Mantovano warns of 'difficult situation' in Libya

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 12 - 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". (ANSA).