Nicolae Pleșiță

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Nicolae Pleșiță
Foreign Intelligence Service, Securitate
In office
April 22, 1980 – November 26, 1984
PresidentNicolae Ceaușescu
Preceded byIon Mihai Pacepa
Personal details
BornApril 26, 1929
Curtea de Argeș, Romania
DiedSeptember 28, 2009(2009-09-28) (aged 80)
Bucharest, Romania
Political partyRomanian Communist Party

Nicolae Pleșiță (Romanian pronunciation:

Communist Romania. He was described by the New York Times and Associated Press at the time of his death as "a die-hard Communist and ruthless chief of the Securitate secret police."[1][2]

A participant in various actions taken against armed or peaceful

1989 Revolution
, Pleșiță was also noted for openly admitting his various involvements in acts of violence, and for claiming that they were justified by circumstance.

Biography

Early years and activities against the armed resistance

Pleşiţă was born in

black marketer of coffee and memoirist who met Pleşiţă during communism, the future general had exceptionally lowly origins, being "the son of a farm hand with a two primary classes education and an illiterate peasant woman, who hailed from a family of outlaws in Târgoviște area."[5] A worker at the Moroieni Lumber Factory in his native city and head of the industry's trade union by the age of 18, he joined the Communist Party in 1947, the year when the communist regime was set up, and became active in party affairs.[4]

In 1948, Pleșiță was transferred to the Argeș County directorate of the

Interior Ministry, before returning to Piteşti in 1956 and taking over as temporary regional head of the Securitate.[4]

In 1958, Pleșiță earned communist distinction for his work in eradicating

University of Cluj (Babeș-Bolyai) in 1968.[4]

Participation in repressions of the 1970s

After the Cluj interval, he was again transferred to Bucharest as the head of the directorate of security guards at the Ministry of the Interior, where he was promoted to the rank of

Nicolae Ceaușescu in April 1977.[3][4][6][7] According to Gheorghe Florescu's recollections, Pleșiță was also discreetly establishing himself as a presence on the criminal underground, by tolerating or endorsing illicit dealings in commodities.[5] These activities, Florescu claimed, were shared among members of the communist elite, among them his fellow Securitate operative and future rival Ion Mihai Pacepa—while the latter secretly represented a pro-Western line within the intelligence and underworld environment, Pleșiță's dealings were reputedly directed toward Soviet and Middle Eastern connections.[5]

Also in 1977, Pleșiță was involved in the violent inquiry of writer Paul Goma, who had attempted to organize a local dissident movement and was eventually expelled from the country.[2][4] A participant in the Goma movement, psychiatrist Ion Vianu (noted for exposing the use of involuntary commitment as a political weapon), recounted having met Pleșiță three times before being himself expelled to France: "The first time, upon the start of my dissidence, he shouted at me and looked on the verge of hitting me. The second time, several weeks later, he threatened me with prison telling me that he would lock me up with the 'loons' that they had committed into hospitals to ensure their protection and who, as detainees, would exert their revenge on me. Now, once the powers that be had decided to let me go, he was calm and only resorted to threatening me that, once abroad, I should not start talking, because the arm of the revolution was long and the wrath of the people would follow me." Vianu also recalls having refused to make any such promise, but notes that the interest his case had already generated in France made "Pleșiță and his kind" fear taking more severe action against him.[8]

In August of that year, he was credited with helping to stifle coal miners when unrest from the

Petroșani Securitate building, where some were beaten over the head and had their fingers bound to doors.[9] At least 600 miners were interrogated; 150 penal dossiers were opened; 50 were forcefully hospitalised in psychiatric wards; 15 were sentenced to correctional labour and actually imprisoned, while a further 300 or more (who were considered dangerous) were internally deported. Almost 4,000 of the striking workers were sacked.[9]

Head of Foreign Intelligence and cooperation with Carlos

After 1978, Pleșiță was commander of the Interior Ministry commissioned officers' school in

Central Committee.[7]

In 1981, the Securitate hired

Radio Free Europe (RFE), a Munich radio station that broadcast into Romania and other parts of the Eastern Bloc.[2][6][7][10][11] Eight or nine persons were injured in the RFE bombing.[2][6] Press reports indicated that Pleșiță brought Carlos to Romania to organize the RFE bombing and gave him plastic explosives, fake documents and videotapes, pictures and sketches of the RFE headquarters.[2][11][12] Such accounts further reported that Pleșiță rewarded Carlos with $400,000 deposited in an account at the Romanian Bank for Foreign Trade under the name of Carlos's lover and partner.[12] Reportedly, Pleșiță ordered the RFE bombing and hired Carlos to murder Romanian dissidents in exile and also to assassinate his predecessor Pacepa.[2][3][7][13]

In November 1984, Pleșiță was deposed and appointed commander of the

first-degree murder, assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping and several counts of perjury.[6][11] During the procedures, Pleșiță testified that he had been assigned by Ceaușescu to contact and cooperate with Carlos.[6][7] He went on record stating that he found Carlos a "sympathetic" figure[3][6] and the charges "idiocies", while declining legal counsel.[6] According to his own testimony: "This does not mean that, during the 42 years I've spent in the world of espionage, I was either a saint or a pillar of the church."[6]

Pleșiță thus stated that he had personally masterminded the killing of dissidents: "I killed them, of course. That's what we did".

Palestine Liberation Organization and former collaborator of Carlos, was a homosexual, and physically attracted to (or even involved in a sexual relationship with) the Venezuelan terrorist.[11]

In 2000, the military court conducting the investigation of Pleșiță's role in the bombing stopped the investigation.[3][4][6] In accordance with Romanian legal requirements, according to which civilians could only face civilian courts, the case was reassigned to regular prosecutors in 2004.[6][11] In the spring of 2009, after 19 years of investigation, they decided to end the inquiry without a formal indictment,[3][6] and the tribunal determined that Pleșiță was not guilty of complicity in the bombing.[4][7][13] Prosecutor Dan Voinea, who had previously worked on the case, criticized the decision, noting that the evidence against Pleșiță was compelling, and that the decision to involve a civilian jurisdiction only became relevant after the dossier collaterally implicated former Securitate head Tudor Postelnicu, who held no military rank.[11]

In parallel, the

post-communist authorities to hide Pleșiță's involvement, arguing that several pages had been purposefully removed from his own Securitate file (which he had recovered from the CNSAS).[10] Journalist Andreea Pora, who connects the procedural delays with the alleged unwillingness of Social Democratic politicians to investigate communist crimes, also notes that the decision not to indict Pleșiță closely followed a similar resolution in the case of Ion Iliescu, Social Democratic leader and first post-communist President, who was a subject of an inquiry about his participation in the Romanian Revolution.[11] Pora also alleged that the civilian prosecutors were more likely to answer political commands than their military predecessors.[11]

Later claims and final years

After the Revolution, Pleșiță continued to receive one of the largest pensions of any former government official in Romania and lived in a villa that was a gift from Ceaușescu.

Curtea de Argeș, where he lived in the same house as his son,[11] and was said to have been frequently visited by another suspected Securitate torturer, Gheorghe Enoiu.[3]

In his later years, Pleșiță was often interviewed in the Romanian press and expressed no remorse for his role in crushing anti-communist dissent. This attitude was itself the subject of controversy.

România Liberă daily referred to Pleșiță as "the perfect example of a Securitate boss, who openly assumed his actions of political policing, and even murders committed by the communists, but who lived a carefree existence in post-1989 Romania."[7] Andreea Pora viewed his stance as clashing with the official condemnation of communism by President Traian Băsescu and the Tismăneanu Commission, noting: "At a time when Traian Băsescu was condemning communism in Parliament [...], Nicolae Pleșiță was laughing on live television broadcasts carried by various stations, casually admitting his crimes, telling us that they were 'mere trifles'."[11] According to Associated Press, this was partly made possible by the political climate of post-1989 Romania, where "many former high-ranking Securitate officers still have key positions in politics and business."[2] At times, his statements defined the Securitate as a body working "for the country's progress",[3] and he personally urged former subordinates to assassinate "traitors who defected to the enemy."[12] He openly told interviewers that he had beaten dissident writer Paul Goma,[2][6] and recounted that he had been dragging his prisoner around his Securitate cell by his beard.[2] Using agent Matei Pavel Haiducu, the Securitate had later attempted, unsuccessfully, to assassinate Goma while he was in self-exile in France.[2][10] Suspicion of Pleșiță's personal participation in this move made him the target of a separate investigation opened by Romanian prosecutors in 2007.[10]

Pleșiță's various accounts implicated many other figures in Romania and abroad. Referring to his early activities in

British pounds[16] or $400,000[2] to Mitterrand's 1981 electoral campaign—which led to the first election of a Socialist President of France. In his retirement, Pleșiță stated that, during his time as head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Romanian government had assisted North Korean leader Kim Il Sung to hide a secret transfer of nuclear technology and equipment, to be used in the Asian country's non-civilian nuclear programme. Pleșiță said the transfer took place during a 1984 visit to Bucharest by Kim Il Sung. According to Pleșiță, "When leaving, the presidential train also had aboard the elements necessary for producing the nuclear bomb, which Ceaușescu had sold to his North Korean friend."[17]

Pleșiță died in September 2009 at age 80, after spending three months in a Bucharest sanatorium allegedly run by the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI).[2][3][4][7] He had suffered from several illnesses, including diabetes,[2] but the cause of death was given as complications from a concussion.[4] During his funeral service, held at the Capu Dealu Romanian Orthodox church in Curtea de Argeș, the SRI, obeying the family's wish, is said to have prevented reporters from witnessing the event.[2][3][4][7] Intelligence Service spokespersons denied that the institution had overseen either Pleșiță's hospitalisation or his funeral.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b "Gen. Nicolae Plesita, 80; Ran the Spy Service of Romania". The New York Times. 2009-10-01.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Alison Mutler (2009-09-30). "Feared Romanian Securitate Chief Plesita Dies". Associated Press.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Vlad Stoicescu (2009-09-30). "'I-am ucis, bineînţeles. Asta făceam noi' ('I Killed Them, of Course. That's What We Did')". Evenimentul Zilei.
  4. ^
    Jurnalul Naţional. Archived from the original
    on 2009-10-03. Retrieved 2009-10-03.
  5. ^ a b c Dan C. Mihăilescu (December 2008). "Ceauşismul la ibric (Ceauşism in a Kettle)". Idei în Dialog.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Răzvan Priţulescu, Iulius Cezar (2009-03-15). "Torţionarul Pleşiţă, iertat de procurori (Pleşiţă the Torturer, Forgiven by the Prosecutors)". Adevărul. Archived from the original on 2009-10-05.
  7. ^
    România Liberă
    .
  8. ISBN 973-681-832-2
  9. ^ a b Ruxandra Cesereanu (August 2004). "Greva minerilor din Valea Jiului, 1977 (The Jiu Valley Miners' Strike, 1977)". Revista 22. Archived from the original on 2007-10-08.
  10. ^ a b c d e "ICCR îl acuză pe Nicolae Pleşiţă de fapte de terorism (The ICCR Accuses Nicolae Pleşiţă of Terrorism-related Activities)". BBC Romanian edition. 2007-11-07.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Andreea Pora (March 2009). "După Iliescu, şi Pleşiţă a primit NUP (After Iliescu, Pleşiţă Too Has Received a Non-indictment Decision)". Revista 22.
  12. ^ a b c Arnaud de Borchgrave (2004-02-13). "Romanian Spies under Scrutiny". The Washington Times.
  13. ^ a b "Lives Remembered: Featuring Cosmonaut Pavel Popovich, Romanian Spy Chief Nicolae Plesita and Mississippi's Greatest Blues Drummer, Sam Carr". The Daily Telegraph. 2009-09-30.
  14. ^ Allison Miller (2009-09-30). "Ruthless General Headed Romanian Secret Police". The Washington Post.
  15. ^ Paul Cernat (December 2006). "Despre A. E. Baconsky, cu dus-întors (About A. E. Baconsky, Equivocally)". Observator Cultural.
  16. ^ a b c d Adam Sage (1999-07-13). "Ceausescu 'Funded Mitterrand's 1981 Campaign'". The Times.
  17. ^ "Romania Helped N Korea Make Atom Bomb - Ex-Secret Police Chief". BBC Monitoring European. 2005-03-29.
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