Top Minister Mario Draghi Announced Elisabetta Belloni Italy Appoints First Lady Secret Agent Chief.

The former ambassador has been named because the first girl to steer Italy's mystery services. Top minister Mario Draghi announced his choice of Elisabetta Belloni as head of the branch of facts safety (dis) on Wednesday.

The department oversees the usa's overseas and domestic intelligence offerings and reports immediately to the Italian authorities. Ms. Belloni, sixty-three, has a long career of firsts. Her appointment becomes welcomed with the aid of Italian politicians, inclusive of league birthday celebration leader Matteo Salvini, who defined her as "a lady of courage".

After serving as a peacemaker in Vienna and Bratislava, she went directly to lead the Italian external ministry's crisis unit from 2004 to 2008 - the first time a lady had held the role.

For the duration of this time, she needed to deal with Italian nationals killed or injured abroad, together with kidnappings in Afghanistan and Iraq, and oversee the rescue operations for Italians stricken by the amazing Indian ocean tsunami of 2004.

Ms. Belloni rose up in the ranks to turn out to be the primary female within the role of secretary-general of the overseas ministry - Italy's maximum diplomatic publish, and a position she has held ever in view that. As part of its work on foreign and domestic intelligence and security issues, Italy's dis additionally deals with counter-espionage and cybersecurity.

In 2019, Italy's then top minister came under scrutiny after permitting the top of the dis to meet us legal professional trendy William Barr on separate occasions, as part of our research into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.