Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano
on Wednesday defended the DIS intelligence department after it
sued two Italian dailies over their reports on ties with Libya,
while expressing alarm about the situation in the North African
country.
"I find it strange that today they are chasing after things that
are half way between fiction and slander and there is little
interest in other things, such as the injury of a minister of
the Libyan government," Mantovano said referring to an
assassination attempt on the Minister for Cabinet Affairs Adel
Jomaa.
"This portrays a truly difficult, complex situation.
"So the intelligence services and the government are currently
following this situation with concern, trying to evaluate the
repercussions for Italy and Europe and trying to ask ourselves
what Europe and Italy can do to support Libya even more".
The DIS department, which coordinates Italy's intelligence
agencies, said Wednesday that it is taking legal action against
two newspapers, 'Il Foglio' and 'L'Unità', over what it
described as "false and defamatory" articles they published.
The department referred to an article by Luca Gambardella
published by Il Foglio on Tuesday which said Giovanni Caravelli,
the director of the AISE intelligence agency, recently went to
Libya to inform the authorities there about a list of Libyans
wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
It also referred to a piece by Piero Sansonetti in Wednesday's
L'Unità with a headline that said "Almasri's informer is the
head of our 007s".
That was a reference to Libyan judicial police chief Osama
Almasri, who was released on a technicality and flown back home
on a secret services plane two days after his January 19 arrest
by Italian authorities on an ICC warrant on charges of war
crimes and crimes against humanity.
"It is an anomaly that freedom of information can turn into
freedom to libel," Mantovano said.
"If you accuse an intelligence official, such as Prefect
Caravelli, of spying for Libya on the activities of the
International Criminal Court, you are accusing him of a crime.
"This explains why, precisely because of the asymmetries, hence
the limits of public exposure that intelligence service has, the
only defence is to go to court".
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