Moreover, he stressed that he had asked the former head of SIE in writing whether the Government had former or currently covered SIE officers and if they had been "specialized".
Basescu criticized the SIE engagement in the political struggle, noting that there were "lies" in the press release by the service, such as that it the CSAT opinion was not needed for the Secrets Ordinance.
The most important statements by Traian Băsescu
I see I have to make some clarifications, especially related to some assertions made by some people who are believed to be informed on the matter
I want to make it clear that according to the law, the president of Romania has got access to all information qualified as state secret and state secret intelligence cannot be denied to him.
Mr. Meleşcanu has either forgotten or he meant to misinform yesterday when he said I had asked for the list of under covered officers. I know that the situation he was in was a difficult one, because that would engender an unacceptable precedent, you cannot deny the president a piece of information you hold, and you in your capacity of director you decide to deny making it available to him. All the more so, since that piece of information was useful to me as it was about the government.
Art. 80 of the Constitution specifies that the president oversees the proper working of the state institutions.
I did not ask for a list of undercover officers, I would not have done that because there is no reason to do so. I am interested in the information itself not in who is collecting that information.
I would like us to read the Law 1/1998, the SIE law, art. 10, paragraph 2: The sources of information, work methods and instruments cannot be disclosed to anyone under any circumstances
There are two untruths launched by Mr. Meleşcanu: that I would have asked for the list, it's not true, and one related to the article 10 which stipulates that he is not allowed to inform the president.
I also took note of the SIE press release yesterday. I must say it surprised me to see the Service’s engagement in the political dispute. For me it is a huge mystery why they did it. There are lies in the SIE press release. The most important lie is related to the fact that the opinion of CSAT for HG 223/2013 was not needed.
Unfortunately SIE wanted to support views that, until then, were supported by Mr. Meleşcanu alone.
We must remove the lies from the public space when we refer to such important issues.
The former head of SIE Teodor Melescanu said that Traian Basescu was the first president after the Revolution who requested lists with the intelligence covered officers. The former head of SIE also said that by the statements made Monday evening, President Basescu violated the law.
President Traian Basescu said that Teodor Melescanu, former director of SIE, refused to communicate if the Government included covered officers or former covered officers, arguing that this kind of information was a state secret.