  Budgetary allotment and patrimony administration;  Financial and non-financial bookkeeping and internal control system. In 2009 dedicated structures were rendered operational in order to ensure the material, technical, and service requirements, a mechanism which contributed to the increase of transparency and efficiency regarding the allocated founds. As an indication of transparency, competitive market procedures increased by 30.68% compared to 2008. An important contribution to the implementation of efficient management criteria and procedures was due to the cooperation with other national structures, such as: 21  The Ministry of Public Finances, in order to update the public domain inventory employed by SRI, and the Ministry's following directorates:  The Directorate for Budgetary Allocation for National Security and Administration and the General Directorate for Budgetary Allocation and Sectoral Public Policies – budgetary bookkeeping and public tenure monitoring;  The Central Unit for the Integration of Financial Management and Control – for internal control activies;  The General Directorate for Public Institutions Bookkeeping Methodology – for the implementation of financial policies;  The Legislative Directorate of Excises – for the integration of fiscal legislation;  The Unit for Coordination and Verification of Public Procurement – for procurement activities;  The National Authority for the Regulation and Monitoring of Public Tenders – for the observance of legislation. 22 CHAPTER V COOPERATION WITH THE CIVIL SOCIETY SRI has approached the relationship with the civil society as a partnership, aiming at constantly adapting public communication to the citizens’ need to be informed, while improving the security culture of the public. Since cooperation with the civil society underpins the success of our efforts to ensure the security of our citizens, the public communication strategy for 2009 had in view the launching of new dialogue projects, the consolidation of the partnership with the academia, and optimising the information