by Maria Scopece
The pandemic? It also showed the failure of intelligence. Word of a former general of ServicesStart Magazine What Paolo Costantini, general of the Guardia di Finanza reserve and former officer of the Italian intelligence and security services said, during the seminar "The impact of the Sars-Cov 2 pandemic on national security: new challenges for intelligence Italian ”organized by the Gino Germani Institute.
"All the intelligence apparatuses, not only the Italian one, were found to be very unprepared for the pandemic". This is the reflection of Paolo Costantini, general of the Guardia di Finanza reserve and former officer of the Italian intelligence and security services who analyzes the Covid19 pandemic in view of a threat passed under the noses of world intelligence agencies. The general participated in the seminar "The impact of the Sars-Cov 2 pandemic on national security: new challenges for Italian intelligence" organized by the Gino Germani Institute. Together with him are interventions by prof. Luigi Germani, prof. Michele Colajanni, dr. Eugenio Spina of the State Police, dr. Carlo Parolisi from Aise, Gen. Nicola Alfieri from DIA, Gen. Vincenzo Camporini and prof. Massimo Amorosi.
The clues not collected by intelligence on the pandemic
In his analysis, General Costantini highlighted how Italian and international intelligence has not caught the signs of a possible future pandemic crisis. "There was quite clear evidence, just think of the story that saw the Johns Hopkins Foundation and the Linda and Bill Gates Foundation as protagonists who on October 18, 2019 in the Event 201 simulation imagined a pandemic event that started in Brazil and that would have caused about 60 million deaths due to a pandemic virus that started from a pig farm ". Only a few months later that simulation almost became a reality.
The failure of Intelligence, the science of the first
"A global intelligence system should at least have perceived the existence of a threat." Also because dystopian simulations weren't the only signal on the ground. "We must also consider other signs" - continues Gen. Costantini -. The first is research by the largest pharmaceutical giants in the respiratory disease sector. Since 2017, major pharmaceutical groups, a sort of pharmaceutical holding, have been studying the effects of respiratory diseases with spread at a pandemic level ". Gen. Costantini does not mince words on the failure of information services. "Since intelligence is the science of the first and the signals are gathered by observing the daily life of certain actors who are more or less interested in certain sectors. Let's say that the intelligence failure is overt ".
Learning from mistakes: centralizing health and protecting the economy
Today we are experiencing what should be the final phase of the pandemic and its effects on health and the economy are still evident. "There is no doubt that the pandemic has led us to reflect on the safety of the health of all of us and on the safety of the economy of the countries in which we live - adds Gen. Costantini -. All economies have been affected as well as all nations have been affected at the health level by this affair. So intelligence must think in terms of protecting the economy and protecting economic systems that may be affected by similar events in the future. And speaking of our country, it makes me think how the national health system should no longer be a regionalized element but an element of clear national and centralized interest such as defense, interiors or finances. Healthcare is today a tool to protect ourselves and to be protected ". Activities of "national interest" change Gen. Costantini then reflects on the sectors of national interest and on how these have changed after the pandemic. "The health company of Pomezia, which was very advanced in researching the vaccine against Sars-Cov2, was a resource to be protected. Instead it was acquired for £ 20 million by a British company and helped create the Astrazeneca vaccine. It was a resource that we had in our territory and which was not protected by the Italian system - recalls Gen. Costantini -. This means that certain industries in the healthcare system were not considered strategic. Instead they are, and they will be more and more a system outlined by the pandemic events ”. Paolo Costantini then recalls how in the early stages of the pandemic in our country there was a lack of personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves and liquids to disinfect hands. "There we realized that certain medical aids were missing during the emergency and this is because we no longer produce them. We have delegated the production of certain health devices to third parties because in the global economy it is obvious that delocalisation is carried out, which is purchased and produced where there is greater economic convenience ", adds Costantini. A system that needs to be redesigned, leaving aside the mantra of globalization at all costs.
The new role of logistics after the pandemic
It is not only the production that needs to be rethought but also the logistics sector. "Today Italy has an undersized logistics system compared to the needs that arose during the pandemic - explains Gen. Costantini -. We have understood that with a logistics system that works well, it is possible to overcome certain obstacles that a pandemic event can generate. Without considering the change in the economic indices of the distribution of raw materials ". Intelligence reform: we need an agency for economic and financial intelligence after the pandemic An intelligence reform, this is the aim of the entire analysis of the general of the Guardia di Finanza. "A profound reflection must be made on the reform of economic and financial intelligence which must be rethought as a whole and not as a part of a larger apparatus that includes various branches - concludes the military -. Economic and financial intelligence must be detached from everything else, it must dialogue with all the other intelligence bodies but must be completely autonomous and governed by logics that are exclusive to it, as is the case today in Italy in cyber security. Finally, after so many years, it was decided to create an agency dedicated solely and exclusively to cyber security ". Even in economic and financial intelligence it must have a dedicated agency, "As in the French model where economic and financial intelligence has been completely detached from internal and external intelligence. This would allow us to have a more active and leaner structure and more capable of penetrating and evaluating threats coming from outside to our country, even in situations of great confusion such as that triggered by the pandemic ".
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