The gesture of journalist Robert Turcescu to post to hispersonal blog on Sunday a confessionthat he was a covert officertook by surprise first of all his owncolleagues from B1 TV where hehas a show, but also produced consternation and sparked reactionsand vivid comments amongo ther fellow journalists and analysts.While some voices claimedthat Turcescu’s unexpected movewith his suspect self-exposurecame as a result of a possibleblackmail, other commentators say his gesture was quite bizarreand strange and try to explain thepossible reasons that could bebehind such an incomprehensibleconduct. Especially given the factthat, four years ago, when putface to face with a statement made by Gabriel Oprea, at thetime Defence Minister, whoclaimed that Turcescu was on thepay-roll of the Ministry as an officer,the journalist vehementlydenied it.‘Yes, I was a covert lieutenant-colonel. Below I am posting some of my pay slips showgthe sums I cashed. I chose not tobetray good God and make thispublic confession. I refuse to beJudah in front of Christ, even ifthe people who will raed and seethis text today may not be veryclear about what’s going on. Prayfor me and with me to be forgivenand redeemed. I am ready toendure the public opprobrium, Ideserve that, but I hope we willbenefit from straight laws andjudges. I carry on under theguidance of God and everythingwill be all right! I am asking forthe forgiveness of all of you’,Robert Turcescu stated on hisblog.Although the journalist didnot name the intelligence servicehe had worked for as a covert officer,all elements (his military cardposted on the blog next to hisconfession) suggest the MilitaryIntelligence Directorate of theArmy, although the Ministry of Defence the Army intelligencebody belongs to has not confirmedit.Invited by a fellow colleaguein the B1TV studio to give explanationslive, a scared, pensive Turcescu, with a completelytransposed and concerned face,ended the rumours that his bloghad been hacked by individuals who could have published thosedocuments and confessions onhis behalf. During the‘Actualitatea Romaneasca’ showon B1TV, Robert Turcescu saidthe documents were genuine andthat he had posted them himself.The journalist also said he wouldappear before the Court and thathis ‘Sub semnul intrebarii’ showwould not be aired anymorebeginning on Monday. Turcescusaid he had not been blackmailedor subjected to any kind of pressureand explained he hadexposed himself then because‘God wanted him to’ and becausehe could not hide anymore in thecontext of the debate on the presidentialcandidate who was acovert officer.The journalist Cristian TudorPopescu said he was ‘astonished’by R. Turcescu’s discourse dottedwith mystic accents during theB1TV show where he confirmedthat the text published on hisblog stating ‘Yes, I was a covertlieutenant colonel’ had beenwritten by him.‘All I can analyse is RobertTurcescu’s televised performance,because this is what I saw. Thatwas strange to say the least, if notcompletely aberrant’, CristianTudor Popescu said in a phoneintervention to Digi 24 TV.‘I have known RobertTurcescu for a long time. I amastonished by this mystic deliriumhe showed tonight. I don’tunderstand the terms he used, inconnection with what? Forgiveme, but my impression is thatone had to kill someone to beusing that sort of Dostoyevskyanterms of misery like ‘liberation’,‘look deep within yourselves’. It’sa sort of…. It’s something Iwouldn’t have believed RobertTurcescu would ever do, watchinghis conduct over time’,Cristian Tudor Popescu said.He said Turcescu was verymuch like one of the pastors whowould preach the Christian beliefin America in the 18th century.‘I don’t know how guiltyRobert Turcescu is, what he did,what he confesses to, why heatones and puts one sackclothand ashes like this. I don’t know,he is like a New England pastor,at some point in the 18th century…An unbelievable language. Idon’t know the sin he confessesto in this story;’ Tudor Popescufurther said.Journalist Ion Cristoiu whoknew him very well and whocollaborated with him on variousTV shows was surprised byTurcescu’s gesture and is strangeappearance on B1RV Sundaynight to admit to his sins,uncovering an unrecognisable,even ‘exalted’ Robert Turcescu.‘Robert Turcescu has alwaysseems to me like a lucid person,a man who mastered his emotions,someone, like any professionaljournalist, hard toimpress. On the other hand, thetext on his blog shows an exaltedman, a person in a spiritual crisis,someone thrown off his balanceby some dramatic occurrence,a frenzied’, Ion Cristoiuwrites.He added that, initially hehad though the exposure on theblog was just a publicity trick forSorina Matei’s show whereTurcescu was going to unveilnew facts. ‘The show strengthenedthe impression I got fromthe blog post. Robert Turcescu,the journalist who would lose itwhen the gust was beating aboutthe bush, had lost it himself. In abig way. Without saying at leastone concrete thing – he, as ajournalist, knows that any assertion,including one concerningyourself, you need to give somethingconcretely. Instead of that,he spoke about the big liberationhe had experienced thatday, about God on the exaltedtone of a Dostoyevsky characterrather than a real man. Addingto that the fake documents, hisavoidance of concrete facts(which suggests a person capableof extraordinary self-control),Robert Turcescu showed me aman who played a part.Unless this is a sudden sickness(which I hardly believe,because he did not fall into thetrap of saying anything concretely),Robert Turcescu is playingan operative game. As a journalistand not as a covert officer,because a covert officer has nocrises of conscience live on TV’,Cristoiu also stated.
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