xxiv•INTRODUCTION
The history of British Intelligence can be traced back at least 400
years, although it has been institutionalized only in relatively recent
times. There is, nevertheless, a distinct strand that can be followed from
the days of Sir Francis Walsingham, stopping those who sought to usurp
the Crown, to the modern experts in ‘‘transnational threat,’’ who mount
complex electronic surveillance operations to eliminate 21st-century
terrorists and cybercriminals. Originally the conspirators hoped to seize
the country and place a coreligionist on the throne, whereas in today’s
era of global terrorism the atrocities are committed by religious fanatics
who are opposed to Western society, its culture, and its values.
British Intelligenceis a generic term to cover all the many official
agencies which have collected, collated, and distributed information for
Whitehall. Although the modern organizations of the Security Service
(MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) date back only to Au-
gust 1909, the first director of military intelligence (DMI), General Sir
Henry Brackenbury, was appointed in June 1887. Looking farther back,
there are records of payments for ‘‘secret service’’ dating to the Eco-
nomic Reform Act of 1782, and it is known that Henry VIII took a close
interest in the reports of his agents.
Although MI5 and SIS (occasionally known by its cover military in-
telligence designation of MI6) are probably the best-known of Britain’s
many intelligence agencies, with a history dating back to their forma-
tion together in 1909 as the Secret Service Bureau, neither is as large
as Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the code-
breaking agency that developed from the Government Code and Cipher
School (GC&CS), itself a direct descendent of the celebrated Admiralty
cryptographers of Room 40 who were absorbed into GC&CS in 1919.
Whereas MI5 was charged with defending the interests of the Empire
and continues to post representatives abroad, Britain’s main overseas
intelligence-gathering was, and is, conducted by SIS. In parallel,
GCHQ collects signals traffic across the globe from a network of inter-
cept stations and circulates its product to Whitehall. Information from
MI5, SIS, and GCHQ is distilled by the Assessment Staff of the Joint
Intelligence Committee (JIC), which also relies on reports and imagery
from a fourth agency, the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS), which is
dependent upon attache ́s posted to foreign capitals, open sources, and
technical intelligence gleaned from satellite surveillance and overhead
reconnaissance platforms. Together, these four agencies supply the