SISDE

The Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democrática ( SISDE; German (freely translated) messages and constitutional protection service) was until 2007 a ​​civilian Italian intelligence service who operated mainly in Germany. He became the Minister of the Interior and the Comitato per i Servizi di Esecutivo Informazione e di Sicurezza ( CESIS ) the Prime Minister. The SISDE approximately the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution ( BFV ).

In August 2007, the SISDE from the new domestic intelligence agency Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Interna ( AISI ) has been replaced.

Order

The SISDE had the task " with intelligence and security service agents to defend the democratic state and its institutions created by the Constitution against all forms of subversion and against any effort to damage it or eliminate ". (Law 801 of 24 October 1977)

In addition to the elucidation of the political extremism of left ( and Others anarchism ) and right ( neo-fascism ), separatism and other anti-constitutional activities rendered the Italian legislature the SISDE in the 90s important skills in the field of combating organized crime (OC ) ( Mafia). In accordance with the principle of separation of the police and the intelligence service of the SISDE was now responsible for educating the OK while in police combat is especially the case Direzione Investigativa anti- Mafia ( DIA).

The SISDE operated mainly in Germany, but was not a purely domestic intelligence service. The two services SISDE and SISMI did not work according to the territorial principle, but on the principle. This meant that the SISDE was also active abroad, for example in the elucidation of the ( Italian ) OK, during the SISMI at the assigned counterintelligence mainly operated, for example, in Germany.

Organization

The German Constitutional protection system with a Federal Agency for State Protection and independent provincial offices for Protection of the Constitution ( LFV ) is Italy, but also almost all other (including federal ) states completely foreign. The SISDE had departments that were directly under him were and integral part of the organization in Italy.

The staff of the SISDE (about 1,200 full-time employees ) came almost entirely from the ranks of the Polizia di Stato, Carabinieri and the Guardia di Finanza, as well as other civilian administrations. The staff was there selected as required and entered, assuming approval, to serve one. In this case, however, the new employee lost any police powers. Only with special needs external staff has been recruited directly.

History

The SISDE was created by a law on the reform of the Italian intelligence services in 1977. Up to this point, the military services were

• Servizio Informazioni Difesa (SID; 1965-1977 ) and
• Servizio Informazioni Forze Armate ( SIFAR; 1949-1965 )

Focus on domestic works. They were primarily concerned with the containment of the political influence of the powerful Italian Communist Party (PCI) and the terror of the Red Brigades. In this context, these services that were under the Ministry of Defence were in state harrowing criminal activity involved ( Gladio, strategy of tension, Propaganda Due). In addition, the Home Office insisted intelligence organizations, which in part operated in violation of applicable today officially in Italy principle of separation of the police and intelligence services. These included the secret

• Servizio di Sicurezza ( Sds )
• Servizio Informazioni Generali e Sicurezza Interna ( Sigsi )

As well as the infamous ( sub) Department of confidential matters ( Divisione Affari riservati ) of the Ministry of Interior. These points dealt primarily with the fight against left-wing terrorism, which they not infrequently even to terror attacked (so-called " black terror"; strategy of tension ). The reform of the intelligence services in 1977 should this bustle and the uncontrolled intelligence activities of the Interior Ministry an end. In particular, the military intelligence service was to be taken any responsibility in the field of combating extremism. So the SISDE originated with the alleged intention to organize the education of extremist and seditious activities in an ordinary civilian intelligence service and definitely prevent military intelligence and secret police machinations. At its founding, organizational units of the Interior Ministry were de facto transferred to the SISDE, but it made ​​a separation between intelligence and police components. The police areas ( national security and counterterrorism ) were the police ( Polizia di Stato ) under the name Ufficio Centrale per le Investigazioni Generali e le operazioni Speciali ( UCIGOS; German central office for general investigations and special operations ) (the outer bodies shall take better known in Italy abbreviation DIGOS ) incorporated. Both the SISDE and the SISMI passed in the first years of its activity mainly from the staff of its predecessor organizations, which is why the spirit of the reform of 1977 could hold only slowly and gradually walk.

Conductor

• Giulio Grassini (1977-1981)
• Emanuele De Francesco (1981-1984)
• Vincenzo Parisi (1984-1987)
• Riccardo Malpica (1987-1991)
• Alessandro Voci (1991-1992)
• Angelo Finocchiaro (1992-1993)
• Domenico Salazar (1993-1994)
• Gaetano Marino (1994-1996)
• Vittorio Stelo (1996-2001)
• Mario Mori (2001-2006)
• Franco Gabrielli (2006-2007)

The head of the SISDE came generally from the civil administration ( prefects ) or by the three national police forces Polizia di Stato, Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza. In their hierarchical position they are the German Secretary of State or Lieutenant General (B9 ) comparable. The last service chief Franco Gabrielli ( b. 1960 ) was one of the youngest in the history of SISDE. It came from the Polizia di Stato, when he was clarifying several spectacular murder cases ( and Others Marco Biagi ). Most recently he was head of a department for combating terrorism.