Difference between revisions of "O.V.R.A. (Kingdom of Italy)"

Revision as of 15:24, 2 April 2018

O.V.R.A.
The O.V.R.A. coat of arms (1945-onwwards)
Active	1927-present
Country	Italy
Allegiance	P.N.F.
Branch	M.V.S.N.
Type	Secret police
Part of	M.V.S.N., P.N.F.
Head Office	Forte Braschi, Rome
Nickname	OVRA, the black ones
Patron	Saint Michael
Uniform colours	Black, silver
March	Giovinezza
Commanders
Director General	Bruno Bonilauria

The Organizzazione per la Vigilanza e la Repressione dell'Antifascismo (O.V.R.A.; Ialian for "Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism") is the secret police of the Kingdom of Italy, founded in 1927 under the regime of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and during the reign of King Victor Emmanuel III. O.V.R.A. was assigned to stop any anti-Fascist activity or sentiment. Until 1946 O.V.R.A. was dependent on the Ministry of Interior as part of its Directorate General for Public Security, but with the proclamation of the Social Republic it became an autonomous service, dependent directly on the Duce of the Fascism and on the Secretary of National Fascist Party as an autonomous branch of the Party itself, although formally it also refers to the General Command of the M.V.S.N. The O.V.R.A. is currently headed by Marco "Giacinto" Pannella.
Although dealing with mainly political and civil matters, the O.V.R.A. is considered a military service and is governed by Fascist military laws and regulations: alongside the National Royal Guard and the M.V.S.N., O.V.R.A. is the main security hold of the National Fascist Party. Being all party-related organizations, G.N.R. provides military force needed by O.V.R.A. The group has a secret budget making it very difficult to discern how large the O.V.R.A.'s operations are and to what end they are intended. The O.V.R.A. also reportedly operates various prisons and prison wings throughout Italy.
O.V.R.A.'s main functions are counterintelligence, operative-investigatory activities, guarding the leadership of the National Fascist Party and the Government, organization and ensuring of government communications as well as fight against anti-nationalism, dissent, and anti-Fascist activities. The O.V.R.A. actively suppresses ideological subversion — unorthodox political ideas and the espousing dissidents.
O.V.R.A. dissident-group infiltration features agents provocateur pretending "sympathy to the cause", smear campaigns against prominent dissidents, and show trials; once imprisoned, the dissident endured O.V.R.A. interrogators and sympathetic informant cell-mates. For certain requirements, the O.V.R.A. uses also the aid of civilian experts such as university professors and famous scholars.
The O.V.R.A. acts also as a part of the Central Security Office: it is tasked with the protection of the Regime and the carrying out of independent intelligence service. O.V.R.A. and military intelligence are two main espionage organizations and they are old concurrents. As part of the internal security system, O.V.R.A. has the purpose of fighting anti-regime crimes: it operates against underground politicians, political criminals, dissidents, anti-fascists organizations and terrorists, and protects the Duce and most important Italian political elite members. The O.V.R.A. acts, not only to smash the political opposition, but also to "unify" Party cliques, to collect correct information about the political views and moods of the population, both inside the country or of emigrates around the world, and to influence the political development and activities of various social groups and political movements at home and outside the country. In this respect, it has to be fully integrated to territorial and peripheral bodies. Unlike intelligence organizations in revolutionary countries, the OVRA is only partially interested in identfication and eradication of opponents and defectors inside and outside of the country, although this task cannot be completely excluded, but it is primarily involved into information collection and supervision.
The Fascist secret police apparatus has never been an independent social power which tends to destroy the P.N.F., military elite, or other mainstays of the political system. The O.V.R.A. apparatus operates under the full and permanent control of the Party leaders. Within the Party framework, and unlike G.N.R. and Militia leaders who usually are both disqualified or uninterested from competing for top leadership positions, O.V.R.A. chiefs have frequently bid for supreme power sharing, with even the highest positions available to them.
The leading role of the O.V.R.A. is enshrined into the so-called "OVRA-Law", adopted in August 1995, provided conditions for penetration by O.V.R.A. officers to most levels of the economy, since it stipulated that "career personnel may occupy positions in ministries, departments, establishments, enterprises and organizations in accordance with the requirements of this law without compromising their association with G.N.R. and O.V.R.A."; all big companies have to put people from the O.V.R.A. or from the G.N.R. on the board of directors: when O.V.R.A. calls, they answer. This, in association with the subordination of private undertakings to the Corporations and the establishment of Party cells, is aimed to be sure companies don't make decisions that are not in the national interest.

History

On 11 November 1922 the quadrumvirate member Emilio De Bono was appointed Inspector General of Police by Mussolini. In the two years he was the head of the police, De Bono made operational a security service on subversives and communists active both in Italy and abroad.
The first reform the institutions of the old liberal state came together with the crisis provoked by the murder of Giacomo Matteotti. On 3 January 1925 the Duce delivered the famous speech that breaking the deadlock admitted squadrists responsibility for the murder and proclaimed the beginning of the so-called "open face dictatorship".

De Bono's "Ceka"

The first secret police was within the Fascist Party, and was called "Ceka", taking its name from the italianization of the Soviet political police.
The fascist Ceka was born in 1924 from the meeting of a dozen squads violent, fanatical and willing to do anything, and the head of press office of the Presidency of the Council, Cesare Rossi. The latter was the liaison between the organization and the Prime Minister and was also the person in charge of recruitment of informants, often chosen in journalistic circles.
Ceka was a real parallel structure, responsible for a long series of attacks that were part of a strategy intended aiming to remove all the elements that were deemed dangerous for fascism. There were several beatings committed as part of this strategy of violence, including the destruction of the house of former Prime Minister Nitti, who had missed the underlying message of intimidation to violent action decided to leave Italy soon after, and March 12, 1924, a few weeks before the elections lies the beating of Caesar Ovens promoter un'eterodossa list of fascists Pavia then left to die at the train station in Milan.
The first and immediate consequence of the crime was the end of the secrecy of the Cheka had hitherto enjoyed, putting it under investigation and the downfall of Emilio De Bono lost his job as head of the police, then given to Crispo Moncada.

Attacks on Mussolini and the reform of political police

After Mussolini had crushed the weak legal opposition, hostility to Fascism continued to express themselves through the solo and clumsy individuals who tried to kill the Duce. None of the attackers had no luck. These actions put in relief the inefficiency of prevention the responsibility of law enforcement agencies and the inadequacy of the direction of Crispo Moncada, immediately hit by a barrage of criticism that led him to resign September 13, 1926. The attacks fornrono Mussolini a pretext to further accentuate the measures of repression.
Among the legislative measures there was also a Royal Decree which reformed the structures responsible for maintaining public order and the fight against anti-fascism enhancing the skills and organization. Thus was born, in the voice of the Chief of Police, "Police Division policy" aimed at rationalizing the fight against fascism, by collecting information about opponents trust, alongside the General Affairs Division and reserved that increased the number of its informants.
The latter held a real spy activity: penetrated into the underground structures of the opposition parties, focusing the Communist Party which, moreover, was the only one with the power to reorganize in total secrecy, aiming to destroy the cells that were spred more or less all over the country.

Early times of the O.V.R.A.

The new and improved structure was entrusted to Arturo Bocchini. At its inside, the Directorate General of Public Security was structured on a Secretariat of the Head and seven Divisions. Among these the most important was the "Division of Political Police" who ran the spy network. On this occasion, the political police had its consecration of major organ of the state and the management of Arturo Bocchini could also ensure a degree of independence from the fascist party and its controls.
Within the Directorate General of Public Security the General Inspectorate of Police was established on May 27, 1927, and its first centre was established in Milan: it was created as the 1st O.V.R.A. Zone who had expertise in Lombardy, Veneto, Piedmont, Val d'Aosta, Liguria and Venezia Giulia, ie the regions most prone to accept the anti-fascist activities.
In December 1930, at the conclusion of a major operation against the Milanese group Justice and Freedom, all the General Inspectorate took the name "O.V.R.A.": on December 2, 1930 the Duce named the O.V.R.A. as "Special Section".
The new inspectorates O.V.R.A. focused more energy in the fight against the communists. The structure built by the leaders of the PCdI was widespread and well inserted in the meshes of the fascist society. Moreover, could rely on a coordination center abroad in Lugano and an inner core, headed by Camilla Ravera. It was therefore extended a struggle that had as main performers police informers. Using a network of undercover agents, the Inspectorates were able to capture many Communist militants and completing some large operations.
The major operation against the communists was completed in October 1927, when he was arrested Hofmaier Karl, head of the Red Aid Guglielmo Jonna and Gastone Sozzi, the informant staff of Togliatti. In addition, it was found and impounded the laboratory equipped by the party to the falsification of documents. Guglielmo Jonna provided news on party cadres, the clandestine locations, working methods, ciphers secrets about links with the center and abroad with the International.
Unfortunately, things did not go exactly the same way. The first failure of operative and investigative came with the episode that developed around the explosion of a bomb placed in a street light in Piazzale Giulio Cesare in Milan, April 12, 1928. 14 people died and 30 were injured just 15 minutes from the passage of a royal procession. The police lost no time in just a few hours after the incident was at work. We followed the trail along anarchist and communist, but all assumptions drawn by the confidants soon become, at a closer look, completely invented. Were reported to the Special Tribunal for the defense of the State, as responsible for the massacre of Milan and other minor attacks, 15 people whose names were the result of a rough time as incorrect. The commission investigation of the Special Tribunal, however, thought it could not open a criminal case for lack of evidence.
In mid-1929 the O.V.R.A. suffered a further setback with an escape from the prison island of Lipari Emilio Lussu, Francesco Fausto Nitti and Emilio Carlo Rosselli. The suppression of cell life in Milan Justice and Liberty became the primary objective of O.V.R.A. work, work that became the most important undertaking completed thirties. Through the study of the Milan nucleus of Justice and Freedom, the O.V.R.A. managed to reconstruct the plots hatched between this cell and the French and Swiss emigre opposition in connection with internal anti-fascism.

'30s and '40s changes

In the thirties the O.V.R.A. was expanded and reorganized. In 1936 there was a first reform that saw again the relationship between the political police, prefects and Quaestors. This reform followed two years the publication of the "Decalogue" which reorganized the work of the informants. The author of the rationalization was the new director of the "Political Police Division", Guido Leto.
The ten rules, which according to the said document, no informant would have had to forget was heavily influenced by the objectivity of the information, the secrecy of the work and the utmost care in the selection criteria of its informants.
In the early '40s O.V.R.A. changed the focus point. Since the anti-Fascist organizations were less dangerous than in the past, Inspectorates O.V.R.A. shifted their attention to the company in order to offer the regime the exact picture of the national spirit. The Duce, regularly updated on the work of the special inspectors, could thus realize real-time "humour of the country".
The proclamation of the Italian Social Republic created the political conditions to separate the O.V.R.A. from the Public Security; however, the separation did not occur immediately or with only one blow: in 1947, the O.V.R.A. was established as a separate Division within Directorate General of Public Security, while only in 1954 the Directorate General for the Repression of Anti-fascism (Direzione Generale per la Repressione dell'Antifascismo, DGRA) was established under the Ministry of Interior. The DGRA progressively accentuated its yet well developed stately features, while the African War and its aftermaths favoured a further identification between Italy and Fascism.

The DGRA from the 1960s to the 1970s crisis

1950s and 1960s were decades of intense fight against the Communist oppostion backed by the Eastern Bloc. In these years, the DGRA cooperated intensively with the Central Intelligence Agency, in order to thwart the common Communist enemy and assumed a more intelligence-oriented connotation, rather than a those of a mere "eradication agency".
The DGRA was increasingly infiltrated by Western intelligence agencies, and became a sort of cradle for pro-western views, while at the same time some forms of intelligence organizations began to be formed again not only within the Public Security apparatus, but also within the G.N.R. and the National Fascist Party; with the increasing difficulties met in dealing with modern challenges trhough a 1920s mentality, Benito Mussolini's health started to decline seriously. In the wake of a growing insecurity, security detalis and units increased, ranging from a bunch of bodyguards to large security organizations.
During most of the Seventies, the widespread social conflicts and terrorist massacres carried out by extremist groups met the DGRA completely unprepared, and substantially uncapable to organize a steady response; the DGRA was put under public fire, while the Public Security re-established its own Confidential Affairs Division, in order to effectively counter both subversion and terrorism.

Political security of the Kingdom of Italy

The Kingdom of Italy has several national security agencies and bodies. Such a variety of bodies is deliberately pursued in order to achieve a double goal: on one hand, it enhances the "philosophical approaches" to the protection of the Regime security and multiplies the information sources; on the other hand, it makes it more difficult for an agency to accumulate too much power and independence.
The Ministry of the Interior is authorized to employ M.V.S.N. taking over special services; the Militia, as well as a territorial system of the Political Offices of Investigation, even controls the O.V.R.A. (since it has been detached from the Public Security); the O.V.R.A. acts as the main and foremost internal intelligence service and relies on the Legions' Political Offices of Investigation and, in necessary, on extraordinary and ad hoc M.V.S.N. units set up in the environments of interest. The Specialities of the Militia assigned to support the Directorate-General of P.S. are true executive law enforcement agencies operating under the management authority of P.S. but always dependent for administration and discipline by the General Command of the Militia.
The Central Security Office is delegated to the coordination between the police forces as regards the protection of the state against the threat of severe extent. Although the Central Security Office is part of the M.V.S.N., it is subordinate to the Directorate General of Public Security.
The principal part of political surveillance is entrusted to the Ministry of Interior through the establishment of a political police service and the establishment of a regular political border service. The Directorate-General of Public Security also employs a dedicated intelligence service. The operational link between the territorial M.V.S.N. and the administration of P.S. is realized at the provincial level, i.e. between the Legion's Political Office of Investigation and the Questura's Political Office, which relies also on the Local Police (even for tasks not normally requested to them) and private security agencies (in turn heavily linked with the P.S. apparatus on their own).
Similar to the specialities of the Militia, also Carabinieri units depend operationally on the Authority of Public Security but dependent for administration and discipline on the Ministry of Defence. Outside of the Carabinieri, which are permanently on public security service, if necessary, the competent political authority can request troop for service of public security. Since this possibility derives the subordination to the Director General of the National Security, respecting its autonomy, of the Military Information Service.
Last but not least, information tasks belong to organizations reporting directly to the National Fascist Party (including the Fascist Unions). The confidential informants of the O.V.R.A. are recruited to a significant extent between the members to Fascist Borough Groups; on the other hand, the Quaestor keeps in touch with the local Federal Secretary, who in turn is the local political referent of the M.V.S.N. Moreover, the Party's action, in respect of anti-fascist subjects, takes the form of both political struggle and (especially) the character as a real policing activity. This stems from the Party's position, gramted to it by law and recognized by the case law, as establishment of public law, subject, in its formation and in its activities, to the State, controlled by the State, but together inescapably presupposed by the State, in order to continue to being a Fascist State, and therefore essential to the very life of the State, as a Fascist State.

Anti-terrorism in Italy

Due to the plurality of organizations devoted to the national security in Italy, the anti-terrorism is a complex matter. The anti-terrorism legislation requires collaboration among organizations that deal with internal and external security.
On the one hand, the intelligence services are required to provide the relevant judicial police with the information and evidence relating to facts configurable as crimes, provided they do not conflict with the protection of the security requirements. On the other hand, all the agents and the Judicial Police officers have a duty to provide all possible cooperation to the agents of the intelligence services.
Under the legislation, the intelligence services are intended to be all agencies primarily dedicated to information-collection activity, whose members are deprived of the qualification, even occasionally, of "Judicial Police Agent" or "Officer of Judicial Police" and "Agent of Public Security" or "Officer of Public Security". In practice this means the anti-terrorism services of the Political Police Division, the Confidential Affairs Division, the O.V.R.A. and the S.I.M.

Operational methods

Italy’s approach to counterterrorism has its roots in the country’s long battle against organized crime and internal subversion, in which individual liberties are considered to be structurally far less important than State/national security and therefore take a back seat to enforcement and prevention.
Security law was originally intended and developed in order to battle the mafia and internal subversion; it gives law enforcement authorities broad powers, which are repurposed and aggressively implemented for combating transnational terrorism. In order to curb the Islamic terrorism, both anti-mafia and anti-terror laws are combined: personal preventive measures that are applied to mafia suspects have been transposed into Italian counterterrorism laws, in addition to laws specifically designed to combat terrorism. The key words are "suspect" and "preventive measures", because what happens is not the outcome of a trial and a conviction but of an administrative decision (usually issued by the Police on notice by O.V.R.A. or other security/intelligence agencies) designed to prevent the offence. The surveillance may go on for years, even extending to other people.
In case of imminent threats to national security, the State Security Special Court may order the arrest, the detention and the deportation of dangerous people. Generally, the judicial procedure is followed, and non-judicial arrest or detention (outside by the police measures) avoided if possible. In case of people charged with insufficient evidence to be sentenced with lenghty prison terms to serve, bus still deemed dangerous, the general way is the administrative expulsion (de facto ordered by the O.V.R.A. and formally issued by the relevant Prefect), which is carried out with procedures even stricter than the average expulsions.

Director General of the National Security

The Director General of the National Security (Italian: Direttore Generale della Sicurezza Nazionale) is the official required to serve as principal advisor to the Duce, the Chief of Government, and the P.N.F. National Secretary intelligence matters related to national security, serve as head of the Committee for Information and Security and direct and oversee the intelligence programmes. He therefore acts as the intelligence counterpart of the Director General of the Public Security-Chief of Police. Furthermore, the Director is given overall responsibility for the security apparatus. The Director of the National Security is always the Director-General of the O.V.R.A.

Director-General of the O.V.R.A.

Every Director-General of the O.V.R.A. must hold a rank of at least National Inspector in the National Fascist Party and the rank of M.V.S.N. Lieutenant General, have a reputation for personal integrity and possess a strong political and management background.

Joint Committee for Special Operations

The Joint Committee for Special Operations consisted of Chief of Government, the Duce, and other senior security officials, including representatives of the Director General of the National Intelligence, the G.N.R., the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the O.V.R.A. It is responsible for coordinating activities devoted to gathering intelligence and special weapons technology abroad. Any decision made by the Committee must be approved by the Duce, after which a member of the committee would be in charge of executing the order with the help of the O.V.R.A.'s Special Operations department.

Organization

O.V.R.A. consists of 12 Central Directorates and three auxiliary bodies:

• Secretariat of the O.V.R.A.
• O.V.R.A. Technical Support Staff
• O.V.R.A. Archives
• O.V.R.A. Irregulars
• First Central Directorate (Foreign Operations) – foreign espionage.
  • Counter-propaganda Division
  • International Liaison Division
• Second Central Directorate – counter-intelligence, internal political security.
• Third Central Directorate (Armed Forces) – counter-intelligence and armed forces political surveillance. The staff monitor every formation and echelon in the armed forces, and investigate corruption and embezzlement within the armed services.
  • Embassies Division: a counter-intelligence unit in charge of monitoring foreign embassies and detecting espionage.
• Fourth Central Directorate - General analysis
  • Strategic Analysis Division
  • Documents and Analysis Division (including Analysis and Studies Section)
• Fifth Central Directorate – censorship and internal security against artistic and political dissension.
  • Anti-Cults Unit
• Sixth Central Directorate (Economic Counter-intelligence, industrial security); it cooperates primarily with the GRdF.
  • Industrial and Economic Counter-Threat Division
• Seventh Central Directorate (Surveillance) – of Italian nationals and foreigners.
• Eighth Central Directorate – monitored-managed national, foreign, and overseas communications, cryptologic equipment, and R&S.
  • Cabinet RS/33 - located in Nemesis
  • Telecommunications Interception Unit
• Ninth Central Directorate (Guards and Protection Service) - The uniformed bodyguard for the Regime leaders and families (both State and Party), guards critical government installations (nuclear weapons, etc.) and secure Government–Party telephony.
• Tenth Central Directorate (Security of Government Installations)
• Eleventh Central Directorate (SIGINT and communications interception) - operates the national and government telephone and telegraph systems.
• Twelfth Central Directorate – Analysis and research laboratories for recording devices and Laboratory 12 for poisons and drugs.

Secretariat of the O.V.R.A.

The office of the Director General of the O.V.R.A. is the source of all instructions and directives. The Head of Directors' Office is usually a Colonel, currently Colonel Amedeo Finestra, while the Private Secretary is Captain Adriano Salamanca. The Secretariat of the O.V.R.A. has some internal subdivisions:

• O.V.R.A. Audit and Inspection Department;
• O.V.R.A. Security Department;
• O.V.R.A. Salaries Department;
• O.V.R.A. Internal and external co-ordination Department;
• O.V.R.A. Administration Department;
• O.V.R.A. Personnel Department - Responsible for the conduct of officers and other members of O.V.R.A.. The Department is responsible for the issuing of papers, passports, and marriage sanctions for all O.V.R.A. employees;
• O.V.R.A. Finance Department.

O.V.R.A. Technical Support Staff

The O.V.R.A. Technical Support Staff is responsible for the fingerprinting of all O.V.R.A. employees and the development of materials needed for covert offensive operations. These include weapons, explosives and poisons. The O.V.R.A. TSS also assembles cameras, communications equipment and employed many engineers and scientists with advanced degrees.

First Central Directorate

O.V.R.A. Brigadier General Marcello Valentini was appointed chief of the Centre for Direct Actions (abroad political warfare) on June 2, 2013.

The First Central Directorate of the O.V.R.A. is the organization responsible for foreign operations and intelligence collection activities by the training and management of the covert agents, intelligence collection management, collection of political intelligence and the performing of some direct actions. It was formed within O.V.R.A. structures in 1955, splitting from the military intelligence service. By 1961, foreign intelligence Division was given the highest status and was enlarged to directorate. Nowadays the Directorate includes a number of offices responsible for the collection of information about a specific country or region.
The first head of FCD was Amerigo Dumini, the murderer of Giacomo Matteotti. One of the first foreign operations personally supervised by Dumini himself was Operation Rhine, the attempted assassination of a émigré leader in France. Nowadays, the First Central Directorate has six geographical Divisions and some functional ones:

• European Division
• African Division
• American Division
• United States Division
• Arab Countries Division
• Asia and the Pacific Division
• Counter-propaganda Division
• International Liaison Division
• Internal Situation Division
• Centre for Direct Action

Counter-propaganda Division

The Counter-propaganda Division, said to be the largest department in the First Central Directorate, is in charge of fighting false positive information about Italian dissidents and disseminating, as well as creating false and faulty information against the same targets. The section has a large staff, many of whom are former dissidents who had lured by money to work with the organization.

International Liaison Division

The International Liaison Division (Divisione Collegamenti Internazionali, D.C.I.) is the most secret department of the whole P.N.F. organization; despite being part of the O.V.R.A., the Division is in direct touch with the innermost heart of the Fascist party. The Division is the P.N.F.'s department for the coordination of revolutionary and conspiratorial activities. Some of its functions overlap with those of the rest of the First Central Directorate, but the Division maintains its own set of operations and had its own representative on the highest authorities of each Fascist/National-social party abroad. However, as a party branch, the Division also arranges for open financial support of parties abroad, transmits open instructions, prepares papers, takes care of visiting Fascist leaders quartered in Rome's Hotel Mediterraneo.

Internal Situation Division

The First Central Directorate, through the Internal Situation Division, has operational control over the diplomatic structures operating in Italy. A heavy task considering that, only in Rome, there are twice as many diplomatic representations, both for the Italian State and for the Vatican.
The Internal Situation Division has an experience gained over time. Sources, contacts, controls, listening activities, activities in some cases at the limit of "legality" with, if necessary, the violation of a diplomatic seat.

Centre for Direct Actions

"Direct actions" are a form of political warfare conducted by the fascist security services to influence the course of world events. Direct actions range from media manipulations to attacks involving various degree of violence.
Direct actions included the establishment and support of organizations, foreign fascist parties, wars abroad and underground, revolutionary, insurgency, criminal, and terrorist groups. Occasionally, O.V.R.A. assassinates the enemies of Italy abroad — principally anti-fascist leaders.
The Centre for Direct Actions is responsible for the most secret and sensitive operations undertaken outside of Italy, including assassination. The Centre is also responsible for the training of officers for operations of this nature and has an its own subdivision:

• Special Operations Office, composed of a foreign and a domestic section, performs Duce-sanctioned assassinations inside or outside of Italy;
• Training Office: provides training for all O.V.R.A. officers going abroad;
• Counterterrorism Office: handles counterterrorism activities in Italy and at embassies;
• Administrative Office provides support services such as administration, finances, communications, and logistics.

O.V.R.A. Residency

The So-called Legal Resident is a spy who operates in a foreign country under diplomatic cover. He is an official member of the consular staff, such as a commercial, cultural or military attaché. Thus he has diplomatic immunity from prosecution and cannot be arrested by the host country if suspected of espionage. The most the host country can do is send him back to his home country. And he is in charge of the Residency and the personnel. He is also an un fficial contact who well-known people in government for contact that is use in times of crisis.
Each Residency is divided into Sections, each Section being responsible for its assigned task of gathering intelligence, and one of the sections is responsible for counterintelligence.
The O.V.R.A.'s FCD Residency is divided in two parts:

• O.V.R.A. Resident
  • Operational staff
    • Political Section - collects information about political, economic, and military strategic intelligence, also active measures
    • Counterintelligence Section - Counterintelligence and Security
  • Special Reservists

Counterintelligence section plays a big role in the Residency, being responsible for counterintelligence and security of residency consulate and the embassy that housed the residency. This responsibility fell on CI Section. Who is arrested by the officers from CI section are taken to Italy: there they are passed into the hands of O.V.R.A. Central Directorate counterintelligence.

Second Central Directorate

The Second Central Directorate deals with internal security and stability. The Directorate fights against both subversion (external and/or internal) and organized crime, such as Mafia, Camorra, 'Ndrangheta and Sacra Corona Unita. The jurisdiction of the Second Directorate is both Italy and the other Realms of the Italian Empire: therefore, the Directorate has both functional and geographic subdivisions. The Directorate is the main partner of the Central Security Office, and the latter actually acts as the external façade of most O.V.R.A. official and overt operations. The Directorate has seven specialized subdivisions:

• Organized Crime Centre
• Environmental Issues Division
• Subversion Internet Referral Division
• Special Security Inspectorate: mainly dealing with Islamic terrorism and extremism;
• National Computer Centre for the Protection of Critical Infrastructures;
• Computer Interference Bureau;
• Public Opinion Office: is responsible for collecting and disseminating rumours.
• Personal Political Archives
• General Affairs Division
  • Office of Security
  • Office of Operations
  • Office of Protection

The main peripheral overt tentacles of the Second Central Directorate are the General Command Political Office and the Political Information Offices of each Legion, while the Directorate operates its own Counter-espionage centres (Centri Controspionaggio, CS) in Padua, Milan, Turin, Rome, Naples, Palermo and Cagliari.
Second Directorate's activities took place in both Italy and abroad, with agents infiltrated within Government departments, the National Fascist Party, associations, unions and organizations, embassies and clandestine opposition parties; it divides the Italian territory into six districts: North-West (Milan), North-East (Padua), Centre (Rome), South (Naples), Sicily (Palermo) and Sardinia (Cagliari).

Computer Interference Bureau

The Computer Interference Bureau exercises an activity based on close cooperation with public and private entities of national strategic importance, and with the Police Forces.

Subversion Internet Referral Division

The Subversion Internet Referral Division is the O.V.R.A. organization tasked to remove subversive and/or terrorist material content from the Internet with a focus on Italy-based material. The Division also compiles a list of URLs for material hosted outside the Italian Empire which are blocked on networks of the public estate.
The Division holds responsibility for the implementation of aspects of the Government's counter-terrorism policy and are the custodians of a continuously updated proscribed list of websites that is considered under the act to be illegal to access or attempt to access. The list details thousands of URL's that, for one reason or another, cannot or will not be removed from internet search provider's or search engines. The list is one of the weapons employed by the Government as part of its drive to implement the prevention policy and ensure other legislation are enforceable.

Special Security Inspectorate

The Inspectorate is under the direct management of the Second Central Directorate, for intelligence purposes in the fight against the guerrillas in the former colonies as well as the Islamic extremism and Jihad, both at home and abroad. The Inspectorate is formed by chosen personnel whose loyalty to the Duce and to the Kingdom of Italy has been proven beyond any doubt. Its General Headquarters are in Naples, with Detached Headquarters being in Tirana, Tripoli, Benghazi, Addis Ababa, Mogadishu and Asmara. The Special Security Inspectorate is deeply involved in countering and disrupting locals' efforts to join the Jihad and the various Islamic militant organization. In order to achieve this result, the Detached Headquarters operate in the strictest collaboration with the domestic intelligence services of the individual Realms of the Italian Empire. The operational tactical units are five Mobile Assault Nucleus.

Personal Political Archives

The Personal Political Archives collects and analyses intelligence on and prepares responses to enemies of the state. Headed by Major Gualtiero Visentin, this branch maintains extensive computer files on all Italians and Empire citizens who have been identified as possible dangerous dissidents or subversives.

Ninth Central Directorate

The Ninth Central Directorate is the O.V.R.A. security force which provides men for the protection of high-ranking leaders of the Fascist Regime, and major government facilities (including nuclear-weapons stocks). Among its various responsibilities the Directorate is charged with helping the protection of those holding sensitive positions.
Its role also includes personal security, investigation of assassination plots, surveillance of locations before the arrival of dignitaries and vetting buildings as well as guests. The Directorate has the power to request assistance from any other M.V.S.N., G.N.R. and Party organisation and to take command of all Police in its role protecting the Fascist functionaries. The main uniformed unit is the "Musketeers of the Duce" Regiment (it.: "Reggimento Moschettieri del Duce") of the National Royal Guard.
Within the Directorate there are some internal bodies:

• Self-defence Office: provides bodyguards for senior Directorate personnel.
• Office of Presidential Facilities: provides protection and security to the Duce's Offices, Council of Ministers, Parliament, and the headquarters of the National Fascist Party.
• Armoury Centre
• Special Service

Special Service

The Special Service is a secret protective service of the Ninth Directorate, who is responsible directly to the Duce's bodyguard services.
Ranks of the Special Service are filled with the most loyal troops, whose dedication to Fascism and to Romano Debalti personally had been tested on numerous occasions. These troops face considerable danger because the assassination attempts on the president and on his close associates usually means loss of life among bodyguards. Survivors are generously rewarded, however.

Intelligence organizations of the other Realms of the Italian Empire

О.Б.C.П./O.B.S.Pa. logo.

The O.V.R.A. strictu sensu is responsible only for the Kingdom of Italy, but there are also secret police and intelligence agencies in each Realm part of the Italian Empire. They were established with the establishment of the relevant Autonomous Republic. These agencies are strictly controlled by the Director General of the O.V.R.A.:

• Albania: O.V.S.A. (Organizata për Vigjilencë dhe Shtypjen e Antifashizmit);
• Montenegro: О.Б.C.П., O.B.S.Pa. (Организација за Будност и Cузбијању Pротивфашизма, Organizacija za Budnosti i Suzbijanju Protivfašizma);
• Lybia: Mukhabarat (Mukhabarat el-Jamahiriya, مخابرات الجماهيرية‎);
• Eritrea: O.V.R.A., Y.D. (Organizzazione per la Vigilanza e la Repressione dell'Antifascismo, የስለላ ድርጅት, Yäsläla Drjt)
• Somalia: Hangash (Hay'adda Nabad Gal'yada Gaashaandhiga)
• Ethiopia: Y.D. (የስለላ ድርጅት, Yäsläla Drjt)

The "O.V.R.A. daughters" operate within the relevant Realm of the Italian Empire, cooperate with their local Governments and ordinarily deal with their own affairs in autonomy; however, on major cases all "post-colonial" security organizations cooperate strictly with the "mother O.V.R.A.". In the most recent years, the African "daughters" are primarily concerned with the fight against Islamic extremism and militant groups.

O.V.S.A.

The Albanian O.V.R.A. (Organizata për Vigjilencë dhe Shtypjen e Antifashizmit, O.V.S.A.) is the Albanian Fascist State security service. The organization was established in 1983, in order to consolidate several organizations and to allow a better control over Albanian security apparatus. Alongside to classical security tasks, the O.V.S.A. is also used to manage internal anti-fascist dissent and protect the interests of the individual members of the Regime. Its responsibilities also extend to issues related to the protection of the constitutional order and specifically encompass a role in fighting organized crime, illegal trafficking, and terrorism.
The O.V.S.A. personnel are trained internally and are centrally assigned to six Divisions. The O.V.S.A. has a national headquarters and Provincial headquarters in each of Albania's twelve Provinces. The Provincial Headquarters replicate the central structure; they are led by O.V.S.A. personnel, and they rely upon the local Albanian Fascist Militia. The six Divisions are:

• Technical Operations Division;
• Leadership and Facilities Protection Division;
• Counter-Espionage Division;
• Counter-Organized Crime Division;
• General Political Control Division: the Division's primary function is monitoring the ideological correctness of party members and other citizens. It is responsible for keeping an eye over the party, government, military, and its own apparatus, against foreign spies and internal dissidents.
  • Censorship Central Office: it operates within the press, web, radio, newspapers, and other communications media as well as within cultural societies, schools, and other organizations. The Central Office does not pursue a repressive policy.
• Anti-fascism Repression Division: the Division focuses mainly on serious dissent.

Mukhabarat

Due to the poor security conditions, Mukhabarat operatives often search suks and bazars to round up rebel agents.

The Libyan Mukhabarat (officially Mukhabarat el-Malakia , M.M., المخابرات الملكية) is the security service of the United Kingdom of Libya. It was established early in 1951, in order to act as an indigenous branch of the O.V.R.A. The M.J. has been deeply involved since rising 2009 tensions, in 2011 civil war and in its aftermath. Therefore, due to the ongoing emergency, its ranks have been greatly expanded. The current organization includes four main Directorates and several Divisions:

• Internal Security Directorate
  • General Security Division
  • Political Security Central Bureau
  • Senussyia Division
• Military Intelligence Directorate
  • Military interrogation Division
  • Officers’ affairs Division
  • Security of forces Division
• Palestinian Affairs Directorate
• Information Directorate
  • Investigative Division
• Operations Directorate
  • Special Operations Division

The M.M. also has four Regional Delegations: Tunis, Tripoli, Benghazi, Sabha. Arrests performed directly by the Mukhabarat are carried out very quietly. The suspect is usually lured into a trap in a quiet zone of the city/town, and then approached by plain clothes agents. They transfer the suspect into friendly houses or shops, and then ordinary-looking cars bring him or her into the Mukhabarat buildings.
Mukhabarat interrogation methods are very harsh and brutal. When someone is arrested, he or she is immediately conducted into the nearest Mukhabarat station. Each Mukhabarat station is an environment of darkness, beatings and intimidation. Inside the interrogation rooms, the detained person is made me kneel and pulled what a car tyre over arms; interrogations are harsh and often the agent is tasked to break the human dignity, in order to crush moral resistances or even to induct a total breakdown. Then, interrogators work professionally and tirelessly to keep the suspect on edge at every step of the questioning process over several days. The questioning sessions last several hours each, and mostly include beatings. The suspect is ordinarily blindfolded to add fear and pain to fear and pain.
Mukhabarat agents often make use torture, and during tortures victims are mostly hooded. Cells are ordinarily windowless, and have only a mattress, lit by a small neon light, and infested by cockroaches. There are two poor meals per day, each consisting of bread, potatoes and tomatoes, as well as 0.5 litres water ration. Prisoners are escorted also when going to the toilet.

Hangash

The Hangash (Somali: Hay'adda Nabad Gal'yada Gaashaandhiga), an acronym standing for Military Intelligence Unit, is the Somali intelligence agency, a branch of the Italian O.V.R.A. Headquartered in Mogadishu, Hangash is tasked with firming up security. NISA personnel have conducted security operations against Al-Shabaab elements. The aim of Hangash is to protection of Somalian national security and its interests around the world. Hangash is divided into several sections which deal with issues of foreign affair to internal policing.
Hangash is subordinate to the Somali Interior Ministry, and to the Director General of the O.V.R.A. Hangash is an elite organization whose key officers maintain close links to Fascist Party. The Hangash headquarters are at the villa in the Modagadishu International Airport; Hangash has 18 branches across the country.

Counterterrorism force

The Gaashaan (Somali for "Shield") Unit is a counterterrorism commando force consisting of two units totalling 120 troops. It constitutes a fundamental part of Hangash. Alpha Group is Gaashan's first component, and includes around 40 soldiers and 3 officers selected from amongst Somali National Republican Guard troops. Alpha Group's training regimen includes counter-insurgency, counter-terror operation and executive-protecting, with an emphasis on quick reaction in an urban environment. The soldiers are also equipped with guns with night-vision scopes, among other modern military hardware. Gaashaan's second counter-terrorism unit is the Beta Group.

See also

• Law enforcement in the Kingdom of Italy
• Italian National Royal Guard (Kingdom of Italy)
• M.V.S.N. (Kingdom of Italy)