Illegal courier officer Nemeti was part of the "Ghost" Unit, being co-opted in the "Cell" destined to the liquidation of Nicholas Ceausescu's enemies. Officers fully conspired from the Romanian espionage, betrayed, robbed and murdered by the comrades in the Central.

We continue today to present the most important excerpts from the interview given by General Cornel Biris, the former head of the Ghost Unit, for the Periscope Magazine, a publication of the Reserve and Retired Military Cadres Association of the Foreign Intelligence Service. As we have seen in the previous episode, Cornel Biris, the foreign intelligence officer, has been working for more than 30 years in the most secret unit of any espionage service in the world: the one called "The Ghosts". He has practically gone through all the functions and compartments of this special work, from the execution to the command, and when he was in reserve in 2002, he was the head of this unit.

As the Periscope magazine is mainly aimed at external information work professionals, along with the general's words, we will try to clarify for our readers the less understood aspects of those outside this line of work. Until now, we have just referred to the definition and presentation of the category of phantom officers and the specifics of espionage work on this field today we are entering an absolutely incendiary subject. One of the questions asked by General Petru Neghiu raised the curtain from a true dark scowl, full of venomous snakes. It referred to the contents of a book published by Cornel Nemeti, former officer within the "Ghost" Unit.

The question asked, by the answers received from General Cornel Biris, turned out to be a key that opened up a real Pandora's Box, from which a lot of evil spirits emerged. The existence within the Romanian espionage center of Unit 0544 / R, having as the main task the execution of ordered assassinations, data of such criminal missions, including the terrorist bombing of the radio station Free Europe at the beginning of 1981, as well as missions to identify, locate and liquidate some people, made by this unit, are the main subject of this episode.

One of the most important moments in the Periscope Magazine interview was when  General Cornel Biris was asked what he thought about the book written by Cornel Nemeti, "The Last Illegal Courier - Memoirs of a Romanian Spy", in which are made "public not only information, but also documents of high degree of secrecy. "

CIA, Devine's first reader

The answer given by the General is a particularly trenchant and with a significant amount of novelty information, for the first time: "I read today with great interest a book entitled Good Hunting, the story of a master of American espionage, Jack Devine, former chief of the clandestine operations division in the CIA. At the beginning of this memorialist paper, in a corner of the page, the following statement is made: "All the facts, opinions and analyzes expressed, belong to the author and do not represent the official position or vision of the CIA. This material has been checked by the CIA to prevent the disclosure of secret information."

And then, if we are striving to build real democracy, with rules and standards to prevent chaos and disorder, why not learn from our main Intelligence partner? Why are we avoiding preventive measures and admitting disclosures that, to a large extent, are damaging to external intelligence activity, especially because they are largely built on hypotheses and rumors? Why do we let the people who have dedicated their lives and activity to the work of information to be thrown into mud for the sake of revenge? Why?

What good is it? Cui prodest (in Latin)?

"As for Nemeti, we can essentially point out several aspects: we can ask why he photocopied and kept documents that appear in his memoirs and that have a" strictly secret "character? Have these documents been used in other situations? If so, when and where and to whom were they given? We cannot answer these questions, as long as there are specialized institutions of law, who have the power to clarify such criminal acts. If we were to initiate such a check, we, the ones who appear in the disclosures of the author of this crime, would have been accused of exonerate ourselves and seeking to cover the deeds committed.

Personally, I received several signals according to which, Mr. Teodor Melescanu, then Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, would have liked to have a discussion with me regarding this work. I've been waiting! Nothing! I also waited after receiving other signals according to which the next head of SIE, Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, would have wanted a discussion with me in this regard. Still nothing! Nothing happened.

One of Mozurov's spies also appears

"We also ask another question: why are Nemeti's all former managers and colleague stupid, thieves and dilettantes? Of course, there are two exceptions: Col. Galateanu is the first exception. He is the officer who selected him and prepared him for bringing in our unit. He was known to have been part of the old Secret Information Service (SSI), an "a smooth operator" as he liked to be called. He was then put in reserve for initiating and hiding actions taken by him so that his daughter could leave the country through a marriage to a foreign citizen. The act was considered betrayal in those times."

The second exception is Col. Sergiu Nica, former Chief of the Famous Sub-Division 0544 / R, founded by Gen. Plesita to execute death sentences in the case of "traitors". In these actions, even Col. Nemeti, the author of the memoirs, successfully participated with notable results. In fact, Nica Sergiu's appreciation is due to the fact that he gave him important currency amounts when he left for external missions along this line. The quality as an "illegal courier" gave him the right to spend significant sums, without subsequently providing supporting documents showing their nature. "

No killers!

"As far as I am concerned, I'm not surprised of all the dirt that has been attributed to me, as I was the one who prepared the report with the proposal for the retirement of Nemeti. I did this when I noticed that no measure was taken in his regard, for the criminal acts committed outside towards former colleagues, sentenced to death as traitors. In that sense, I had the total support of SIE Chief, Catalin Harnagea, whom for his sake, did not conceive under any circumstances that among the active cadres could activate officers who have participated in such criminal actions.

We are also surprised by the amnesia that comprised the moralist officer as he wrote the passages referring to his activity in the "Liquidations" Unit, 0544 / R. The author no longer remembers the actions in which he was engaged. He does not even remember the action in Switzerland, in which he left such a "Target" without legs for life, presumed to have fumbled with the enemy, by detonating with a remote control a bomb he placed under his car."

The bomb from Free Europe

"Continuing to express our surprise about the author's memories, we also wonder that he forgot to mention his contribution to the attempt of destroying the free Europe radio station. Is he sorry that the action did not succeed? From the preliminary documentation he attended did not result that the offices of the Romanian radio station are in a building located farther from the fence than those in the Czech language? Or maybe they were shamed that they did not manage to throw up there the rucksack with the explosive? We do not know, and he does not tell us.

On several occasions, being in a pleasant alcoholic mood, he told his colleagues that he had placed the bomb at the radio station. He mentioned on the same occasions that "I was not stupid to go to the building where the Romanian station was, so I placed the backpack next to the building near the fence", where in fact the section in the Czech language was located.

We also wonder why he does not tell us who was the "Swiss citizen" who, after the Free Europe attack on the train to Switzerland, handed to Johannnes Weinrich and Magdalene Kopp, alias Lilly, the collaborators of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, surnamed Carlos the Jackal, the counterfeit identity papers for the two, who were used to leave Germany.”

Everything for sale!

"We are also asking many other questions about the material possibilities of the writer officer. Although he was the only family income producer, his wife was a housewife, and the two girls were students, he managed to raise the money earned to buy a house in the North Station district, although the prices of the buildings in the area were high at the time of the purchase. It is not the only material success, but for objective reasons, many other examples cannot be given, but there is very relevant information on the acquisition of other real estate, legal properties of some former special officers that he was administrating. Or maybe there were other sources of income, other than those related to his frequent external missions. The ultra-secret documents he has published in his book prove with greatness that Nemeti had a lot to sell!

In closing the answer to this last question, among the many misunderstandings I have, I have to admit openly and clearly that I have a great deal of certainty. Right from the title, Nemeti said a great truth. He was really both literally and figuratively the "Last Illegal Courier..."

Sweet like honey is the bullet of the homeland. Shadow-officers, sentenced to death without the right to defense.

After betraying and fleeing to the United States, former Deputy Chief of the Foreign Intelligence Department, Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, as well as after numerous other desertions of some intelligence officers, Nicolae Ceausescu, on the proposal of Gen. Nicolae Plesita, decided to physically exterminate them. In this respect, at the beginning of 1981, UM 0544 / R was established, a formation with officers whose main mission was the detection and the death penalty of SIE deserters.

The unit was founded, in theory, in order to carry out sentences for the death penalty, pronounced by military judges against information officers who were guilty of betrayal. Practically it executed actions only on the basis of simple suspicions or, even more seriously, of Nicolae Ceausescu's orders. The unit has been ordered, since its inception, by Lt. Col. Nica Sergiu and was equipped with means specific to mafia-type assassinations: deaf-gun, sniper rifles, controlled-trigger bombs, poisoning, etc.

Gen. Cornel Biris lingers on this issue and highlights an extremely important topic, totally unknown so far, the one that is about abandoning and condemning to death some ghost officers, or shadows as they are called, without them being able to defend themselves in court, pointing to the possibility that some of them have been innocent, that is, turning them into fall guy, person wrongfully accused of committing a crime to cover the real guilty.

Service traitors

"The analysis of the facts regarding some of the " traitors ", at least of those among the special officers of the" ghost " Unit, was made in a certain period in which it seems that things could not be related as they really were. The fractures caused in some cases by the connection systems, which implicitly broke the connection with these officers, were not always made intentionally and not only by the fault of those who performed the missions outside. Did they know exactly what were the causes that led to the "silence" of some external mission officers? Do we know what measures have been taken on them by the counterintelligence organs in those countries? No! We don't know exactly! Because for some of the managers from the Central Station may have been much easier to blame, to betray those who were absent, those who could not defend themselves. That’s sad!

The attack on Free Europe is an indefeasible terrorist act. Carlos the Jackal, or SIE Colonel Cornel Nemeti?

In an interview with journalist William Totok of Free Europe, broadcast on February 21, 2011, Berlin's Attorney General Detlev Mehlis revealed some important issues in the Free Europe Attack file of February 21, 1981:

"Several people, including members of the Spanish ETA organization, participated in this action. According to the evidence in the indictment, Weinrich personally placed a bomb filled with 15 kilograms of nitropenta near one of the radio station buildings, and the explosion caused significant damage. The main objective of this mission, the murder of a Romanian collaborator has not been achieved, but many people have been seriously injured in this attack, causing the blindness of a person and the disfigurement of others. It is obvious, and is also proved by the research we made in Bucharest, the assassination was a revenge action of the Romanian Security. The action was directed at this radio station that sensitively disturbed the policy of Ceausescu's regime - this is because of the critical broadcasts transmitted in Romanian.”

An ignored track

One of the questions asked by the journalist concerned the cooperation between the Romanian authorities and the German authorities regarding the elucidation of the case. The Berlin Prosecutor was pleased: "Yes, there was a good collaboration in the mid-1990s. During this co-operation, it turned out that the band Carlos-Weinrich obtained weapons from the Security. But what was even more dangerous is that the Security provided them with identity papers, driving papers, passports - all issued on false names. Thanks to this support, gang members could move unhindered to Western Europe and launch various assaults. This aspect was elucidated after the cooperation with the Romanian authorities."

One of the questions asked by the journalist concerned the cooperation between the Romanian authorities and the German authorities regarding the elucidation of the case. The Berlin Prosecutor was pleased: "Yes, there was a good collaboration in the mid-1990s. During this co-operation, it turned out that the band Carlos-Weinrich obtained weapons from the Security. But what was even more dangerous is that the Security provided them with identity papers, driving papers, passports - all issued on false names. Thanks to this support, gang members could move unhindered to Western Europe and launch various assaults. This aspect was elucidated after the cooperation with the Romanian authorities."

We cannot deny the accuracy with which the German prosecutor knew the data in the case. That is why we can only be amazed at the great distance between the image the German officials had about the assassination committed at Nicolae Ceausescu's orders and the real degree of involvement of the UM 0544 / R officers in that terrorist act.

If the German prosecutors investigating the case had also investigated colleagues of Colenel Nemeti, they would have found out issues that could have put the investigation on another track. They could have thus recorded statements that would have shown that, according to Colonel Cornel Nemeti, the explosive charge was placed at the deflagration site by the Romanian officer.

Anyway, whoever would have placed the explosive charge, the involvement of the Romanians in a horrible crime act came out like oil on the surface and is a matter of world notoriety.