Not just worry and protection against terrorist attacks, not just worry about the situation in Ukraine and Gaza. To alarm the director of the DIS, Elisabetta Belloni, as she explains during the presentation of the annual intelligence report, there is also a complex international political picture: “In 2024, 76 countries in the world, the equivalent of the half of the world's population, vote and there are risks of interference and conditioning of electoral processes through the hybrid threat”, he explains. The hybrid threat and the risks linked to the use of the weapon of the spread of false news are also one of the main concerns of the president of Copasir, Lorenzo Guerini: “We must give ourselves tools to seek an effective reaction to disinformation, taking into account the need not to censor, but also considering that there are places of attack in the formation of our public opinions.” The Undersecretary at the Presidency of the Council, Alfredo Mantovano, also highlighted the growing role that Italy plays, particularly on the African continent: “The services have not changed their profession, intelligence also plays a role in the humanitarian field. The hospitality and care we provide to dozens of injured children in Gaza is the result of a mission that would not have been possible without the contribution of our intelligence services who provided contacts and resources .
What the report says
Many ideas are contained in the annual report. When it comes to hybrid campaigns, the use of fake news and cyberattacks, Russia is the most active actor “to the detriment of Italy and the entire West.” Moscow also tried to hinder Italian and European energy diversification initiatives through propaganda “aimed at polluting the general public's information on the evolution of energy prices.” The Middle East quadrant is still a concern. At the end of 2023, there was “a decisive increase in tensions in contexts in which the Gaza crisis represented a triggering factor for the start of potentially destabilizing activities carried out by local actors attributable to self- “Axis of Resistance”, an informal alliance that strategically unites different realities of the quadrant – Iran, Lebanese Hezbollah, Yemeni Houthis, Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria, Palestinian Sunni groups – in an anti-Israeli and anti-Western connotation. . “Italy has been confirmed as a potential target due to its centrality in the Christian world, its commitment to the anti-Daesh coalition and the presence of symbolic places in Western history such as the Colosseum which continues to 'be considered, by the rhetoric of the zone, a privileged objective of conquest in the heart of “disbelieving” Europe. Intelligence services paid great attention to foreign fighters who reached theaters of war at any given time. In 2023, the number of people linked to Italy rises to 149 (of which 39 returned). In addition, 77 individuals potentially dangerous to national security were expelled, including 42 Tunisians.
The far right and the “antagonists”
Intelligence services are also interested in the behavior of Italian extremist groups. The far right “continued to strive to increase the visibility and monitoring of the most structured groups, also with a view to political accreditation in view of the next local elections”. “The most central issues – underline the 007 – were the increase in energy costs, the high cost of living and, more particularly, the positions of the Executive on foreign theaters of crisis considered, by the narrative sectoral, as the expression of the interests of NATO, the EU and “American imperialism”. In line with these invectives, the intelligence services have detected “significant activism in various European countries aimed at increasing relations with ultranationalist groups from the Old Continent, with the aim of constituting an 'international political front' with a clear anti- -Atlantic and pro-Atlantic. Russian.” The far right remains interested in relations with organized sympathizers and student groups. The opposition movement, however, is said to have found new life in “anti-Zionist” actions, with particular attention given to the “Boycott, Divestment, Sanction” (BDS).
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