Prepaid phone cards in the terrorism equation

The issue of prepaid phone cards sold in Romania divides the public in the country.

Corina Cristea, 12.08.2016, 13:10

With more and more unknown elements, the terrorism equation is becoming a hard nut to crack despite sustained efforts made to fight this scourge. Terrorism will not subside in spite of the 15-year long continuous, coordinated struggle against it. On the contrary, the response of terrorists may be said to build up in parallel with the radicalization of the war against extremists. DAESH, the self-styled Islamic State, has developed into a stronger organisation, is consolidating its position and continues to recruit supporters and organise attacks in the heart of Europe.

In turn, Europe channels big amounts of money into the anti-terror effort and, at the same time, is forced to sometimes restrict certain rights and freedoms through the measures it takes to defend itself. Hence the difference of opinions. On the one hand, there are those who claim that the objective of protecting the citizens against unpredictable aggressors who operate according to rules that are hard for Europeans to understand justify certain monitoring measures. On the other hand, there are those who claim that any action against ones private life is unacceptable.

The issue of prepaid phone cards sold in Romania has generated similar differences of opinion, Romania being one of the few European countries where such cards can be purchased without the registration of the buyers identification data. The issue came to public attention after PM Dacian Ciolos told a TV show that in preparing some of the attacks, the terrorists used prepaid phone cards purchased in Romania. Flavius Dumbrava, an intelligence analyst, discussed in a Radio Romania show the importance of knowing the identity of buyers:

Flavius Dumbrava: “This is not about terrorism alone. People tend to over-simplify these things. The issue is more complex, as prepaid phone cards can be used in many other cases such as drug trafficking, human trafficking and corruption. There are many cases when frustrated parents dont know what to do more, others in which drug dealers are impossible to identify. Prepaid phone cards should not become a weapon. Electronic communications in general should not become a weapon, either for terrorism, or for corruption or human trafficking.

The lack of regulations in the field enables terrorist organisations to buy phone cards anonymously, say those who believe that IDs are necessary when purchasing such cards. Passed by the Romanian Parliament in 2014, a law that required the identification of buyers when purchasing prepay cards was declared unconstitutional three months later, as judges ruled that the law was nothing but an addition to the Big Brother law, which stipulated that personal data can be stored for 6 months and which was also scrapped as unconstitutional. Georgiana Iorgulescu, the Director of the Legal Resources Centre, claims that debates on anti-terror legislation lack transparency, and public consultations are needed in this matter:

Georgiana Iorgulescu: “It doesnt mean that, if terrorist attacks occur, our rights may be suspended. Under the threat of terror, be it big or small for Romania, we enter this grey area where citizens right to private life and correspondence is threatened as well, without any explanations.

Georgian Pop, the head of Parliaments Committee that oversees the activity of the Romanian Intelligence Service, says the Romanian legislation must be put in line with the anti-terrorist measures enforced at EU level.

Georgian Pop: “We must support all the institutions in charge with prevention to work at the highest level, because the main goal is not to catch a terrorist after theyve committed the attack and bring them to justice. The goal is for such attacks to never occur and to make sure innocent people are not killed and wounded. Terrorism-related activities must include – and there must be a common European line of thinking in this matter – crimes such as the training or recruiting for training in a terrorist camp. Moreover, trade control must be tightened, just like the control of trafficking, because illegal armament, explosive devices or materials used for hand-made bombs are being trafficked quite heavily these days.

As Georgian Pop went on to say, “Its quite a paradox that a forest ranger in Romania has the right to request a poachers IDs and check their rucksacks, but an anti-terror officer with the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Foreign Intelligence Service or the Romanian Army, is not allowed to ask for the IDs of a terrorism suspect near an airport in Romania, on whom there is intelligence saying that that they might carry a bomb in their rucksack.