Deception, Defectors, and James Bond: The Intelligence Services of Great Britain

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When it comes to the field of collecting and interpreting intelligence, no country has older active agencies than those that can be found in Britain. Britain has faced numerous conflicts over the past one hundred years from fighting a long side the Allies in World War One and World War Two to dealing with the internal issues caused by the IRA, and most of the time it has come out victorious and a lot of credit can be given to it's intelligence services. Since 1909, The Military Intelligence Section Five (MI5) has been working in Britain gathering up domestic intelligence. "Officially" since 1994, the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6) has been working on foreign soil to gather intelligence. The other Agency, Similar to the United State’s National Security Agency (NSA) is the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ), which gathers Signal Intelligence (SIGINT).

MI5, based in Thames House in London, is Britain's security service for counter-intelligence and counter terrorism. Since 1909, MI5 has been responsible for discovering and countering covertly organized threats to Britain's national security. MI5 also provides assistance to Britain's National Crime Investigation Service (NCIS) on important and serious criminal investigations. MI5 also works together with Britain's other intelligence services by providing support when a specific person or a specific group has traveled across Britain’s borders.

MI5 is headed by a Director General and MI5 is organized into seven different branches and each have a specific area of focus that range from simple home grown terrorist to trying to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Most of MI5's resources are focused on International Counter-Terrorism and most of ...

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... other small Intelligence Agencies but none are nearly as important as the main three that work together on threats to Britain’s national security, The Secret Service (MI5), The Secret Intelligence Agency (SIS, MI6), and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).

Works Cited

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"Oleg Gordievsky." Wikipedia. Wiki, May 21, 2011. Web. 24 May 2011. .

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