Hellenic National Intelligence Service
Encyclopedia
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) (Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

: Εθνική Υπηρεσία Πληροφοριών, ΕΥΠ, Ethniki Ypiresia Pliroforion, EYP) is the national intelligence agency
Intelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to information gathering for purposes of national security and defence. Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public...

 of Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

. Its headquarters are located in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

.

Mission

The NIS is tasked with safeguarding national security. The mandate is implemented through:
  • Intelligence
    Intelligence
    Intelligence has been defined in different ways, including the abilities for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning, learning, planning, emotional intelligence and problem solving....

     gathering, processing, evaluating and dissemination. This intelligence may be of a political
    Politics
    Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

    , economic
    Economics
    Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

     or military nature.
  • Countering spying
    Espionage
    Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

     activities by foreign agents.
  • Securing national communication
    Communication
    Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...

    s.

Personnel

The Director of the National Intelligence Service is Kostandinos Bikas.

The agency is directly responsible to the Minister for Citizen Protection, who can appoint or dismiss the Director.

NIS employs the following categories of personnel:
  • Permanent civilian personnel.
  • Scientific civilian personnel, serving on the basis of private contracts of employment
    Employment
    Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...

    .
  • A number of officers on active service in the Armed Forces, the Coast Guard or the Hellenic Police. An unspecified number of national field agents are also employed.

History

The agency was founded on 7 May 1953 (Law 2421/1953) under the name Central Intelligence Service , which it retained until 27 August 1986, when its name changed to National Intelligence Service, by ministerial decree 1645/86, issued on 28 August.

The agency was created by influential Greek-American CIA agents, the most famous being Thomas Karamessines
Thomas Karamessines
Thomas H. Karamessines was the Deputy Director for Plans of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency from July 31, 1967 until February 27, 1973. Karamessines was actively involved in the Agency's Project FUBELT to undermine the government of Chilean president Salvador Allende....

, who later rose to become Deputy Director for Plans in the CIA. Its first, most influential and longest-serving Director was Alexandros Natsinas, a Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....

 of Artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

 and veteran of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 and the Greek Civil War
Greek Civil War
The Greek Civil War was fought from 1946 to 1949 between the Greek governmental army, backed by the United Kingdom and United States, and the Democratic Army of Greece , the military branch of the Greek Communist Party , backed by Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania...

. He headed the agency from its founding in May 1953 until December 1963. From the very beginning, KYP was controlled by the CIA; in the first eleven years of its history (1953-1964) its agents received their salaries from the Americans, not the Greek state, until Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou, enraged with this level of dependence, stopped this practice. During the Regime of the Colonels of 1967-1974, KYP actively supported the ruling Colonels in silencing dissent. After Andreas Papandreou
Andreas Papandreou
Andreas G. Papandreou ; 5 February 1919 – 23 June 1996) was a Greek economist, a socialist politician and a dominant figure in Greek politics. The son of Georgios Papandreou, Andreas was a Harvard-trained academic...

 came to power in 1981, he was determined to totally control the state apparatus, including the intelligence services, which historically had been staffed exclusively by people with right-wing political views. He appointed as head of KYP Lieutenant General Georgios Politis, a close friend of retired General, PASOK Member of Parliament and Minister Antonis Drosogiannis; Politis organized a massive purge of right-wing personnel. Ιn 1986 KYP became a civilian agency, EYP, by ministerial decree 1645/86. In recent years, its Directors have been diplomats, while traditionally they were military officers.

Current leadership

EYP's current Director General is Ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....

 Konstadinos Bikas, a career diplomat who has served in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and in Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

 and Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

 in the Middle East; when he was stationed in Iraq, Bikas was active in securing profitable oil deals for Greece. Bikas has also been Director of the Greek Foreign Ministry's Press Office, and Director of the Private Office of President Karolos Papoulias
Karolos Papoulias
-Honours:*Knight Grand Cross with Grand Cordon of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic *Knight Grand Cross of the Grand Order of King Tomislav *Knight of the Order of the Elephant- External links :*...

; the President is a ceremonial office in Greece, as power is exercised by the Prime Minister, but President Papoulias still remains a respected and influential figure, whose support proved vital for Bikas.
The Deputy Director General, responsible for operations, is Police Director Photis Papageorgiou, an officer of the elite Anti-terrorist division of the Greek Police
Greek Police
The Hellenic Police is the national police force of Greece. It is a very large agency, its responsibilities ranging from road traffic control to counter-terrorism....

.

Other Info

The agency's motto is "λόγων απορρήτων εκφοράν μη ποιού" (translated roughly as "do not discuss private affairs"), a quote of the Ancient Greek philosopher Periandros. The total number of people working for the agency is unknown and remains classified; the Greek media usually give figures of around 3,000.

See also

  • Greece
    Greece
    Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

  • List of intelligence agencies
  • Greek military junta of 1967–1974

External links

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