ISI (Pakistan) Tops 10 Best Intelligence Agencies In The World
SmashingLists.com calls it ‘least funded, yet the strongest’
Topping the Top Ten? “ISI for sure,’ says Gren, “No double agents, no agent ever caught on camera, the lowest budget but still affective. In war with 6 big intelligence agencies of the world. ISI has even countered MOSSAD in the 1980s and late ‘90s when there was a plan of a possible strike on Pakistan’s nukes.”“It has to be the ISI” says John Smith on the Web site. “It broke down the Soviet Union (which also led to the reunification of Germany; the German Intelligence Chief gave a piece of the Berlin Wall to the Pakistani Intel Chief with a plaque under it saying, ‘To the one who struck the first blow’), has protected and developed the country’s nuclear assets against all odds, has defeated Al Qaeda/Taliban especially these days with the capture of Baradar, etc. by the ISI, has deep ingress into India. No other agency matches it in efficiency, precision, discipline and professionalism.”
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 ”By necessity, the American
people will never know the full story of your courage. Indeed, no one
knows that what CIA really does”. 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.
