December 10, 2001	Monday	Ramazan 24, 1422

ROME: The Italian government says its intelligence service agents should be given free rein to commit certain crimes as they seek to complete their secret missions, though not assassination or other offences that cause personal harm.

A new legislative bill states that secret agents would be able to install wiretaps on telephones without first obtaining a judge’s authorization, raid homes and even steal, and the only person they would have to inform of their acts would be the director of the service authorising the mission.

“Finally, we will be able to tap telephones without the risk of being subject to investigation ourselves” for having failed to seek a legal order from the justice authorities, a government agent told “La Repubblica” daily in an interview published on Thursday.

“When this reform is approved, we will be able to work more efficiently and, in my opinion, more correctly, because we will still be following clear rules,” said the officer, who spoke with the newspaper on condition of anonymity.

The agent did not deny that abuses could occur, “like those occurring now, but it will depend a great deal on the professionalism of the agents.” In any case, he added, “the reform must by accompanied by a complete change in the quality of the personnel, which currently is very poor.”

Minister of Public Administration Franco Frattini, whose office drafted the bill, said “only one agent in three is truly operative. (The rest) are merely bureaucrats.”

Frattini maintains that, for the higher principle of state security, it is necessary to allow Italy’s crime prevention and intelligence officials to engage in certain activities that are considered offences under the law currently in force.

“When faced with the need to steal a handbag that could hold a plan for coordinating an attack, or to enter a house where terrorists are believed to be staying, national security interests prevail,” stated the minister.

General Giovanni Mori, director of Italy’s Service for Information and Democratic Security (SISDE), announced his support for the initiative, though stressed the need to hire specialized agents.

Minister Frattini indicated that he agrees with hiring new agents, though he would not provide details on how many because, he said, it is confidential information. He did give his assurances that highly qualified personnel would be recruited.

Meanwhile, the political opposition, a coalition of the centre-left, has condemned the secret service reforms being sought by the right-leaning government. Senator Massimo Brutti, chair of the intelligence services oversight committee in parliament and member of the Democrats of the Left (former Communist Party), said that the secret agents should remain under the control of the Legislative and Judicial branches in order to prevent human rights violations from occurring.

Pier Luigi Vigna, head of Italy’s anti-mafia efforts, announced that he, too, was in favour of judicial control over secret service activities as a means to thwart “excesses”. Throughout their history, Italy’s intelligence services have won questionable fame due to their frequent involvement in scandals and frustrated coup attempts.

Created following World War II, in 1947 and 1948, many of the original officials were fascists, a fact that influenced the direction of the agencies’ activities, say experts. Pressure from the United States to prevent an electoral victory by Italy’s Communist Party also had an impact on the developing institutional culture of the intelligence services. —Dawn/ InterPress Service.