[1] Since the end of World War II, Italian intelligence agencies have been reorganized many times (SIM 1900–49, SIFAR 1949–65, SID 1965–77) and last SISDE (civil) and SISMI (military) from 1977 to 2007, in an attempt to increase their effectiveness and bring them more fully under civilian control.

General Nicolò Pollari was SISMI's second-last director; he resigned on 20 November 2006 after being indicted in the Abu Omar case, so Prime Minister Romano Prodi replaced him with Admiral Bruno Branciforte.

The verb "intellego", which literally means "I comprehend", was chosen because «it evokes the noble root of intelligence, a discipline aimed at unravelling mysteries and holds in itself a constant tension directed to its final goal: knowledge».

In 2004, Nicola Calipari, a high-ranking SISMI hostage negotiator, was killed at a U.S. Army checkpoint in Baghdad by Mario Lozano, purportedly after a communication breakdown between the Italian intelligence community and the occupying forces.

The forged documents purporting to detail an Iraqi purchase of yellowcake uranium from Niger were given to a "cutout" named Rocco Martino by a Colonel in SISMI, Antonio Nucera.

Reportedly, the SISMI director vouched for the documents' authenticity at the meeting;[citation needed] as a result, the White House attempted to insert a reference to uranium from Africa in President Bush's upcoming address to the United Nations, scheduled for 12 September 2002.