Operation Rainbow
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| Operation Rainbow Operație Curcubeu | |
|---|---|
| File:OperationRainbow.jpg The most infamous photo of the operation, a killer looks down from a balcony attached to the apartment of Dragan and Golda Banu | |
| Location | Oured, D.A., United Republic of Emmeria |
| Date | 17 May - 23 July 1982 |
| Target | Rodarian dissidents and opponents of the Rodarian regime |
Attack type | Mass Murder |
| Deaths | 18 |
Non-fatal injuries | 3 |
| Perpetrator | Office of the Holy Inquisition and Inter-Services Intelligence |
Operation Rainbow (Rodarian: Operație Curcubeu) was a covert shoot-to-kill operation conducted by both Rodarian intelligence services, the BSI and the ISI, to assassinate eight prominent members of the Free Rodarion Alliance a growing dissident movement that had been given refuge inside the United Republic of Emmeria. It began on the May 17 with the murder of Alexandru Harolamb after he gave a speech to students at an FRA rally. Oured law enforcement blamed it on a failed armed mugging. On May 22, Dionisie and Rozalia Vianu and their two daughters Ana and Voileta were shot dead in their car outside a fast food restaurant, prompting the Criminal Investigation Division to move the remaining 12 FRA leaders to different locations across the city. Over the next two months, each member and their family members were killed. On July 23, one police officer was killed and two others and a bystander were injured in a shoot-out with the killers inside the apartment of Mila and Viktor Taratescu and their son. The killers escaped before more heavily armed law enforcement arrived, despite the eventual establishment of a search perimeter.
The murders were investigated by both CID and the Joint Intelligence Agency; however, later revelations indicated that Rodarian intelligence agencies paid right-wing anti-immigration groups to claim responsibility. Allegations from the JIA that Rodarian intelligence agencies were responsible were denied by the Rodarian government. A CID investigation led to the arrest of two Rodarian nationals, Petre Corneliu and Adam Catalin, but they were acquitted from court on the basis of lack of sufficient evidence; later calls from the JIA and the Justice Department were denied due to constitutional regulations against double jeopardy. The Rodarian government did not claim responsibility until 2001. Details of the operation were leaked to the Arthuristan press two months later.
In April 1984, Gabriel Constantin, the BSI official who organized the operation and oversaw its execution, was killed near his home in Novaci, Rodarion. The killing was initially blamed on remaining elements of the Free Rodarion Army, but a JIA classified report released in redacted form on May 8, 2001, just days after Rodarian officials admitted the existence of Operation Rainbow, revealed that the mysterious killing was carried out by JIA operatives in Rodarion. While numerous analysts and pundits criticized it as a controversial extrajudicial killing violating both international law and U.R. legislation against targeted killings, the issue was not pursued by the federal government.
Operation Rainbow and its associated fallout were considered the pinnacle of the failure of Emmerian security agencies in preventing foreign espionage on Emmerian soil. The failure of the CID to protect individuals from foreign intelligence agencies, the inability for federal investigators to provide sufficient evidence to convict the two suspects, and the significant lack of effective interagency cooperation led to sweeping changes to the United Republic intelligence and counterintelligence infrastructure, especially on Emmerian soil. The operation led to the establishment of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts, secret courts to oversee the issuing of surveillance warrants against suspected foreign intelligence agents. Several modernization efforts improved cooperation between United Republic federal intelligence agencies, including the formation of the JIA Intelligence Consolidation Committee to aggregate intelligence from across the U.R. intelligence community. The ICC eventually led to the establishment of the independent United Republic National Intelligence Community (NIC) in 2009.
Background
In 1977, following the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters by the Rodarian government, a large number of academics, trade union leaders, democracy figures and former politicians grouped together and formed the Free Rodarion Alliance with the aim of coordinating all anti-regime groups for the purpose of peacefully achieving democratic rights for the Papal Republic. In 1978, an arrest warrant was produced for the FRA's General Council including the eight secretaries. Fearing for their lives the eight secretaries were offered asylum in the United Republic, the chairman and the other General Council members fled to various parts of Pardes. In April 1978 the eight secretaries and their families arrived in Oured and were granted housing and large sum of money to set up their new lives.
In August 1978, the eight secretaries announced through letters and the Free Rodarion Radio (FRR) that they assuming control of the organisation and were going to lead the movement from Emmeria. Viktor Hasdeu (aged 50) assumed leadership of the FRA and they went on to work towards reform of the Rodarian regime through peaceful means, supported heavily by the Emmerian State Department and Joint Intelligence Agency. In 1979, over 3,400 dock workers went on strike in Braila, demanding an end to the ban on socialist political parties, supported by the FRA, two weeks into the strike riot police violently broke the strike and the 3,400 workers were sacked and replaced within two days, however most would return to work over the next couple of months.
The strike in Braila had proved to the Rodarian government that the FRA was still a dangerous threat operating outside of Rodarion. In 1980 it was decided that the FRA leadership had to be destroyed. That March, it was confirmed that the former Chairman, Nicolae Banau, was shot dead outside his home in Provisa, Belhavia and the other General Council members were kidnapped and returned to Rodarion. All that remained of the exiled leaders were the eight secretaries in Oured, D.A..
Operation Rainbow
Victims
Template:Standard table ! style="text-align: left; background: #aaccab;"| Name ! style="text-align: left; background: #aaccab;"| Age ! style="text-align: left; background: #aaccab;"| Cause of death |----- ! style="text: center; background:lavender;" colspan="9" | Harolamb |----- |Alexandru Harolamb || 51 || Multiple stab wounds |----- ! style="text: center; background:lavender;" colspan="9" | Vianu |----- | Dionisie Vianu || 32 || Two gunshot wounds to the chest |----- | Rozalia Vianu || 30 || One gunshot wound to the head |----- | Ana Vianu || 7 || Six gunshot wounds to the chest, neck and head |----- | Violeta Vianu || 8 || Four gunshot wounds to the neck and chest |----- ! style="text: center; background:lavender;" colspan="9" | Hasdeu |----- |Yulia Hasdeu || 47 || One gunshot wound to the head |----- | Viktor Hasdeu || 50 || One gunshot wound to the head |----- ! style="text: center; background:lavender;" colspan="9" | Grazu |---- |Traian Grazu || 38 || Two gunshot wounds to the chest, amputation of all ten fingers, major lacerations to abdomen |---- ! style="text: center; background:lavender;" colspan="9" | Babu |---- |Ekaterina Babu || 41 || Stab wound to the chest |---- |Roza Babu || 21 || Gunshot wound to the chest |----- ! style="text: center; background:lavender;" colspan="9" | Lupescu |----- |Markus Lupescu || 37 || Two gunshot wounds to chest and head |----- |Alexandra Lupescu || 39 || Two gunshot wounds to the head |----- ! style="text: center; background:lavender;" colspan="9" | Ovaria |----- |Lucian Ovaria || 62 || Strangulation |----- |Maria Ovaria || 63 || Eight stab wounds to abdomen and chest |----- |Julius Ovaria || 39 || Six gunshot wounds to the chest, neck and head |----- ! style="text: center; background:lavender;" colspan="9" | Nabescu |----- |Tavian Nabescu || 24 || Strangulation |----- ! style="text: center; background:lavender;" colspan="9" | Avatescu |----- |Karena Avatescu || 51 || Gunshot wound to the head |----- ! style="text: center; background:lavender;" colspan="9" | Gomez |----- |Officer James Gomez (Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Aliyah)|| 33 || Two gunshot wounds to the chest |}
Investigation
Lack of evidence
Aftermath
After the acquittal of Corneliu and Catalin, the two alleged suspects, due to lack of evidence, United Republic Congress formed the provisional Committee for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (CFIS) to investigate the incidents, particularly the JIA's continued claims that Rodarian agents were responsible. In November 1983, the committee released a classified report to U.R. Members of Congress and a separate, abridged version to the general public. The committee's findings included possible evidence to support the JIA's claim that the killings were committed with Rodarian involvement. The report highlighted a need to reform the U.R. intelligence-gathering structure, particularly for counterintelligence operations against foreign intelligence sources operating inside the United Republic, in terms of promoting interagency cooperation and intelligence disclosure. The committee advised the formation of a special court system to handle what it termed "foreign intelligence surveillance".
In the days following the committee's report, President Arslan Diya called for a series of sanctions against Rodarian officials in response. Over forty members of the Rodarion government and security establishment were targeted with diplomatic, political, and economic sanctions. The United Republic State Department evicted then-Rodarian Ambassador to the United Republic XXX from his embassy in Oured, D.A. the following day.
The Rodarian government denied allegations of involvement and applied similar sanctions against U.R. officials. A majority of the sanctions on both sides would be repealed during a mutual detente in the 1990s.
The incident, particularly the findings of the Committee for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, severely strained relations between the United Republic and Rodarion.
United Republic intelligence reform
The Committee for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (CFIS) highlighted ineffective cooperation and coordination between branches of the United Republic's intelligence community and law enforcement organizations as prime causes of the success of Rodarian intelligence sources in clandestine activity. Its report advised intelligence reforms promoting cooperation between U.R. intelligence agencies as well as protocols for communication between them and conventional law enforcement.
At the time, the Office of Intelligence Oversight (OIO), an office under the Director of Joint Intelligence, was responsible for loosely overseeing the actions of the U.R.'s various department-specific intelligence agencies. Congress appropriated funds to the JIA to establish a full-scale Intelligence Consolidation Committee, a permanent committee in the JIA's jurisdiction under which interagency cooperation could be carried out.
Some political groups, such as the Emmerian Privacy Organization (EPO), criticized the developments because of the threat that intelligence could be pooled and provided to agencies without jurisdiction to access them. EPO's director, Lennon Amman, wrote in a January 1983 op-ed for The Chaleur World:
The formation of the Intelligence Consolidation Committee is harmful for Emmerian privacy and liberty exactly because of what its name says: the consolidation of intelligence. A system of internal checks and balances between executive departments prevents, say, the Joint Intelligence Agency, whose role has traditionally been one of foreign intelligence gathering, from gaining information on Emmerian citizens who may be completely innocent. These checks and balances are compromised when, under the new law, the CID is required to communicate this information to contribute to a "pool" of national intelligence—the existence of which threatens the liberty of the people of the United Republic.
In 2009, as part of efforts to increase the transparency of the JIA, the ICC was replaced with the National Intelligence Community (NIC), a federation of all U.R. intelligence agencies. The NIC is independent of the JIA, which is itself a part of the NIC, and it reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence.
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
Prior to 1983, there was no established procedure through which U.R. federal agencies could seek warrants against suspected foreign intelligence agents. Typically these warrant requests were conducted under the standard warrant procedure. The report published by the provisional Congressional Committee for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance advised the formation of a secret court dedicated to reviewing warrant requests against suspected foreign intelligence agents. Congress's Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Appropriations Act, passed in February 1983, established the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) for this purpose.
The FISC court was criticized throughout the country by watchdog advocacy groups promoting privacy and smaller government. The fact that it was a secret court meant that its hearings were closed from the public, which led to allegations of lack of oversight. Transparency reforms to the FISC court were eventually enacted in 2014 under the Vaziri administration, slightly increasing the court's obligations to transparency.
Retaliation
Following revelations in the report of the Committee for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance indicating that the Joint Intelligence Agency's claims of Rodarian involvement in the killings of FRA leaders on Emmerian soil had the backing of empirical evidence, there was severe anti-Rodarian sentiment throughout the country. Voices across major political circles called for an armed retaliation against the Rodarian government in response.
The Diya administration implemented a series of diplomatic, political, and economic sanctions against Rodarian officials believed to be connected to the killings. Forty Rodarian government and intelligence officials were subject to the sanctions. The following day, the U.R. State Department announced the eviction of XX, Rodarian Ambassador to the United Republic, as the country declared him persona non grata.
The Rodarian government denied the allegations and responded with its own series of sanctions.
On April 21, 1984 around 8:27 pm, Rodarian intelligence official and BSI agent Gabriel Constantin was gunned down by JIA tactical clandestine agents several kilometers from his home in Novaci, Rodarion while returning from work. Constantin had served a pivotal role on the Operation Rainbow planning team, facilitating cooperation between the BSI and the other principle Rodarian intelligence agency, the ISI; he was a major player in the evolving Rodarian intelligence establishment. A Rodarian investigation team blamed the Free Rodarian Army for his death, fueling public outrage against the FRA in Rodarion; the organization's public image was virtually diminished after the killing.
In April 2001, Rodarian government officials revealed that the Rodarian government, as suggested by previous JIA allegations, was involved in the killings, orchestrated as part of Operation Rainbow. Further details of the operation were leaked to Arthuristan press in the following days. On May 8, 2001, following a Freedom of Information solicitation, the JIA released a redacted version of a classified 1984 report revealing the JIA's involvement in the death of Constantin, an operation launched by the JIA with approval from President Diya in retaliation for Rodarian actions in the United Republic. In the JIA's report, Evan DeWeese - the current Director of the I.B.I. - who was stationed in Romula in 1984 was noted as a 'person of interest' who played an unverified role in, or was associated with, the operation.
Following these revelations, civil rights advocates in the United Republic criticized the assassination as an extrajudicial targeted killing, violating longstanding U.R. laws against political assassinations. However, due to increased intelligence oversight processes of the period, no government committee to investigate the killing was established.