Following the division of Germany after World War II, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) sought to create an intelligence community far different from the one that had existed under the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler. Germany’s intelligence network, which is overseen by a parliamentary committee, is loosely organized. The BND (Federal Intelligence Service), which is responsible primarily for foreign intelligence, is part of the chancellor’s office and reports to an intelligence coordinator. The BND’s staff, which peaked at more than 7,500 people during the Cold War, was cut significantly after reunification. The BfV (Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution), which is part of the Ministry of the Interior, is charged with protecting the country from antidemocratic forces, particularly neo-Nazism. The agency employs some 2,500 people at its headquarters in Cologne. In addition, each German state performs similar counterintelligence functions through a separate LfV (State Office for the Protection of the Constitution) or its own interior ministry. During the Cold War both the BND and the BfV were bedeviled with scandals, often involving the defection of senior officers to the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and the Soviet Union. During the 1990s the German intelligence services were widely criticized for their failure to penetrate militant Islamic groups.
During Germany’s partition East Germany’s Ministry of State Security (MfS) was one of the largest intelligence and security services in the world. Known as the Stasi by East Germans, it used some 90,000 regular employees—and nearly double that number of informers—to surveil the country’s 17 million people. The Stasi archive, which survived the collapse of the state, contains more than 102 linear miles (164 km) of files on four million East German citizens. Stasi foreign intelligence was managed for more than three decades by Markus Wolf, a legendary spymaster whose organization penetrated the West German armed forces, intelligence services, and political parties. All observers agree that the East Germans won the intelligence Cold War in Germany.
Since the reunification of Germany in 1990, the German intelligence and security services have embraced the principles of democratic West Germany and have been reduced in size. The East German MfS has been disbanded, and a few of its leaders have been tried in public and sentenced to brief terms in prison. A few low-level East German military intelligence services have been integrated into the German services.
Intelligence systems in other countries
Cuba
The Cuban Ministry of the Interior (MININT), which was modeled on the Soviet KGB, rivaled the East German Stasi for effectiveness and ruthlessness. Its most important division is the DGI (General Directorate of Intelligence), which is responsible for foreign intelligence collection and covert action. The DGI, which has supported liberation movements throughout Latin America and Africa, maintains an intelligence network within Cuban communities in the United States. The Military Counterintelligence Department, under the supervision of the Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces, collects information primarily about the U.S. military. Internal security and domestic counterintelligence operations are conducted by the Department of State Security (DSE), an arm of MININT, which has wide authority to monitor local elites and the general public.
Colombia
The counterintelligence and security services of the Colombian interior and defense ministries have played a prominent role in that country’s long-standing war against various Marxist guerrilla groups and in its efforts to combat drug traffickers, who often work in concert with the guerrillas and are well-armed and well-financed. Aided by the United States and the European Union, Colombia’s security services collect signals intelligence to locate rebel safe houses and narcotics warehouses. Since the 1970s hundreds of police officers and scores of judges have been killed. Colombian paramilitary organizations, which at times have been supported indirectly by the country’s military and intelligence services, have murdered the relatives and associates of known and suspected traffickers, as well as guerrillas and those suspected of supporting them.
Iraq
Before being ousted by a U.S.-led military campaign in 2003, Iraqi leader Ṣaddām Ḥussein maintained a vast network of intelligence and security agencies to protect his regime from internal and foreign enemies. According to one estimate, approximately 70,000 troops were assigned to protect the political leadership, and 30,000 personnel in 10 military and civilian agencies were responsible for other intelligence and security functions. The Special Security Service, the Iraqi Intelligence Service, and Military Intelligence collected human and signals intelligence and performed internal security functions. From the 1980s these organizations also attempted to collect information on the construction and use of weapons of mass destruction. Ṣaddām structured the intelligence and security community from several competing intelligence services drawn from the Baʿth Party as well as the military and security establishments. The most sensitive security units were controlled by members of his Tikrītī clan and immediate family. These groups were responsible for the arrest, torture, and murder of tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens.