The National Intelligence Centre ( es, Centro Nacional de Inteligencia, CNI) is the
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
official
intelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, Intelligence analysis, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objective ...
, acting as both its foreign and
domestic
Domestic may refer to:
In the home
* Anything relating to the human home or family
** A domestic animal, one that has undergone domestication
** A domestic appliance, or home appliance
** A domestic partnership
** Domestic science, sometimes c ...
intelligence agency. Its headquarters are located next to the A-6 motorway near
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
. The CNI is the successor of the
Centro Superior de Información de la Defensa
The Centro Superior de Información de la Defensa ( en, Superior Center of Defense Information; CESID) was the Spanish intelligence agency before the current Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI) took over as its successor in 2002.
History
Foll ...
, the Higher Centre for Defence Intelligence. Its main target areas are
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...
and
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
and it operates in more than 80 countries. CNI's official budget for 2021 is approximately 300 million euros (the CNI can get further resources from the classified funds).
The
Secretary of State-Director of the CNI is currently
Esperanza Casteleiro.
Goals and operation
The centre's essential goal is to provide the
Spanish Government
gl, Goberno de España eu, Espainiako Gobernua
, image =
, caption = Logo of the Government of Spain
, headerstyle = background-color: #efefef
, label1 = Role
, data1 = Executive power
, label2 = Established
, da ...
all the necessary information to prevent and avoid any risk or menace that affects the independence or integrity of Spain, its national interests, institutions and
rule of law
The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica ...
. In the same way, the law states that the specific goals of the CNI will be determined and approved yearly by the
Council of Ministers
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...
. These goals will be included in a secret document, the Intelligence Guidelines.
Besides this organic control of the centre by the Ministers Council, there is also a judiciary control, given the fact certain activities require such intervention. This control is carried out by a judge of the Spanish
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
, chosen by a
qualified majority
A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority ru ...
. In this sense, those actions requiring previous authorization by the court are those regarding communications interdiction, entry and registration at home or enterprise addresses, or any other would-be violations of the fundamental rights granted by the
Spanish Constitution of 1978
The Spanish Constitution (Spanish, Asturleonese, and gl, Constitución Española; eu, Espainiako Konstituzioa; ca, Constitució Espanyola; oc, Constitucion espanhòla) is the democratic law that is supreme in the Kingdom of Spain. It was e ...
.
Precedents and history
The first Spanish intelligence service was created in 1935, in a short-lived experience with an almost null activity, due to the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
paralysing its development.
During the civil war, the
Servicio de Información Militar
The Servicio de Información Militar (Military Information Service) or SIM was the political police of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces from August 1937 to the end of the Spanish Civil War.
History Background
In a speech delivered on 28 Novemb ...
(SIM) provided intelligence service to the Republicans while the Servicio de Información y Policía Militar (SIPM) provided intelligence service to the Nationalists. Both organizations were dissolved at the end of the civil war.
Student revolts by the end of the 1960s motivated the creation of a National Countersubversive Organization, which was the seed for the
Servicio Central de Documentación (SECED), founded in 1972. The
Centro Superior de Información de la Defensa
The Centro Superior de Información de la Defensa ( en, Superior Center of Defense Information; CESID) was the Spanish intelligence agency before the current Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI) took over as its successor in 2002.
History
Foll ...
(CESID) was formed between 1976 and 1977, from the fusion of the SECED and the High Staff of the Army Information Service (Spanish: ''Servicio de Información del Alto Estado Mayor'' (SIAEM)).
In 2001, the Government of the
People's Party reached consensus with other political groups represented in the Congress of Deputies, in particular with the
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources:
*
*
*
* political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...
, to draft the laws that were to regulate the Spanish intelligence services. This was intended to reach the greatest possible consensus in the creation of such State Agencies in order to safeguard the democratic State, removing them, as much as possible, from party politics.
![Pedro_Sánchez_visita_el_Centro_Nacional_de_Inteligencia_03](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Pedro_S%C3%A1nchez_visita_el_Centro_Nacional_de_Inteligencia_03.jpg)
In 2002, the current legal regulation of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) was reached, which was assigned a new name that simplifies and accurately determines its true function. The result of the aforementioned parliamentary agreements was the enactment of two complementary laws, one of which, Law 11/2002 of May 6, regulates the National Intelligence Center, while the other, of an organic nature (Organic Law 2/2002, of May 6), establishes judicial control prior to that certain actions must be submitted to the CNI. Later, in March 2004, the
Royal Decree
A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used for ...
that regulates the
National Cryptologic Center
The National Cryptologic Center (CCN) is a Spanish intelligence agency within the National Intelligence Center responsible for cryptanalyzing and deciphering by manual procedures, electronic media and cryptophony, as well as to carry out tech ...
(CCN), a body attached to the CNI for the security of information technologies.
The legal framework of the CNI is completed by the provision relating to the statutory regime of its personnel. The personnel regulations of the previous organization date back to 1995. The Law 11/2002 provides for the development of a new statute for the Center's staff. The 1995 regulations were modified in 2004. In 2013, a new regulation for personnel was approved.
In 2011, after a ministerial reform undertaken by PM
Mariano Rajoy
Mariano Rajoy Brey (; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a vote of no confidence ousted his government. On 5 June 2018, he announced his resignation as People's Party lead ...
, the CNI became attached to the
Ministry of the Presidency
The Ministry of the Presidency, Relations with the Cortes and Democratic Memory (MPR) is the department of the Government of Spain which assures the link between the different Ministries and the Prime Minister and is responsible for the relations ...
but, after the change in government in 2018, PM
Pedro Sánchez
Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has been Prime Minister of Spain since June 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since June 2017, having pr ...
has once again assigned the CNI to the
Ministry of Defence.
In 2013, thanks to the
Global Surveillance Leaks by
Edward Snowden
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and su ...
, it was learned that the CNI has been collaborating with the
NSA
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
in the massive espionage of millions of Spaniards, directly intercepting or helping to intercept millions of
metadata
Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including:
* Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...
of call logs, text messages and emails.
In 2022 it was revealed that the CNI had spied on at least 18 phones of Catalan separatist politicians. In May 2022, the head of the CNI,
Paz Esteban López, was then fired. Esteban later admitted in a committee of the Spanish parliament that her agency, after obtaining court approval, had the devices of Catalan separatists infected with the help of the Israeli spy software
Pegasus
Pegasus ( grc-gre, Πήγασος, Pḗgasos; la, Pegasus, Pegasos) is one of the best known creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as hor ...
.
Directors of the CESID / CNI
*
José María Bourgón López-Dóriga (1977–1979)
*
Gerardo Mariñas (1979–1980)
*
Narciso Carreras (1980–1981)
*
Emilio Alonso Manglano (1981–1995)
*
Félix Miranda (1995–1996)
*
Javier Calderón
Javier Calderón Alfaro (born 20 November 1971) is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 1998. As an amateur, he competed in the men's bantamweight event at the 1992 Summer Olympics. A native of Reynosa, Calderón won ...
(1996–2001)
*
Jorge Dezcallar Manzanedo (civilian; 2001–2004)
*
Alberto Saiz Cortés (civilian; 2004–2009)
*
Félix Sanz Roldán
Félix Sanz Roldán (born 20 January 1945) is a retired Spanish Army general and intelligence officer who served as Director of the National Intelligence Centre (CNI) from July 2009 to July 2019. He served as Chief of the Defence Staff (Spain), C ...
(2009–2019)
*
Paz Esteban López (civilian; 2019–2020,
a.i.; 2020–2022)
*
Esperanza Casteleiro (2022–)
Bibliography
* Joaquín Bardavio, Pilar Cernuda y Fernando Jauregui (2000). ''Servicios Secretos''. Editorial Plaza & Janés.
* Antonio M. Diaz Fernandez (2006). ''Los servicios de inteligencia españoles. Desde la guerra civil hasta el 11-M. Historia de una transición''. Alianza Editorial.
* Carlos Ruiz Miguel (2002). ''Servicios de Inteligencia y Seguridad del Estado Constitucional''. Editorial Tecnos.
* Fernando J. Muniesa y Diego Camacho (2005). ''La España Otorgada. Servicios de Inteligencia y Estado de Derecho''. Editorial Anroart.
References
External links
National Intelligence CentreNational Intelligence Centre
Intelpage.info
{{authority control
2002 establishments in Spain
Government agencies established in 2002
National law enforcement agencies of Spain
Government agencies of Spain
Spanish intelligence agencies
Organisations based in Madrid