Starting from this issue, our Magazine is online on the Internet at the address www.sisde.it.
We feel that the presence of Per Aspera ad Veritatem on the Web is more than a simple information technology development. It is for us a small event which makes us very proud.
Maybe it is excessive to state that in the new information age you do not exist unless you enter into the media world according to codified patterns. It is argued that if you are reluctant to present your own image, you must accept that somebody else will do it for you according to criteria based on externally perceived stereotypes which might not always be positive. Sometimes this is not so, as it is not always true that information produces reality particularly as regards Institutions, which instead communicate through the results of their activity for the community's well-being.
Nevertheless, this view is supported by different well-founded reasons mirroring our rapidly evolving time which sees communication becoming more and more an identity element.
It is clear, however, that over the last few years the process of globalisation of the information has been extremely fast and has deeply affected the work of the Institutions, and also of the intelligence agencies whose main feature is confidentiality.
However we are not talking here of choosing between transparency and secrecy, as transparency - meaning accountability for the activities and the management - does not imply breaching confidentiality. We therefore need to update the existing culture of intelligence in order to ensure both the fulfilment of the institutional tasks and, at the same time, the development of a modern and democratic relationship with other institutions and with the public. This latter needs to be reassured that the intelligence function is carried out with utmost respect for the institutional duty in a way which is overseeable and overseen by those empowered so to do.
SISDe's magazine Per Aspera ad Veritatem has been published since 1995 in order to pursue this objective. Making our Magazine available on-line is a further step in this direction.
Our main target is to increase the number of our users by spreading information on the reasons and the ways governing our fundamental constitutional function (often debated within science and culture) and by making specialised documents available as widely as possible through our homepage which is opening up to Europe and to the whole world.
The wealth of knowledge present in our Magazine, further enriched by external inputs, represents for all those working at SISDe for the community's well-being, part of their identity which includes at the same time tradition and planning for the future.
In such a spirit we are glad to offer this new service to our readers and we thank all those who have contributed to this project.


Vittorio Stelo