Italian intelligence agencies
Italian intelligence agencies are the
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. 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]
1970s reorganization
Source:[3]
In 1974, General
- The split of SID into two separate agencies with different roles: Interior affairs ministry) and SISMI (the military secret service, run by the Defence Ministry).
- The creation of Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
- The creation of a parliamentary committee to oversee the activities of the two agencies.
Later scandals
In October 1990, Prime Minister
The SISMI's chief,
The SISMI was also implicated in the Niger uranium forgeries scandal, during which SISMI agents transmitted false documents to US President George W. Bush which were used as pretext in the invasion of Iraq.
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
March 2007 reforms
In March 2007, the
The SISDE, SISMI and CESIS were replaced with the Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Interna (AISI), an internal information and security agency, the Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Esterna (AISE), a foreign intelligence and security agency, and Dipartimento delle Informazioni per la Sicurezza (DIS), a security information department.[7] The parliamentary committee overseeing the intelligence agencies (COPASIR) was granted additional oversight and control powers, with the DIS general director acting as secretary.[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.
According to
The DIS opened an investigation office to verify that the activities of the various agencies respect
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
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.
List
- Dipartimento delle Informazioni per la Sicurezza (DIS, Department of Information for the Security)
- Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Esterna (AISE, external information and security agency)
- Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Interna (AISI, internal information and security agency)
- II Reparto Informazioni e Sicurezza of the Stato maggiore della difesa (II department information and security)
See also
References
- ^ "SIUSA - Servizio informazioni militari - SIM". siusa.archivi.beniculturali.it. Retrieved 2022-09-02.
- ^ Military Correspondent (3 June 1943). "ITALIAN HIGH COMMAND: Roatta's Appointment". The Manchester Guardian.
- ^ "About us - Our History".
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Statewatch News, "Italy - Law reforms intelligence services", URL accessed on September 24, 2007 (in English)
- ^ Ecco i dossier del Sismi sui generali "di sinistra", La Repubblica, 6 July 2007 (in Italian)
- Rue 89, 12 July 2007 (in French)
- ^ 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. [1][permanent dead link].(in Italian)