COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE AND NATIONAL SECURITY
SENATE OF SARTORIA
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Friday 23 June 2017
Hostage Crisis in Regù and Sacuri Activity in Sartoria
Closed Session
The Committee met, as scheduled, at 11:30 AM, in Room 346 of the Giacomo Mariollo Office Building. Presiding was the Hon. Fabio Basile, Chair of the Committee. Present were Senators Acciai, Amato, Capello, Giùgovaz, Landi, Parisi, Quirino, Rivas, Romagnoli, Salucci, Salvatici, Sparacello, Speziale, and Tiraboschi.
CHAIR BASILE: I want to thank all senators for attending this session of the Committee on Intelligence and National Security, despite its last minute nature. Given recent events in Regù, Senator Salucci and I deemed it necessary for us to meet and discuss the situation, particularly the actions that our intelligence and law enforcement communities are taking to ensure that this situation will not escalate towards a hypothetical Fourth Sacuri War. I will remind all honourable members that this is a closed session, and the material under discussion is highly classified. Thus, I urge all to exercise restraint in what you discuss publicly.
OPENING STATEMENT, HON. FABIO BASILE, SENATOR FROM TAVOLETRO, CHAIR OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE AND NATIONAL SECURITY
CHAIR BASILE: My opening statement will be brief, since I believe it is important for us to focus on the matter at hand as soon as possible. I just want to take this time to lay out the stakes in this.
As it stands today, the Second Councillor and all five Eastern Governors are being held hostage by terrorists associated with the White Hand Consortium. That is the Leader of the Senate, and nearly one fifth of all Realm Governors. By any standard, let alone that of a country that has experience in these matter, this is an unacceptable situation, one that could have been avoided, and one that will definitely be avoided moving forward.
I have read the report that the Royal Eastern Security Service submitted shortly before this session, and the figures here are, quite frankly, astonishing and terrifying. It says on page eleven that the White Hand Consortium could have as many as three hundred members. That is, three hundred Sartorians who have willingly decided to take arms against their Government, espousing an ideology that has led to the direct and indirect death of more than five hundred thousand Sartorians throughout the centuries. It also says, on page twenty four, that the Consortium has , and I quote, "a vast network that allowed it to operate, for the most part, undetected by the various law enforcement and intelligence services of any Realm", end of quote.
My honourable colleagues, this is an outrageous admission. I have the highest regard for our intelligence agencies. As a sitting member of this committee, I know first-hand just how hard they work to keep our country safe. However, truth must be said, and the truth is that there is a serious dysfunction in our intelligence community, if such a terrorist group is allowed to form and grow, recruit and carry out heinous acts, right from under our noses. My friends, this committee, and the Senate at large, need to work in tandem with the Government to ensure that our country will not be at any greater risk than it is today, and indeed, that the current threat will be contained and destroyed.
It is my hope that this session will help us clarify the facts from the fog, that Chief Rinaldi will be able to help us draw some useful conclusions, and that, moving forward, we will be more active and proactive in keeping the security of our country. With that, I will yield to the Vice Chair, the Honourable Senator from Bercolle.
OPENING STATEMENT, HON. MARIO SALUCCI, SENATOR FROM BERCOLLE, VICE CHAIR OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE AND NATIONAL SECURITY
SENATOR SALUCCI: I want to thank you, Mr Chairman, for your prompt response to my call for this session, and for your sound words on this matter. I cannot find fault in them, and I must highlight my steadfast agreement.
It is indeed outrageous that this group has been allowed to grow on our watch. We inherited a peaceful country, a prosperous country, from our predecessors. I remember the stories my father told me, his own experiences during the Third Sacuri War. Even though he was from Bercolle, and he was shielded from the worst of the War, there was plenty of uncertainty, and there were more than a few attacks by Sacuri offshoots, chapters of the Bloody Hand. My father, a teenager at the time, recalled the lengths to which the local governments went to ensure that the War would not extend, including extreme paranoia, the suspension of rights, the mobilisation of the Carabinieri beyond Messelia and Verale. These measures, unthinkable in our times, were very much the reality of the day.
It would be disservice to our predecessors to allow their legacy to be destroyed, when the threat is right before our eyes. It would be a disservice to our predecessors to allow the threat to grow to the extent that the liberties, for which they so dearly fought, to be destroy. First Councillor Valerio was right to respond as decisively as he has, and I agree with his deployment of the Carabinieri to Chiavere and Regù, but let us not forget that this threat has grown under his watch. Our support during this crisis is important, but our oversight duties are paramount, and our hand must not waver, for the very fate of this country rests on our ability to take strong decisions, and demand good judgement from our Government.
I thank Chief Rinaldi for his presence today, and I hope he will be able to clarify, not only what the Security Service knows about the White Hand Consortium, but also what the Government has done, to his knowledge, to fight it. I also hope that, once this immediate threat is contained, we will invite the First Councillor, the Interior Councillor, and other officials, as appropriate, to account for their actions before this Committee. They owe it to the country to explain themselves, and we owe it to the present and future generations to ensure that their answers are satisfactory, and that all necessary measures are taken to guarantee that our hard-won peace remains.
CHAIR BASILE: Thank you, senator. I now invite Chief Uberto Rinaldi, of the Royal Eastern Security Service, to deliver his opening statement.
OPENING STATEMENT, HON. UBERTO RINALDI, PRIVY COUNCILLOR, CHIEF OF THE ROYAL EASTERN SECURITY SERVICE
CHIEF RINALDI: Thank you, Mr Chairman. Thank you as well to all members of this committee, for affording me the opportunity to deliver this brief opening statement, and answer any questions that any of you might have.
Senators, with your permission, I will refrain from discussing specifics from the report you have all received in my opening statement, since I believe you would be in a better position to judge what portions from it deserve clarification on my part. Instead, I would like to provide a short account of what the Royal Eastern Security Service knew before this crisis, and what our future actions, at least for the moment.
Indeed, as the report will tell you, we were aware of the White Hand Consortium as early as November 2016, but at the time, our knowledge was that of several scattered groups that sympathised with Sacuri ideals, certainly individuals to be monitored, but not as committed to their cause, or in possession of enough funds and resources, to pose a legitimate threat. This changed in late February 2017, when the Information Security Agency detected suspicious traffic on one of the websites it monitored, under the authority given to it by Royal Order 18193. Our operatives were able to connect this traffic to a specific group operating in the suburbs of various cities in Tavoletro, under the leadership of an individual known to us only as "Il Parlatore". We followed this individual, under the belief that he was operating as part of an individual cell, until March, when he disappeared without a trace, just as our operatives were prepared to take him into custody.
This event forced us to begin rethinking our initial theory that these were individual cells. In fact, this forced us to consider the possibility that the series of murders that had been carried out in Regù since December 2016, were more than just ordinary crimes. However, it was not until two days after, with the Basile School Massacre, that we agreed that a much larger conspiracy was afoot, a central organisation that was coordinating the actions of all these cells, providing them with funds and resources, but most importantly, directions that led towards a common goal.
Senators, their goal was being met with uncanny efficiency. These murders had been an attempt to test the waters, to see if they could initiate their open operations without raising any suspicioun from law enforcement or intelligence agencies. They succeeded, since these were treated like nothing more than ordinary crimes. Their actions online, while eventually careless, had been carried out for long before we discovered them, according to our analysts. Their initial large scale attacks, namely the Finestreri Headquarters Bombing and the Basile School Massacre, were initial tests, horrifying, but test nonetheless, to prove that we were still in the dark about them, and we indeed were. This ongoing attack is, according to our analysts, their first true attack, meant to strike fear in our people, rather than test our abilities.
In terms of what our future actions will be, initially that will depend on what course is determined at the next meeting of the Internal Security Committee. However, I can tell you that, based on discussions I have had with the Directors of the Carabinieri and the Information Security Agency, our policy will gravitate towards the formation of an inter-agency task force to coordinate the efforts to determine the ways in which the White Hand Consortium obtains its funds, and who exactly seats at the leadership table. We have received a preliminary approval from the First Councillor on this matter, and plan to request additional appropriations, when the time comes, to organise this task force and make sure it has all the necessary resources to carry out its mission.
Having said this, I will conclude my opening statement, and remain at your disposal for any questions regarding the report, or any matter related to the White Hand Consortium.
CHAIR BASILE: Thank you, Chief Rinaldi. Having read the report, and having listened now to your opening statement, I cannot help but notice that this Committee was kept in the dark on most issues regarding the White Hand Consortium. In fact, the recent meeting of the Internal Security Committee was the first time that I heard the name, yet this group is supposed to have been operating for years, and actively for the entirety of this year. Could you tell us what was the reasoning behind that?
CHIEF RINALDI: Senator, our initial tracking of the Sacuri cells was duly reported to this committee in our mandatory report. Our expanded operation, once we discovered the existence of Il Parlatore, was classified White Brief, under the Intelligence Act. I understand your concern, but my responsibility, under the law, was to ensure that neither you nor any other individual outside the authorised list knew of our operations.
CHAIR BASILE: Alright, Chief. That is fair enough on your part, although I must say that I am most unsettled about the willingness that was displayed to keep the Senate, particularly its Intelligence Committee, in a position where it was difficult for us to discharge our oversight and security maintenance duties. I will discuss with the Vice Chair regarding possible steps to be taken, to clarify what was the reasoning behind this decision.
You implied in your opening statement that the intelligence community has no idea as to who leads the White Hand Consortium. Should I understand that to mean that the Security Service is still unclear as to the identities of those leading the efforts to attack our country?
CHIEF RINALDI: That not entirely correct, senator. We have various working theories on the identities of those leading the Consortium, which we hoped to verify once we apprehended Il Parlatore. That obviously was impossible, once he was likely extracted. As of today, our primary working theory is that the Consortium is led by a variety of figures, most of which would be highly positioned in society, or possessing highly specialised skills. We are talking about lobbyists, political consultants, bankers, partners at financial firms, former military and intelligence officers. This theory still needs more support, I must stress that, but it is our strongest lead to explain the abundance of funds and ability to evade detection that the Consortium has displayed.
That is not to say that we lack any evidence whatsoever, otherwise this would not qualify to the level of working theory. Thanks to our cooperation with the Information Security Agency, we know that Il Parlatore spoke on the phone with a high ranking member of the Consortium either shortly before or after his extraction. We were unable to discover the identity of either party to the call, but we could trace the caller to the financial district in Chiavere. This is, admittedly, quite limited, given the stakes of the situation, but this was as much as we could do, given the short duration of the call, and the level of encryption that it had. I'm afraid that the technology at their disposal is quite sophisticated, though, again, not unbreakable.
CHAIR BASILE: That is a very serious accusation, Chief. You are telling me that the Consortium has basically infiltrated our political and financial classes, with help from former members of the intelligence community. I hope you have something more substantial to prove this theory.
CHIEF RINALDI: I do indeed. As I explained in my earlier answer, the detection of the call to Il Parlatore was an important lead, but by no means the only one. If you can turn to Annex M12 of the report, you will see a series of depositions of suspected Sacuri affiliates, along with interviews to individuals contacted by either Il Parlatore or his equivalents in similar cells. These testimonies point to a well-funded leadership, with inside knowledge of the workings of Royal Order 18193. If you read the second paragraph in page seventy eight, it details the encounter of a Regulani accountant with Il Parlatore, where he mentioned a section of the Royal Order that remains, to this day, classified. That, along with various details in the other interviews and depositions, has led us to believe that those who supply resources, directives and information to the individual cells, are well positioned in key sectors of our society.
CHAIR BASILE: Thank you, Chief. Senator Salucci, you have the floor.
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