Al Mukhabarat Al A'amah

The Re'asat Al Istikhabarat Al A'amah ( _ar. رئاسة الاستخبارات العامة), or the General Intelligence Presidency, GIP ( _ar. رئاسة الاستخبارات العامة), is the pre-eminent intelligence agency of the government of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

the GIP is one of the security apparatuses in Saudi Arabia that aims first and foremost to provide security and stability, and to work towards preserving the gains of the homeland inside and outside the kingdom. It is an administrative entity that has a specific organizational structure, and holds a set of clear strategies and goals that endeavors to achieve in accordance with firm principles and values which conform, in essence and content, to the unwavering fundamentals on which Saudi Arabia stands.

History

The founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, King Abdulaziz Al-Saud had used the intelligence work in his historical wars to unify the country. He would not take a single military step without informing himself, through the scouts he sent out to the vicinity of the enemy, of the political and military situation of the other side, in order to put in place the appropriate plan to achieve victory.

At the dictates of his natural instincts and acumen, he realized the importance of getting timely information, and used it to enhance the security and stability of the burgeoning Kingdom. Accordingly, his interest in modern communication increasingly grew until he set up the first radio communications system throughout the land, something which would have a prominent role in transferring information and news, to and from him. It had also played an effective role in determining many historical events that took place in the Kingdom.

As the political, international, regional, and local conditions improved, and in response to the needs of the period, as well as in recognition of the importance of the political, religious, and economical stage the Kingdom was witnessing, there appeared a need for setting up an apparatus that could provide information for the decision maker, participate alongside other security services in preserving the integrity of the state and its essential elements, and guarantee a high level of prosperity for the state and the citizen, while preserving all its gains in all fields. Hence the Kingdom thought of setting up an intelligence service, and began this with the opening of an office for intelligence in 1955 under the name of Al-Mabahith Al-Aammah.

During the reign of King Saud bin Abdulaziz, the General Intelligence was separated from the General Directorate of Mabahith (Investigations). Intelligence was established officially as an independent security service with the issuing of the Royal decree number 11 in 1957 that ordered the setting up of a special department under the title of "Maslahat Al-Istikhbarat Al-Aammah" or (The General Intelligence Department). During this period two branches of the Presidency were set up locally, the western branch in Jeddah, and eastern one in Dhahran.

During the reign of King Faisal bin Abdulaziz, the Presidency witnessed great developments; namely, the opening of offices abroad in some countries of interest, and the setting up of a number of local branches to cover all the areas of the Kingdom, besides the expansion of the activities and missions the Presidency carried out.

During the reign of King Khaled bin Abdulaziz, the Presidency witnessed the issuing of its basic law by Royal decree number m-5, dated 19 December, 1982, which had set out its responsibilities, duties, and limits of activities. Also, many departments affiliated with the Presidency were set up and organized such as the General Department for Operations, the General Department for Administrative and Financial affairs, the General Department for Training and Planning, and the General Department for Technical Affairs. Set up as well were the National Research Center, and the Center for Media and International Communications (previously Center for Translation and Media). These developments came in response to the ever increasing needs of the Presidency and the expansion of its activities.

In 1997, the Office for External Communications was annexed to the Presidency after it had been part of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. Its name was also changed to the General Department for External Communications, and it was strengthened with the addition of high-tech equipment and intelligence specialists in radio surveillance, quite an advanced method for collecting intelligence.

The period saw the expansion of the activities of the Presidency abroad with the establishment and development of more offices in Arab, African, Asian, and European countries, and through more effort to organize its work in line with what the general interests of the state dictated.

The Presidency’s internal branches saw development during this phase as well with the restructuring and reorganizing of its offices and bolstering of them with new expertise and qualified personnel.

During the reign of King Fahd bin Abdulaziz, a period may be called the phase of administrative development, a specialized committees for administrative development were set up. The Higher Committee for Development was set up and was chaired by the President of the General Intelligence; its membership consisted of the heads of the various departments of the Presidency. And during the tenure of King Fahd, the administrative structuring of the Information Center was approved.

During the reign of King Abdulla bin Abdulaziz, The GIP has gone through many stages of development and renewals that coincided with the needs and the nature of the circumstances of each stage. With the issuance of this Royal Order, the GIP is now braced for another period of development and rejuvenation that reflects the new ambitions of the Saudi government in its pursuit of implementing modern information technology in all domains of government. To realize these ambitions, Prince Mugrin bin Abdulaziz directed, since his first day of assuming the leadership of the Presidency, for increasing the share of modern information technology in intelligence work. He has also implemented a comprehensive program of enrolling all GIP personnel in advanced training courses in computer science so that they become well educated on and informed of its uses. This is the first step for the Presidency to be one of the first government agencies to become fully electronic. Contracts with private institutions have already been signed to train all personnel and qualify them for the international driver’s license ICDL in computer uses and applications.

Since assuming his office, Prince Mugrin has been preoccupied with the project of developing, restructuring, and drawing the Presidency’s strategy. To this end, he has issued instructions for the studying of this new strategy to ensure its success and to maximize its benefits. Many committees have been formed for this task, and the expertise of other sectors in the Kingdom such as the security authorities, administrative and academic circles, has been called upon. Many of those involved in the strategy have been sent abroad to Arab, Islamic, and friendly countries in order to witness, first hand, the experience these countries enjoy in this field. Obviously, the new administrative structure of the Presidency has materialized in its orientation towards more organization and more specialization, in a way that guarantees the contribution of all in serving information, and enjoys the maximum benefit of all the capabilities and personnel available at the General Intelligence Presidency. Such a state fulfills the wishes of the President of the General Intelligence for disciplined commitment to high professionalism at work, bringing to life the GIP’s motto: "effectiveness, competence, professionalism."

GIP Vision

The vision of General Intelligence Presidency embodies its ability to attain a high level of professional efficiency, to provide timely and accurate intelligence, to carry out its activities and operations, and to adapt to the ever-changing needs of national security, in an effort to provide national security within the effective human resources and the modern technical capabilities under its disposal, and in coordination with the other concerned apparatuses, whether inside or outside the Kingdom.

GIP Message

The message of The GIP is maintaining stability and security in a proficient way through the following means:

1. Early collecting of the information about the interesting countries according to proficient standards to ensure the accuracy and flexibility of the intelligence work in order to obtain stability and security to the Kingdom.

2. Planning and efficient executing of the different intelligence operations in the interesting areas.

3. Countering espionage, intellectual and material destruction. In addition to uncovering hostile individual.

4. Setting specialized studies and strategic researches by the intelligence staff or through cooperating with universities, research centers, security bodies and national and foreign intelligence services to serve the national security.

5. Continuous supervising the developments and participating effectively in the interesting conferences locally and internationally to adapt with the changing events.

To achieve that, The GIP is very keen on hiring administrative qualifications and developing the proficient events through:1. Accurately selecting human qualification.2. Providing a suitable specialized training.3. Supervising the implementation using the principal of reward and punishment.

GIP Mission

The main mission of the Presidency is to make every effort to “provide strategic intelligence, contribute to achieve national security, and provide timely information to the authorities, so that they can take rapid and appropriate actions,” in accordance with the basic charter on which the General Intelligence Presidency was founded.

To bring about this mission, the Presidency runs strategic and counter intelligence operations needed to maintain national security, plans the activities of national intelligence services, coordinates their activities that relate to collecting and producing intelligence, and carries out studies and research as dictated by national security, then presents these to decision makers in order to draw up internal and external policies built on sound and accurate information. The Presidency also establishes mutual relations with the security services of other brotherly and friendly countries.

GIP Values & Principles

The GIP in its work starts from a group of certain constants of the nature of its activity.

1. Full obligation of the Islamic values.2. Not harming the country and the citizen interests.3. Full obligation of the official trends and attitudes of the Country.4. Take the initiative.5. Working with sense of mature security.6. Full obligation of confidentiality7. Keen on maintaining discipline. 8. Being away from personal tendencies and fancies9. Full obligation of Continuous progress.10. Full obligation of institutional approach in the work. 11. Fucous on quality not quantity.12. Applying the principle of reward and punishment.

External links

* [http://www.gip.gov.sa/sites/english/Pages/default1.aspx GIP Official Website]