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:: Frequently Asked Questions

:: Why do the «Secret Services» exist?

Throughout history there are many examples of intelligence gathering by communities or individuals. The father of History, Herodotus, relates with great detail the strategy of a certain Zopiro who, after infiltrating himself amongst the opponents, allowed Dario, a Persian king, to attack Babylonia. The ancient Roman historians tell us about how Hannibal, Scipio the African and Caesar made use of intelligence techniques. The Romans highly regarded the effective use of intelligence, not only for its benefits but also for the potential threat posed by their opponents. In fact the collusion with the enemy («perduellio» in Latin) was part of the «crimina maiestatis», a crime against the State punished with death and, in Silla’s times, even with crucifixion. Ever since the first organized communities, one had to know as much as possible about the surrounding world, its intentions, power, and the way of life of neighbouring communities, in order to be able to defend oneself better from possible threats, to ensure survival and to provide the basis for self expansion. It was so that organizations (such as those now known as Secret Services) were first established, with the task of gathering intelligence to protect collective security.

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:: What is the job of the Intelligence and Security Services?

Over time, the activities of the services were mostly in support of military requirements: every State had to gather information on the activities of other States. This for various reasons: to reduce their defensive capability, to limit their independence and sovereignty, or to disturb and break their alliances with other States. Nowadays this intelligence activity has expanded considerably. The Services’ activities, for example, have changed much: terrorist groups are dealt with both at national and international level, and actions are carried out in the industrial, economic and financial sectors.

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:: What is the task of the intelligence services?

The task of the intelligence and security services is to provide, from the intelligence perspective, preventive defence of the internal and external security of the State. To pursue this goal, the services have to counter various types of threats, which include not only traditional espionage - which collects secret information in the military, political and economical environments - but also more subtle types of action, such as disinformation, sabotage, foreign interference in the political, economical and cultural spheres.

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:: How does one become part of the Intelligence Services?

The Intelligence Services personnel is made up of civilian and military State employees, who are transferred, with their consent, at the exclusive service of the security and intelligence bodies, and of staff recruited directly. Currently, direct recruitment is withheld while waiting for regulations and methods able to grant procedural transparency and consistency as well as the highest standards of the personnel selected. However, the Services cannot employ individuals who: are already part of the parliamentary intelligence bodies; regional, provincial or city councillors; magistrates; ministers of religion; professional journalists, and likewise, if they do not pledge complete allegiance to the National Institutions nor observe the laws of the State.

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:: How do the Intelligence Services operate nowadays?

In the present situations of conflict, new fields of activities flank or even substitute military action. Only very rarely do acts of aggression against other Nations develop into acts of war. The use of economic and political pressure, even the use of terrorist acts (but this, of course, is not the case of Italy) is called «surrogate war». Some Nations actively support international terrorism, as they consider it a decisive political weapon for making new alliances, break old ones, or stop the development of political-commercial liaisons between other nations. It is a kind of underground alternative diplomacy, which works in parallel with official diplomacy. In order to defend ourselves from these kinds of activities and insidious intrigues, we cannot operate without cover using normal international channels, just as one cannot expect to extract oil merely by looking at the surface of the ground. It is therefore up to the Intelligence Services to find the right time and way to fight these hidden threats.

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:: The new security threats of our times: how did they develop?

The growth of new forms of aggression is mainly due to two reasons. The first is that a traditional military attack is constrained by objective limits, such as the feeling of terror for the uncontrollable nuclear conflict which it could cause.
The second is connected to the complexity of global relations and to the increasing circulation of people and ideas. One of its consequences is that dangerous plans, which in the past would have been confined within a limited area, may be developed and implemented internationally.
The threats from which a State has to defend itself in order to protect its very existence and structure have greatly changed, together with the concept of defence, now to be considered globally.
Therefore, territorial defence and State sovereignty may be ensured also by other means than just the use of arms and of the military. Also the civil sector now turns to a wider and more diversified range of activities, actions and means.
The need to protect national security can be adequately dealt with only through intelligence. The specific task entrusted by every State to its intelligence Service (or Services) consists in this kind of actions, which have to be both preventive and effective.

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:: Where do the threats to our security come from?

The typical external threat is that of military espionage, aimed at snatching secrets and confidential information about the defensive system of a State.
The evolution of the international situation and the current, complex balance of forces amongst nations now drive intelligence against enemy initiatives aimed at:

1. upsetting the internal political and institutional order;
2. threatening the economic sector in order to disrupt the economic and productive potential of the nation and to obtain industrial and technological secrets in order to strengthen one’s international role.

The possible external threats to the security of a Nation necessarily depend on its geographical position. Therefore, intelligence activities are normally concentrated where there is a greater possibility of offensive and destabilizing actions.
For example if we imagine the Nations near the Mediterranean Sea, all of them are directly or indirectly involved in the Middle East scenario where political-military instability gives birth to the so called «surrogate war» with its frequent use of terrorist actions.
From this point of view - thinking of Italy - the possible collusions of foreign groups both with internal terrorist environments and with organized crime are of particular interest.
To achieve intelligence goals related to the various types of threats, international collaboration is needed. This takes place through the connection with similar Intelligence Services of allied and friendly nations.

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:: Are there also internal threats?

Also internal security has to counter threats against political-institutional interests. They can come not only from elements linked to terrorism, but also from more or less hidden centres of power trying to influence the normal political activities and the freedom of the different state agencies.
Besides the intelligence activities against the destabilization by terrorist groups and against eversion in general (arms trafficking, support and back up activities), the Services work also on issues linked to the activity of organized crime, especially when it tries to weaken and exploit the State institutions, strongly conditioning the political, financial and social environment.
From the domestic viewpoint, the intelligence services have also to deal with independent and separatist movements directly or indirectly supported by foreign countries.

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:: In reality, how do the Services fight threats to the Nation?

The Intelligence Services carry out, in accordance with the law, a constant activity of collection and defense, relying on human and technical means.
This is done in order to gather potentially useful data and news for the protection of national security, in its broadest sense. Intelligence is evaluated and analysed; the results of this elaboration, if deemed important, are timely deployed to the competent political authorities and institutions. If crimes are discovered, the Directors of the Security Services should forward this information to the relevant police authorities.

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:: How do the Secret Services gather information?

The Intelligence Services gather information by various means. Besides the traditional human sources, i.e. the collection of intelligence by agents, informants and observers (HUMINT), there are instruments, sometimes technologically sophisticated, able to capture signals of various types (SIGINT) or images (IMINT). Finally, a growing role is that carried out by open sources , i.e. all the news that can be collected from the media.

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:: What is HUMINT (HUMAN INTELLIGENCE)?

HUMINT is the intelligence activity carried out using human resources i.e. using agents, informants, observers to gather intelligence elements that will subsequently be processed.

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:: What is OSINT (OPEN SOURCES INTELLIGENCE)?

OSINT is the gathering of information from open sources, i.e. using all public means of communication such as the press, television, radio, the internet etc.

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:: What is SIGINT (SIGNALS INTELLIGENCE)?

SIGINT is the intelligence activity carried out by capturing signals by means of radio and electronics.

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:: What is IMINT (IMAGERY - OR IMITATIVE - INTELLIGENCE)?

IMINT is the activity of gathering intelligence by means of photographs, satellite pictures and even the use of means such as optical electronics and infrared rays to read and interpret these images.

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:: What is MASINT (MEASUREMENT AND SIGNATURE INTELLIGENCE)?

MASINT is the intelligence activity that is based on the tracing and measuring in the acoustic field and all other technical forms of intelligence acquisitions that do not fall into the definitions already provided under SIGINT and IMINT.

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:: What are SISMI and SISDE?

The Italian intelligence system is based on the principle of having two intelligence services. SISMI (Military Intelligence and Security Service) reports directly to the Minister of Defense and has intelligence and security tasks on a military front to protect the independence and integrity of the State. SISDE (Democratic Intelligence and Security Service) reports directly to the Minister of the Interior and has intelligence and security tasks for the defence of the democratic state and its institutions, which, according to our constitution, are against all forms of eversion and whoever threatens it. The division of responsibilities between SISMI and SISDE was decided based on the interests to be protected (military and democratic security) and not on a territorial basis (domestic security and international security), as in most other states.

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:: What is CESIS?

The two Services (SISMI and SISDE) should report all information acquired to the respective Ministries and to CESIS (the Executive Committee for Intelligence and Security Services).
CESIS provides the President of the Council of Ministers with the elements he needs in order to allow him to direct and coordinate the Intelligence sector.
The President of the Council of Ministers may delegate this task to an under- secretary of state.
Apart from the Secretary General of the committee, within CESIS also sit the heads of the Police, of the Intelligence Services, and other interested parties.
The continuity of the activity of CESIS is ensured by its General Secretariat, which provides an organic and coordinated flow of information and assessments from the Intelligence Services to the President of the Council of Ministers. It also represents a direct executive body through which the President of the Council of Ministers centrally manages the action of both the intelligence services.
Neither CESIS nor the Secretary General of CESIS carry out intelligence activities. They are not a third Intelligence Service, but a center through which the information obtained by SISDE and SISMI is effectively channeled. The information from the Intelligence Services is then evaluated and assessed, together with the information provided for by other State organizations.

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:: What is CIIS?

To effectively carry out his functions, the President of the Council of Ministers relies not only on CESIS, but also on CIIS (Inter-ministerial Committee for Intelligence and Security). CIIS has the task of providing consultancy and proposals to the President of the Council of Ministers regarding the general directions and fundamental objectives to be pursued based on the intelligence and security policy.
It is chaired by the President of the Council of Ministers; members by right are the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Internal Affairs, Justice, Defence, Economy and Finance. Other Ministers, experts and authorities, as well the heads of the Intelligence Services (SISDE and SISMI) can be invited to participate at relevant meetings when necessary.

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:: What is the Parliamentary Committee of the Intelligence and Security Services?

The Parliamentary Oversight Committee for the intelligence and security services is composed of four deputies and four senators.
The Committee ensures that the organization of the intelligence community is compliant with the basic principles set by the law. It may ask the President of the Council of Ministers and CIIS to supply information regarding the general guidelines and activities of the Services, make proposals and submit issues.
The acts of the Committee are secret and the members of the Committee may not reveal the information, proposals and issues which they have come to know of.
If the President of the Council of Ministers feels that the information requested by the parliamentary committee goes beyond the “general framework” of the structure and activity of the Intelligence Services, he can oppose the State secret, stating the reasons for this. If the parliamentary committee feels that the objection by the President of the Council of Ministers is inconsistent, it can report to Parliament, requesting a political evaluation and even a vote of confidence in the President of the Council of Ministers.
Another form of parliamentary oversight, entrusted to the Secretary General of CESIS and based on intelligence provided by the Services, is the report, presented by the Government to Parliament every six months, on the intelligence and security policy and on the results which have been reached.
This report contains elements provided by the Intelligence Services and is presented by the Secretary General of CESIS.

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:: What is the relation between the Government and the intelligence and security Services?

The executive power - in other words, the Government as a whole - is like a customer of the Intelligence Services and as such it directs their activities towards different targets as required.
The Intelligence Services, on their side, are institutionally tasked to gather information that cannot normally be obtained by other State agencies. This information, once analyzed and evaluated, is made available to the Government and to its domestic and international policy.
In modern States, Governments and intelligence services enjoy a special relationship: the former provide specific operational directions to the latter, who in turn provide a constant flow of information which increases their knowledge about the most delicate and important internal and international issues.

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:: When we talk about the secret services, we often fantasize about James Bond.
Is there any truth in this kind of stories?

In order to outline the activity of the intelligence Services, we have to forget the clichéd images presented in literature and by the cinema.
The stereotyped «secret agent» characters, in people’s minds, are mainly those created by the spectacular and unlikely situations of Fleming (the author of 007) and the impenetrable curtain of Conrad’s novels.
Literature depicts very unreal agents: «supermen» who, after enduring extraordinary adventures, solve extremely tangled international conspiracies all by themselves, or individuals who collect secret information passively, without being affected by what takes place in the outside world.

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:: What is a secret agent really like?

Reality, as it often happens, is very different and substantially simpler. A secret agent is an up-to-date individual who lives his life in times of social and political conflicts. Today these conflicts do not affect only the military structures of opposite agencies, but seem to touch on the most various sectors of human relations. In this sense, the image of the agent looking for information on the potential defensive capacity of a State is old and outdated: better, it describes an old-fashioned and limited concept. Nowadays, acts of aggression have no clearly defined borders, and may be uncovered only through the accurate reconstruction of various, apparently insignificant elements. Each one of them is activated by internal or external groups or units, posing a far greater threat than that of a full frontal aggression. As a matter of fact, it is almost impossible to perceive these actions immediately and, consequently, to react promptly. There is no difference between the action of he who aims at destabilizing the public opinion and the action of a unit which penetrates into the production mechanisms to influence the political-economical decisions of a State. At this point, the secret agent, «spying» on foreign military assets and reporting the relevant intelligence to his government, steps out in favour of a highly specialized structure. This structure works day by day to collect data, assess situations of potential danger, compare and compose different elements that can be linked - as if navigating up the delta of a river - to a single offensive source: an intellectual, refined and highly specialized job. The positive results which derive from it are almost always less visible than a routine police operation, but nonetheless just as crucial to State and collective security.

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:: What is the difference between police activities and those of the Services?

The vastness of the goals and the complex nature of the facts under observation make the activity of the Intelligence Services totally different from that of the Police: apparently banal and absolutely legal actions, such as the purchase of the majority of the shares of a company that produces high technology products, could be of great interest to the Services, more than a mere criminal act.
The activation of an intelligence network requires the knowledge of the so-called «sensitive zones» where there have to be capable informants; it equally requires the detailed knowledge of the means and methods normally used by the enemy to carry out its actions against the State and its Institutions. Were it not so, intelligence would have to monitor the entire world and its everyday social, economical and political relations.
This is why the agents of the Services should have an adequate level of professional knowledge: they have to make the best possible use of observation techniques and have to know how to intervene there where a real threat emerges. The research range of the security Services is not strictly defined: there is no such thing as «threat manual» summing up all potential threats.
Being the targets undefinable, the Services adopt special investigation methods in order to obtain extremely useful information, which could not be acquired with different methods and by other agencies.
The main difference between the Services and the law enforcement agencies has to do with methodology. The Services do not carry out police investigations, they cannot arrest, interrogate, or confront, etc.: their activity, which is totally unique, goes beyond normal experience and wisdom. We need to free ourselves from the stereotypes created by fantasy, largely due to the lack of information and to the fact that the Services are «secret».
Although, as we just said, the Services carry out a completely different kind of activity than that of the police forces, this does not mean that the Services are completely uninterested in criminal acts and their uncovering, especially when they are linked to institutional targets. To this regard, an example is provided by the acts of terrorism and of espionage. The Services take interest in them only because of their specific targets, activating the intelligence collection only in the light of the need to defend the external and internal national security and referring all the information pertaining to criminal acts to the judicial police. The collection of evidence and the capture of criminals - primary police targets - by the Services are instrumental activities aimed at achieving prevention of all eversive threats to the State and all attacks against its integrity and independence.

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:: If an agent uncovers a crime, what should he do?

There is a point in which the activities of the Services and the judicial police meet. Law n. 801 of 1977 compels the Directors of the Services to inform the judicial police of any information regarding crimes which should emerge from internal reports. This obligation can be delayed, if doing so is strictly necessary to carry out the institutional goals of the Services.
The reason why the law has stated that the Director should inform the judicial police rather than the magistrate is that the information collected by the Services may not be sufficient to give way to a judicial proceeding. Intelligence acquired by the Services has to be confirmed and examined in depth, and only judicial police enquiries are capable of doing that. The Services deserve credit for having started, in many occasions, profitable criminal investigations.

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:: Why are there two Services?

In 1976, the government in office at that time, chaired by Giulio Andreotti as President of the Council of Ministers, presented a bill to Parliament to establish a single Intelligence Service. The majority however was in favour of a binary system, rather than of a single-Service system, with a more diversified organization. During the parliamentary debate, the prevalent tendency was that of avoiding a concentration of powers, and only minority groups expressed the view that only a single-Service system would ensure a more efficient intelligence action. SISMI and SISDE were therefore established in line with the binary concept.

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:: Why has the idea of “deviant” Services developed?

Sometimes, in the course of the history of the «Secret Services», there have been behaviours which were divergent and in contrast with institutional duties such as working for the security of the State. An attitude of ruthless individuals responsible of serious acts and grave misbehaviours: these events required and still require a firm action by the State authorities also from the penal point of view, and adequate answers from the coordination, monitoring and oversight standpoints. Events and behaviours related to the bad conscience of individuals or of groups of people who have misrepresented the Services negatively impacting on their public image, but who cannot reduce the importance of the role played by the Services and most of all the reasons for their existence.

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:: What is the connection between confidentiality and image?

The need for confidentiality is fundamental for the very existence of the security Services, representing both a guarantee and a limitation of their image. Although the Services are often successful, very few of their successes become publicly known. An arrest made by the police forces, or a battle won in war, receive far more attention than sensitive and patient intelligence work.

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