Are all undercover agents as pathetic as Robert Turcescu?

Is this what a secret agent looks like?

A lieutenant-colonel from the Romanian intelligence services is mewling on TV that "he has searched deep within himself for years, before he found the strength to reveal everything"...

There is no terrorism from the Islamic State standing behind Robert Turcescu, holding a knife to his throat, the man is just fine, no bruises or anything.

How can an undercover agent lose it to such a degree?

Back in the days of communism (the Romanian intelligence services were among the best in the world at the time), the period verification of the agents would not start off from the assumption of innocence, instead it was so cruel that it was no different than an investigation by the enemy; anyone who came out from the check (which lasted for hours on end), was exhausted and uncertain they would get the seal of approval.

How was Turcescu checked, morally and psychologically, by the service that hired him?

How can somebody as morally and intellectually fragile as Robert Turcescu reach such a high rank (from being lieutenant-colonel, being a general is just a few steps away): "I can't live with such a burden"?

Burden?!

Is this what Turcescu calls a "burden"?!

Hey, Mr.!

As far as I know, joining an espionage service is not an opportunity that later becomes a "burden", but rather, it represents a patriotic commitment, derived from conviction.

Yes, it could be a burden if you're a rat, because they are often blackmailed into becoming rats.

But lying to the people around you - family, friends, colleagues, even the public -, is part of the job description for undercover agents; "cover" means dissimulation, in other words lying.

The relationship with God and his commandments (which Turcescu claims was the reason for his "unmasking" on TV) is intermediated by patriotism, by the conviction that you lie in order to serve. Those lies are part of the profession, otherwise, espionage would no longer be possible.

It is a thankless role, no one can force it upon you, no one can force you to become an undercover agent.

Do our undercover agents resemble Robert Turcescu?!

Because if they do, then our secret services have sunk to the lowest depths of cringe worthiness.

We should be worried.

Intelligence services are indispensable, not just for military victories, but to preserve the health of society, economic development, for survival as a nation.

In a democratic country, being an undercover agent is something to be proud of.

We should be worried that this went from something to be proud of, to something to repent for.

Maybe Robert Turcescu sees his career as undercover agent as a path for success, and perhaps he is right, perhaps this is what our intelligence services have become.

Răzvan Ungureanu left the helm of the Foreign Intelligence Service to become prime-minister, a great success, (which lasted a month; now he is kicking himself and he hates Băsescu, for removing him from his job, making him into a second-hand politician).

Similarly, Teodor Meleşcanu leaves the helm of the same service, to run for president, (representing a left-wing party, even though he had come in with right-wing convictions, which proves that he is not concerned with convictions, but with the panache of the presidential position).

What patriotism?!

There are persistent rumors that there is no editorial office anywhere in the mass-media that isn't infiltrated by undercover agents.

I don't know who launched the idea that half of the journalists are secret service recruits.

They say that if the agents themselves happen to get fired, then it wouldn't take more than three days for the monitoring to start again.

I don't see how such an oversight can be useful for anybody else than opportunists.

It was opportunism that led Robert Turcescu to get his rank of lieutenant-colonel.

The sensation of power and superiority, derived from living a double-life.

Shameless, at the time of his remorse, Turcescu says:

"It is not from you, the ones who are on set or those who are watching me now, from your homes, that I await judgment, it's not from you that I want to find out, at this time. whether I was wrong or not.".

Conceit: neither us journalists, nor the public are competent enough to judge him.

And then:

"I only obey the real judges, who will be good and have the ability to judge fairly what is happening".

He has just defected, but he still thinks of himself as a lieutenant-colonel of the services.

And then:

"I am a journalist".

Like he said himself, he has no clue what he is, a journalist or a lieutenant-colonel.

The man is a bit empty upstairs.

He doesn't have much to do with journalism, he urges every one of us citizens, "to search within our souls and get free"; I, for one, I am constantly in touch with myself, I've got no places left to search and I've got nothing bad to free myself from, - oh, what ever will I do?!, I will never experience the inspiring feeling of purification.

He doesn't much to do with the intelligence services either, they are a burden like a bag of rocks which caused him "torment as bad as death, as the expression goes".

And he doesn't have much to do with God, either, as he says that "there are no recipes to stand upright before God"; such theological claims are more particular to Calvinism, than to Orthodoxism; orthodox believers (just like Muslims) have simplified the relationship with God, you can stand upright before him just fine, if you obey the rules, - it's not a complicated theory.

But Robert Turcescu is well groomed, a handkerchief in the breast pocket of his sharp suit.

I am relieved that I don't have to utter his sentence, he has sentenced himself to being pathetic.

But on the other hand, the services really do concern me: what if they are just pathetic themselves?

Seriously so.