Code Name Cobra (Book Extract)
In September 1984, Constantin Constantinescu, a code clerk of the Romanian embassy in Bonn, defected to the West. To establish his credentials, he presented a copy of a thirteen-page physical surveillance report that was written by Romanian intelligence service (CIE) officer Ion Constantin sometime between October and December 1983. Constantinescu indicated that he was able to “save” a copy of this report from destruction as he saw its significance, and there was a breakdown in the normal destruction process thus allowing him to retain it. A summary of the subsequent debriefing of Constantinescu about his knowledge of this surveillance report was made available to the RFE/RL Security Department.
Of extreme interest was the physical description of the wall of RFE/RL along the main street Oettingengtrasse and analysis of the working of the entrance and exit gates of RFE/RL. This report was not necessarily accurate in this regard. Nor was it regarding the location and use of the CCTV cameras on the building, thus leading one to the conclusion that the surveillance conducted at the front of the building was limited due to fear of detection.
The summary of the debriefing also mentioned that the surveillance report contained references to “certain offices on the first floor.” Presumably these “certain offices on the first floor” referred to the Romanian Service of RFE/RL.
Constantinescu said he believed that the headquarters in Bucharest “was collecting information on the radio station to carry out intimidating acts against the personnel in the station’s Romanian section.” And he did not believe that there was interest “in having the facility seriously damaged.”
Also of interest in the debriefing summary, was the mention of the headquarters group in Bucharest responsible for organizing “physical attacks on anti–Romanian personnel abroad” and the words “usually hires foreigners to carry out the operations themselves.” Constantinescu lacked other knowledge of contemplated action against RFE/RL other than the surveillance report and conversations with Ion Constantin. In other words, he had not seen any other telex information or other written reports on RFE/RL or on individual Romanian Service members of RFE/RL.
In December 1983, one or two days before leaving for temporary duty to Bucharest, Ion Constantin handed Constantinescu a package of material for destruction. Normally, the destruction of the material should have been carried out by both him and Constantin, but Constantin was in a hurry and left the material for Constantinescu to destroy. When Constantinescu saw the report on RFE/RL, he immediately realized the report’s importance and retained it. He did not see any other materials on the topic, whether cables or operational letters. He did not hear anyone besides Constantin discuss this topic at the Romanian missions in Cologne and Bonn.
Constantin’s thirteen-page report and sketch, which the defector brought out, was a physical surveillance report on the RFE/RL target. It described the
• traffic in the area,
• traffic signs and parking,
• the facility and wall surrounding it,
• the different entrances/gates,
• certain offices on the first floor,
• ‑the presence of certain security personnel, and other installations in the immediate vicinity.
Constantin concluded his report by noting that he had collected a number of different city plans, tour books, and postcards which covered the target and its immediate surroundings, which items he was to attach to the report in an appendix which would also contain twenty-four photos of the target and its immediate surroundings (the Hilton Hotel, Bavarian Bank, Isar River, etc.). Constantin stated in his report that he personally had walked through the entire area.
From discussions with Constantin, the defector learned about a group at CIE Headquarters, designated C-428, which deals with such “diversionary” acts as physical attacks on anti–Romanian personnel abroad. C-428 depended on CIE residencies abroad to collect information in support of its plans, but usually hired foreigners to carry out the operations themselves. Constantin had received instructions, presumably originally from C-428, to collect detailed information on the RFE/RL facility in Munich, referred to by the code name “Cobra.” Constantinescu recalled that Constantin remarked: “They want to place bombs at the Radio Station.”
Constantinescu learned that similar surveillance reports on the RFE/RL facility had also been submitted to C-428 by Constantin Ciobanu, the CIE resident, and Dan Mihoc, a CIE officer, both at the Romanian embassy in Bonn. In December 1983, while in Bucharest, Constantin was given two days of briefing by C-428 and was shown the reports from Ciobanu and Mihoc. Even though his own report had been evaluated “good,” Constantin was asked to obtain additional information of interest (Constantin did not elaborate on this) In 1984, Constantin made two more trips to Munich, where he asked one of his collaborators to help him in this project.
Constantinescu’s personal opinion was that the CIE was collecting information on the radio stations in order to carry out intimidating acts against the personnel in the stations’ Romanian Section. He did not believe, however, that the CIE was interested in having the facility seriously damaged.26
In November 1984, the German government ordered the expulsion of the above-named “diplomats.” Media coverage was intense. For example, the German newspaper Die Welt’s detailed article on the expulsion contained this ominous reference to Dan Mihoc: “His superiors in Bucharest ordered Mihoc in January this year to buy a set of specialist medical works about poisons that could not be traced by autopsies and he sent the volumes to the Romanian capital.”27
The Bavarian State Counterintelligence Agency’s 1984 Annual Report contained this remark:
When an intelligence officer of the Romanian Embassy in Bonn defected to the West in 1984 important information was obtained on the activities of the Romanian Intelligence Service on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany. The defector presented evidence of the preparation and the actual carrying out of criminal activities with a political background by the Intelligence Service, represented by officers of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service CIE who had diplomatic status with the Romanian Embassy in Bonn.28
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