NATO Allies
Canada. Military intelligence comes under the control of the deputy chief of Defence Forces. The Director General Intelligence manages the day-to-day intelligence production and dissemination for the National Defence Department. The Communications Security Establishment, also in the National Defence Department, analyzes and disseminates signals intelligence. Domestic intelligence and security is done by the Security Intelligence Service. Canada has a small counter terrorism/special operations unit known as Joint Task Force 2.
France. Within the Defense Ministry is the General Directorate for External Security, responsible for both military and strategic intelligence. Covert operations are executed by an entity known as Division Action. The Directorate of Military Intelligence, created after the Gulf War, has no covert operations unit. It collects both technical (signals and imagery) and human intelligence.
Germany. The Federal German Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst or BND) is responsible to the Chancellor's Office. Its home page (in German) is http://www.bundesnachrichtendienst.de
Great Britain. The Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) comes under the secretary of state for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. While MI6 has some technical intelligence responsibilities, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has primary responsibility for signals intelligence collection. Imagery interpretation is done under the auspices of the Royal Air Force's Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre. The Royal Marines maintain the Special Boat Service which reportedly has an anti-terrorist sub-unit known as M Squadron. The much larger Special Air Service conducts intelligence gathering and reconnaissance missions. In the 1991 Gulf War, it participated in the hunt for Iraqi Scud missile launchers.
Turkey. National Intelligence Organization (MIT). Responsible to the prime minister, MIT is charged with collecting intelligence nationwide on actual and potential threats to Turkey's security, whether these threats are internal or external. In addition to directorates concerned with electronic and technical intelligence, MIT includes a Directorate of Psychological Intelligence. MIT also has a Directorate of Operations, which oversees foreign covert operations.
Non-NATO Allies
Australia. The Secret Intelligence Service is tasked with collecting intelligence and for foreign operations abroad. In addition, each military service has an intelligence activity. The Special Air Service performs covert intelligence collection missions.
Israel. Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks (Mossad) conducts intelligence, surveillance, and special operations outside of Israel. Shin Bet (General Security Service) is charged with internal intelligence and security. Aman, the Military, Intelligence service, is a separate branch of the military establishment. It has responsibilities for technical communications intercepts and has posts on Mount Hermon and the Golan Heights. Cross-border operations reportedly are conducted by Aman. Counter-terrorism and intelligence operations are done by the "General Staff Deep Reconnaissance Unit."
Other Countries
China. The Ministry of State Security targets spies, enemy agents, and counter-revolutionaries. Three departments of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) are involved in intelligence work. The Second Department is responsible for human intelligence collection and for integrating the products of the three military departments. The third Department deals with telecommunications, while the Fourth Department handles non-communications electronic intelligence. The PLA is known to be developing a cyber-war capability.
Pakistan. The Ministry of Defense contains two agencies focused on (but not limited to) foreign intelligence: The Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Army Military Intelligence. ISI easily predominates; in addition to traditional collection activities, it coordinates Pakistani intelligence activities and engages in covert action. The ISI reportedly trained more than 80,000 fighters who participated in the resistance to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the following civil war. (The Army's Special Services Group was also active in the anti-Soviet effort in Afghanistan.) ISI also is involved in supporting guerrillas seeking to separate Jammu and Kashmir from India and has been associated with armed resistance groups in other parts of India and in Sri Lanka.
Russia. The successor to the KGB's First Chief Directorate (foreign intelligence) was briefly known as the Central Intelligence Service before becoming the more descriptive Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR). (The KGB's internal security duties, embodied in the Second Chief Directorate, were finally assumed by the Federal Security Service or FSB. The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) also has internal security responsibilities. MVD troops have been prominent in the fighting in Chechnya.)
The Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU) is the Russian military's intelligence branch. It is believed to generally mirror (other than in size and resources) its Soviet-era namesake. It includes special operations (spetsnaz) intelligence collection units.
Other States of the Former Soviet Union. In April 1992, nine of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) signed a cooperative intelligence agreement. These nine were Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine, a list that included four of the five Central Asian states. Three years later 12 CIS states agreed to cooperate in fighting international terrorism, crime, and drug trafficking.
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