Intelligence agency

An intelligence service or secret service is an organisation, usually an authority, which collects and evaluates information by intelligence means. The information is intended to be used to gain knowledge (e.g. in the fields of politics, economics, military, science and technology) in which its client (usually governments) has an interest.

While foreign intelligence services collect information from and about other countries, domestic intelligence services are concerned in particular with counterintelligence, protection of the constitution and combating terrorism in their own country. In addition, they may be involved in the protection of secrets. Furthermore, a distinction is made between civilian and military intelligence services. While the terms intelligence service and secret service are often used synonymously in everyday language, in technical language the latter often only refers to services that also carry out active measures, such as influencing. To distinguish them from intelligence services in the sense of news and press agencies, they are sometimes also referred to as secret intelligence services.

As far as their organisation and powers are concerned, intelligence and secret services are structured quite differently in the various states. Of considerable importance is whether the intelligence service is limited for its information gathering and evaluation to voluntary, possibly deceptive information from informants (HUMINT), the collection of freely available data (OSINT) and geodata (GEOINT) as well as to the technical surveillance of postal and telecommunication traffic (SIGINT), or whether it may also exercise covert operations or even police powers to investigate a matter concerning persons. Espionage operations are also referred to as cases. Case handling or case management is done by a case officer. Some intelligence agencies also have paramilitary divisions to conduct command operations, such as the US civilian foreign intelligence agency Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). If an intelligence agency's mission is to suppress its own population and especially political opponents, it is a secret police.

State control

In constitutional states, intelligence services are subject to technical and legal supervision by their superior agencies because intelligence services, like all state authority, are bound by law. As a result of their covert mode of operation and the frequently lively interest of government agencies in obtaining information, supervision by executive authorities themselves is often not considered sufficient, so that control is frequently supplemented by parliamentary bodies. In addition to preventing unconstitutional interference with citizens' rights, these bodies are also intended to prevent the government currently in office alone from taking advantage of the services' capabilities.

Critics argue that due to the nature of an intelligence service, parliamentary and judicial control is only possible to a limited extent or can be easily circumvented.

For control of federal intelligence services in Germany, see: Intelligence Services of the Federation

Intelligence services in dictatorships

Particularly in dictatorships, secret services are an important power factor for the, if necessary, unlawful or unlawful maintenance of the existing fundamental power, property and privilege relationships. Their task includes the detection, the targeted, at least on the edge of legality moving influence in the sense of the government / the regime favorable behavior and the intimidation of political or system opponents to the point of assassination of disagreeable opponents and the targeted manipulation of public opinion. In South America, in particular, attacks were carried out by secret services, which were subsequently attributed to the political opponent in order to discredit him; in Spain, various bomb attacks carried out by the domestic secret service were falsely attributed to the Basque terrorist and liberation organization ETA.