On 2005-03-17, Eric Chomko wrote:
Andrew Gray ) wrote:

: Other organisations, if memory serves, are GCHQ - the signals-intercept
: people - and the Defence Intelligence Staff, which is pretty much what
: it sounds like it is. There's also the various police forces' Special
: Branches (most famously that of the Metropolitan Police), which have a
: quasi-intelligence role in some contexts.

: There, that ought to thoroughly confuse you...

Actually, no. Thanks for the overview, it cleared up my confusion. The
bigger then number the further away (external = 6).

Yeah, but there's no actual logic to that - originally there was a
breakdown simply by geographic area, where MI2 was "northern Europe" (or
something), that sort of thing.

(This had echoes in the US, again - for a long time the FBI, if memory
serves, held jurisdiction over anything to do with Latin America.)

MI6 got the name because one of the SIS's branches was given the title
during the war, and it later became attatched to the organisation
generally. There was a lot of internecine squabbling after the War; when
the dust settled, we had the two agencies and some miscellaneous bits
and pieces.

I guess a rough US equivalent is:

MI5 = FBI
MI6 = CIA.

At least their domains, though the FBI is both domestic and abroad where
the CIA (so we are told anyway) is strictly foriegn.

Broadly. MI5 probably has overseas operations, but its remit is domestic
- to protect the institutions, rather than to carry out their
activities, if you see the difference.

As I understand it, though, the FBI was originally a federal criminal
investigation body - closer to the UK's CID than anything else - which
later acquired intelligence duties; the role of MI5 might be better
compared to a more wide-ranging Secret Service without the VIP
protection role.

--
-Andrew Gray