An intelligence agency is a governmental organization that for the purposes of national security is devoted to the gathering of information (known in the context as "intelligence") by means of espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public sources. The assembly and propagation of this information is known as intelligence analysis. For the government in parliamentary systems, see Executive (government). ... An agency is a department of a local or national government responsible for the oversight and administration of a specific function, such as a customs agency or a space agency. ... Security measures taken to protect the Houses of Parliament in London, England. ... Intelligence (abbreviated or ) is the process and the result of gathering information and analyzing it to answer questions or obtain advance warnings needed to plan for the future. ... Spy and Secret agent redirect here. ... SIGINT stands for SIGnals INTelligence, which is intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether by radio interception or other means. ... Cryptanalysis (from the Greek kryptós, hidden, and analýein, to loosen or to untie) is the study of methods for obtaining the meaning of encrypted information, without access to the secret information which is normally required to do so. ... Intelligence analysis is the process of producing formal descriptions of situations and entities of strategic importance. ...

Intelligence agencies can provide the following services for their national governments.

• provide analysis in areas relevant to national security;
• give early warning of impending crises;
• serve national and international crisis management by helping to discern the intentions of current or potential opponents;
• inform national defense planning and military operations;
• protect secrets, both of their own sources and activities, and those of other state agencies; and
• may act covertly to influence the outcome of events in favor of national interests Security measures taken to protect the Houses of Parliament in London, England. ... Crisis management involves identifying a crisis, planning a response to the crisis and confronting and resolving the crisis. ... In military science, defense (or defence) is the art of preventing an enemy from conquering territory. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... The national interest, often referred to by the French term raison détat, is a countrys goals and ambitions whether economic, military, or cultural. ...

Intelligence agencies are also involved in defensive activities such as counter-espionage or counter-terrorism. Counter-intelligence ... Counter-terrorism refers to the practices, tactics, and strategies that governments, militaries, and other groups adopt in order to fight terrorism. ...

Some agencies like ISI of Pakistan are involved in assassination, arms sales, coups d'état, and the placement of misinformation (propaganda) as well as other covert operations, in order to support their own or their governments' interests. It has been suggested that Selective assassination be merged into this article or section. ... The arms industry is a massive global industry. ... // A coup dÉtat (pronounced ), or simply coup, is the sudden overthrow of a government, often through illegal means by a part of the state establishment — mostly replacing just the high-level figures. ... Soviet Propaganda Poster during the World War II. The text reads Red Army Fighter, SAVE US! Chinese propaganda poster from during the Cultural Revolution. ...

See also

• Intelligence (information gathering)
• List of intelligence agencies
• List of intelligence gathering disciplines
  • HUMINT or human intelligence
  • SIGINT or signals intelligence
    • COMINT or communications intelligence
    • ELINT or electronics intelligence
  • GEOINT or geospatial intelligence
  • IMINT or imagery intelligence
  • OSINT or open source intelligence
  • MASINT or measures and signatures intelligence
• United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
• Mukhabarat
• Secret police
• Security agency
• Secret Service

Intelligence (abbreviated or ) is the process and the result of gathering information and analyzing it to answer questions or obtain advance warnings needed to plan for the future. ... The following is a partial list of current intelligence agencies. ... Intelligence Gathering Disciplines HUMINT - Human Intelligence - gathered from a person on the ground. ... HUMINT, a syllabic abbreviation of the words HUMan INTelligence, is a category of intelligence gathering disciplines that encompasses all gathering of intelligence by means of interpersonal contact. ... SIGINT stands for SIGnals INTelligence, which is intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether by radio interception or other means. ... SIGINT stands for SIGnals INTelligence, which is intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether by radio interception or other means. ... ELINT stands for ELectronic INTelligence, and refers to intelligence-gathering by use of electronic sensors. ... GEOINT stands for GEOspatial INTelligence, which is an intelligence discipline comprising the exploitation and analysis of satellite information to describe, assess, and visually depict physical features and geographically referenced activities on the Earth. ... IMINT, short for IMagery INTelligence, is an intelligence gathering discipline which collects information via satellite and aerial photography. ... MASINT, short for Measurement and Signature Intelligence, refers to intelligence gathering activities that bring together disparate elements that do not fit within the definitions of Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), Imagery Intelligence (IMINT), or Human Intelligence (HUMINT). ... The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (or FISC) is a U.S. federal court authorized under 50 USC 1803 and established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (known as FISA for short). ... Mukhabarat (مخابرات) is the Arabic term for intelligence, as in intelligence agency. ... This article is about secret police as organizations. ... Security agency is an organization which conducts intelligence activities for the internal security of a nation, state or organization. ... Because of both the secrecy of secret services and the controversial nature of the issues involved, there is some difficulty in separating the definitions of secret service, secret police, intelligence agency etc. ...

External links

• Intelligence News
• Outsourcing Intelligence
• Intelligence Services
• Proposal for a Privacy Protection Guideline on Secret Personal Data Gathering and Transborder Flows of Such Data in the Fight against Terrorism and Serious Crime by Marcel Stuessi