The US Embassy in Bucharest launched on Friday evening, October 11, 2024, a warning targeting American citizens, who are advised to “exercise increased caution near religious institutions in Romania”. Two experts explain to what extent the alert also targets Romanians.
The US Embassy in Bucharest warned its citizens to avoid religious institutions PHOTO: archive
A warning released on Friday evening, October 11, 2024, by the US Embassy in Romania for American citizens put us in front of a situation we have never faced before. Such an alert has never been launched by the US Embassy in Romania, but, as the experts consulted by “Adevărul” explain, communication in such a manner is not unusual.
What the US Embassy tells American citizens
“The United States Embassy was informed about threats that could target a synagogue, temple or mosque in Romania for the weekend of October 11-13. The embassy advises American citizens to show increased caution near religious institutions in Romania during this period,” it is stated in the alert issued for American citizens located in the territory of our country. The US Embassy also made a series of recommendations to them:
• Exercise extra caution and consider avoiding religious institutions during this time.
• Keep a low profile.
• Be aware of your surroundings.
• Review personal security plans.
The Romanian Intelligence Service reacted, the spokesperson of the institution stating that “The SRI has no data and information that could lead to the request to increase the terrorist alert level, but taking into account, however, the international security context and the religious events that are happening this weekend, the SRI with the competent structures and together with all other structures and institutions from the national defense system, public order and national security will obviously show increased attention to preserving the state of security in Romania”. At the same time, the representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs communicated that the effectives will be increased to ensure public order and tranquility.
What’s behind the alert
The warning would be related to the situation in the Middle East and has in mind a possible recrudescence of terrorist actions in the Romanian area as well, says General (r) Virgil Bălăceanu, former representative of Romania at the NATO Command in Brussels and president of the Association of Reserve Officers. American citizens could be the target of such actions, and this is because the United States of America is perceived as an enemy of the Islamic world, which does not apply to Romanians.
“So far I have been out of such a game. Let’s hope we stay. If they will have a target, and this follows from the press release, the target is the Americans, even if they are present in Romania. Romania had an extremely special, productive relationship with the Arab countries, including Israel, and these things are not forgotten. A good part of those who were educated in Romania, went to universities in Romania, now occupy important positions, both in the political world in the Arab world and in business, as such the probability of being targets of terrorist attacks , regardless of which terrorist organizations we have on Romanian territory, is quite low. Things are different when we talk about the United States, because the United States, no, is considered an enemy of the Islamic world, of Islamic civilization, and anywhere in the world American citizens, unfortunately, can be the target of terrorist attacks.” explained gen. (r) Virgil Balaceanu.
A distinction should be made, adds the general (r), between the danger of terrorist attacks on Americans, versus a terrorist attack targeting institutions or even the inhabitants of Romania.
On the other hand, the Romanian Intelligence Service, the institution subject to continuous discrediting campaigns, emphasizes Virgil Bălăceanu, “has the ability to overcome these moments of crisis and counter.” In such a fight, information is the basis, warns gen. (r) Bălăceanu, and this is extremely well highlighted by what the Israelis manage to do, who are permanent targets, but who “have the ability to receive intelligence to foil these terrorist plans.”
“We don’t have a security culture at the level of the individual”
National security expert Hari Bucur Marcu explains, on the other hand, that the Americans frequently issue warnings to their citizens, so Friday night’s warning should not be seen as an exceptional fact.
“This is a security warning addressed to American citizens who are on the territory of Romania. Americans frequently do things like this. They probably haven’t done it for Romania before, but otherwise they take care of their citizens to warn them that there might be a problem. But it is not as if the Americans discovered, through specific methods, the preparation of an attack and then warned their citizens – do not go there because there will be an attack. No, it’s simply a risk calculation that they’ve taken, in the sense that – it’s better to tell them and nothing happens, than not to tell them and something happens”explained Hari Bucur Marcu.
The timing of the warning is of particular significance to Israel and hence the potential danger. “It’s a Yom Kippur holiday these days that is really specific. It is different from all the others in the sense that Israel is in the middle of a war, both in Gaza and in Lebanon, and it also has to respond to the attack of Iran. And 51 years ago, on Yom Kippur, Israel was attacked, with the Yom Kippur War. (…) I suspect that not only in Romania, I suspect that in many other parts the Americans made warnings of this type”, the national security expert added.
The expert Hari Bucur Marcu states that it is important to distinguish between threat and risk.
“It’s really a serious matter, it’s not a joke, it’s just that it’s addressed to American citizens on the territory of Romania and it’s a matter of principle. It’s not like it’s a warning because he’s found out about a plot that’s in the works. It is a risk assessment. Threat is one thing, risk is another. It’s not a threat. Threat is when you know who is threatening you and you know how, you don’t know exactly when and you don’t know how much, but otherwise you kind of know. The terrorist threat for example – when you see a terrorist group preparing, you might also have some information about the fact that they have acquired some specific equipment and so on. Suddenly this thing is a threat. But otherwise it remains at risk. Risk is always also related to vulnerabilities to deal with a threat. It’s a risk assessment, it’s not a threat assessment”confirmed Bucur-Marcu.
“These things are common in any democracy, less so in ours”
Warnings of this type, common in many other countries, are viewed differently in Romania and they become “Breaking news” because we do not have “a security culture at the level of the individual”, draws the attention of the expert.
“We made news out of it, which is not bad, but – I’ve said this a few times, I’m sorry to say it again – we don’t have a security culture at the individual level, we don’t we have a well-established procedure for conversations between officials and citizens on security issues. Here, when something happens, it’s news. It’s not in the sense – you see that you have to do this work, you see that…”draws the attention of Hari Bucur Marcu.
What is missing in Romania, a fact that makes us, the citizens, look with surprise at such warnings as the one launched by the US Embassy in Romania, is effective communication in crisis situations, regardless of whether it is a national disaster or another type of threat.
“In general, terrorist attacks are attacks in which you don’t know at the first moment if it’s just one of a series of attacks, you don’t know if the attacker is alone or if there are others next to him who are ready to take over his action and so on. Well, these things elsewhere are well established. We don’t even have disaster communications. It’s a flood or something, we have reports, but no communication – you see the flood coming, you see you have to do this, do that. You saw, and with RO-Alert, the world is wondering what he meant”, notes the national security expert.
In other states, communication with citizens is really effective in situations with potential risk, messages and flyers are released explaining the conduct to follow, the places to avoid, etc., and this communication takes place frequently and determines a conduct appropriate among citizens.
“There should be a public communication policy, that’s what it’s called, in crisis situations or in conflict situations, or in disaster situations and so on. Such a policy should be carried out at the governmental level, have plans to implement the respective policy. An operational plan should be made for each individual case – who communicates, what they communicate, when they communicate, to whom they communicate and so on. These things are common in any democracy, less so in ours”says Bucur Marcu. The expert gives an example of the situation of the war on the border of Romania, a situation we have been facing for almost three years, and even to this day no information point or press center has been established where someone is prepared to provide answers to the questions on this theme.
“Even when we had the wave of Ukrainian refugees, the officials failed to communicate anything. It went on social media and things like that to find out how we can help them, what’s going on and so on. We are in a situation of silence that is intentional, it’s not that we don’t know how to do it. Our officials want to keep their free will, because the moment you make a promise, you have to keep it. Meanwhile… These things are still not part of our civilization, of our everyday life”. concluded Bucur Marcu.
