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

Revision as of 19:15, 9 April 2014

Organizzazione per la Vigilanza e la Repressione dell'Antifascismo
O.V.R.A. emblem
Active	1927 - Present
Country	Italian Social Republic
Branch	State security
Size	143,382
Part of	National Fascist Party
Headquarters	Forte Balbo, Roma, Italy
March	Giovinezza
Colors	Black, Silver

The Organizzazione per la Vigilanza e la Repressione dell'Antifascismo (O.V.R.A.; Italian for "Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism") is the secret police of the Italian Social Republic, founded in 1927 under the regime of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and during the reign of King Victor Emmanuel III. OVRA are assigned to stop any anti-Fascist activity or sentiment. Until 1946 OVRA was dependent on the Ministry of Interior as part of it, but with the proclamation of the Social Republic it became an autonomous service, dependent on the Duce of the Fascism and on the Secretary of National Fascist Party as an autonomous branch of the Party itself. The OVRA is headed by Marco "Giacinto" Pannella.
The O.V.R.A. also is considered a military service and is governed by army laws and regulations: with the National Republican Guard and the MVSN, OVRA is the main security hold of the National Fascist Party. Being all party-related organizations, GNR provides military force needed by OVRA. OVRA'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.
The OVRA acts also as a part of the Central Security Office: is tasked with the protection of the Regime and the carrying out of independent intelligence service. OVRA and military intelligence are two main espionage organizations and they are old concurrents. As part of the internal security system, OVRA 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.

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 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 OVRA

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 OVRA 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 "OVRA": on December 2, 1930 the Duce named the OVRA as "Special Section".
The new inspectorates OVRA 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 OVRA 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 OVRA work, work that became the most important undertaking completed thirties. Through the study of the Milan nucleus of Justice and Freedom, the OVRA 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 OVRA was expanded and reorganized. In 1936 there was a first reform that saw again the relationship between the political police, prefects and Quaestors. To this followed two years after the publication of the "Decalogue" which reorganized the work of the trustees. 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 OVRA changed the focus point. Since the anti-Fascist organizations were less dangerous than in the past, Inspectorates OVRA orientarono 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".

Organization

OVRA consists of 12 Central Directorates and three auxiliary bodies:

• Secretariat of the OVRA
  • OVRA Administration Department
  • OVRA Personnel Department - Directorate 6 – Responsible for the conduct of officers and other members of OVRA. The Department is responsible for the issuing of papers, passports, and marriage sanctions for all OVRA employees.
  • OVRA Finance Department
• OVRA Technical Support Staff
• OVRA Archives
• OVRA Irregulars
• OVRA special operations units
• First Central Directorate (Foreign Operations) – foreign espionage.
• Second Central Directorate – counter-intelligence, internal political control.
• Third Central Directorate (Armed Forces) – counter-intelligence and armed forces political surveillance.
• Fourth Central Directorate (Transportation security)
• Fifth Central Directorate – censorship and internal security against artistic and political dissension.
• Sixth Central Directorate (Economic Counter-intelligence, industrial security)
• Seventh Central Directorate (Surveillance) – of Italian nationals and foreigners.
• Eighth Central Directorate – monitored-managed national, foreign, and overseas communications, cryptologic equipment, and research and development.
  • 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 – research laboratories for recording devices and Laboratory 12 for poisons and drugs.

OVRA Technical Support Staff

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

First Central Directorate

The First Central Directorate of the OVRA 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 OVRA 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.

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, OVRA assassinates the enemies of Italy abroad — principally anti-fascist leaders.

Internal organization

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 was divided into Sections, each Section being responsible for its assigned task of gathering intelligence, and one of the sections is responsible for counterintelligence.
The OVRA's FCD Residency is divided in two parts:

• OVRA 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 OVRA 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 Autonomous Republics: 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 OVRA official and overt operations.

• Organized Crime Centre
• Special Security Inspectorate
• National Computer Centre for the Protection of Critical Infrastructures

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 Counterespionage centres (Centri Controspionaggio, CS) in Padua, Milan, Turin, Rome, Neaples, 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.

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. The Inspectorate is formed by chosen personnel whose loyalty to the Duce and the Italian Social Republic is beyond any doubt. Its General Headquarters are in Neaples, with Republic Headquarters being in Tripoli, Benghazi, Adis Abeba, Mogadishu and Asmara. Its operational units are five Mobile Assault Nucleus.

Ninth Central Directorate

The Ninth Central Directorate is the OVRA security force which provides men for the protection of high-ranking leaders of the Fascist Regime, and major government facilities (including nuclear-weapons stocks).
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 MVSN, GNR and Party organisations and 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 Republican Guard.

Special Service

The Special Service is a secret protective service of the Ninth Directorate, who is responsible directly to the Duce's bodyguard services.

Autonomous Republics organizations

The OVRA strictu sensu is responsible only for the Italian Social Republic, but there are also secret police agencies in each Republic part of the Empire. They were established with the establishment of the respective Autonomous Republic. These agencies are strictly controlled by the Director General of the OVRA:

• Albany: 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 "OVRA daughters" operate within the relevant Republic, 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 OVRA".