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. From February 6, 1927, it was placed under the direct control of the Chief of General Staff.[1]Benito Mussolini 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, Austria and Yugoslavia, and was not involved in quelling anti-fascist opposition during Mussolini's reign, which was handled by the Ministry of the Interior and the OVRA.
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 was put in charge of the agency, the budget was doubled to around four million lira.[2]
In 1974, General Vito Miceli, a former chief of Servizio Informazioni Difesa (SID), was arrested for "conspiracy against the state" after the attempted Golpe Borghese. 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 (the domestic agency for the defense of democratic institutions, run by the Interior affairs ministry) and SISMI (the military secret service, run by the Defence Ministry).
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.[5][6]
March 2007 reforms
The headquarters of the Italian intelligence agencies in Rome
In March 2007, the center-left government of Romano Prodi 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.[4]
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.[4] The Italian military'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",[4] 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 Statewatch, "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."[4] 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."[4]
The DIS opened an investigation office to verify that the activities of the various agencies respect rule of law and to conduct internal investigations.[4] 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:
Endangering or harming life, physical integrity, individual personality, personal freedom, moral freedom, the health or safety of one or more people.
Authorized operations explicitly exclude ordinary illegal acts in the offices of political parties, regional parliaments or councils, trade union offices, or against professional journalists.[4]Aiding and abetting is allowed, except for cases involving false testimony before judicial authorities, concealing evidence of a crime, or intending to mislead investigations.[4] Three to ten-year prison sentences are envisaged for officers who illegally fix the conditions under which "authorized operations" are granted.[4]
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, terrorism or to attacks aimed at causing deaths.[4] The Constitutional Court 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 COPASIR unanimously.[4]
The OVRA, unoffically known as the Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism, was the secret police of the Kingdom of Italy during the reign of King Victor Emmanuel III. It was founded in 1927 under the regime of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. The OVRA was the Italian precursor of Nazi Germany's secret police. Mussolini's secret police were assigned to stop any anti-fascist activity or sentiment. Approximately 50,000 OVRA agents infiltrated most aspects of domestic life in Italy. The OVRA, headed by Arturo Bocchini, never appeared in any official document, so the official name of the organization still remains unclear.
Sid or SID may refer to:
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977–2007.
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democratica, was the domestic intelligence agency of Italy.
Comitato Esecutivo per i Servizi di Informazione e Sicurezza was an Italian government committee whose mission was the coordination of all the intelligence sector, and specifically between the two civilian and military intelligence agencies, with the aim to report all the relevant information collected by it to the political Authorities, represented by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
Military Intelligence and Security Service can refer to
Marco Mancini was an Italian secret agent who was a member of the Carabinieri and the Dipartimento delle Informazioni per la Sicurezza (DIS). He was also the second-highest-ranking officer of SISMI, the military intelligence agency of Italy, until his 5 July 2006 arrest for his participation in the kidnapping of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr. He was then indicted a second time on 13 December 2006 for his role in the SISMI-Telecom scandal.
Corrado Maria Daclon is an Italian scientist and journalist.
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.
Servizio Informazioni Operative e Situazione was an Italian military intelligence and security service serving from 1949 until 1997. Its main duty was safeguarding the internal security of military bases and its personnel and military intelligence activities against enemy and foreign forces, especially through SIGINT activities.
The counter-terrorism page primarily deals with special police or military organizations that carry out arrest or direct combat with terrorists. This page deals with the other aspects of counter-terrorism:
The Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Interna, commonly known as AISI, is the domestic security agency of Italy.
The Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Esterna is the foreign intelligence service of Italy.
The Dipartimento delle Informazioni per la Sicurezza 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 services. The department is part of Sistema di informazione per la sicurezza della Repubblica. It is currently headed by Elisabetta Belloni, the successor to General Gennaro Vecchione.
The Swiss intelligence community is a group of agencies with responsibilities to protect the interests and infrastructure of Switzerland.
The Italian Military Information Service was the military intelligence organization for the Royal Army of the Kingdom of Italy from 1925 until 1946, and of the Italian Republic until 1949. The SIM was Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini's equivalent to the German Abwehr. In the early years of the war, the SIM scored important intelligence successes. Rommel’s successful military operations in North Africa in 1942 were substantially facilitated by the SIM through the securing of the U.S. Black Code used by Colonel Bonner Fellers to communicate plans for British military operations to his Headquarters in Washington.
Fulvio Martini was an Italian Navy admiral and intelligence officer. He was the head of Military Security and Intelligence between 5 May 1984 and 26 February 1991.
Aisi or AISI may refer to:
Forte Braschi is one of the 15 forts of Rome, built in the period between 1877 and 1891 to constitute the "entrenched field of Rome". It is located in the Quarter Q. XIV Trionfale, within the Municipio XIV.
↑ Military Correspondent (3 June 1943). "ITALIAN HIGH COMMAND: Roatta's Appointment". The Manchester Guardian.{{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
↑ 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. [permanent dead link].(in Italian)
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