Spooks Portal

Welcome to the Spooks Portal on Powerbase

Welcome to Powerbase—your guide to networks of power, lobbying and deceptive PR. This portal focuses on intelligence agencies and their activities. Theorists have traditionally divided the activities of the world's spies into four areas: intelligence collection, intelligence analysis, counterintelligence and covert action. The latter covers a wide range of political interventions, from propaganda and disinformation, through support for front groups to terrorism and guerrilla warfare. Major intelligence agencies Main page: List of intelligence agencies US: CIA | DIA UK: Security Service (MI5) | Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6) | GCHQ Australia: ASIO | ASIS France: DGSE Germany: BND Russia: FSB Israel: Mossad | Shin Bet | Aman | LAKAM Italy: SISMI Powerbase has a policy of strict referencing and is overseen by an Managing editor and a Sysop and several Associate Portal editors. The Editor of the Spooks Portal is Tom Griffin tom.griffin AT powerbase.info Priority pages on Spooks and Intelligence Joint Intelligence Committee UK Defence Intelligence Staff UK Vladimir Rezun MI6 Office of the Director of National Intelligence US National Security Agency US Defence Bureau of Intelligence and Research US State Reinhard Gehlen Germany Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center Toby Sullivan DIA Mike Pick DIA Michael Morell CIA Avril Haines Ed Snowden This article is part of SpinWatch's Spooks Portal, tracking intelligence agencies and dirty tricks. Valerie Plame CIA More material needed Rolf Mowatt-Larssen CIA John Maguire CIA James Pavitt CIA Mark Mansfield CIA Jeff Castelli CIA Greg Thielmann State Wayne White State Jennifer Millerwise CIA Charlie Allen CIA Frank Carlucci CIA Bobby Ray Inman CIA John McMahon CIA Sibel Edmonds FBI Historical William Stephenson

The Elements of Intelligence Despite the secrecy which surrounds intelligence agencies, the general nature of their activities is well-known, being based on practices that are thousands of years old. Each of the four main intelligence disciplines present profound issues for democratic societies. Intelligence collection Human intelligence: The age old practice in which intelligence officers recruit agents with access to information: e.g Robert Hanssen, Jonathan Pollard. Paper mill: A source which fabricates or embellishes intelligence for pecuniary advantage. e.g allegedly Laura Montini. Double agent: an agent who is secretly working for a rival agency, e.g. Kim Philby, allegedly Ahmad Chalabi Defector: A source who flees rather than remains in place, and whose intelligence, as opposed to propaganda value, therefore tends to diminish over time, e.g. Anatoliy Golitsyn, Yuri Nosenko, Oleg Gordievsky. Technical intelligence: Includes techniques such as Imagery intelligence obtained from aerial or satellite reconnaissance and Signals intelligence such as the interception of communications engaged in by the US National Security Agency and Britain's GCHQ. Open source collection Intelligence from overt sources such as media and diplomatic reports. Intelligence analysis Technical analysis: includes techniques such as photo interpretation and code-breaking. Competitive analsyis: System advocated by neoconservative theorists, in which multiple centres are encouraged to put forward competing interpretations of raw intelligence data. Their opponents argue that this allows analysis to become politicised, e.g. Team B, Rumsfeld Commission, Office of Special Plans. Counterintelligence Classification: Categorisation of information according to its sensitivity, e.g. secret, top secret. Security Measures taken to obstruct hostile intelligence services such as personnel vetting and physical security. Counterespionage: Measures designed to actively frustrate a hostile intelligence service, such as surveillance and collection of intelligence on agents. Offensive counterintelligence Attempting to turn one's opponent's intelligence operations to one's own advantage, e.g. Operation Double-Cross. Deception: Operations designed to mislead an opponent's intelligence analysis, e.g. Operation Fortitude Feedback: Intelligence indicating whether a deception has successfully influenced an opponents analysis. Covert action Covert action is a term of art used by the American intelligence community to describe "the attempt by a government or group to influence events in another state or territory without revealing its own involvement." Similar terms include the British Special Political Action or Political warfare and the Russian aktivnye merpriiatiia or active measures. Intelligence support and Intelligence liaison may be means of exercising covert influence, e.g. British Security Coordination in the US during the Second World War. unilateral penetration: Spying on a friendly intelligence agency, sometimes conducted to assure the strength of the relationship. Agents of influence Individuals with whom an agency maintains a secret relationship so that they will be in a position to influence policy immediately or in the future. Front groups Organisations secretly created or aided by an agency to pursue its objectives, e.g. Congress for Cultural Freedom. White propaganda:Overt propaganda carried out openly on behalf of its sponsor, e.g. the activities of the United States Information Agency or the British Council. Grey propaganda: Thinly disguised propaganda which is deniable but which may be seen for what it is by sophisticated observers. The output of Encounter magazine might be considered an example. Black propaganda: Propaganda whose source is heavily concealed and which may also be disinformation, false information designed to mislead. Methods of dissemination include rumour and forgery. Paramilitary operations: Examples include US support for Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs, the Contras and the Afghan Mujahideen. Assassination: Examples include the Russian-sponsored murder of Leon Trotsky, CIA attempts on the life of Fidel Castro and British attempts to kill Gamal Abdel Nasser. Special Forces: Covert deployments of special forces include for example, British operations in Yemen in the 1960s. Coup d'etat: Facilitating the overthrow of a government,e.g. the US and British-supported Iranian coup of 1953, Operation Ajax.

Categories There are a list of categories associated with this page: Spooks (Recent Changes) MI5 MI6 British Military Intelligence SAS CIA Recent changes to pages on Spooks Recent changes to pages on Spooks References and Resources Lobster magazine Journal of intelligence, parapolitics and state research. Spy Blog Monitoring state and corporate surveillance. The Literature of Intelligence Bibliography by a former CIA officer. Top Secret America Washington Post investigative project. New pages on Powerbase <recent columns="2" limit="20" /> Getting Started Looking for somewhere to start? To learn how you can edit any article right now, visit Powerbase:About, Welcome, newcomers, our Help page, Frequently Asked Questions, A quick guide to editing or experiment in the sandbox. Or contribute a new article: go to Quick Guide to Getting Started. Research and Writing Tips How to research front groups | Resources for studying propaganda | Research using the web Can you help? Powerbase can be made more effective if more people join the project. If you have research or writing skills or just spare time, you can help. If you are unsure where to start, you could expand some of the recently created but currently very brief articles. (If you look at the recent changes page you will see some noted as being 'stubs' - articles that may just be a line or two and needing to be fleshed out). So if you would like to add to some of those you would be most welcome. There is an automatically updated page which includes the pages which have been signalled by Powerbase users as most wanted. There is also a list of Things you can do to help. Or if you would like some other suggestions closer to your interests you could drop Powerbase editor, David Miller an email. His address is editor AT powerbase.info Start Here View The Latest Articles View Articles By Category View The Most Popular Articles Create An Account Or Log In Change Your Preferences Write a new Article Powerbase history Powerbase is a collaborative venture initiated by Spinwatch in collaboration with Lobbywatch, GM Watch Red Star Research and Corporate Watch, but put into effect by a wide variety of volunteers and independent researchers. Contributors are now working on 19,413 articles. Disclaimer: Powerbase is an encyclopedia of people, issues and groups shaping the public agenda. It is a project of the Spinwatch—email editor AT powerbase.info. Antispam note: To avoid attracting spam email robots, email addresses on Powerbase are written with AT in place of the usual symbol, and we have removed "mail to" links. Replace AT with the correct symbol to get a valid address. We regret the inconvenience this entails. Campaign for more effective antispam regulations. Read the full disclaimer References