Central Security Office (Kingdom of Italy)
Ufficio Centrale di Sicurezza | |
 | |
| Abbreviation | U.C.S. |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1990 |
| Type | Commission directly reporting to the Duce |
| Legal status | Active |
| Location |
|
Region | Italy |
Official language | Italian |
Director General | Lt. Gen. Renato Saltamartini |
Deputy Director | Marcello Diamante |
(Other) Members | 7 |
Secretary | Renato Porcu |
Parent organization | National Fascist Party |
The Central Security Office (Italian: Ufficio Centrale di Sicurezza) of the National Fascist Party is the central organisation responsible for political and legal affairs: it studies and oversees all legal enforcement authorities, including the Public Security and the Prosecution, making it a very influential organ in the formulation of security policy (although the detailed policy and implementation are left to the relevant organs). Within its stated duties, the Commission also aims to combat terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism. The Commission, in addition to its political supervision powers against State bodies, also holds semi-compulsory "study sessions" to politically indoctrinate and inform officers on party policies. At last, the Commissions (both national and provincial ones) are charged with balancing the interests of the police, courts and prosecutors, ensuring the rule of law (at least until it does not obstacle the Fascist Revolution).
Mission
The public security apparatus, prosecutors, and courts are autonomous of each other, but they are under the leadership of the Fascist State and under its political supervision and guidance. The Central Security Office develops P.N.F. policy for law and law enforcement. While the U.C.S. is an agenda-setting and a policy-making body, it is not an executive authority. It not only supervises the police, but also the prosecutors, the courts, and makes sure that everyone is under Fascist supervision. Among the most important duties of the Central Security Office there is also the organization of the political-ideological training of the police apparatus in Italy.
The role of the Central Security Office is, therefore, to set the broad policy framework in which each administration, according to the directives of the Duce and the Government, has to integrate. In social policy field, its functions go from setting major policies of social management, to coordinating all national and local work on this field, and even to dispatching central cadres to guide or control local work.
Central organization
The Central Security Office at its top consists of ten Commissioners and it is headed by a Director General, appointed by the Duce of the Fascism on Political Secretary's proposal, after hearing the Political Directory. The Central Security Office Secretary, who is usually a Political Directory member, due to the great sensitivity of the position, almost always belongs to the dominant faction is a general officer of the M.V.S.N.. The current Director General is G.N.R. Lieutenant General Renato Saltamartini, who is also a member of the Political Directory.
- Political Confinement Office
- U-7
- Centre for Political Education of P.S.
Current composition
Director General
- Lgt. Gen. Renato Saltamartini
Deputy Director
- National Inspector of the P.N.F. Marcello Diamante
Secretary
- National Inspector of the P.N.F. Renato Porcu
Members
- Angelo Spaniccia, Minister of Interior;
- Graziano De Falchi, Director-General of Criminal Affairs, Graces, Statistics and Records
- Andrea Scanzio, Prime President of the Supreme Court of Cassation;
- Giorgio Davoli, Prosecutor General of the King-Duce at the Supreme Court of Cassation;
- Antonino Sanna, President of the Special Court for State Security;
- Falco De Caro, Chief of Police - Director General of Public Security;
- Gen. C.A. Benito Romano Busdon, General-Inspector of the Militarized Police Corps;
U-7
Within the Central Security Office there is also a dedicated branch, whose specific purpose is to coordinate and direct the political persecution of the Jehovah's Witnesses, codenamed U-7 (from the initial letter of "Geova"). The U-7 is a security agency on its own, although it relies on O.V.R.A.. The U-7 frequently directs other state and party organs in the anti-Jehovah campaign. In order to do this, it is frequently headed by an high-ranking Party official.
Provincial Commissions
All the Party Federations establish Security Commissions subordinated to the Central Security Office, which are mandated to watch over local security forces, including the Questure and, to a lesser degree, over the local Prosecutions. Provincial commissions also organize the provincial study sessions. However, Security Commission heads do not double nor act as police chiefs and have no direct authority over the Prefect: they manage political aspects of affairs examined by the Provincial Commission for the Public Order and Security. In large municipalities, there may exist a Party's Municipal Security Commission, with responsibilities over the Municipal Police Corps.
Peripheral commissions' other main responsibilities are to implement the guidelines assigned by the Government on the work of public security, the building of cadre teams, the comprehensive control of the work of maintaining social stability. The Commissions also have to supervise and coordinate the administrative departments to implement guidelines and policies of the National Fascist Party, especially in law enforcement.