No Intelligence Service Has ‘Employees like James Bond’

During last Sunday’s Marathon programme, aired on Radio Romania News, Mihai-Răzvan Ungureanu, the director of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE) declared that ‘the spy is an ordinary man who never stands out’ and who ‘could have any job whatsoever’.

‘I am inclined to believe that spies don’t exist and can’t exist, because a spy never stands out, he shouldn’t stand out. Actually, a spy is an ordinary man, he looks like an ordinary man, like any man on the street, he could have any job whatsoever, ranging from that of accountant, if you will, to that of fire-fighter – to give just a few random examples.’

‘His task involves discreteness, this is his real task, and it implies a thick veil of silence covering his real identity,’ according to Mihai-Răzvan Ungureanu.

Moreover, the SIE director declares that none of the intelligence services around the world can boast about having employees of the James Bond type.

‘No intelligence service has James Bond as an employee. There are, however, people who at first seem very inconspicuous, very natural, very casual, but who represent (at work, for those who know them and who guide their activity) the physical embodiment of absolute intelligence’, Mihai-Răzvan Ungureanu pointed out.

Intelligence Services, ‘between Transparency and Absolute Discretion’

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The Foreign Intelligence Service ‘can be transparent if we refer to information of general interest and that can be made public’, Mihai-Răzvan Ungureanu asserts.

He explained how a mistake or betrayal can bring the institution into disrepute and damage national interest.

‘To give a minimal, but logical answer, a mistake or betrayal can damage an institution and, therefore, national interest. Do you know how that comes to be?’

‘It’s just like in the keel of a ship divided into sections so that if a part of the keel hits an iceberg, like the Titanic in 1911, only a small part of the ship would sink (the part under the water). This means that things can be fixed and information, if necessary, is retrieved.’

There Are No Rules in the Espionage Game

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The SIE director sustains that anything a spy does is ethical as far as it serves national interest.

‘Fair play applies to sports. It involves observing a loyalty contract – actually, fair play towards the rules of a game. As far as intelligence is concerned, there are no game rules: in order to get a piece of information, one can resort to any means possible; everything is justified, if you will.’

‘Or, if you prefer an ethical perspective, anything a spy does in order to obtain a piece of information which can be used in the interest of Romania, is absolutely natural, ethical, positive, because, whatever he may do abroad, he serves national interest and, obviously, he is prepared to pay a price for that, since wherever there is game, there will be a hunter,’ Mihai-Răzvan Ungureanu added.

With respect to the Wikileaks issue, the SIE director states that ‘what gave in was the weak link’, the human factor.

‘I think we should be looking at something else here. At some point, we should acknowledge the fact that, even now, at the beginning of the 21st century, when technological development is in full swing, not to speak of professional activities, man is the weak link.’

‘So we might say that no matter how many technical systems might encode or protect secret information, ultimately, when the human component, usually situated at the end of the technological chain of information processing, breaks down, if the human component gives in, then, obviously, everything leaks in the press or, generally speaking, in the media and then, due attention is given to that particular crisis situation,’ added Mihai-Răzvan Ungureanu, the director of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service, on Sunday’s Marathon.

Translated by: Ruxandra Câmpeanu

MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest