Authentic Agencies Part 3
Written by Merle Rasmussen
This is the last in a series of articles presenting the TOP SECRET game world’s intelligence community. DRAGON issue 93 described the game’s fictitious spy agencies; issues 97 and 98 gave information on the American and allied foreign espionage organizations, respectively. This month’s edition presents the Communist spy organizations (including the infamous KGB). It also gives a little more information on agencies described earlier, new agencies, and spy agencies in general.
Though these agencies exist in the real world, they are given here only as constructs for the TOP SECRET game world. Some of the statistics given below for these agencies are reasonably accurate and are taken from publicly available information, but some of the statistics were invented for the sake of completeness, and some have been altered to conform to the specific background and nature of the TOP SECRET game world.
Information about these agencies, as with the previous articles, is presented in several categories defined below. It is assumed that this information is commonly available to player character agents and to the general public, though the agents might be given additional information that is not public knowledge, during the course of a game campaign.
Nature of agency: The basic nature of the organization.
Governing body: The governing body of most intelligence organizations are national governments. The control for government agencies is the government official to whom the chief of the agency reports. Non-government organizations may have a short description of their group listed here.
Personnel: The estimated size of agency staffs based on public sources. Comparisons show the relative size and activity of various agencies.
Annual budget: The US dollar figures shown are estimates based on public sources. Comparisons show the relative size and activity of various agencies.
HQ: The main headquarters for agency operations.
Established: The date the agency was founded.
Activities: Domestic counterintelligence means that the agency is responsible for counterespionage inside the borders of its own country. Foreign counterintelligence means that the agency has responsible for counterespionage outside the borders of its own country.
Policies: Several of the major laws and philosophies of the organization.
Objectives: The major goals of the organization.
Areas of involvement: The places in which the agency is known to operate or exercise jurisdiction.
Allies: Agencies often share intelligence data formally and informally with one another, when it suits them to do so. Associated agencies do not necessarily share intelligence because of publicly recognized treaties.
Additional data: More information on agency structure, operations, covers, and past history is given here.
Bureaus: If the word “All” is present in this category, the following TOP SECRET bureaus may be active within a particular agency: Administration, Investigation, Confiscation, Technical, Operations, and Assassination (see DRAGON issue 82, “New avenues for agents” for an explanation of the newest bureaus). The DIA serves as the Administration Bureau for Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps Intelligence. The KGB is the Administration Bureau for the intelligence agencies of the Warsaw Pact nations.
Alignment profile: An agent trained by a particular intelligence agency will very often develop political opinions that are shared by a majority of fellow agents in the organization. The range of personal opinions an agent has relating to political systems, political change, and economic systems are called his alignment profile. The TOP SECRET alignment system was detailed in DRAGON issue 93, in “Agencies and Alignments”.
For further details about the KGB, GRU, and the Hungarian AVB, see p. 32 of module TS 004, Operation: Fastpass.
Warsaw Pact
Nature of agency: International Communist mutual defensive alliance
Governing body: Member nations (under Soviet control)
Personnel: Varies
Annual budget: Varies
HQ: None
Established: 1955
Activities: Military and naval defensive alliance
Policies: An attack upon one member is regarded as an attack on all members.
Objectives: The Warsaw Pact is the Communist equivalent of NATO. It seeks to defend the Eastern-bloc portion of Europe and Asia from attack.
Areas of involvement: All member countries
Allies: Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, E. Germany (Democratic Republic of Germany), Hungary, Poland, Rumania, and the USSR
Additional data: Albania, a signatory member, was barred from meetings in 1962 and withdrew from the Pact in 1968, following ideological differences with other member nations.
Bureaus: All
Alignment profile: 20-94/07-94/20-94
Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti (KGB, Committee for State Security)
Nature of agency: Principal Soviet intelligence service in charge of internal security and external espionage
Governing body: Politburo, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Personnel: 400,000-500,000 directly (this includes 25,000- 100,000 assigned to foreign intelligence and counterintelligence, 300,000 troops and guards, and 100,000 administrative personnel)
Annual budget: Unknown, even in USSR
HQ: 2 Dzerzhingsky Square, Moscow, USSR
Established: 1954
Activities: Military and strategic intelligence; electronic intercept; domestic and foreign counterintelligence
Policies: The KGB heads the system of state security organs, and it also includes border troops, military counterintelligence, and other institutions such as labor camp guards.
Objectives: The KGB combats espionage, terrorism, sabotage, and subversive propaganda of the so-called imperialist states and foreign anti-Soviet centers. It insures the security of the state boundaries of the USSR, investigates crimes aimed at subverting and weakening the Soviet State and social order, and participates in the development of statewide measures to ensure the state security of the country. The KGB conducts indoctrinational-preventative work to thwart actions aimed at undermining the state and social order of the USSR
Areas of involvement: Worldwide, particularly within the USSR and its satellites, USA, Canada, Latin America, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Scandanavia, West Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, China, Vietnam, North Korea, Japan, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, the Arab nations, Yugoslavia,.Turkey, Greece, Iran, Afghanistan, Albania, the English-speaking nations of Africa, and the French-speaking nations of Africa
Allies: GRU, DGI, and intelligence agencies of the Warsaw Pact nations.
Additional data: The KGB is recognized as the world’s largest intelligence organization. Its agents excel in human intelligence (HUMINT). KGB agents infiltrate most Soviet institutions, including the GRU.
Bureaus: All. The KGB is the Administration Bureau for the intelligence agencies of all Warsaw Pact nations.
Alignment profile: 20-94/07-94/20-00
Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye (GRU, Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Soviet General Staff)
Nature of agency: Soviet military intelligence service
Governing body: Ministry of Defense, USSR
Personnel: 25,000
Annual budget: Unknown, even in the USSR, but much less than is given to the KGB
HQ: Moscow, USSR
Established: 1920
Activities: Military intelligence, electronic intercept, industrial espionage, and guerrilla warfare
Policies: The GRU maintains its own schools, offices in Soviet embassies, operations, and communications channels. Most Soviet military attaches are GRU agents.
Objectives: To serve as an independent source of overall foreign intelligence for the General Staff
Areas of involvement: Worldwide, via a network of agents directed by Soviet military attaches abroad and from the intelligence staffs of the Soviet Army, Navy, and Air Force
Allies: KGB
Additional data: The GRU is considered by some to be a subsidiary of the KGB. An intense rivalry exists between agents of the KGB and the GRU.
Bureaus: All
Alignment profile: 20-94/07-00/20-94
Central Control of Information
Nature of agency: Communist China’s secret service
Governing body: Social Affairs Department the of Central Committee of the Communist Party, People’s Republic of China
Personnel: 10,000,000 (estimated)
Annual budget: $12.3 billion
HQ: 15 Bow Street Alley, Beijing (Peking), PRC
Established: Unknown, possibly millennia old; probably the most ancient of all intelligence agencies
Activities: Military and strategic intelligence; electronic intercept; and, domestic and foreign counterintelligence
Policies: The Central Control of Information concentrates more upon maintaining internal security than upon spying against foreign targets.
Objectives: To obtain free military and technical intelligence from industrialized nations of the world through overt, not covert, means
Areas of involvement: Worldwide, through journalists, business people, military delegations, and students (especially in the USA, Europe, and Japan)
Allies: An information alliance exists with the USA, through weak oral and written recognition of mutual strategic interests (i.e., watching the Soviets).
Additional data: The Communist Chinese intelligence service is ancient and massive. It is organized as one of 13 secret departments among 30 operated by the Central Committee. There are four major units: those of the Chinese Communist Party, the foreign office (Central External Liaison Department), the defense ministry (Military Intelligence Department of the General Staff), and the State Council (government). Each unit not only performs intelligence functions but checks on the others as well. In 1980, the United States and China set up a jointly operated listening post in the mountainous Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of western China. This post monitors Soviet nuclear missile test flights along the Sino-Soviet border. The Social Affairs Department is similar to the Soviet KGB in its attempts to exercise overall control of intelligence received by the politburo. The size of the CCI reflects the large number of “official” agents throughout China who turn in intelligence data to the agency regularly.
Bureaus: All
Alignment profile: 20-94/01-94/20-00
State Secret Security (STB)
Nature of agency: Czechoslovakian security service and secret police
Governing body: Minister of the Interior, Czechoslovakia
Personnel: 52,000
Annual budget: $950 million
HQ: Prague, Czechoslovakia
Established: 1948
Activities: Military and strategic intelligence; electronic intercept; and, domestic and foreign counterintelligence
Policies: To guard the borders, watch for foreign subversion, prevent civil disorder, and cooperate with the KGB
Objectives: To teach sabotage, weapons use, electronic telecommunications, and urban guerrilla tactics to terrorists
Areas of involvement: Czechoslovakia
Allies: KGB
Additional data: The KGB set up a terrorist training camp for novice terrorists in Karolovy Vary. Top foreign terrorists from Europe and the Third World are trained at a GRU parachute camp in the middle of a 2,000 acre forest, only 30 miles south of Karolovy Vary. The latter camp is called Doupov.
Bureaus: Investigation, Confiscation, Technical, Operations, and Assassination
Alignment profile: 20-94/07-94/20-94
Staatssicherheitsdienst (SSD, Ministry for Security and Intelligence)
Nature of agency: East German security and intelligence service, and secret police
Governing body: Politburo, Democratic Republic of Germany (DDR, East Germany)
Personnel: 57,000
Annual budget: $1 billion
HQ: East Berlin, DDR
Established: 1953
Activities: Military, economic, political, and strategic intelligence; electronic intercept; and, domestic and foreign counterintelligence
Policies: To guard the borders, watch for foreign subversion, prevent civil disorder, and cooperate with the KGB
Objectives: To provide terrorists with instant sanctuary, false documents, money, paramilitary training, protected entrance and exit routes in and out of the country, and weapons
Areas of involvement: West Germany and Third World nations in Africa and Latin America
Allies: KGB
Additional data: The SSD is the most efficient of the Warsaw Pact intelligence agencies, and it is part of the Ministerium fur Staatssicherheit (MfS, Ministry for State Security), also founded in 1953. East Germany’s Verwaltung fur Koordinierung (VfK, Administration for Coordination) is in charge of East German military intelligence. Part of the VfK’s list of tasks is to secure information concerning military matters in general, military policy, and armaments. The 400 officers, NCOs, and enlisted personnel belonging to the VfK’s directing staff are influenced by Soviet advisors. The VfK works closely with the Independent Department of the Political Administration of the National People’s Army. The VfK’s alignment profile is 20-94/07-94/20-94.
Bureaus: Investigation, Confiscation, Technical, Operations, and Assassination
Alignment profile: 07-81/07-94/20-94
Allami Vedelmi Batosag (AVB, State Security Guard)
Nature of agency: Hungarian security service and secret police
Governing body: Hungary
Personnel: 36,000
Annual budget: $800 million
HQ: Budapest, Hungary
Established: 1948
Activities: Military and strategic intelligence; electronic intercept; domestic and foreign counterintelligence
Policies: To guard the borders, watch for foreign subversion, prevent civil disorder, and cooperate with the KGB
Objectives: To provide terrorists with weapons and training
Areas of involvement: Hungary
Allies: KGB
Additional data: See module TS 004, Operation : Fastpass, for more information.
Bureaus: Investigation, Confiscation, Technical, Operations, Assassination
Alignment profile: 20-94/07-94/20-94
Durzhavna Sigurnost (DS)
Nature of agency: Bulgarian security service and secret police
Governing body: Interior Minister, Bulgaria
Personnel: 30,000
Annual budget: $750,000
HQ: On General Gurko Street, Sofia, Bulgaria
Established: 1947
Activities: Military and strategic intelligence; electronic intercept; domestic and foreign counterintelligence
Policies: To guard the borders, watch for foreign subversion, prevent civil disorder, and cooperate with the KGB
Objectives: To smuggle weapons, sell and ship arms, train guerrillas, and perform coups and assassinations.
Areas of involvement: Bulgaria
Allies: KGB
Additional data: The loyal Bulgarian security service is closest to the KGB of any satellite spy agency, and it’s also the most obedient. The KGB runs a training camp for foreigners (disguised as a pig farm) near Birimirtsi, 7 miles north of Sofia.
Bureaus: Investigation, Confiscation, Technical, Operations, Assassination
Alignment profile: 20-94/07-94/20-00
Direction Generale de Inteligencia (DGI)
Nature of agency: Cuban security service and secret police
Governing body: Cuba
Personnel: 34,000
Annual budget: $775 million
HQ: Camp Matanzas, just outside Havana, Cuba
Established: 1968
Activities: Military and strategic intelligence; electronic intercept; domestic and foreign counterintelligence
Policies: To guard the borders, watch for foreign subversion, prevent civil disorder, and cooperate with the KGB
Objectives: To teach urban guerrilla tactics, automatic arms, plastic explosives, sabotage, mapmaking and map reading, photography, forgery, and disguise to revolutionary elements; and, to maintain close surveillance of United States personnel and operations at the US-controlled Guantanamo Bay Naval Base
Areas of involvement: Cuba, USA, and Third World nations in Latin America and Africa, especially in Angola, Central America, and the Caribbean Sea
Allies: KGB
Additional data: The DGI is under direct control of the Soviet Union in matters of assignments, missions, and training.
Bureaus: Investigation, Confiscation, Technical, Operations, Assassination
Alignment profile: 20-94/07-00/20-94
MELT and SAVAK
One (fictitious) TOP SECRET game organization not included in the article in DRAGON issue 93 was MELT, described below.
Middle Eastern Liberation Tribunal (MELT)
Nature of agency: Terrorist group
Governing body: Unknown individuals
Personnel: 50-100
Annual budget: Varies
HQ: Jidda, Saudi Arabia
Established: 1983
Activities: The skyjacking of aircraft and the sabotage of Western space vehicles and launch facilities
Policies: MELT terrorists, who consider themselves idealists, believe that money spent on space exploration should be spent on bringing food to the world’s starving masses instead.
Objectives: To destroy Space Shuttle launch facilities and spacecraft
Areas of involvement: France, Mauritania, and the USA (Florida)
Allies: KGB
Additional data: MELT will assist the Soviets on missions they believe will advance their own objectives.
Bureaus: All
Alignment profile: 20-94/01-06/82-00
Another agency that should be noted is SAVAK, the (presumed to be) extinct Iranian secret police agency which held power under the Shah of Iran before his over-throw. However, it is conceivable that SAVAK, or a portion of it, survived the 1979 revolution, and that it continues to serve the government of the Ayatollah Khomeini as it once served the Shah. The TOP SECRET game world assumes that this is so, and that SAVAK (or its immediate descendant) continues to exist.
National Intelligence and Security Organization of Iran (SAVAK)
Nature of agency: Iranian secret police force
Governing body: The government of Iran
Personnel: 40,000
Annual budget: $850 million.
HQ: Teheran, Iran.
Established: 1939 (under the Shah; current form began 1979).
Activities: Internal security and foreign counterintelligence.
Policies: SAVAK was formerly known for its use of extreme violence and torture. The current version of the Iranian secret police is scarcely less dangerous, being further motivated by religious intolerance and extreme paranoia.
Objectives: To maintain control of the Iranian republic through the government of the Ayatollah Khomeini.
Areas of involvement: Mostly inside Iran, though agents have been known to exist in the USSR, Afghanistan, Israel and its neighboring states, and (especially) in Iraq.
Allies: The intelligence services of most Arab nations.
Additional data: The war with Iraq, the conflict in Afghanistan, the existence of Israel, the threat of Soviet invasion, the hatred of Americans, and boiling internal difficulties (including assassinations and terrorist attacks on Iranian government officials) have preoccupied SAVAK’s Activities. The name SAVAK is an acronym of Persian words. It is without doubt the most dreaded secret police force in the Moslem Middle East.
Bureaus: All
Alignment profile: 20-81/07-00/20-81
The rest of the world
Western intelligence agencies share roughly similar security classifications. The different levels of such classifications are shown in the table below. Increasing levels of secrecy progress from left to right.
Two notes should be made concerning the “Authentic Agencies Part Two” article in DRAGON issue 98. One addition to the description of the BfV is that any one of the state or local Offices for the Protection of the Constitution is called the Landesamt fur Verfassungsschutz (LfV). Also, a third South African agency exists: the South African Defense Force (SADF), which is composed of the Army, Air Force, and Navy of that country. SADF is responsible for external intelligence-gathering and espionage. SADF’s alignment profile is 20-94/20-94/20-81.
The spy agencies of the rest of the world are of much lesser power and influence than those already described, but are worthy of mention. South Korea has a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) which shares intelligence with the USA, Japan, and Taiwan. South Korea’s failure to become a fully democratic society has strained its relationship with the USA, limiting the political intelligence that that country will share with Americans. The USA and South Korea have a “Combined Military Command” and generally share all military intelligence relating to South Korea’s security.
The Taiwanese intelligence agency shares information with Japan, South Korea, Israel, and South Africa. Their agency’s major espionage target is, of course, Communist China, but certain agents have also been sent to the USA to assassinate Taiwanese-Americans who speak out against the Taiwanese government. This agency’s alignment profile is 01-19/07-94/01-81.
Not much is known about the Italian intelligence agencies. Their Office of Intelligence Coordination (abbreviated SID in Italian) was in an uproar recently following the arrest of high-level individuals who attempted to set up a right-wing state-within-a-state. The SID did assist in the rescue of Brigadier General James L. Dozier from Red Brigade terrorists, and it successfully detected a Soviet nuclear submarine and notified the Italian Navy, which chased it from Italian into international waters. The investigation into the Papal assassination attempt also involved Italian intelligence units. SID, the Italian counter-intelligence service, has an Alignment Profile of 01-19/07-94/07-81.
Small West European nations rely on their diplomats, military attaches, and NATO membership for necessary intelligence. Neutral Switzerland relies on its excellent military intelligence services for military, political, and economic intelligence (plus counterespionage). Swiss military intelligence has an alignment profile of 20-94/20-94/20-81. Romania, exercising some freedom from the demands of the KGB, maintains relationships with Albania and Yugoslavia. Romanian intelligence has an alignment profile of 20-94/20-00/20-00. Yugoslavian intelligence has an alignment profile of 20-94/20-94/07-94. The remainder of the Warsaw Pact services give all their intelligence to the KGB or GRU and get little in return.
In the Far East, Mongolia is completely under Soviet control. North Korea, playing Russia against the Chinese, maintains intelligence relations with Iran and Libya through arms sales and training programs. Vietnam, dependent on Russia by choice, provides the Soviets with electronic intelligence facilities at Da Nang and landing rights for Soviet naval intelligence aircraft. These arrangements may change if Vietnam stops pursuing its conquest of Indochina and begins associating with ASEAN.
Non-aligned, emerging, Third World nations use the United Nations as a trading ground of information about neighbors in their region of the world. Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have developed such an intelligence-sharing relationship. ASEAN began as an economic alliance and now shares many military and political secrets. The intelligence services of the Arab nations currently operate on a national basis; if they pooled their military intelligence, they would pose a serious threat to Israel.
In Africa, Libya supplies Soviet arms to whomever needs them, especially terrorists. Egypt and South Africa have the continent’s most advanced intelligence agencies. Egypt, because of its peace treaty with Israel, is not well liked by other Arab nations and suffers internal strife. South Africa could share much intelligence with British and American sources if it would give up its apartheid practices; instead, it shares intelligence with other politically outcast nations such as Israel and Taiwan. Much of the rest of Africa lies starving and in chaos because of mismanagement by selfish leaders and meddling superpowers.
Just because a nation isn’t as rich or as powerful as some of those described in the last few articles doesn’t mean it can’t have a spy agency of its own. As an example of the complexity of even a small intelligence system, such as those found in Central America, South America, and Africa, the Liberian system is explained below.
Liberia, unique for never having been a colony of a superpower, is surrounded by militarily stronger enemies. Sierra Leone is being assisted by the Cubans and Guinea by the Soviets. The Ivory Coast blames Liberia for the disappearance of their president’s son-in-law during the 1980 coup that carried Samuel K. Doe to power. In 1983, a coup attempt was made to replace Doe with General Quiompka. The unsuccessful coup adds to the country’s internal problems.
This year, President Doe is to allow free elections in Liberia. He hopes to be re-elected.
An intelligence training team from the USA assisted in the development of a functional intelligence organization for the armed forces of Liberia. The Liberian intelligence community is divided into three parts: the National Security Agency (NSA), G2, and Brigade S2.
The NSA, mainly composed of personnel from the President’s tribe, is supposed to be an external intelligence gathering organization but is instead used for gathering internal intelligence. The NSA provides personal presidential security and spies on individuals within the presidential hierarchy. Some NSA agents have dual roles as G2 personnel. The NSA and G2 receive more finances and better equipment than does Brigade S2.
G2, also largely composed of personnel from the president’s tribe, is divided into two sections: administrations and operations. Operations is subdivided into four branches: interrogation, agent, order of battle, and liaison. G2 is primarily responsible for uncovering internal plots and assisting in criminal cases. G2 personnel have judicial jurisdiction over the Liberian people. The interrogators are involved in civil, criminal, military, and espionage matters.
Brigade S2, composed of personnel from a mixture of tribes, is used for gathering external intelligence and combat tactical intelligence. Its duties include reporting on external aggression (which is unlikely) and patrolling the borders. Brigade S2 receives the least amount of finances and resources.
The president uses infiltration on all levels of each intelligence agency to ensure that no one in any agency is building a power base which could overthrow him. The NSA and G2, concerned with internal security, are trying to bring General Quiompka, currently in the Ivory Coast, to justice.
Currently, no cross-indexed files are being kept, much less shared, between the various agencies. There is also no classification system to designate the sensitivity of certain information. Tribal affiliation alone gives an individual a “need to know”, which hardly limits access.
