PREMIERUL INTERIMAR G.Oprea a primit stelele bonus la...

NEDUMERIRILE ambasadorului SUA despre PREMIERUL INTERIMAR G.Oprea

În 2010, ambasadorul american Mark Gitenstein încerca să le explice șefilor de la Washington cine e Oprea . Două lucruri se zbăteau, nelămurite, în capul lui Gitenstein. Care au rămas și acum niște necunoscute pentru poporul român. Cum și-a luat și unde G.Oprea doctoratul, unu, și cum a reușit să acumuleze stele de general precum punctele de fidelitate la hyper-market, doi.

1. "It remains unclear when Oprea received his own Ph.D. and topic of his doctoral thesis is not a matter of public record" (în 2010, deci, pentru ambasadorul american de la București nu era clar cînd își luase Oprea doctoratul iar lucrarea de doctorat nu era o chestiune publică, mai nota Gitenstein, fără alte observații);

2. "It is unclear how and when Oprea advanced from captain in 1993 to major, lieutenant colonel, colonel. He was promoted to brigadier general (one star) in November 2001, he received his second star in 2003, the third in 2008 and the fourth in 2009″ ( al doilea mister era avansarea în ritm frenetic a lui Oprea: de la căpitan pînă la colonel; Gitenstein nota că nu se știa nici cum, nici cînd fusese Oprea avansat în toate gradele superioare celui de căpitan).

Restul cablogramei trimise de Gitenstein la Washington este foarte util ca să înțelegem succesul lui G. Oprea din 2010 încoace.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BUCHAREST 000040 
SIPDIS 
DEPT FOR EUR/CE ASCHEIBE 
DEPT ALSO FOR INR/B 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/19/2020 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PINR, RO 
SUBJECT: NEW DEFENSE MINISTER - OLD SOLDIERS DON'T DIE, 
THEY JUST GET PROMOTED 
REF: 09 BUCHAREST 
Classified By: DCM Jeri Guthrie-Corn, reasons 1.4(b) and (d). 

1. (C) SUMMARY.

Retired four-star General Gabriel Oprea 
brings both military and political know-how to the Ministry 
of National Defense (MoND). After serving for over a decade 
as a logistics and legal officer in the Army, Oprea continued 
to serve as a military academic at the National Defense 
College. While well respected as a soldier and an academic, 
Oprea's real talents became evident once he entered politics. 
This is evident in his rapid rise through the retired ranks. 
Despite retiring as only a Captain, Oprea has been promoted 
to the rank of four-star General, and now Minister of 
National Defense and head of a growing and increasingly 
powerful group of Parliamentarians, due to his political 
skill and knack for picking the winning side in Romania's 
rough and tumble political battles. END SUMMARY. 

MILITARY MAN AND ACADEMIC 

2. (C) Gabriel Oprea graduated from the Logistics 
Department of the Sibiu-based School for Active Duty Officers 
in 1983 and served as a logistics officer in a 
Bucharest-based unit until graduating from the Bucharest Law 
School in 1990. He then served as a military justice officer 
until his retirement from active duty with the rank of 
Captain in 1993. Oprea then went on to study national 
security and defense issues at the National Defense College 
before becoming the vice chair of the National Defense 
College Foundation and deputy director of the National 
Defense College itself. In 2001 he became professor at the 
National Defense College. Oprea has also worked as a 
professor with the National Academy for Intelligence, and 
serves as a Ph.D. coordinator there and at the Romanian 
Police Academy. Oprea also sits on the Board for the 
Certification of Academic Titles, Diplomas, and Licenses. It 
remains unclear when Oprea received his own Ph.D. and topic 
of his doctoral thesis is not a matter of public record. 

3. (SBU) It is unclear how and when Oprea advanced from 
captain in 1993 to major, lieutenant colonel, colonel. He 
was promoted to brigadier general (one star) in November 
2001, he received his second star in 2003, the third in 2008 
and the fourth in 2009. The first two stars were awarded by 
President Ion Iliescu of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) 
while Oprea was serving in the PSD. The second two stars 
were granted by President Basescu, after Oprea began to 
distance himself from the PSD. 

OPREA AND THE PSD 

4. (C) While Oprea did not become a "card-carrying" member 
of the PSD until 2003, his political career began in 2001 
when he served as a State Secretary in the Ministry of the 
Interior in the PSD Prime Minister Adrian Nastase's 
Government. In 2004, Oprea became the PSD chairman for the 
Ilfov region, adjacent to Bucharest and increased his 
political, and reportedly his personal, fortunes by creating 
a network of contacts and supporters and investing in local 
real estate. From 2004 to 2008, Oprea was a member of 
Parliament, serving on the Joint Committee for the Romanian 
Intelligence Service Oversight and the Committee for Defense, 
Public Order and National Security. It was in this role that 
the Embassy invited Oprea on a demonstration flight on an 
F-16 in October 2008. When the PSD formed a coalition with 
President Basescu's Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) in 
December of 2008, Oprea, with the support of Nastase, was 
chosen as Interior Minister. Despite receiving the position, 
Oprea was uncomfortable with his position in the PSD. He was 
closely allied with the increasingly isolated Nastase, and 
was opposed by the ascendant PSD president Mircea Geoana. 
Oprea would soon gamble his political future by challenging 
the PSD. 

BECOMING BASESCU'S MAN 

5. (C) Oprea's tenure as PSD Interior Minister was 
short-lived. He quickly lost the trust of the PSD by naming 
Virgil Ardelean, a Basescu favorite, as head of the Interior 
Ministry's in-house intelligence service and by refusing to 
name PSD members to the plum positions within the ministry. 
The PSD accused Oprea of being President Basescu's Trojan 
horse within the Cabinet. Chairman Geoana called Oprea to 
confront him about the appointments but Oprea "rudely" told 
him he was not accountable to the party for his work as 
minister. Less than a month after he took office, the PSD 
withdrew its political support for Oprea and he resigned from 
his position as minister. (Note: The next PSD Interior 

BUCHAREST 00000040 002 OF 002 
Minister, Liviu Dragnea, also resigned ten days after his 
appointment, privately citing the same pressures to appoint 
people hand-picked by PSD leadership. End note.) Oprea 
resigned from the PSD two days later and publicly said that 
he chose to resign rather than become a puppet of the PSD 
leadership. 

6. (SBU) On the presidential campaign trail in 2004, Traian 
Basescu called Oprea a "member of Adrian Nastase's personal 
mafia" and accused Oprea of serving as front man for 
Nastase's business deals and doing his dirty work for him. 
Yet, by the end of 2009, Oprea had become Basescu's political 
ally and his nominee for an important cabinet position. In 
October 2009 President Basescu awarded Opera his fourth-star 
and praised him as the "first minister" who resigned rather 
than appoint incompetent people for political reasons. 

THE DEFENSE MINISTER'S POLITICAL FUTURE 

7. (C) Following his departure from the PSD, Oprea became the 
leader of a growing group of "Independent" MPs who had 
defected from the PSD and the National Liberal Party (PNL) to 
support President Basescu. In the lead-up to the December 
2009 presidential election, Oprea used his extensive network 
of business and political associates to actively campaign and 
raise money for Basescu's re-election. Following Basescu's 
victory, Oprea formally participated in the consultations to 
form the government on behalf of the Independents in 
Parliament (now around 25 and growing). With the help of PDL 
leaders, Oprea is reportedly busy recruiting further 
Independents, sparking rumors that he, together with PSD 
reformers and PNL defectors, will set up a new party, the 
Union for Progress, later in 2010. 

8. (C) At his confirmation hearing before the Parliament in 
December 2009, Oprea said that he would resign if the 
military does not receive a larger budget, "more than two 
percent of the national budget," after the economy recovers. 
At Oprea's inauguration ceremony, President Basescu recalled 
Oprea's uncompromising stand as Interior Minister, and said 
that in 2010 the Romania military's mission will increase, 
there will be more troops in the Afghanistan theaters, and 
additional financial resources beyond those in the budget 
will be provided at the discretion of the PM. Oprea 
responded that he knows the issues that the military faces 
and that he is "ready to fight to solve them." Oprea 
acknowledged the financial difficulties facing the Romanian 
Government in 2010 but pledged "not to leave behind the 
Romanian troops who are in theater." 

9. (C) COMMENT. The Romanian Ministry of National Defense 
has been plagued by a series of ministers who were unable, or 
unwilling, to fight for the resources necessary to modernize 
the armed forces and support their deployments around the 
world. Despite the apathy of previous ministers, the 
Romanian military has proven to be a strong NATO ally in 
Afghanistan, Iraq and in the Western Balkans. Recently, the 
CHOD, Adm. Gheorghe Marin, told the Defense Attach that he 
is encouraged by the new Defense Minister's experience in 
both the military and in the Parliament. As a major new 
player in Romanian party politics, Oprea has the ear of the 
President and sits at the head of a block of parliamentary 
votes that are essential to the success of the new 
Government. He is strongly independent and well positioned 
to fight for new resources for a military that has long made 
do with less. END COMMENT. 
GITENSTEIN