The current state of our national intelligence can be defined as “Binary system”, as it includes a service for external security and one for internal security.
Specifically, the two agencies are: Agency for External Information and Security (AISE) and Agency for Internal Information and Security (AISI). AISE and AISI are, among other things, coordinated by the Department of Information for Security (DIS).
Italy has had a binary system at the intelligence level since the end of the 801th century. However, I will limit myself to analyzing the last two laws that have characterized our intelligence sector: 1977 of 124 and 2007 of XNUMX.
It is worth remembering that our current intelligence system is the result of Law 124 of 2007, which replaced Law 801 of 1977 and the changes made have been significant and it is right to make a brief comparison between the two systems.
National intelligence underwent a major transformation with law 801 of 1977, moving into full responsibility of politics. Law 801 brought the system to a (binary) model that divided the Military Security Information Service (SISMI) from the civilian Information Service for Democratic Security (SISDE). The two new agencies were placed under the direct control of the Ministers of Defense (SISMI) and the Interior (SISDE), while the senior management and responsibility for information policy and security were assigned to the President of the Council of Ministers.
The latter, for the coordination of the two bodies, had to avail itself of the secretary of the Executive Committee for Security Services (CESIS). It is important to underline that SISMI was entrusted with the activity abroad, for the purposes of national security, while SISDE was assigned the task of the security of the Republic and its institutions. Many say that the best results for Italian intelligence came precisely with law 801 of 1977 with the creation of SISMI and SISDE.
In this regard, a prominent figure in SISMI was Admiral Fulvio Martini, code name “Ulisse”; the admiral was director of the agency from May 1984 to February 1991.
As previously mentioned, the organizational model of Italian intelligence remained unchanged until 2007, when Parliament approved an important reform, law 124/2007, “System of information for the security of the Republic and new discipline of state secrecy”, which replaced law 801 of 1977. In this regard, Alberto Pagani in his essay “Intelligence and secret services manual" writes: “With Law 124, Parliament has launched a comprehensive reform of information policy for security, in the interest and for the defense of the Republic and of the democratic institutions established by the Constitution as its foundation".
It is important to point out that with this new law the organs, functions and tasks of the intelligence system were redesigned. The SISMI was replaced by the AISE while the SISDE was replaced by the AISI.
As previously mentioned, the two new agencies are coordinated by DIS, which replaced CESIS. Furthermore, AISE and AISI no longer depend on the Minister of Defense and the Minister of the Interior (significantly downsized). In fact, the new law directly attributes to the President of the Council of Ministers the high direction and responsibility of the national intelligence sector.
The Prime Minister may designate a delegated Authority for the security of the Republic.
Furthermore, the Inter-ministerial Committee for the Security of the Republic (CISR) was established; the Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic (COPASIR) was also created and among its tasks is that of verifying that "the activity of the Security Information System is carry out its activities in compliance with the Constitution, the laws and in the exclusive interest and for the defense of the Republic and its institutions".
General Mario Mori (director of SISDE from October 2001 to December 2006), regarding law 124 of 2007, writes: “This represents a significant turning point in the history of our Services, as defines and frames the tasks, criteria and principles that regulate the functions of national intelligence, with an organicity and accuracy never recorded before".1
The main innovations introduced by the 124 are:
. the dependence of the intelligence community, attributed directly to the Prime Minister;
. the definition of the information system and its interactions with other State administrations, including the Judicial Authority;
. functional guarantees for operators, aimed at promoting and protecting their activity and that of the sources;
. the new discipline of “state secrets” and “parliamentary control” over the conduct of the national intelligence sector.
As far as the strictly operational profile is concerned, according to pre-established procedures, agents are today allowed to:
. assume fictitious identities;
. set up front companies for simulated activities;
. carry out telephone and telematic interceptions;
. commit, after formal authorization, crimes functional to the conduct of information activities;
. access numerous databases.2
In essence, Law 124 has significantly revised the field of competence of our intelligence. In fact, in addition to the classic political-military interests, today our intelligence is called to protect and support economic, scientific and industrial ones as well.
These important innovations introduced by law 124 foresee some aspects of the concept of National Security, even if in Italy there is no National Security Council...
1 Mr. Mori, Secret services. Introduction to the study of intelligence, Grisk, Rome, 2015, p. 165
2 Ibidem, p.165-66