| Table of contents no. 4/2006 |
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| Privacy and security - A difficult marriage |
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Answers by: Alfredo MANTOVANO, Francesco PIZZETTI, Armando SPATARO
A binomial term: that which joins security and privacy, has become inseparable to the point that through a process of semantic symbiosis in the common media language, one concept naturally draws the other, without considering the circumstances under which this ‘other’ (be it security or privacy) is literally expressed. One aspect, this last, which is already replete with questions, the first of which tries to understand whether privacy is the exclusive factor able to give coherence to the instruments, strategies and decisions in security matters or if, on the contrary, there are not also other factors, suffocated by the success that “the right to be alone” seems to be having in our times. A subject which opens diverse, obvious and newly awakened paradoxes and which symbolizes, given its complexity, the difficulty which the national states are going through today, loaded with institutions and principles which are no longer abreast of the times, but are not yet ready for transformation into something different. And it is this “something”, albeit an exceedingly vague concept to express the final objective of transforming the political and social organization, which allows, because of just such ontological vagueness towards two rights – however much they are fundamental – to replace itself with the first cause of any institutional and social transformation...... (photo ansa) |
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| Essays and articles |
|  | The article gives a clear description of the events which has rendered Afghanistan the centre of the Ecumene neo-fundamentalism and it is able to offer a chronologically and logically ordered picture. The author sets out various elements on which to reflect, and successfully avoids influencing the opinion which arises from the reading. It is, beyond specific and contingent reflections, a useful memorandum to recall the dynamics which made this country the place of the origin of the Qaida neo-fundamentalism.
(photo ansa) | | | |
|  | In a small niche, but a lively minority, populated with ideologies and important intellectuals, the pro-Islamic Right arouses curiosity and poses questions about an affinity which, at the least, must appear surprising. If, in the extremist Right circles, ethnic, cultural and religious prejudices persist with regard to the Moslems, and if these last, in their turn, consider the Right Activists as ‘infidels’, where is this convergence? Undoubtedly, it is in the strong and shared anti-Semitic feelings. However, Claudio Mutti, a charismatic figure of the pro-Islamic Right, in a recent interview, suggested a less simplistic view of the problem, pointing out other factors of a theoretic, historical and political nature: such as, the Islamic conception offered by the traditional thinkers: the historical solidarity of fascism and national socialism with the Moslem people; the manifestation in the 1970’s of Islam as a political and spiritual force, in the fight against the same enemies. | | | |
|  | Why is it that in the antagonist areas, the expression “fight against precariousness” (uncertainty) has become the new watchword of the day? Why do we speak of precariousness when referring to subjects that are not strictly connected with “economics” (precariousness and repression, precariousness and immigration, precariousness of “education and human knowledge”, the precariousness or endangering of human rights)? How is it that a semantic extension of the concept of ’precariousness’ is in process, today? Precariousness and uncertainty – it sustains the thought of an alternative matrix- they form the heart of the post-Fordian economic and social system. According to this theory, in order that the “new capitalism” can celebrate its own glorification, it is necessary that all the obstacles which are put in the way of the unconditional affirmation of its powers must be swept away. It is not enough, therefore, to make production more flexible, to reduce the cost of labour, “disjoint” the union movement: it is also necessary to make fundamental rights precarious, to render their defence hazardous, to oppose the diffusion of knowledgeable criticism. Flexibility, in this sense, far from being an inevitable product of globalization, appears to be the fruit of a clear choice of political economics. And all this while we witness the appearance of a homo novus: an always more fragile individual, unable to project his own future, anguished by the emptiness of an uncertain existence. (photo ansa) | | | |
|  | There was a time, not too long ago, when the Japanese society captured the attention of the Western analysts. It was not only the need to know a system which, in economy, was considered unique in the world, but there was something more, which went further than the fascination for the exotic land of the Rising Sun. The Japanese culture was showing itself able to adopt some of the Western schemes and, at the same time, to jealously guard many of its own characteristics: this blend rendered the system particularly effective. In the eyes of the politicians and Western sociologists, Japan could constitute an example of a possible development alternative. Today, the situation has changed: while other systems have captured our attention, Japan has revealed many limits: differences which are difficult to understand. Among these there are several which concern the management strategies of the security system. In this regard, the article offers an analysis of the instruments adopted in that country to impede diverse forms of terrorism. The difference between what happens in Europe and the dynamics of Japan are so obvious as to give rise to interesting reflections.(photo ansa) | | | |
|  | Mahmood Ahmadinejad, during the course of these last months, has assumed an unexpected role and popularity in the larger part of the Middle-East, progressively being transformed into an icon of anti-Western sentiments in the entire region and, ironically, more in the Arab context than in that of his country. The Iranian nuclear programme has been artificially transformed into the most important point on the agenda of the United States, the European Union and the United Nations, while Lebanon has demonstrated the ability of Tehran in knowing how to exploit a crisis outside of its borders, and in the development of always stronger ties with the Shiite world community. Today, however, the attention of the principle international actors is attracted, to a large extent, by that which, with every probability, could be judged as a false objective or, at least, a secondary element: the Iranian nuclear programme. On the contrary, however, the real reason for the always more intense Iranian activism is due, in great part, to the growing and always more evident factionalism at the elite summit of the Islamic Republic, and not in an improbable re-proposal of the original – on the contrary, accentuated – inspirational concept of the Islamic revolution. To understand the real roots of this internal transformation process and the objectives of the various factions represents the only way to draw up an effective plan of action to diminish the negative influence of the so-called “Iranian factor”. It is right to hold that through a more targeted inquiry into the dynamics of the problem, instead of excessive attention and involvement in the nuclear question, the solution to the crisis can be favoured: facilitating, at the same time, the natural evolution to that which seems to be the eve of an important transformation in the political system of the Islamic Republic of Iran. (photo ansa) | | | |
|  | The story of the events which led to the creation of the State of Israel is that of the ideological movements and militant groups which made it possible: they are at the base of the Israel of today and underline how the constitution of militarily organized forces have represented one of the essential instruments for the realizing and development of a military policy based on national ideals cast for the creation of an Hebraic State. Secrecy was the common denominator of many of these groups in Palestine at the time of the British mandate. The case of the paramilitary groups was an aberrant secrecy where the military policy of the British occupation played, at least, at the beginning, a guiding role oriented towards the use and manipulation of this external resource, to reach political objectives contained within a framework of colonial management which, perhaps, already at the time, was unsuitable. It is a known fact, however, that the binomial and functional collaboration actuated by the Hebrew militias and the Zionist political platform was effective to the point of obtaining the merit for having conditioned the events up until the Proclamation of the State of Israel in Palestine. As very often happens, when events are written down in history, also in this case, many of the shadows which characterized the critical moments of the national movements were cancelled or put aside, leaving space for simplifications which do not relate the real truth regarding the complexity of human nature and the events that it produces. In this regard, the intermittent secrecy of the Hebrew groups in Palestine and the events that characterize it represent the key to an objective historical reading. (foto by www.www.zionism-israel.com) | | | |
|  | The phenomenon of Islamic terrorism and the growing diffusion of religious radicalism in the Moslem countries must be fought in the most adequate way, identifying the real “culprits”. The only strategy which can bring to a close the fight against terrorism is that which implies a real condemnation of terrorism in all its forms. The declarations of disapproval of the terrorist act, by certain Islamic religious leaders, are not sufficient to define these latter as our allies. In fact, as is better explained in the article, the very same Ulema who condemned the attack on the Twin Towers, after September 11th, were the authors and promulgators of fatwa, more or less underwritten, against both military contingents and Western civilians in Iraq, and against any liberal Moslem who dared to criticize the extremist interpretations of the Koran. The Islamic jurists, through issued legal opinions, often instigate terrorism and justify suicide attacks under the banner of Islam. At this point, it is necessary to identify and distinguish, once and for all, between the real condemnation of terrorism, coming from the liberal Moslem groups, and the opportunistic condemnation from certain well-known Islamic religious leaders. (photo ansa) | | | |
|  | In the last few years, the activities connected with organized crime are in continual expansion, thanks to the use of the new technologies and to the evident economic growth due to the constant increase of income derived from illicit commerce. One hears of the flourishing activity in the sectors of conventional and non-conventional arms traffic, human organ trafficking and the drug and prostitution market. The typical modus operandi of criminality provides, furthermore, that the illegal monies derived from crime activity are reinvested in legal activities which are often dummy societies, in this way impeding the judicial authorities to verify crimes and avoiding, at the same time, the application of prison sentences. Also the reports dealing with organized crime of the European Council underline the high index of danger from the new international organizations devoted to crime, fruit of agreements of cooperation between the different mafias, which have expanded their activities on a global scale, abandoning the regional dimensions which previously characterized them. In the article, the authors describe with thoroughness, the American and Italian experiences in the field of legislation directed to limit the phenomenon of the crime of tax evasion, which these criminal organizations incur in their illegal operations. ( photo ansa) | | | |
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| Surveys |
ALL-ITALIAN STORIES  | |  | The story proposes to probe the complex and transient emotions of a Sicilian fugitive on the eve of his capture, when the thousand streams of experience which bring with it the débris and the fullness of the most intense years of mafia experience, from after the war until today, finish in the unavoidable end: his capture ). The imaginary figure wears the mask of a Provenzano man and testifies to the discomfiture of a mafia generation which has gone through the aggressive phases of the young post-war mafia, rebelling against the yoke of the traditional ‘old-style’ bosses, of the violent and subtle affirmation from both the inside of the organization and from the external context, of the wild and terrorist growth of the clash against the State and of the attempt to camouflage the subsequent efforts to take cover, in recent times. The author, therefore, tries to analyze the mafia schizophrenia and the probable end of the ‘padrino’ tradition. It is, perhaps, the comparison between the old and the new mafia, as seen through the eyes of the former, both ferocious and violent, distinct only by the unrepeatable and different story, which opens hiatuses that cannot be closed. It is also a picture of a mafia of hatred towards its enemy, but in the meanwhile, of the need to know him, which is at the base of the spirit of the analysis, and it is interesting to see it cultivated from between the hidden and grimy walls of a sheep-pen. ( photo ansa) | | | |
| FROM THE ARCHIVES TO HISTORY | |  | Three telephone exchanges and a series of names and numbers. Seen like this, the sheets which are produced here could seem rather puzzling. To clarify, it is sufficient to explain that they were contained in an enveloped inserted in a file entitled “suspicious telephone calls” of the Home Office, dated 1921 and classified ‘highly confidential’. The telephone exchanges were, in fact, the direction booth for the interception of telephone lines which were held to be ‘sensitive’. If one scrutinizes the names carefully, many would be the surprises.
On the contrary, the other documents which we present, show the birth and development of what, at the time, was called ‘listening service’. It was an office which, considering the scarce technology available, in those times, had not a few problems in guaranteeing its work. Annoying rustling and crackling noises on the line announced, for example, the presence of the listening non-commissioned officer on duty. Such indiscrete interference was so widely diffused that it was even reported to the press, as is documented in the article in “Il Giornale d’Italia”, reproduced at the end of this page. What was published bears witness to the total lack of secrecy in the activity of the interception of telephone calls. Today, the problems would be of a very different sort, but this dip into the dusty pages of the Archives offers, once again, interesting points for reflection. And what reflections! | | | |
| BOOK REVIEW | | | Terrorism’ is an easy term, which has now been incorporated in the universal vocabulary. Everyone speaks about it or has heard about it. Some speak about it with fear, others with presumption. As if to say: what are they waiting for to fight terrorism with adequate methods? And it is just these ‘adequate methods’ which are lacking. Also because an agreed definition has still not been found, at an international level, as to what terrorism is and what it is not. Even less do we know the men and women who practice it; their deeper personalities; their real motivations behind the ideological and religious shield. These are the themes of the three books presented on this occasion, written, respectively, by a diplomat who addresses the topic of the rules and the violence; by a young scholar of strategy and geopolitics, who analyzes the Israeli method of fighting terrorism, and by an English journalist who has known and frequented terrorists. | | | |
| 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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