Mark LOWENTHAL, in an interesting piece of work reviewed in this issue, Intelligence from secret to policy, tells us that in the baseball movie Bull Durham a manager tries to explain to his players the simplicity of the game: "You throw the ball; you hit the ball; you catch the ball". According to the author, intelligence has a similar deceptive simplicity: "you ask a question; you collect information; you answer the question". In both cases, he adds ironically "there are many devils in the details". Nevertheless, a rough and winding path is often a necessary condition in cognitive processes, even in those apparently very simple. It is not unusual that hoped for results come out of unexpected situations. This is the reason why we have chosen to open our Magazine onto the year 2001 with a reference to this outstanding scientist who in paradox finds the driving force for the cognitive progress. Number nineteen of Per Aspera ad Veritatem is, we hope, once again rich of interesting material which ranges from European security policies to economic intelligence, from ecomafia to international terrorism.
As a matter of fact, the European perspective has become crucial also for the intelligence world. In an interview with Francois THUILLIER, Author of the book L'Europe du secret. Mythes et réalité du renseignement politique interne, such an aspect in relation to Intelligence and Security Services is clearly underlined. THUILLIER in his work analyses and compares the intelligence systems of some European countries with specific reference to the internal security. We recommend this reading, whether one agrees with his analyses or not, for the inputs it provides on some controversial issues we have often considered in our Magazine.
At the beginning of March an international Seminar on economic intelligence was held in Rome with the participation of several European Services. We decided to publish the papers which opened the Seminar sessions, as we deem them particularly interesting and meaningful. They approach the issue from different, significant perspectives: the theoretical (SAVONA) and the judicial (VIGNA) one, and also from the economic institutions' (SANTINI) and the intelligence world's (POLLARI) point of view.
Another important matter - widely covered also by the media this spring in relation to some disturbing events which took place mainly in Campania - relates to ecomafia, touched upon in the contribution by MOSCATO, included in Part I, and in the Report by the ad hoc Parliamentary Committee (during the 13th Parliament). Further, the new Provisions in the environmental field, in Part III, might be of interest for our readers as they for the first time introduce into our legislation specific crimes directly connected with ecomafia activities.
Giuseppe ROMA, Director General of CENSIS, in his article (Part I) focuses his attention on the fears present in Italian contemporary society and on citizens' perception of the risks to their security. It is well known that the social impact of these matters is extremely significant. It is therefore important that statistics and sociological instruments should help in elaborating an objective, well documented and close to the problem analysis. CENSIS has recently published a study on the subject in co-operation with the BNC Foundation: The fears of the Italians. A culture of development and a culture of legality, the reading of which will certainly prove useful to widen the inputs provided by ROMA. Transnational organised crime and international terrorism are dealt with in Part I, in an article by Margelletti on the Hizbollah, and in Part III, through the publication of the international Convention adopted in Palermo in December 2000 and a recent judgement issued in The Netherlands on the Lockerbie attack which, as all know, on the 21st of December 1988 caused the explosion of a Pan Am Boeing and the death of 259 passengers and of 11 residents of Lockerbie. On organised crime we also signal two books by ARMAO and ZIEGLER, reviewed in Part V.
The section on the Foreign Intelligence and Security Services is this time dedicated to Portugal, whose intelligence system has been recently reformed according to a very modern and functional pattern.
Finally, the Egypt of Pharaohs is the setting for our Historical Curios. Once again the crucial role played - even in ancient times - by informers and intelligence towards political and military-strategic decision-making emerges through the story of a specific war episode.