Comitato Esecutivo per i Servizi di Informazione e di Sicurezza

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The Comitato Esecutivo per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza ( CESIS ; German  " Government Committee for the Intelligence and Security Services " ) was a general secretariat in the office of the Italian Prime Minister . It coordinated the Italian intelligence services .

The tasks of this body were taken over by the Dipartimento delle Informazioni per la Sicurezza (DIS) in the course of the reform of the Italian intelligence services in August 2007 .

Both CESIS and DIS correspond roughly to the department responsible for federal intelligence in the German Federal Chancellery .

tasks

In Italy the Prime Minister was politically in favor of the intelligence services

responsible and had direct intelligence authority over them.

The SISMI and the SISDE were subordinate to the Minister of Defense and the Minister of the Interior, respectively, with regard to organizational, administrative and operational matters (as far as the respective business area is concerned) . The Prime Minister exercised his general authority to issue guidelines and his other prerogatives over the two services through CESIS.

The most important task of CESIS, however, was the coordination of SISMI and SISDE, which in Italy were not organized according to the territorial principle (foreign / domestic), but according to the functional principle. This meant, for example, that the SISDE could also work abroad in the area of ​​its competencies in the field of investigating (Italian) organized crime, while the SISMI e.g. As in its associated counter-intelligence also operated in Germany.

The two services reported to their respective superior ministers. In any case, CESIS also received a “copy” of the intelligence reports to hand over (usually in a summarized and “processed” form) to the Prime Minister and other customers in the government and parliament (regular reports on the security situation).

Members of the “committee” were the CESIS director (“ general secretary ”) and others. a. the Chiefs of Service of SISMI and SISDE, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, the heads of the three national police forces, Polizia di Stato , Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza , and the Secretaries General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister's Office.

history

The CESIS came into being in the course of the great intelligence service reform in 1977. This reform should after scandals in which the services

involved, represent a comprehensive new beginning. However, the new beginning suffered, especially in the first few years, from the fact that the services still had to make do with old staff.

It was repeatedly criticized that CESIS had developed into a third intelligence service (the Prime Minister) without a legal basis. This was repeatedly denied by the state.

Against the background of fundamental global political changes since 1989 and the emergence of new threats, a discussion began in Italy in the mid-1990s about a far-reaching reform of the intelligence services, which remained without concrete results for years. It was proposed to strengthen key elements (CESIS) at the expense of the two services. Others advocated a merger of SISMI, SISDE and CESIS to create a single national service (“DIGIS - Dipartimento Governativo per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza”) to be located in the Prime Minister's Office. This was justified by the fact that the new threat situation (international terrorism , proliferation of weapons of mass destruction , etc.) is increasingly blurring classic dividing lines between the services. This proposal came as a relative surprise in a country that, contrary to all criteria of operational rationality, for political reasons, especially in the police sector, is painstakingly careful to prevent concentrations of power in one hand. Another reason for the reform was the desire to finally remove all structures that still originate from the scandalous times of the "Cold War". In 2007 the ruling coalition Romano Prodis reached an agreement with the opposition on a reform law to which both sides contributed equally and which was unanimously adopted in parliament.

The reform sees u. a. a maximum time limit for state secrets of 30 years ago (previously unlimited), a clear regulation for dealing with public prosecutor's investigations in the event of official violations of the law by agents, a reorganization of data protection in intelligence work, a financial review of the services by a special office at the audit office , a clearer distribution of tasks (international / domestic - sicurezza esterna / interna ) of the two intelligence services AISE (successor to SISMI) and AISI (successor to SISDE), a strengthening of the coordinating body Dipartimento delle Informazioni per la Sicurezza (successor to CESIS), and more competencies for the parliamentary control commission COPACO.

ladder

  • Gaetano Napoletano (1977–1978)
  • Walter Pelosi (1978–1981)
  • Orazio Sparano (1981-1987)
  • Giuseppe Richero (1987-1991)
  • Francesco Paolo Fulci (1991–1993)
  • Giuseppe Taormina (1993–1994)
  • Umberto Pierantoni (1994–1996)
  • Francesco Berardino (1996-2001)
  • Fernando Masone (2001-2003)
  • Emilio del Mese (2003-2006)
  • Giuseppe Cucchi (2006-2007)

Web links

Coordinates: 41 ° 54 ′ 20.2 "  N , 12 ° 29 ′ 34.7"  E