The need to protect the national environment and cultural property has recently attracted wider and wider attention. Needless to stress the implications of such a development for a country like Italy. One may or may not agree with the statistics which at times assign to our country (the parameters used are not clear) the great majority of the works of art worlwide. One may also wonder how much of "the garden of Europe" (as Italy used to be defined in literature) has survived in a legal environment not always faultless. Still one thing is certain, strolling through the thousand historical, artistic and cultural locations our country, our Motherland can boast, one cannot but perceive that this extraordinary heritage represents a key "component" of our national identity and image. If this is so, and is becoming more and more so, it is because this cultural and environmental common property has turned into a strategic asset for a country on its way to developing a genuine "economy of culture".
In this respect, therefore, any attack to this precious and unique combination of culture and beauty - be it an act of daily spite or an emblematic, violent gesture - becomes an attempt on our community's most fundamental values.
Unfortunately, this has been well perceived also by terrorists and mafia bosses, as clearly demonstrated by the shocking attacks carried out in Florence and Rome in 1993.
In the opening interview of this seventeenth issue, Roberto CONFORTI well illustrates how this key national asset is exposed to many and daily threats, what an intense contrasting action is needed and how intelligence plays its part. Edo RONCHI, long time Minister for the Environment in the current Parliament, touches upon these same issues in his thorough and convincing contribution.
In Part III, Per Aspera ad Veritatem provides readers with some pieces of national and international legislation for a better understanding of some legal aspects of the problem. A few interesting books on the same subject have also been included in Part V.
First of all we would like to point out the interview with Ernesto GALLI DELLA LOGGIA, author of a fine piece of work on the Italian identity. He adds here some new and precise remarks.
Then the volume by Federico ZERI on the development of a national identity through the history of art, in particular of painting. Finally, the latest work by IANNIZZOTTO on cultural property and organised crime.
More topical subjects are present in this volume thanks to contributions by outstanding collaborators.
First af all we would like to attract the readers' attention to the Forum on money laundering and usury, two extremely important themes in many ways intertwined, which have recently called for significant Parliamentary and law enforcement initiatives. It is vital to keep high on guard so to understand the hidden developments of these criminal phenomena.
As usual our Magazine opens a window onto the international scene, this time through the contributions by Fabio MINI, Alessandro POLITI and Sergio ROMANO, which range from the Far East to the Mediterranean, to the Balkans.
In Part II, we signal two important Parliamentary documents.
As far as the section on the Foreign Intelligence Services is concerned, this time we have turned our attention to the young Estonian Republic where, like in other Baltic countries, one security structure fulfils both intelligence and law enforcement tasks.
In Part III we publish a very recent piece of French legislation establishing a National Commission on ethics in the security sector in the form of an independent authority. A new idea worth considering also within other legal frameworks, like the Italian one, committed to safeguarding confidentiality of information. In the same section a British judgment touches upon the theme of national security, which is of special value when considering the debate going on in that country on the application of the "Human Rights Act" and the many changes to existing security provisions it calls for (see also the "Regulation of Investigatory powers Bill" published (abstract) in n. 16 and the "Terrorism Bill" (abstract) to be published in n. 18).
Besides the ones already mentioned, more interesting volumes are reviewed in Part V: one by Leonardo SCIASCIA on the mysterious disappearance of Ettore MAJORANA. At a time when globalisation, especially the new scientific frontiers, capture an ever wider audience, the great Sicilian writer's idea of finding in an ethical conflict (between potentially destructive scientific developments and a possible loss of moral values) an answer to the mystery surrounding the cleverest among the "boys from via Panisperna", certainly provides food for thought.
Finally, the Historical Curios are this time taken from the Holy Bible, from a well known episode which may be read in terms of an ante litteram intelligence operation.