SHISH chief scandal: A parrot president who makes us laugh through the crisis

The exploitation of “General Baromi” knows no bounds. Caught in the deepest crisis of his rule, Edi Rama — upon learning of the arrest of Vlora Hyseni, accused of passing secret-service information to her friend Ergys Agasi — made two moves. First he said he needed to consult the president of the republic on dismissing the spy chief and appointing her successor. Then, through his propaganda apparatus, he floated the idea that the situation was so grave that the National Security Council had to be convened. Begaj signed the dismissal decree before Rama had even returned from New York — yet for the pompous but powerless council gathering, he waited for the de facto chief to arrive in Tirana.

And what happened? Once again the president behaved like Rama’s clown, staging a solemn meeting at the Brigades’ Palace to repeat the very messages the prime minister had articulated from the airport lobby.

Compare the statement produced after the closed-door meeting by the presidency’s office and it looks like a carbon copy of the prime minister’s position from a day earlier.

“Individual cases must not turn into a crisis of confidence in the state and in the security institutions,” said the presidency’s announcement in its key paragraph.

Although this is the case of a service chief who helped a fugitive from justice — even supplying him with secret material — Bajram Begaj labels it an individual problem and all but calls on the judiciary not to throw the security institution into crisis. The presidency continued:

“For national security, institutions do not compete with one another. They have different responsibilities, but they serve the same interest: the security of the Republic of Albania. Any institutional mistrust must be replaced with professional cooperation, coordination and communication.”

But let us look at what Edi Rama had said on Sunday from Rinas airport. First, he labeled the Vlora Hyseni case her personal matter with the judiciary; second, he stressed that the judiciary — specifically SPAK — had through this individual affair struck at the state.

“When an investigation climbs to the head of the country’s intelligence service, this is no longer the problem of an independent power. This is a problem of the entire state… During the imposition of the measure and the judicial administration of the file, an institution with particular sensitivity for the state’s security and reputation was exposed. It was exposed to the potential of great damage, which could and should have been fully prevented.”

Now let us examine these two concepts that Bajram Begaj repeated like a parrot.

Is the Vlora Hyseni case personal or institutional? Had it been merely personal — a sin of passion with a married man — there would naturally have been no problem. But the way the former SHISH chief behaved has also stained the institution.

Many of her agents knew about the affair; meetings even took place at their bases. Even after Agasi was declared wanted, the spy chief’s continued relationship with her lover was no secret to her close associates. So, no matter how much Edi deceives and Bajram chirps, the institution’s wound runs far deeper.

And that is the only reason why just two pages have emerged from the voluminous “Gysi–Vlora” file — the file that to this day is guarded more fanatically than ever. Because inside it are elements that would blow the state’s reputation sky-high.

But Edi Rama has insisted on just those two pages, wailing that “the state was exposed to great damage.” Yet who exposed the state to this mess: his own appointee, or the judiciary that uncovered it?

By the principle that a theft is grave only when discovered, not when committed, Rama manipulates by serving up as tragedy a couple of phrases that became public, rather than the fact that Vlora Hyseni was working for a fugitive.

And in this game he is followed closely by Begaj, who turned the National Security Council meeting into a farce. In the presidency’s statement the emphasis was likewise on the claim that SPAK competed with SHISH, damaging the state — while the Vlora Hyseni affair was an individual problem. Hearing it said by Rama could make your blood boil. But experiencing it repeated by his parrot can only make you laugh. Because every crisis, however grave, gives birth together with it to its own ridiculous elements.