SISDE
| Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democratica | |
SISDE Logo
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| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 24 October 1977 |
| Preceding agency | |
| Jurisdiction | Government of Italy |
| Minister responsible | |
| Agency executive |
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| Website | serviziinformazionesicurezza.gov.it |
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democratica (Intelligence and Democratic Security Service), was the domestic intelligence agency of Italy.
With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services approved on 1 August 2007, SISDE was replaced by AISI.
Since the end of World War II, Italian intelligence agencies have been reorganized many times in an attempt to increase their effectiveness and bring them more fully under civilian control.
The agency was established as part of a broader reform of the Italian intelligence community, which represented the latest in a long string of government attempts to effectively manage Italy's intelligence agencies.
In 1977, with Legislative Act n.801 of 24/10/1977, this came after a former chief of SID, Vito Miceli, was arrested for "conspiration against the State" (See Golpe Borghese), and the intelligence agencies were reorganized in a democratic attempt. This re-organization mainly consisted of:
In spite of these changes, in the early 1980s several members of SISDE were involved in the Propaganda 2 masonic lodge scandal.
In 1992, SISDE member Bruno Contrada, who had led some intelligence cells in Palermo, was arrested for involvement with Sicilian mafia. The service was also involved in the massacre of judge Paolo Borsellino in 1992. Investigations held by police telecommunication expert Gioacchino Genchi attested the presence of an undercover SISDE seat in the Castello Utveggio, a liberty-style castle on the Monte Pellegrino, a mountain overlooking Palermo and Via D'Amelio, the street in which Borsellino was killed. The circumstance was discovered by analyzing the phone calls of a mafia boss, Gaetano Scotto, who called a phone number owned by SISDE in the castle. After the revelation, Genchi was removed from investigations and the Castello Utveggio case archived by the Tribunal of Caltanissetta. Borsellino had also met Contrada in the Ministry of Interiors, in Rome, two days before his death.
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Wikipedia