The earthquake still has to strike. This is because, as “L’Espresso” can anticipate, there are documents in Edward Snowden’s files that refer to espionage activities in our country. They used to say that Italy was like an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, while now it’s become the gateway for all communications in the Mediterranean: a strategic hub for the international traffic of telephone calls, e-mails and the Web. A place where nets can be dropped and some data-trawling can be done to capture conversations between Europe and the Middle East, intercepting the whole lot and then selecting targets where one can concentrate one’s attention. We were, and probably still are, under special surveillance. And not only in the quest for useful information to be employed in the fight against terrorists.

PREVENTIVE MEASURE. American and British secret agents have fished galore in Italian lines. These activities are described in the files that Snowden (the man who knows the innermost secrets of Washington and London Intelligence) has promised to reveal to the world in order to shed light on some of the darkest electronic espionage operations. Top management at NSA, the U.S. agency that manages global interceptions, is aware of this. And they have attempted to ward off the tsunami by inviting a delegation of parliamentarians from COPASIR, the committee that watches over our own secret services, on a visit to the United States in the spirit of friendship between two historical allies.

MPs and senators were offered a guided tour of the premises while NSA confirmed the fact that some interceptions were carried out in our country, but only limited to terrorist suspects. When Italian citizens ended up in their sights, as occurred in 2010 while investigating into plans for a terrorist attack in Naples, our national security bodies seemed to have been alerted immediately. Any deviations? Very few and limited: a handful of American officials were surprised using the super-system to supervise their wives. In other words, a reassuring picture without being able to conceal a certain degree of embarrassment. But not all COPASIR representatives were convinced. “We were not provided with any data regarding the dimensions of traffic surveillance. It seemed to me like an attempt at glasnost by someone with a guilty conscience”, declared Claudio Fava of the Sel Party.

FROM PRISM TO TEMPORA. Actually there was a massive collection of Italian communications. And it was done thanks to two parallel and converging programmes. The American NSA used PRISM, the global sensor illustrated to the parliamentarians. While the British GCHQ, namely Government Communications Headquarters, employed an even more modern and invasive system called Tempora. Paying special attention to our peninsula. On its Internet website, “L’Espresso” has revealed (together with a pool of other magazines such as “Süddeutsche Zeitung”) some bits of information from Snowden’s files regarding Tempora and its feelers. That have slipped into the key junctions of Italian lines.

SPIES IN THE CABLE. In fact, the British focused their attention on the great highways channelling data flow across the Mediterranean. They used submarine fibre optic cables that can transmit anything: telephone calls, e-mails, Internet access. A spider-web with a pillar: Sicily. Every conversation between the East and the West; between Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia has to use the island as a bridge. London Intelligence picked up what was conveyed even through three of the communication channels with nodes in Italy. The first one is SeaMeWe3, with one of its landing points in Mazara del Vallo. The second one is SeaMmeWe4, with a landing point in Palermo. FEA (Flag Europe Asia) data also flows through this city. British services have practically placed everything moving between these connections under surveillance.

SPARKLE NETWORK. The former two submarine cables belong to telephone company consortiums, one of which is Telecom Sparkle. How could they not have noticed the systematic espionage going on through their lines? It is worthwhile recalling that Telecom Sparkle was at the centre of a colossal scandal that actually involved the flow of data in its network: according to judges it represented a massive tax fraud. According to inquiry proceedings, artificial data traffic had been generated from Great Britain and was immediately retransmitted towards Paris, with a turnover equal to €1,193-million in only a matter of three years’ time: again according to proceedings, this traffic was manually processed without going through computer accounting. Company executives were acquitted a few days ago during the first instance trial: criminal liability for this operation has fallen upon Gennaro Mockbel, a Roman wheeler-dealer who made his way between Right-wing extremism and secret services.

NO BARRIERS. Not only does Tempora allow the interception of outgoing and ingoing communications in Italy. As explained to “L’Espresso” by Thomas Drake (the first NSA senior executive to report distortions in U.S. Intelligence), there exists the possibility of “slipping inside” through these cables and intercepting a country’s internal data flow: recording telephone conversations, copying e-mails, discovering which websites are consulted. There are no longer any limitations to the incursions of secret agents in electronics: every Italian conversation is within their reach. How many of them have been captured? Estimates still have not been drawn up for our country. According to Snowden’s information published by the “Guardian”, British Intelligence has sucked about 600-million telephone conversations per day from these cables. This represents an enormous mass of information: more than 200-billion conversations a year.

RULE BRITANNIA. Filtering the relevant data was done over the thirty days following mass interception. This selection was not only needed in the war against terrorism. Tempora is at the service of the global power of Her Majesty, a tool that brings to mind the imperialistic anthem entitled “Rule Britannia”. According to Snowden’s files, it seems that these communications were filtered using some unscrupulous criteria. Such as “political intentions of foreign governments”.

And this suggests how broad and targeted espionage actions were towards premiers, ministers and parliamentarians all over the world – Italy included. The list of priorities mentioned contrasting proliferation, namely the propagation of nuclear, bacteriological or chemical weapons in hostile nations. But this item might also include the supply of advanced technologies, be they military or of potential warfare: a sector where legitimate trade negotiations conducted by Italian companies with Arab nations may be inserted. How many times has this information been employed to damage competitors of British establishments? Additional documents regarding Tempora explicitly make reference to the possibility of collecting data in the interests of “the economic wellbeing of the United Kingdom”. The list also mentions “serious economic crimes”: a wide spectrum considering the fact that many international financial activities go through the City.

Then there is the struggle against drug trafficking: another item that might justify incursions into Italian conversations. And finally the “position of foreign governments on determined military matters”. Even in this case one might hypothesize our ministers’ telephones being tapped: suffice it to recall the issues that arose between Rome and London during the first stage of interventions in Libya two years ago. In other words, the licence to spy granted by British authorities is very vast and it entails keeping companies, politicians and men of State under surveillance.

THE ATLANTIC AXIS AND OUR OWN SECRET AGENTS. There is full-blown collaboration between the American NSA and the British CGHQ, with constant exchanges between these two Intelligence agencies. It’s as if PRISM and Tempora were passing the ball on to one another, warranting an unprecedented global vigilance of the planet. Some other countries participated in the great 007 game, although they were relegated to the background. According to Snowden’s files, our own services have an agreement with the GCHQ, namely with an organization that is exclusively engaged in communications espionage. It is defined as a “Third party agreement”, a “third level” deal. As explained to “L’Espresso” by Thomas Drake, who witnessed the birth of a mass surveillance programme in NSA in the wake of 9/11, “this type of agreement usually entails sharing Intelligence information and the means used to access it”. And here comes the question regarding responsibility of our services. Who authorized participation in this indiscriminate collection of telephone calls and e-mails? Which government signed or endorsed these agreements? Was it done with the awareness that even Italian citizens were being subjected to foreign wire-tapping? Barely, considering Enrico Letta has finally asked Vice-President Kerry for some explanations.

ITALIC BASHFULNESS. Top NSA management confirmed to COPASIR parliamentarians that Italian secret agents were aware of anti-terrorism recordings, being alerted when information was discovered on Italian citizens. But participating in this Tempora data-trawling might have caused some damage to our national interests: the British system can potentially even spy on ministers and companies. The role of our security systems is one of the key issues: “It is important to understand whether our services were kept in the dark about these activities”, explains Ettore Rosato from the Pd Party, former COPASIR member. In the meantime Snowden’s revelations have aroused some heated debates in Germany and France, compelling the White House into providing explanations.

All that has been recorded in Italy is some disquieting silence. The scandal has been ignored by Italian politics for four months, despite the fact that in June the American journalist Glenn Greenwald (the first to write about the NSA case) revealed to “L’Espresso” that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) “spies on many European governments, including Italy’s”. Only now that the French case has burst out has the Italian government decided to discreetly ask U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for some explanations. Just a few weeks ago Marco Minniti, Undersecretary with responsibility for the security services, affirmed during a convention on Intelligence that: “In today’s world, you only count for what you know”. That’s all well and good, but what do we really know about espionage that has been conducted in our own homes?