SPAIN: New intelligence agency
01 January 2002
The Spanish Congress (lower chamber) is debating a draft Bill to introduce a new intelligence agency, the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI, National Intelligence Centre). The CNI will become Spain's equivalent to the American CIA or MI5/MI6 in Britain replacing CESID (Centro Superior de Informacion de la Defensa, the army intelligence centre), which also carries out non-military intelligence duties. It will:
give the president and government information, analyses, studies and proposals to allow the prevention of any risk, threat or aggression against the independence or territorial integrity of Spain, its national interests and stability.
The CNI will be attached to the Ministry of Defence, although the prime minister has the power to place it under a different body. It's targets and goals will be defined in a secret Intelligence Directive. Its functions will be to:
a) "obtain, evaluate and interpret information, and distribute intelligence necessary to protect Spain's political, economic, industrial, commercial and strategic interests";
b) "prevent, detect and neutralise activity by foreign intelligence services which might endanger the country";
c) "promote relationships of cooperation and partnership with the intelligence services of other countries, including international bodies";
d) obtain, evaluate and interpret "signal traffic of a strategic nature";
e) "coordinate the actions of government bodies which use encryption procedures and guarantee IT security".
This follows the example of other intelligence services, particularly "Anglo-Saxon" (USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada) ones, by linking wide-scale electronic surveillance, cryptography functions and "Spies-r-us" informal international bodies. This attitude was already apparent last June, when US President George Bush visited Spain and offered technological assistance to Spanish intelligence bodies, including the possibility of using the Echelon system in the fight against ETA in the Basque region (CESID seemed particularly interested in the decryption technology). On 5 January 2002 the Spanish daily newspaper ABC said that FBI experts were working alongside Spanish police to decrypt data in computers seized from ETA members.
The CNI will be authorised to establish links for cooperation/ coordination with other government bodies (most likely to be law enforcement agencies and organisations with information databases such as the Tax Office or Customs and Excise), "when relevant". Its director will, among other tasks, fulfil the role of National Intelligence Authority and head the National Cryptology Centre, a body which was unknown until recently.
The CNI's work will be overseen by the executive, judiciary and legislative bodies.
The Executive: A commission of government representatives will set the annual goals for the Centre - including those to be included in the Intelligence Directive -, evaluate the CNI's work and liaise with law enforcement agencies. This commission will include the First Vice-President (currently Home Affairs Minister, Mariano Rajoy), the Foreign Affairs, Defence, Home Affairs and Economy ministers, as well as the Secretary of State for Security and the director of the CNI (who will be proposed by the Defence minister to serve a five-year term).
The Judiciary: A parallel "Prior Judicial Control of the CNI" Bill states that a Supreme Court judge will grant authorisation to carry out surveillance of private communications and enter private homes, when such measures are needed to fulfil the Centre's goals. Such warrants will be valid for 24 hours, in the case of entry into people's homes, and three months in cases involving electronic surveillance. The responsible judge will be proposed by the president of the CGPJ (General Council of Judicial Power), Spain's highest judicial body, and approved by the plenum of the CGPJ.
Legislature: The Congress Commission responsible for controlling the use of "hidden bud