| Table of contents no. 1/2007 |
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Participation of the Director of SISde
Prof. Renzo Guolo's opening lecture
Participation of the Vice Minister of the Interior On. Marco Minniti |
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| The criminal enterprise called ‘camorra’ |
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Answers by: Fabrizio FEO, Pio MARCONI, Marco MINNITI, Lucia REA, Franco ROBERTI
Forum considers the question of the ‘camorra’, through the analysis of both the criminal factors and the vulnerability and the opportunities of the Parthenopean scenario, which, in various ways, sketch out the often unfathomable evolutional lines of the phenomenon.
The panel, far from the creed of pessimism contained in a quantity of literature on the subject, offers ideas and indications which reveal the will and courage of the Neapolitan Community to start over again.
(photo Ansa) |
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| Essays and articles |
|  | In 1977, in an Italy lacerated by the violence of the opposing extremists, in a Parliament characterized by a very strong ideological contraposition, the political powers, in their ability to stand together and find agreement in the matter of security, demonstrated a high sense of responsibility, an elevated institutional sensitivity and an extraordinary capacity for dialogue. This permitted the approval of the Law 24, October, 1977, No. 801, and a definition of a body of legislation on the Information and Security Services coherent with democratic principals and constitutional values, which, at the time, were seriously threatened by the attack aimed at the ‘heart of the State’ by internal terrorism. At a distance of 30 years, a very different Italy from then – certainly, more homogenous from a social point of view, but still characterized by deep divisions and a scarce propensity for confrontation – finds itself, again, with the necessity of adapting its security apparatus to the changing scene and, once again, directed towards the definition of shared solutions. The circumstances are positive, inasmuch as, for the first time in this Legislature, on a theme of strategic importance, the powers of the majority and the opposition, demonstrate their capacity to face the question, with transparency and loyalty, rising above the polemics which characterize the everyday political debates. It is a fact which although absolutely isolated, can be held as comforting and which I hope can lead – without undue confusion of roles or inopportune transversalism – to a new season of dialogue, in the greater interest of the Country. With these auspices, I have found it useful to set down in the following pages – the fruit of the re-elaboration and updating of three occasions in which I have participated on the theme of the reform - some reflections on the evolutional processes in operation in the Intelligence sector and on the interventions which the new discipline, on Parliamentary examination, has perfected in order to govern them appropriately. (photo Ansa) | | | |
|  | From Washington, on the evening of the 31st October last, an explosive news item from the Reuter Agency throws the international Intelligence community into confusion: John Dimitri Negroponte, then Director of the National Intelligence (in the media known as “Zar”), had just announced to the world the existence of “Intellipedia”, a new link-up and information sharing system among the sixteen United States Intelligence bodies, which supervise the area of information and security: an innovation which was destined to leave its mark. In fact, it emerged after the Twin Towers tragedy that the American Government was in possession of a substantial quantity of information about the preparation of the attack, but it was so fragmented throughout the files of the various agencies that no-one had an overall picture of the situation. A similar occurrence happened over preparations for the invasion of Iraq: an efficient information exchange system would, in all probability, have avoided the blunder over the supposed arms of mass destruction of Saddam Hussein. Therefore, at the beginning of 2006, the necessity of providing a valid instrument for the management and coordination of information led the CIA to prepare a specific instrument, inspired by the free encyclopaedia, “Wikipedia” – simple, but extraordinarily effective: the “Intellipedia”. This new system marks the beginning of a new phase: the passage from the formation of Intelligence to the communication of Intelligence.
(photo Ansa) | | | |
|  | Rhetoric, a precious instrument of communication, frequently provokes paradox. In fact, it happens that many rhetorical figures of speech find difficulty in freeing themselves from the ephemeral and unreal as soon as they become an expression of everyday reality and are no longer a refined linguistic exercise, useful in suggesting to the human mind the meaning of a particular phenomenon.
To better understand these considerations, one can bring to mind the expression “virtual world” coined by communication for the past 15 years to describe the incredible and miraculous spur to the traditional way of thinking determined by the internet. Now this virtual world has become real.
In it are applied all of the sermons traditionally utilized to “explain” everyday life: to discuss, to trade, to trick, to succeed, to know, to rob, etc. In reality, the human mind still encounters some difficulty in considering internet as a second dimension, other than the material one, and, therefore, analyses are often necessary which translate, rather than explain, what happens on the web.
So then, by looking through a new lens, we can better interpret the following article to the point of being able to read it almost like an espionage and counter-espionage thriller.
( photo www.isd.gov.hk) | | | |
|  | Turkey, the historical bridge between the East and the West unites within its territory populations and ethnic groups of different languages and traditions. This is the characteristic which has delineated the identity of the Turkish State - a State which is constructed on the secular model of the western states. However, during the process of the foundation of the Republic, violent movements began to emerge, originating from feelings of dissatisfaction and revenge among the various communities: some of which, as in the Kurdish case, were forced to repress their ambitions for independence. Social contrasts and tensions among the followers of the secular State, on the one side, and Islamic groups and movements on the other, have characterized the history of the Turkey of today, while the power leadership has, indiscriminately, directed its actions against both the separatist movements and the religious movements, on the basis of whichever one has gone against the interests of the governors. This article describes the background of the historical roots, the actions and evolution of the most prominent terrorist groups, whether political, ethnic or religious, present in the Turkish State since 1974: the year in which organizations of a subversive nature emerged as a product of class struggle and the scarce sensitivity of the government to internal social problems. (photo Ansa) | | | |
|  | The success of the Jihad movements derives largely from a phenomenon imported by the West: globalization. This process, which is seen by many Islamists as a means used by the West for spreading corruption in the Arab countries and ensuring the survival of the pro-western regimes has become, at the same time – through the Mujahidin utilization of the new technologies in the military and communications field – the most efficient means of fighting the ‘enemies of Islam’. By now, the entire world represents a single theatre for the ‘holy war’, no longer a “dar al-harb” and a “dar al Islam”, just as long as the enemy, whether Shiite, apostate or crusader, can be efficiently and more easily beaten on Moslem territory. Using technological instruments, Al Qaeda and associated groups have been able to create networks in various countries throughout the world, ready to plan and carry out terrorist acts. The author of this article explains how – through the consequences of the terrorist acts, starting from the 11th of September, 2001, with the attack on Afghanistan and the Iraq invasion – the extremists have been able to manipulate the geopolitics of the Middle East and, not only, have utilized and enhanced the Islamic theory of an American conspiracy aimed at annihilating Islamic countries and their cultures in favour of Israel. The Jihadist actions, which are proposed as the only real Islamic defence against the United States attacks, have created a sort of virtual Umma, destroying the barriers connected with national identity, increasing the already existent difference between the governments and the Arab societies and, finally, rendering the Middle East and African regions always more unstable and insecure. (photo Ansa) | | | |
|  | The income of citizenship (to be understood as a periodical cheque paid by the State to all citizens, regardless of whether they have employment or not) is - from the antagonist viewpoint - a radical measure destined to oppose the plans of the capital and give back security and dignity to the existence of the post-modern individual. It is certainly not a new proposal, but according to the theorists of antagonism, it is an economic solution to a social-political problem which, in this historical phase, could find application. On the basis of such a hypothesis, the citizenship income could check the phenomenon of the precariousness of work and rights, which by determining a permanent state of insecurity allow the capital to exercise absolute control over the society. (photo Ansa) | | | |
|  | It is possible to state that different approaches exist to the study of the themes relative to intelligence although the majority of them are developed starting from a conceptual scheme originally elaborated by Roy Godson ( Roy Godson “Dirty Tricks or Trump Card”, US Covert Action and Counter-intelligence, Brassey’s London, 1995, pgs. 52-53. ). Without entering into lengthy details, it is useful to remember that Godson divided the concept of intelligence into four intentionally general categories: Analyses and Estimates, Clandestine Collection, Counter-intelligence and Covert Actions, and from these, it is the very category of Covert Actions (undercover actions) which raises the most doubts among the scholars and professionals of the sector.
The undercover actions fall into a category which goes beyond the customary support to the decision makers, which is generally given by the traditional intelligence: instead, they enter into the executive sphere. They are, in fact, the actual ‘putting into operation’ of particular politics on the part of the intelligence bodies.
It is well to remember that an accepted universal definition of the concept of undercover actions does not exist, when we consider, for example,...
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| Surveys |
ALL-ITALIAN STORIES  | |  | The story presents a camorrist experience which synthesizes the possible fates of a commonplace individual, animated by doubts, rancour and expectations, after his release from prison. Even though illuminated, in part by the camorrist figure, however, the diffused concession of the bosses to betrayal and to “tragedy” emerges, which renders the everyday ‘mafioso’ insidious and indecipherable. The old types of criminality, often victims of unchangeable nostalgic contemplation, face the new models of banditry, both searching for power although symbolically represented in the father/son relationship, product of their time and often victims of the same camorra they sustain, on a background of the different landscapes of the “Vele” and of Forcella, so distant and yet bathed with the same blood.
( photo www.image-share.net/) | | | |
| FROM THE ARCHIVES TO HISTORY | |  | As in any industry, also the criminal one acquires its own strategies for various events, also occasional, which often have their reason in the distant past, but recent, at the same time. The article which is presented in this number, supplies a particular interpretation of the ever-increasing camorrist phenomenon in Naples and Campania. The governing authority of Torre Annunziata, analyzing the strong economic and social development at the beginning of the 20th Century, presents the situation of public security in a rather disarming manner. Showing varied social aspects, the author follows with particular interest and anxiety the growing development of the local criminality. In light of this scenario, it is easier to understand the reasons for the course which the Neapolitan affairs assume; insinuating criminality, which was steadily gathering great strength, into the folds of a society threatened with unemployment and the growing salary claims of the workers’ movement. Therefore, the problematic under discussion cannot but lead us to a profound comparative analysis with the present situation and to ask ourselves, how and why, after a century of history, the context is practically the same as that described by the Vice-Prefect of the small town in Campania.
( photo www.carabinieri.it/) | | | |
| BOOK REVIEW | | | Two books: very different in their content and setting; ‘Gomorra” and 'L’agguato di Matapan': two very different authors; a young Neapolitan and an elderly Genoese, united in a common passion for investigation and research. Robert Saviano sets the tone with many common localities of the camorra, and on the essence of Neapolitans and leads us to the discovery of a new world, in which business and ferocity melt into a deadly mixture. Massimo Zamorani, in his tur, sets the tone in other common localities and this time historical, on the hypotheses of “betrayal” which have poisoned the post-war Italy: two different volumes which provoke meditation. | | | |
| CHRONOLOGY OF TERRORISM | | | It is understood that an act of terrorism is a violent action, politically motivated, intended to strike objectives of symbolic value and destined also to intimidate a ‘targeted audience’ socially or politically connected to the primary objective.
The act of terrorism, unlike that of ‘political violence’ (carried out by individuals or groups acting ‘in the open’)and that of the ‘guerrilla ’(carried out with instruments and paramilitary logistics) is usually performed by individuals or groups who operate in secrecy or undercover, or in any event, under disguised conditions within the threatened societies”. | | | |
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| APPENDIX
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