Intelligence Agency is an effective instrument of a national power. Aggressive intelligence is its primary weapon to destabilize the target. Indeed, no one knows what the intelligence agencies actually do so figuring out who the best intelligence service is can be difficult. The very nature of intelligence often means that the successes will not be public knowledge for years, whereas failures or controversial operations will be taken to the press. It’s a thankless situation. Still, from what little has emerged, one can have an idea of some of the better intelligence services out there, with the understanding that this is based on incomplete data. 10. ASIS – Australia Formed 13 May 1952 Headquarters Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia Annual budget $162.5m AUD (2007) Minister responsible The Hon. Stephen Smith MP, Minister for Foreign Affairs Agency executive Nick Warner, Director-General Australian Secret Intelligence Service is the Australian government intelligence agency responsible for collecting foreign intelligence, undertaking counter-intelligence activities and cooperation with other intelligence agencies overseas. For more than twenty years, the existence of the agency was a secret even from its own government. Its primary responsibility is gathering intelligence from mainly Asian and Pacific interests using agents stationed in a wide variety of areas. Its main purpose, as with most agencies, is to protect the country’s political and economic interests while ensuring safety for the people of Australia against national threats. 9. RAW – India Formed 21 September 1968 Headquarters New Delhi, India Agency executive K. C. Verma, Secretary (R) Parent agency Prime Minister’s Office, GoI Research and Analysis Wing is India’s external intelligence agency. It was formed in September 1968, after the newly independent Republic of India was faced with 2 consecutive wars, the Sino-Indian war of 1962 and the India-Pakistani war of 1965, as it was evident that a credible intelligence gathering setup was lacking. Its primary function is collection of external intelligence, counter-terrorism and covert operations. In addition, it is responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and persons, in order to advise Indian foreign policymakers. Until the creation of R&AW, the Intelligence Bureau handled both internal and external intelligence. 8. DGSE – France Formed April 2, 1982 Preceding agency External Documentation and Counter-Espionage Service Minister responsible Hervé Morin, Minister of Defence Agency executive Erard Corbin de Mangoux, Director Directorate General for External Security is France’s external intelligence agency. Operating under the direction of the French ministry of defence, the agency works alongside the DCRI (the Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence) in providing intelligence and national security, notably by performing paramilitary and counterintelligence operations abroad. The General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) of France has a rather short history compared to other intelligence agencies in the region. It was officially founded in 1982 from a multitude of prior intelligence agencies in the country. Its primary focus is to gather intelligence from foreign sources to assist in military and strategic decisions for the country. The agency employs more than five thousand people. 7. FSB – Russia Formed 3 April, 1995 Employees 350,000 Headquarters Lubyanka Square Preceding agency KGB The Federal Security Service of Russian Federation (FSD) is the main domestic security agency of the Russian Federation and the main successor agency of the Soviet-era Cheka, NKVD and KGB. The FSB is involved in counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and surveillance. Its headquarters are on Lubyanka Square, downtown Moscow, the same location as the former headquarters of the KGB. All law enforcement and intelligence agencies in Russia work under the guidance of FSB, if needed. For example, the GRU, spetsnaz and Internal Troops detachments of Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs work together with the FSB in Chechnya. The FSB is responsible for internal security of the Russian state, counterespionage, and the fight against organized crime, terrorism, and drug smuggling. The number of FSB personnel and its budget remain state secrets, although the budget was reported to jump nearly 40% in 2006. 6. BND – Germany Formed 1 April 1956 Employees 6,050 Agency executive Gehlen Organization Parent agency Central Intelligence Group The Bundesnachrichtendienst is the foreign intelligence agency of the German government, under the control of the Chancellor’s Office. The BND acts as an early warning system to alert the German government to threats to German interests from abroad. It depends heavily on wiretapping and electronic surveillance of international communications. It collects and evaluates information on a variety of areas such as international terrorism, WMD proliferation and illegal transfer of technology, organized crime, weapons and drug trafficking, money laundering, illegal migration and information warfare. As Germany’s only overseas intelligence service, the BND gathers both military and civil intelligence. 5. MSS – China Jurisdiction People’s Republic of China Headquarters Beijing Agency executive Geng Huichang, Minister of State Security Parent agency State Council Ministry of State Security is the security agency of the People’s Republic of China. It is also probably the Chinese government’s largest and most active foreign intelligence agency, though it is also involved in domestic security matters. Article 4 of the Criminal Procedure Law gives the MSS the same authority to arrest or detain people as regular police for crimes involving state security with identical supervision by the procuratorates and the courts. It is headquartered near the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing. According to Liu Fuzhi, Secretary-General of the Commission for Politics and Law under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Minister of Public Security, the mission of the MSS is to ensure “the security of the state through effective measures against enemy agents, spies, and counter-revolutionary activities designed to sabotage or overthrow China’s socialist system.†One of the primary missions of the MSS is undoubtedly to gather foreign intelligence from targets in various countries overseas. Many MSS agents are said to have operated in the Greater China region (Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan) and to have integrated themselves into the world’s numerous overseas Chinese communities. At one point, nearly 120 agents who had been operating under non-official cover in the U.S., Canada, Western and Northern Europe, and Japan as businessmen, bankers, scholars, and journalists were recalled to China, a fact that demonstrates the broad geographical scope of MSS agent coverage. 4. CIA – America Formed September 18, 1947 Employees 20,000 Agency executive Leon Panetta, Director Parent agency Central Intelligence Group CIA is the largest of the intelligence agencies and is responsible for gathering data from other countries that could impact U.S. policy. It is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior United States policymakers. The CIA also engages in covert activities at the request of the President of the United States of America. The CIA’s primary function is to collect information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and to advise public policymakers. The agency conducts covert operations and paramilitary actions, and exerts foreign political influence through its Special Activities Division. It has failed to control terrorism activities including 9/11, Not even a single top level Al-Queda leader captured own its own in the past 9 years – ‘they missed 1 Million’ Soviet troops marching into Afghanistan’. Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction, Have the found them yet? -Number of defectors/ double agents numbers close to a thousand. On 50th anniversary of CIA, President Clinton said â€By necessity, the American people will never know the full story of your courage. Indeed, no one knows that what CIA really doesâ€. Highly funded and technologically most advanced Intelligence set-up in the world. 3. M1-6 – United Kingdom Formed 1909 as the Secret Service Bureau Jurisdiction Government of the United Kingdom Headquarters Vauxhall Cross, London Minister responsible The Rt Hon. William Hague MP, Foreign Secretary Agency executive Sir John Sawers KCMG, Director General Parent agency Foreign and Commonwealth Office The British have had a long public perception of an effective intelligence agency (due to the success of the unrealistic, yet entertaining, James Bond movies). This perception matches reality. MI6, the British equivalent to the CIA, has had two big advantages in staying effective: The British Official Secrets Act and D notices can often prevent leaks (which have been the bane of the CIA’s existence). Some stories have emerged. In the Cold War, MI6 recruited Oleg Penkovsky, who played a key part in the favorable resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Oleg Gordievski, who operated for a decade before MI6 extracted him via Finland. The British were even aware of Norwood’s activities, but made the decision not to tip their hand. MI6 also is rumored to have sabotaged the Tu-144 supersonic airliner program by altering documents and making sure they fell into the hands of the KGB. 2. Mossad – Israel Formed December 13, 1949 as the Central Institute for Coordination Employees 1,200 (est) Agency executive Meir Dagan, Director Parent agency Office of the Prime Minister The Mossad is responsible for intelligence collection and covert operations including paramilitary activities. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Aman (military intelligence) and Shin Bet (internal security), but its director reports directly to the Prime Minister. The list of its successes is long. Israel’s intelligence agency is most famous for having taken out a number of PLO operatives in retaliation for the attack that killed eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich. However, this agency has other success to its name, including the acquisition of a MiG-21 prior to the Six-Day war of 1967 and the theft of the plans for the Mirage 5 after the deal with France went sour. Mossad also assisted the United States in supporting Solidarity in Poland during the 1980s. 1. ISI – Pakistan Formed 1948 Jurisdiction Government of Pakistan Headquarters Islamabad, Pakistan Agency executive Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, PA Director General With the lengthiest track record of success, the best know Intelligence so far on the scale of records is ISI. The Inter-Services Intelligence was created as an independent unit in 1948 in order to strengthen the performance of Pakistan’s Military Intelligence during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. Its success in achieving its goal without leading to a full scale invasion of Pakistan by the Soviets is a feat unmatched by any other through out the intelligence world. KGB, The best of its time, failed to counter ISI and protect Soviet interests in Central Asia. This GOLD MEDAL makes it rank higher than Mossad. It has had 0 double agents or Defectors through out its history, considering that in light of the whole war campaign it carried out from money earned by selling drugs bought from the very people it was bleeding, The Soviets. It has protected its Nuclear Weapons since formed and it has foiled Indian attempts to attain ultimate supremacy in the South-Asian theatres through internal destabilization of India. It is above All laws in its host country Pakistan ‘A State, with in a State’. Its policies are made ‘outside’ of all other institutions with the exception of The Army. Its personnel have never been caught on camera. Its is believed to have the highest number of agents worldwide, close to 10,000. The most striking thing is that its one of the least funded Intelligence agency out of the top 10 and still the strongest.
I agree with you that Mossad is quite an agency. I didn't know about the Pakistani intelligence. I think the intelligence thing is a secret that you stumble upon. From then, you use it, while keeping your methods and agents as secret as you can.
its not in any order as "CIA is the largest of the intelligence agencies" so that would need to be number one and Pakistan is getting its training from the USA and money from the UK so that would need to be number 4 as russia is huge.
Very funny lol.I offcourse i copied it from somewhere else it is the international rankings of 2011 conducted by some American institution. http://www.smashinglists.com/10-best-intelligence-agencies-in-the-world/. I am not that intelligent to guess which is the best one lol
If you're claiming this was published by an American institution, how did you get that info? I checked the article, and I don't even see a source. Can you say where in the article it says the list is from an American institution? Which American institution? Source? I mean, if it's been published by an American instititution (esp. a government one) - certainly it would be elsewhere on the net, on a credible website.
It is not included in that article and i have read this from some where else.And tell me why you just to see USA on no 1 and others no where?You are criticizing posts like this everywhere,i know you are American and if this fact is hurting you badly then i am sorry maam.
Please forgive my shadow knowledge in this topics but I would like to know is Intelligence Agency a government body? Semi-government body? Or private company?
It depends you can say its semi government and as well as government as the agencies are run by the armed forces of that country
Obviously, the reason I'm questioning it, is that I'm doubting the credibility in your statement to another poster that this was released by "an American institution." This is why I asked you to back up your statement, and apparently, you are unable to do so. If it were to be put out by an American institution, especially a US government source, this list would be easily found on credible websites (notably .gov). Rather than answer my question, you would rather ignore it and say, "Oh you're an American, OMG, you must be asking for a source because you're hurting so badly." LOL. Other than the pain of trying to get you to cite any credible source for your claim, I'm not hurting at all. I don't really care about your personal "guarantee", that's meaningless to me. What I would be interested in, is which "American institution" authored this list, as you were claiming, and a credible source of this information. Here's what I believe - I don't believe it was released by any official US source (I can tell by reading it, as it's fairly obvious). Although, you may have insinuated that it was, as a way to lend it credibility.
In terms of power and technological advancements. The CIA and MI6 are level pegging since they share a lot of intelligence and technology, though 'special relationships'.
I think you're right. The list doesn't appear to be written by an expert, just a list that has been copied and pasted around the net. In fact, I just ran it through Copyscape Premium, and could not find it published on any credible sites. No official sites, government sites, trustworthy news sources, - or, anything like that. So, the list is probably more equivalent to an opinion piece.
Maybe Ethiopia is number 1, I heard that there getting pretty sophisticated now with tin cans and string.
Cool stuff, I'm interested on these kind of things since I love watching crime fighting tv series haha! but how would we know that these data are authentic... hmmmm...
CIA and M16 compete on technology basis and best intelligence and has nothing to do with technology ,it is a game of brains and being intelligent and having a man power(no of agents worldwide).They are dumb asses indeed.They are simply incompetent that's what they ranked on no 3 and 4.CIA had a history of intelligence failures.They are just good at exposing themselves by showing their so called intelligence agencies in movies but the reality is they have no guts.