|
Spain Intelligence Services
The principal intelligence agency was the Higher
Defense
Intelligence Center (Centro Superior de Informacion de la
Defensa--CESID), created in 1977 to replace the
intelligence
organizations of the Francoist period. These included the
Political-Social Brigade--a special branch of the
plainclothes
corps--and the Intelligence Service of the Civil Guard.
With
their files on every part of the rural and urban
population,
these bodies carried on close surveillance and political
intimidation on behalf of the Franco regime.
By a royal decree of January 1984, CESID was defined
legally
as the intelligence agency of the prime minister.
Nevertheless,
it was fundamentally military in nature, and its head in
1988 was
an army lieutenant general, Emilio Alanso Manglano.
Observers
speculated, however, that Manglano, who had held the post
since
1981, eventually would be succeeded by a civilian.
Employing about 2,000 individuals as of 1988, CESID was
staffed primarily by the military, supplemented by 500
members of
the Civil Guard and by 80 plainclothes police. About 30
percent
of the members of the staff were civilians, said to be
selected
usually from among close relatives of military officers.
Women
had been confined largely to administrative tasks, but
they were
increasingly being entrusted with operational assignments.
The principal operating units were domestic
intelligence;
foreign intelligence; counterintelligence; economics and
technology (primarily industrial espionage); and
operational
support (principally application of devices for
surveillance and
eavesdropping). Considerable emphasis in external
intelligence
was allotted to North Africa and to the security of Ceuta
and
Melilla. Liaison was maintained with a number of
intelligence
services of North African and Middle Eastern nations, as
well as
with the Israeli agency, Mossad. Interception of ship
transmissions in the strait area was another focus of
activity.
Domestic intelligence centered on exposure of plots
against the
government, monitoring activities of unrecognized
political
parties, and counterterrorism.
Although CESID was the senior agency, it did not have a
firmly established coordinating function over other
intelligence
bodies, which included the General Headquarters of
Information of
the Ministry of Defense; the second sections of the army,
the air
force, and the navy staffs; and the Civil Guard
Information
Service, dedicated to criminal and terrorist intelligence.
In
addition, the National Police Corps had a General
Commissariat of
Intelligence, with an antiterrorist mission that included
a
Foreign Intelligence Brigade to investigate international
terrorism aimed against Spain. Considerable rivalry and
overlapping of missions characterized the entire
intelligence
system. CESID, in particular, was reported to be seeking
to gain
exclusive jurisdiction over police foreign intelligence
activities.
Data as of December 1988
|
