OPERATION JUDAS

• Aurel Cazacu, head of the Defense Industry Department in the Ministry of the Economy and associate of Mircea Băsescu in Desintco, has been under surveillance by the military counterespionage for several years.

• Military Security Division suspects him of espionage.

• This opens up a new scenario surrounding the scandal which involves the Băsescu brothers.

Aurel Cazacu, former director of the Defense Industry Department in the Ministry of the Economy, resigned Saturday due to the scandal which arose due to his association with Mircea Băsescu, the brother of the current head of state, Traian Băsescu, in a company that may have been involved in the military industry trade. The now famous Aurel Cazacu had been codenamed "Judas", by the Department for Military Safety, which had been watching him since May 1st, 2006, as Cazacu was suspected of working in favor of foreign interests in the military industry (including Russian interests), thus harming the Romanian state.

Reports of the Military Safety Department came into possession of Mihai Munteanu, investigative journalist at "Evenimentul Zilei", the daily newspaper that unveiled the case one year ago.

Documentation concerning Aurel Cazacu alludes to his special ties to the Russian and Israeli secret services and to American arms dealers, as well as to Masonic networks going from Kishinev to Moscow.

A library may not have enough paper on which to describe the tangled web of the operations of Aurel Cazacu.

The world he operates in is that of espionage, of intelligence and counterintelligence, where you can never be sure what is true and what isn"t.

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Aurel Cazacu - "Judas", is the key figure in the "Desintco" SRL scandal. "Desintco" could have gotten involved in the trade of military technology, had "BURSA" not revealed the conflict of interest caused by the involvement of Mircea Băsescu in the company.

The presence of Aurel Cazacu turns the case into something else, taking it into his playground, where it is hard to tell what really happened and to distinguish the good guys from the bad.

That is why, beyond the obvious scenario that Traian Băsescu and Mircea Băsescu are also "brothers in arms" (the title in "Ziua"), another possibility arises - that the scandal is simply the result of an operation put together by the secret services.

We will attempt to describe this scenario, but readers are advised to take it with a grain of salt, as it may not be necessarily be true. Just like the opposite scenario, the soc called "brothers in arms", which seemed certain, is just a hypothesis.

Aurel Cazacu is well versed in intelligence operations (there are suspicions he is a spy).

Fomer minister of Economy and Finance Varujan Vosganian, under whom Cazacu served in the Ministry, stated for our newspaper that Cazacu already had a position in the Ministry at the time Mr. Vosganian was appointed a minister and that he seemed extremely competent in matters of military industry.

Aurel Cazacu had been appointed head of the Defense Industry Department of the Ministry of the Economy during the tenure of Codruţ Sereş as Minister (Mihai Munteanu claims Cazacu had been backed by the Conservative Party).

It seems that Aurel Cazacu, far from being a nervous person that"s easily frightened, is actually someone for whom self-control and calculated, quick reactions are second nature.

Yet, upon first getting in contact with journalist Romana Puiuleţ of "BizBazar" (whom he received in an extremely polite manner), Aurel Cazacu seemed extremely nervous, and apparently "spilled the beans" due to this nervousness, and in a naively sincere manner, revealed everything about how shareholders of "Desintco" SRL decided to bring the brother of the president in as shareholder in order to have a direct connection to the Government.

In fact, the conflict of interest only became clear following his televised statement, after our newspaper had uncovered who the shareholders of "Desintco" SRL were.

For that matter, in a televised debate that was attended by our journalist Daniel Bojin, the latter noted that Aurel Cazacu is the main author of this scandal, whereas our newspaper is at most a coauthor.

It is a fact that Aurel Cazacu helped build the conflict of interest involving the Băsescu brothers.

But this doesn"t make any sense at first sight, because it seems to go against the interest of Cazacu (and against those of the other shareholders) as part of the potential deals that "Desintco" SRL could have closed. Why would Cazacu reveal his influence peddling and give up the potential gains?

Cazacu insisted that he had a career and a name and he would not sully them for "something like this"...

The only problem is "something like this" was potentially worth tens or even hundreds of millions of Euros, ("Desintco" was intended as a platform which would handle all the contracts for the endowment of the Romanian military, worth an estimated 10-15 billion Euros).

It is true that in the military equipment trade, reputation is important, and Aurel Cazacu did have a "name". Reputation in this field is worth money in itself. Which is why Cazacu"s touching honesty when talking to the reporter makes sense.

In fact, in spite of the scandal and his resignation from the Ministry of the Economy, Aurel Cazacu didn"t lose his "name" on the market.

He only lost his position.

Cazacu most likely isn"t living on his salary alone. No one can take away his information and market connections.

Still, the question needs to be asked once again, why did Aurel Cazacu blow the lid off this operation so easily?

A possible explanation might be that Aurel Cazacu, a very adept person, quickly realized that once the press uncovered information about "Desintco" SRL, the deal would fall through, (besides, Aurel Cazacu only had a 5% stake in the company through his daughter, even though, together with Mircea Băsescu, he was one of the two key people that could make the business work).

Once he realized that the deal became impossible (it"s likely he had known this from the beginning and he was just stringing the other two shareholders along,), Cazacu sacrificed the deal by throwing it to the press (while also sacrificing Geamănu, Oiţă and Sandu) and quickly switched to "plan B" - discrediting president Băsescu.

And the press that blew the lid off the case in honesty, became his tool for manipulation.

Is it possible that our secret services failed to inform the president about the military "mischiefs" of his brother?

Yes, it is likely.

According to journalists familiar with the secret service environment, Aurel Cazacu is rather "cozy" with his watchers.

That would mean there are several "Judas"...

We don"t like being anybody"s tool. We like being ourselves. We"re equally cautious concerning both scenarios.

It is obvious that Mircea Băsescu is the kind of person that can easily be drawn into a trap (he is boastful, greedy, campy).

It is possible someone may have taken advantage of his naiveté.

Is president Băsescu guilty? Is he innocent?

Our secret services should make up their mind.

But it"s undeniable that president Băsescu has family issues. n

• Authors` note

It"s hard to tell if Aurel Cazacu is not actually a patriot, and undeserving of the "Judas" nickname.

Alas, because of the nature of his job, should the latter be the case, he wouldn"t be able to prove it.