Intelligence and Security Organization (Kingdom of Italy)
The Intelligence and Security Organization (Italian: Organizzazione per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza, O.I.S.) is the controversial intelligence service of the Royal Carabinieri.
The Italian Royal Carabinieri are a military, multi-mission, uniformed service of the Kingdom of Italy; their core roles are to protect the public security, the public order, the respect of the law and Italian economic and security interests in any part of the national territory. To assist in accomplishing the many diverse missions of the Royal Carabinieri, senior leadership and operational commanders rely on the Intelligence and Security Organization.
The Intelligence and Security Organization yearly produces an average 1 milion reports; a significant part of these reports is provided to P.N.F. and M.V.S.N.
History
Before and during the Years of Lead, the then-Republican Police Corps’s intelligence gathering activities were conducted by uniformed officers working with local units; in the wake of the 1981 security sector reform, the overt intelligence gathering was deemed insufficient, and therefore the political leadership of that time took the decision to establish specialized units who would not only gather intelligence but also use it to conduct covert counter-terrorism operations, also for deteriorating political situation.
The gendarmerie forces have thus enjoyed a somewhat ambivalent status, feeling closer to the regular military than the public security apparatus, but under the complete control of neither the Ministry of Interior nor the Defence Staff. As a result, when the Gendarmerie began to establish a counter-terrorism capability, it was able to run covert operations virtually free of any oversight.
In 1985, Carabinieri Brigade General Alberto Dalla Chiesa founded the Intelligence Group Command (Comando Gruppo Informazioni e Sicurezza – Comando GRUPINFOSEC), which in 1991 became known as Intelligence and Security Organization.
Intelligence and Security Organization came into existence in 1991 by the assignment of a "Information and Security Commander" to the General-Inspector of the Militarized Police Corps. The Information and Security Commander was merged with the Unit II - Operations and Security chief. The Information and Security Commander's duties consist in securing of information which is essential to police military corps, in the dissemination of this information to responsible officers, operating units, the Administration of Public Security and other collaborating agencies.
Role
The Intelligence and Security Organization is the Royal Carabinieri intelligence service. The organization has been established in order to provide a joint point of contact for both military and police matters. While the O.I.S. is a domestic security intelligence agency, it also is the situation information branch of the Military Information Service for the Royal Carabinieri.
Alongside acting as the military intelligence apparatus of the police corps and conducting counterintelligence operations, the Intelligence and Security Organization is responsible for internal security and surveillance work involving Royal Carabinieri personnel.
The Intelligence and Security Organization, also within the wider intelligence community, plays the role of a permanent and structured link between political (O.V.R.A.) and military (S.I.M.) counter-espionage, as it is impossible for military leaders to have no relationship with the various political police realities and not to execute special instructions issued by political authorities with military duties or positions. There is a threefold logic underlying domestic intelligence: a classic logic of intelligence turned toward the interior of the national space (addressed to by the O.V.R.A. Internal Situation Division of the First Central Directorate); a police logic (i.e. intelligence activities being part of the policeman’s work) and a judicial logic. Because hostile acts detected by the intelligence service are likely to be qualified as crimes and offences, they are normally intended to be transmitted to justice. In particular, domestic intelligence consists of collecting, analyzing, and producing intelligence related to the security of the state.
These missions include uncovering and countering terrorism, espionage, sabotage, subversion, political, ethnic and religious dissent and extremism, organised crime, narcotics production and trafficking, money counterfeiting and laundering, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, illegal arms dealing, arms, human, contraband and other smuggling, unauthorised immigration, electronic and cyber attacks, hacking and data theft, and dissemination of pornography, etc. Missions other than counterrorism (shared by all Italian domestic intelligence bodies) are primarily assigned to one or another intelligence service. In order to deal with terrorism, Italy has a nuanced, unified, and intelligent counterterrorism response. In this response, police forces and intelligence services play a crucial role in domestic intelligence, the security of populations, and threat prevention.
The role of law enforcement in intelligence encompasses criminal intelligence, counter intelligence, and countering terrorism. With the development of the terrorist threat, police forces play fully their role in domestic intelligence. In particular, the mission of law enforcement intelligence is to prevent or mitigate crimes, threats and attacks from reaching fruition. This mission requires certain knowledge to be available to law enforcement — such as information on the criminal actors along with their motives, methods and targets. Owing to the proximity of law enforcement and local populations, law enforcement can have broad access to a large network of human intelligence.
Mission
In the current scenario, criminal organizations are articulated in a way that does not respect the established borders and borders, branching out through the territory of several countries, or even surpassing any physical delimitation when they start to act in the virtual field through cybercrimes. In addition to territorial issues, the dynamics of action of such organizations also change rapidly. From the micro-trafficking of drugs to complete territorial control, from the embezzlement to the international traffic of weapons and drugs, from theft to the “new cangaço”, the way in which crime is carried out changes radically.
Given this context, it is up to public security bodies to establish prevention and repression strategies in the face of such threats. Therefore, it is necessary that these bodies have useful, timely and reliable information that helps them in the planning and execution of such actions. This information, among other sources, may be the product of the work of the intelligence services.
The primary mission of the Intelligence and Security Organization is to provide timely, relevant, and accurate intelligence support to operational and strategic-level commanders. The Intelligence and Security Organization produces intelligence both for Army use and for sharing across the national intelligence community. In particular, the Intelligence and Security Organization is tasked with detecting, following, stopping, suppressing and intercepting threats. These tasks are:
- Counterintelligence on behalf of the Royal Carabinieri;
- Military police support to CC.RR.;
- Detection and elimination of political sabotage;
- Detection and elimination of political subversion;
- Support to police intelligence (both political and criminal);
- Intelligence for custom research, fight against smuggling and illicit trafficking;
- Protection of police from counter-surveillance from subversive and criminal elements;
- Support to Military Information Service.
Military counter-espionage is carried out by the Military Information Service and, as an auxiliary body, by the Intelligence and Security Organization itself; military police activity is carried out by Royal Carabinieri and by the G.N.R. and, as auxiliary bodies, by the other military police corps (Coast Guard, R.G.d.F.). The collaboration body for both military counter-espionage and military police is the Public Security (internal security, counter-controversy and counter-information).
During wartime, the Intelligence and Security Organization is concerned with internal and domestic intelligence and counterintelligence, including military police support to Military Information Service, G.N.R. and CC.RR. The Intelligence and Security Organization also protects the police military corps from foreign agents who might attempt to penetrate their ranks or compromise their operations, through shielding operations, personnel, systems, facilities and information from the activities of hostile threats.
Interests and relations
The main threats and areas of interest of the Intelligence and Security Organization are:
- Intelligence and other activities of foreign services, organizations and persons which are directed against the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Defence and all Italian armed corps;
- Internal and international terrorism;
- Subversive activities;
- Criminal acts directed against the State;
- Capital offences;
- Mafia and other forms of organized crime.
The O.I.S. therefore corresponds with a variety of other organization, making it a central piece of the Intelligence Community of the Kingdom of Italy and of the wider security establishment. Together with the Information Service of the Royal Guard of Finance, it forms the intelligence network devoted to police and law enforcement tasks. The police intelligence network is completed by the Political Police Division, which acts as an information hub, and by the General Staff.
For mafia-related criminal acts, and related information, when the judicial police activity is needed or when the O.I.S. possesses useful information for judicial investigations, the Intelligence and Security Organization corresponds with the Central Anti-Mafia Investigative Directorate. In case the information is related to drugs trafficking, the correspondence is with the Anti-drugs Directorate of the U.C.S.
For all criminal, non-political offences which are not related to mafia, when the judicial police activity is needed or when the O.I.S. possesses useful information for judicial investigations, the Intelligence and Security Organization corresponds with the Special Operational Group.
For political offences and subversive plots and acts, the O.I.S. corresponds with the O.V.R.A.'s Second Central Directorate; when the information is needed for trial purposes, it also informs the Public Security's Confidential Affairs Division, which in turn routes it towards the appropriate target. For public order affairs, the O.I.S. corresponds with Public Order Office of the second general staff unit.
For military security affairs, it corresponds with the Plans and Military Police Office and with the Military Intelligence Service, which in turn operates in touch with the O.V.R.A.'s Third Central Directorate.
Structure
In general, each Carabiniere has the duty to collect any information that may be directly or indirectly useful, actually or potentially, for the purposes of internal security and police proper to the Carabinieri. Therefore, each Carabiniere and the entire Corps can be considered as part of an intelligence service. The intelligence service of the Royal Carabinieri is a structure that runs through the entire organization, from the General Command to the provincial structure.
It is important to highlight that the planning structures, including those in charge for police intelligence, are reproduced at three different levels: in the General Staff of the Royal Carabinieri and in the specialist bodies, covering the entire national territory, in the General Staff of the territorial commands, with coverage in respective boundary, and in the General Staff of the operational units, with coverage in their respective area of operation, which are also responsible for the execution of policing.
The Intelligence and Security Organization is structured in four levels of intelligence agencies:
- Central organisation;
- Legion Service of Public Security;
- Provincial and subprovincial information units;
- Information branches of spcecialist units.
The central organisation is the central organ of O.I.S. and is composed of the Confidential Affairs Division.
Central organisation
The central organisation is made up of the Confidential Affairs Division and is directly subordinated to the Commandant-General of the Royal Carabinieri. The Division, albeit outside the General Staff in a formal sense (due to its sheer size), has Staff duties. In particular, the Division has the task of coordinating the collection of information at a national level, of directing the analysis of the information collected and of managing the flow of conclusions reached towards the appropriate offices.
The Intelligence Center is the central organ of the O.I.S. and is composed of the Confidential Affairs Division. The Division is responsible for advising and keeping the Commandant-General and the Chief of Staff constantly informed of facts, reports and information concerning the Royal Carabinieri and the intelligence and counter-intelligence responsibilities assigned to the Carabinieri, producing the information necessary for the decisions of the Commandant-General and the studies and planning of the General Staff, to know, monitor and collect data on the state conjuncture in matters that interest public security and national security, guide and carry out the search for reports and disseminate, with opportunity, the information produced to interested bodies, guide and conduct intelligence training in the Corporation, monitor the police and criminological situation national, identifying areas of disruption or imminence, performing coordination for subordinate intelligence echelons, establishing and controlling counter-intelligence and security measures, supporting other intelligence agencies.
With the central organisation, the Royal Carabinieri have a body centralising all the information and intelligence provided by the units and services of the corps. This allows the Royal Carabinieri to take advantage of their vast territorial networks, which allow it to gather information on almost the entire national territory. Thus, with the Confidential Affairs Division to centralize, exploit, analyze, and disseminate the intelligence collected, the Royal Carabinieri have a service exclusively responsible for intelligence.
The head of the O.I.S. is also head of the Confidential Affairs Division.
Territorial bodies
At the territorial level, the Intelligence and Security Organization relies on the Carabinieri Legions and on the Provincial Commands in order to ensure the specialist information collection. Al these bodies have units in charge of collecting information and analyzing the dynamics that exist in the area of competence.
- Legion Service of Public Security: the Legion Service of Public Security is mainly dedicated to the data and information collection management. Each Legion Service of Public Security has three information collection/evaluation offices related to criminal phoenomena, to domestic security and to counter-terrorism. Political opposizion is dealt with by the Political Police Division and by the O.V.R.A. The presence of peripheral detachments allows a better management of intelligence at all levels. Thus, even if the Carabinieri who collect information do not use the intelligence cycle, the regional detachment will take all the necessary measures to ensure that the information collected is cross-checked, processed,and analysed. The role of the regional detachment thus enables the Legion commander to respond effectively to the intelligence needs addressed to him by the civilian and military authorities. Legion Public Security Services also have coordination tasks over relevant provincial and subprovincial Information Units.
- Information Unit: the Information Unit is the Company-level subdivision of the Operational Department of the Provincial Command in charge of obtaining the information necessary for the Carabinieri, also outside the investigation. Everything is aimed at public and political order and security, as well as collaboration with other entities. Also Group Commands, Territorial Departments and (detached) Companies do have their information collection units, albeit at a lower level.
Information branches of spcecialist units
The information branches of spcecialist units are made up of the information/intelligence subdivisions of Units and Commands with a specialist tasks and have a constituency within their unit, many of which operate throughout Italian territory, however, in accordance with their individual Unit attributions (special operations, traffic policing, road, environmental, among others).
Political Security Division
Also at a central level, the Political Security Division is a specialist unit acting as an information hub. Unlike the Confidential Affairs Division, acts as a judicial police body, albeit of a political nature. The Political Offices, dependent on the Political Police Division, are bodies of information collection parallel to the territorial Commands. They carry out an administrative police action of a political nature.
Cooperation with local government authorities
In order to ensure that Royal Carabinieri's missions are carried out, central state organs, local government authorities in Provinces ad Administrative Regions, and their relevant departments must report the following intelligence information to the Royal Carabinieri based on their duties:
- Information on Public Safety;
- Intelligence information on terrorist incidents and emergencies;
- Meteorological, hydrological, marine environment, geospatial, disaster alerts, and other such information;
- Other intelligence information related to the performance of duties.