| Table of contents no. 1/2010 |
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The Metropolis and its surroundings
by Emanuela C. DEL RE |
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Answers by: Franco Ferrarotti, Massimo Ilardi,Maria Immacolata Macioti, Umberto Melotti
Yamakasi. “I samurai of modern times” (“Les samouraïs des temps modernes”) is a French film which came out in 2001, directed by Ariel Zeitoun and Julien Seri, produced by Luc Besson. As in the Kurosawa tradition, the modern samurai of the film are seven, but the setting is the banlieues (suburbs) of Paris, not the Japan of the XVI Century. Full of clichés about life in the suburbs, the film proposes the defeat of the social problems of the tormented French suburbs – when the film was made, there was already much disorder and violence in Vauvert in 1999, in the Grand Borne, Grigny and in Corbeill-Essonnes, in 2000 – by creating the “super-heroes of the suburbs”, very human, but with very impressive physical ability, typical of those who practice Parkour. In fact, they are the Traceuses, that is, creators of routes in the cities. Overcoming the metropolitan architectural barriers – those of the suburbs are always grey – with their leaps from roof to roof, climbing over incredibly high walls; they profess a philosophy packed with elements, taken here and there, from the Oriental martial arts....(Foto di Franz Gustincich) |
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| Essays and articles |
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 | Prefect and Director of the Central Dept. of Police Prevention, degreed in Law, has served as Officer in the Italian Navy and joined the Police Force in 1972.
Since 1973, after a short period of service at the Police Partol Office in Palermo he has always been involved in Counter terrorism activities, serving in various field branches as well as in the Central Headquarters. Until being appointed “Questore” of Latina he served as Director of the Counterterrorism Service of the Central Dept. of Police Prevention becoming, at last, Deputy Director of the Department. He was subsequently appointed “Questore” of Brescia, Catania and Turin. While in charge of the Drugs Central Dept., he acquired experience both at the central and at the international level and from Dec. 28th 2009 he returned to the Central Dept. of Police Prevention as newly appointed Director. Often involved in the operational activity, during his mandate as Questore of Catania he was awarded the “Rosario Livatino” prize in reward for his commitment against organized crime. |
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 | The progressive fragmentation of that legislation which, for expository convenience, we can say governs the “Public Policy” drives the interpreter towards systematic reconstructions that are as complex as they are useless. In reality, it is necessary to be satisfied with less ambitious approaches and realize the impossibility of reconciling the multitude of regulatory bodies in a reasonable and harmonious prospectus. In the plural world of these rules some solutions or choices cast symbolic meanings as they are capable of illuminating and inspiring the same emotional thrust of the Legislature (that which was once defined the voluntas legis and which now seems to have lost the volitional features, to assume the thoughtless and impulsive ones). The absence of a systematic design renders it indispensable to isolate single questions to verify whether, also through contingency protocols, they are deploying strategies to be supported or dangers to be countered.(Foto redazionale) |
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 | Italy represents one of the European Union markets with the highest growth in the games sector. The Italian accentuated inclination to gaming, the multiplication of the qualitative and quantitative offer of online games, and the capillary diffusion of Internet, support, in particular, the growth of the games in online version. In this sense, the priority established by the International bodies Committee, constituted at the State Monopolies Autonomous Administration (AAMS) – made up of executive representatives of the State Police, the Carabinieri, and the Guardia di Finanza – of monitoring the sector of illegal games on the Web, come up against an indispensable need of national economic security. The AAMS activities are not limited to the mere recovery of evaded taxes, but also concerns itself with assets that may underlie illegal activities or organized crime. In fact, in the poker online sector, the next introduction of the cash games, that is, of the online poker in a free modality ... (Foto Ansa) |
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 | After a long period of “inattention” towards Somalia, recent events and consequent new scenarios pose, for Italy, the question of a major presence and judicious action in the arena of the Horn of Africa. In the face of the developments and expansionism of the “Al Shabaab” Movement, it becomes urgent to understand correctly what is happening and to realize adequate strategies of intervention, before assisting at the birth of a new Somali “rogue state”, with direct implications on the stability of the entire area. But with a modern and advanced cultural approach that takes into account the type of Somali society and the organizations derived from it, why, as Professor Michele Lanna points out, has the term ‘Terrorism’ become so inflated today, to make the contours of the concept itself increasingly blurred and imprecise, to the point of rendering the term practically without sense? A view corroborated by the development of the movements active in Somalia, from “Al Ittihaad, passing through the Islamic Courts to today’s “Al Shabaab”. (Foto da http://upload.wikimedia.org) |
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 | If the Energy sources were the real causes of the last World War and of more recent conflicts, of high and low tension – access to water, famines as a consequence of climatic changes or the utilization of arable land for purposes other than crop cultivation - with all probability they will be at the origin of new tensions, susceptible to degenerate in area wars, precondition for wider involvement. And precisely this is the new frontier of the analyses of Intelligence... (Foto Ansa) |
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 | A permanent, adequate, economical and reliable energy supply, with an eye, not secondary, to the safeguard of the environment. It is a problem that all advanced Countries have to face, but with scarce sources of autonomous energy. In this framework, the “energy security” affects political, economic and environmental choices. And while the oil security is, essentially, a question of volume, as well as prices, the security of gas is principally a problem of infrastructure. Then, the classic topic of security remains open, as discussed in the careful and thorough article by Carlo Stagnaro, Director of Research and Studies of the Bruno Leoni Institute: the convergence between piracy and terrorism makes the energy markets particularly vulnerable, since the major part of the oil tanker and gas routes pass through pirate infested areas.(Foto Ansa) |
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 | With terrorism, the conflict typology of which does not respect any kind of classical military strategy, resorting to very particular hybrid actions, since planned according to an apparently irrational model in which the choice of the targets is selected to attain the maximum destructive effect, the concept of security, the author claims, must be made flexible to be effective.(Foto redazionale) |
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 | How will the Information and Communication Technology influence the society of the future? In what ways will it be possible to guarantee citizens security against the pitfalls and dangers deriving from the unhealthy utilization of these technologies? Will it be possible to defend the privacy of the citizen in function of the pervasiveness of the ICT and Internet? Never before have the more industrialized Countries had to face these complex and delicate questions. But above all, the major dilemma is posed on the question of security and privacy: do we protect the privacy of the citizen at any cost or heighten the level of security at the expense of the confidentiality of personal data? But are we so sure that today our privacy is guaranteed? |
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| Surveys |
HISTORY
FROM THE ARCHIVES
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 | If history tells us that gambling numbers among its compulsive victims also two Roman emperors of the caliber of Caligula and Nero, it is quite evident that to ‘try one’s luck with gambling’ represents, always, a reality around which a dark and illegal world gravitates, made up of extortion, usury, money re-cycling and whose protagonists are, mostly always, ruthless tormentors of victims, who are often unaware.
A social phenomenon, then, which always draws the particular attention of the Authorities responsible for security, as the following documents from the archives testify.In the first, dated 1947, the Chief of Police, in recognizing a serious deficiency in the activities against gambling... |
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 | Even secrets, when the finish up in a museum, become relics. Museums exist that collect antiquities, works of art, technological instruments, remains of ancient, and recent, civilizations, and a museum that deals with Intelligence, or better, with “spies”. It is found in Washington and Professor Maria Gabriella Pasqualini ventured into its rooms, obtaining not a few surprises from the visit. Between fiction and reality, the American museum is of great interest, both in “serious” terms: methods, instruments... |
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| FACTS, ANECDOTES AND LEGENDS |
Giordano Bruno: Monk or spy?
(A mystery yet to be revealed) by Alain CHARBONNIER | |
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 | Perhaps, the “martyr of free thought”, Giordano Bruno, was a spy in the service of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth of England. The question is controversial and is tied, principally, to the studies of the historian, John Bossy, in papers of the Archives of Sir Francis Walsingham.
Certain letters, but it would be more accurate to say reports, signed Henry Fagot, are attributed, according to Bossy, to Gordano Bruno.
Those reports sent Mary Queen of Scots to the block and were responsible for the failure of the most dangerous plot against Elizabeth I. All invention, says the greatest scholar of Giordano Bruno. The fact still remains that the Dominican friar, burned at the stake, by the Inquisition 410 years ago, was a proud antipope and an admirer of Elizabeth.... |
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CULTURE
'Studies of Intelligence' |
| ‘Chinese’ Intelligence by Nicola Pedde | |
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 | The culture of the Intelligence is the instrument through which we understand the role and the work of the modern services of information and security. An instrument given by the close examination of the studies and analyses of the principal “think tanks”, research centres, and Italian and Foreign Universities. This Columns Section intends, therefore, to select and periodically present the most significant studies on the subjects relative to the Intelligence structures, or to those directly connected, facilitating the comprehension of the history, methodologies and function of the most modern structures of the sector. A contribution to undo the many myths and banalities which have always accompanied the image of the Secret Services throughout the world and to acquire, on the contrary, knowledge of the role and of the work. |
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REVIEWS
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The genius of fraud
and the perversion of terror by Alain CHARBONNIER | |
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 | Two books that are worth reading. Two interesting aids to understand, at least, a part of the human mind: the least noble aspect, either in the case of cheats or in that of terrorists. In the first, avidity prevails, in the second, the cynical contempt for the lives of others.... |
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CHRONOLOGY
Organized crime
January - March 2010
"Paesan Blues" Operation:
"La Merica di Cosa Nostra" | |
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 | We present the chronological file of the most significant arrests of the organized crime
During the last three months, followed by an evocative and colourful description of one of them. (Photo Ansa) |
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Terrorism
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 | “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’leading back, socially or politically to the primary objective.
The act of terrorism, unlike that of ‘political violence’ (ascribable to individuals or groups who tend to act ‘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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