Grupul Antiterorist

Grupul anti-terorist al SIE was allegedly formed sometimes in 1998. SIE, Serviciul de Informatii Externe (the Romanian External Intelligence Service) is responsible with collecting information and carrying out intelligence activities abroad, although it also incorporates a small counter-intelligence unit that is tasked with the surveillance of foreign operatives on Romanian soil. In 1998 it appears that the Romanian Government has decided SIE needs a small anti-terrorist detachment, which could be used in capturing terrorist elements abroad, in cooperation with similar friendly structures from NATO. Thus, the detachment was created with members taken mainly from Romania's national anti-terrorist authority, the Brigada Antiterorista of SRI. The small detachment was composed of only 25 operatives. Across the years, their number was downed to 15 operatives. The Group's activities are unknown, and the unit was secret until it was unmasked by the Romanian President Traian Basescu in a public speech, where he thanked the Group for taking part in the liberation of the three Romanian journalists held hostage in Iraq in 2005. This created confusion among the written press in Romania, with some newspapers claiming the operators have actually been from Brigada Antiterorista, while others were speaking of an entire "Anti-Terrorist Brigade of SIE". To increase the confusion, an article has appeared inlate 2005 in one of the newspaper, claiming that the Group doesn't even exist, and that the men who participated in the freeing of the 3 hostages were simple SIE agents, detached in Iraq. However, President Traian Basescu continued to praise the Group's activity on many occasions, including its alleged cooperation with similar NATO structures. It is highly unlikely that the President himself, who was the head of the Emergency Response Cell created to deal with the hostage crisis, was confused about the unit's very existance. Therefore, it is logical to assume that this unit truly exists, and that, according to President Traian Basescu and his hostage negociation team, 8 of its 15 members have been present in Baghdad during the hostage crisis, and have managed to free all 3 hostages and bring them back to Romania. As an additional element to this assumption, combatants with face-masks have been seen unboarding the Romanian Air Force C-130 aircraft which brought the hostages back to Bucharest.

WikiRaptor 11:48, 9 March 2006 (UTC)