Reposted from April 10, 2011
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| Expelled Diplomats |
Below we will look at who the "diplomats" were and for which reasons they were expelled.
After its bombing of RFE/RL in 1981, led by the terrorist "Carlos the Jackal" in February 1981, the CIE renewed plans to bomb the building. In September 1984 a code clerk at the Romanian embassy in Bonn, BRD, defected to the West. To establish his bona fides, he presented a copy of a 13-page physical surveillance report that was written by Ion Constantin, a Romanian Intelligence Service officer. His "exploratory" surveillance report was based on two days of personal observation at RFE/RL headquarters on October 12-13, 1983.
Constantin was listed as the "Third Secretary, Chief of the Consular Section." Another Two other CIE officers named Constantin Ciobanu and Ion Mihoc, listed as the "Councilor of the Embassy" and "Second Secretary, Chief, Technical Burea" respectively, followed up Constantin's 13-page report by an "on-the-spot" survey afterwards.
In December 1983, Constantin attended a two-day conference in Bucharest during which time his report and that of Ciobanu and Mihoc were reviewed. One or two days before leaving for Bucharest Constantin handed to the code clerk a package of material for destruction. Normally, the destruction of the material should have been carried out by both the code clerk and Constantin; but Constantin was in a hurry and simply left the material with the code clerk to destroy. The code clerk read the 13-page report, saw its significance and decided to keep it.
Constantin was ordered to gather more information and made two subsequent trips to Munich in 1984.
From discussions with Constantin, the code clerk learned about a group at CIE Headquarters, designated C-428, which deals with such "diversionary" acts, i.e., organizes physical attacks on anti-Romanian personnel abroad. C-428 depended on CIE residencies abroad to collect information in support of its plans, but usually hired foreigners to carry of the operations themselves. Constantin had received instructions to collect detailed information from C-428 on the RFE/RL facility in Munich, referred to by the code name "Cobra." The code clerk recalled that Constantin remarked: "they want to place bombs at the radio station."
Constantin's 13-page report and sketch of the "target" (RFE/RL) described
· traffic in the area,
· traffic signs and parking,
· the facility and wall surrounding it,
· the different entrances/gates,
· certain offices on the first floor,
· the presence of certain security personnel, and other installations in the immediate vicinity.
Constantin concluded his report by noting that he had collected a number of different city plans, tour books, and postcards which covered the target and its immediate surroundings, plus 24 photos of the target and its immediate surroundings (the Hilton Hotel, Bavarian Bank, Isar River, etc.). Also, there was mention of the Tivoli Restaurant, because he presumed that RFE/RL Romanian staff members frequented that restaurant.
The following is from the 1984 annual report of the Bavarian Agency for the Protection of the Constitution (LfV):
When an intelligence officer of the Romanian Embassy in Bonn defected to the West in 1984 important information was obtained on the activities of the Romanian Intelligence Service on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany. The defector presented evidence of the preparation and the actual carrying out of criminal activities with a political background by the Intelligence Service, represented by officers of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service CIE who had diplomatic status with the Romanian Embassy in Bonn.
In addition to the plot to bomb RFE/RL, the LfV report detailed another case of CIE activities:
On 2 May 1984 a tear gas assault was made on a Romanian born German citizen, residing in Cologne by two Romanian "tourists" who allegedly had traveled from Paris to Cologne. The unidentified culprits escaped from the house of the victim with money, papers and documents. The victim was known as a former communist, faithful to the regime and carrying out an official mission in the Federal Republic of Germany. After her return to Romania she lost her former position with the Romanian Party because of alleged anti-Romanian behavior in a foreign country; she took advantage of her stay in a Southern European country to remain in the West. Since that time she had been active within the Romanian emigre circles in the Federal Republic of Germany. The attack which had the case name of RITA - CORBU had been organized and directed by the Romanian Embassy in Cologne or Bonn respectively. Ion GRECU, Counter Intelligence Chief of the CIE, First Secretary and Press Attache of the Embassy was the one directing the case. Cultural Attache LUPU had been ordered to deceive the victim, spy on her following the attack and distract the suspicion from the Romanian Embassy.
A third case of CIE activity involved a plan to kidnap a Romanian refugee who had escaped to Germany in May 1984. If the kidnapping failed, he was to be killed.
In November 1984, the West Germany ordered the expulsion of the five CIE officers for “behaving in a manner incompatible with their status.“ They were
· Dan Mihoc,
· Constantin Ciobanu,
· Ion Constantin,
· Ioan Lupu and
· Ion Grecu.
Die Welt publshed an exclusive article on November 9, 1984, which contained this ominous reference to Dan Mihoc: “Mihoc was ordered by his superiors in Bucharest in January this year to buy a set of specialized medical works about poisons that could not be traced by autopsies, and he sent the volumes to the Romanian capital.“ This article was then used by newspapers in other countries, including the United States.
For more information: a redacted version of the penal notification in Romanian can be viewed at http://www.crimelecomunismului.ro/pdf/ro/sesizare_penala_pt_acte_terorism.pdf.
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