Italian intelligence agencies are the

intelligence agencies An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of informatio ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. Currently, the Italian intelligence agencies are the

Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Esterna The Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Esterna (AISE; Italian language, Italian: ''External Intelligence and Security Agency'') is the Espionage, foreign intelligence service of Italy. AISE was established in 2007 to replace the SISMI, Militar ...

(AISE), focusing on foreign intelligence, and the

Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Interna The Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Interna (Italian for "Internal Information and Security Agency"), commonly known as AISI, is the security agency of Italy. The AISI is the successor of the Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democrat ...

(AISI), focusing on internal security. They form part of the

Department of Information for Security The ''Dipartimento delle Informazioni per la Sicurezza'' (DIS, 'Department of Information for Security') is a department of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of Italy, instituted in 2007 as part of the reform of the Italian security ser ...

, which in turn is part of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. The agencies have been reorganized multiple times since the

birth of the Italian Republic An institutional referendum ( it, referendum istituzionale, or ) was held in Italy on 2 June 1946, Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1047 a key event of Italian contemporary history. Until 194 ...

in 1946 to attempt to increase effectiveness.

History

Military Information Service

The Military Information Service, known in Italian as ''Servizio Informazioni Militare'' or SIM, was founded on October 15, 1925. It originated from a military information system structure within the

Italian Armed Forces The Italian Armed Forces ( it, Forze armate italiane, ) encompass the Italian Army, the Italian Navy and the Italian Air Force. A fourth branch of the armed forces, known as the Carabinieri, take on the role as the nation's military police and ar ...

. From February 6, 1927, it was placed under the direct control of the Chief of General Staff.

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...

is said to have changed the leadership frequently as he did not have complete confidence in the service. The SIM was largely focused on

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

, and was not involved in quelling anti-fascist opposition during Mussolini's reign, which was handled by the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

and the

OVRA The OVRA, whose most probable name was Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism ( it, Organizzazione per la Vigilanza e la Repressione dell'Antifascismo), was the secret police of the Kingdom of Italy, founded in 1927 under the ...

. By January 1934, the SIM had approximately 40 people in service (in addition to informers) and a budget of around two million lire. When

Mario Roatta Mario Roatta (2 February 1887 – 7 January 1968) was an Italian general. After serving in World War I he rose to command the Corpo Truppe Volontarie which assisted Francisco Franco's force during the Spanish Civil War. He was the Deputy Chief o ...

was put in charge of the agency, the budget was doubled to around four million lira.

1970s reorganization

In 1974, General Vito Miceli, a former chief of ''

Servizio Informazioni Difesa Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare (abbreviated SISMI, ''Military Intelligence and Security Service'') was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977–2007. With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services app ...

'' (SID), was arrested for "conspiracy against the state" after the attempted ''

Golpe Borghese The ''Golpe Borghese'' (English: Borghese Coup) was a failed Italian ''coup d'état'' allegedly planned for the night of 7 or 8 December 1970. It was named after Junio Valerio Borghese, wartime commander of the Decima Flottiglia MAS and a her ...

''. In 1977, a legislative act reorganized intelligence agencies under civilian control. This re-organization mainly consisted of: * The split of SID into two separate agencies with different roles:

SISDE Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democratica (Intelligence and Democratic Security Service), was the domestic intelligence agency of Italy. With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services approved on 1 August 2007, SISDE was replac ...

(the domestic agency for the defense of democratic institutions, run by the Interior affairs ministry) and

SISMI Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare (abbreviated SISMI, ''Military Intelligence and Security Service'') was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977–2007. With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services app ...

(the military secret service, run by the

Defence Ministry {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a g ...

). * The creation of CESIS to coordinate and direct the two intelligence agencies under the authority of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. * The creation of a

parliamentary committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

to oversee the activities of the two agencies.

Later scandals

In October 1990, Prime Minister

Giulio Andreotti Giulio Andreotti ( , ; 14 January 1919 – 6 May 2013) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the 41st prime minister of Italy in seven governments (1972–1973, 1976–1979, and 1989–1992) and leader of the Christian Democra ...

's public revelation of the existence of

Gladio Operation Gladio is the codename for clandestine "stay-behind" operations of armed resistance that were organized by the Western Union (WU), and subsequently by NATO and the CIA, in collaboration with several European intelligence agencies during ...

, a

stay-behind In a stay-behind operation, a country places secret operatives or organizations in its own territory, for use in case an enemy occupies that territory. If this occurs, the operatives would then form the basis of a resistance movement or act as sp ...

anti-Communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

network supported by

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

, caused another scandal. The SISMI's chief,

Nicolò Pollari Nicolò Pollari (born 3 March 1943 in Caltanissetta) is a general of the Italian Guardia di Finanza, who was the former head of Italy's national military intelligence agency, or SISMI, from 1 October 2001 until his resignation on 20 November 2006. ...

, resigned in November 2006 after his indictment in the ''

Imam Rapito affair The Abu Omar Case was the abduction and transfer to Egypt of the Imam of Milan Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. The case was picked by the international media as one of the better-documented cases of extraordinary rendition car ...

'', which concerned the kidnapping of

Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr ( ar, حسن مصطفى أسامة نصر ''Ḥassan Muṣṭafā Usāmah Naṣr'') (born 18 March 1963), also known as Abu Omar, is an Egyptian cleric. In 2003, he was living in Milan, Italy, from where he was kidnapped ...

in Milan in 2003. The judiciary investigation into the abduction of Abu Omar uncovered a SISMI-run black operation targeting center-left politician

Romano Prodi Romano Antonio Prodi (; born 9 August 1939) is an Italian politician, economist, academic, senior civil servant, and business executive who served as the tenth president of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. He served twice as Prim ...

and a domestic surveillance program involving Telecom.

Statewatch Statewatch is a non-profit organization founded in 1991 that monitors civil liberties and other issues in the European Union and encourages investigative reporting and research. The organization has three free databases: a large database of all its ...

News, "Italy - Law reforms intelligence services"
URL accessed on September 24, 2007
The SISMI was also implicated in the

Niger uranium forgeries The Niger uranium forgeries were forged documents initially released in 2001 by SISMI (the former military intelligence agency of Italy), which seem to depict an attempt made by Saddam Hussein in Iraq to purchase yellowcake uranium powder from N ...

scandal, during which SISMI agents transmitted false documents to US President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

which were used as pretext in the

invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Ba'athist Iraq, Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one mont ...

. In August 2007, Italian magistrates searching the SISMI's headquarters found documents proving that the intelligence agency had spied on various European magistrates between 2001 and 2006 who it considered to be carrying a "destabilization" potential. These included the Medel, a European association of magistrates, and as three French judges including Anne Crenier, a former president of the Syndicat de la magistrature French union.

March 2007 reforms

In March 2007, the center-left government of

created a new "information system for security" called Sistema di informazione per la sicurezza della Repubblica. It introduced far more detailed procedures with regards to state secrets, cooperation with police forces and public administrations, judicial investigation of the conduct of secret service personnel, regulating the procedure for undertaking acts normally deemed illegal, and the acquisition of secret documentation by oversight bodies or judicial authorities. The system placed intelligence agencies more closely under the Prime Minister's supervision, who is responsible for nominating directors and deputy directors of each agency. The SISDE, SISMI and CESIS were replaced with the

(AISI), an internal information and security agency, the

(AISE), a foreign intelligence and security agency, and

Dipartimento delle Informazioni per la Sicurezza The ''Dipartimento delle Informazioni per la Sicurezza'' (DIS, 'Department of Information for Security') is a department of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of Italy, instituted in 2007 as part of the reform of the Italian security ser ...

(DIS), a security information department.Legislative Act n.124 of 08/03/2007, reported in the Official Gazette of the Italian Republic, General Series, n.187 of 08/13/2007

The parliamentary committee overseeing the intelligence agencies (

COPASIR Comitato parlamentare per la sicurezza della Repubblica (Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic) is a body of the Italian Parliament deputed to survey and oversee the activities of the Italian intelligence agencies. History Sin ...

) was granted additional oversight and control powers, with the DIS general director acting as secretary. While the intelligence agencies used to be divided between the Defense Ministry (SISMI) and the Interior Ministry (SISDE), the main division line is now between "internal" and "external" security. The

Italian military The Italian Armed Forces ( it, Forze armate italiane, ) encompass the Italian Army, the Italian Navy and the Italian Air Force. A fourth branch of the armed forces, known as the Carabinieri, take on the role as the nation's military police and ar ...

's new intelligence agency, II Reparto Informazioni e Sicurezza of the Stato maggiore della difesa (RIS), is not integrated into the "information system for security", and is limited to activities of a technical military and military police nature, such as to protect armed force outposts and activities abroad. According to

, "the law also envisages the adoption of a regulation including provisions to guarantee the information services' access to the computer archives of public administrations and public utility providers, with technical means of monitoring what personal data was checked after the event." Furthermore, the "intelligence services are forbidden from employing or commissioning advisory or co-operation services from elected politicians at the European, national, regional, and local level, or members of governing bodies or constitutional bodies, judges, religious ministers and journalists." The DIS opened an investigation office to verify that the activities of the various agencies respect

rule of law The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica ...

and to conduct internal investigations. The commission of illegal acts by intelligence officers, excluding license to kill,must be authorised by the Prime Minister or delegated authority, in compliance with a principle of justification for such conduct as part of an authorized operation. In cases of "absolute urgency" that do not allow the normal procedure for authorization to be followed, agency directors may authorize the activities, informing the Prime Minister and DIS "immediately", and explaining the reasons for such a course of action. According to the reforms, the principle of justification is not applicable to actions such as: Authorized operations explicitly exclude ordinary illegal acts in the offices of

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...

, regional parliaments or councils,

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

offices, or against professional journalists.

Aiding and abetting Aiding and abetting is a legal doctrine related to the guilt of someone who aids or abets (encourages, incites) another person in the commission of a crime (or in another's suicide). It exists in a number of different countries and generally allo ...

is allowed, except for cases involving

false testimony Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...

before judicial authorities, concealing evidence of a crime, or intending to mislead investigations. Three to ten-year prison sentences are envisaged for officers who illegally fix the conditions under which "authorized operations" are granted. Three to ten year prison sentences may be incurred for compiling illegal dossiers outside of the intelligence agency's objectives, with secret archives also forbidden. State secret status may cover documents, news, activities or any other thing. Declaring object a state secret falls under the prerogative of the Prime Minister, who may do so for fifteen years, renewable to thirty. It may not be applied to activities involving

subversion Subversion () refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place are contradicted or reversed in an attempt to transform the established social order and its structures of power, authority, hierarchy, and social norms. Sub ...

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

or to attacks aimed at causing deaths. The

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

may not be denied access to documents on the basis of them being state secrets. The Prime Minister can lift state secrets, as well as

unanimously.

List

(DIS, Department of Information for the Security) *

(AISE, external information and security agency) *

(AISI, internal information and security agency) * II Reparto Informazioni e Sicurezza of the Stato maggiore della difesa (II department information and security)

References

External links

Sistema di informazione per la sicurezza della Repubblica e nuova disciplina del segreto

{{DEFAULTSORT:Italian Intelligence Agencies Intelligence communities