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Home Spy Encyclopedia	Agencies & Acronyms-A A-2 Intelligence staff of the US Army Air Corps and, subsequently, Army Air Forces. SB ABS Association for Business Security. Security organization formed by former Soviet intelligence officers. The formation of ABS was announced in early 1993, with its head identified as Victor Budanov, a retired major general and former chief of counterintelligence for the external spy services of the KGB. ABS services include security protection for business executives visiting the former Soviet Union; investigations of possible business partners who are residents of Russia and other former Soviet republics; and security measures to guard against industrial espionage. SB AFSA Armed Forces Security Agency. Established on May 20, 1949 to consolidate the activities of the US Army, Navy, and Air Force in the area of cryptology in a single agency, under the direction and control of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The agency thus had responsibility for all communications intelligence (COMINT) and communications security (COMSEC) activities of the armed forces. In reality, AFSA had simply become a fourth cryptologic service, competing with the activities of the Army, Navy, and Air  Force. As a result of a special panel established by President Truman in late 1951, in Oct. 1952 the NSA was established to overcome the problems experienced with AFSA. SB AGER US Navy designation for passive intelligence collection vessels. The letters AGER indicate miscellaneous auxiliary (AG) and environmental research (ER). An example being the USS Pueblo (AGER-2) captured by North Korea in 1968. EE AGI US-NATO designation for Soviet intelligence collection ships. SB AGTR Similar to the AGER programme, the TR referring to technical research, an example being the USS Liberty (AGTR-5) attacked by Israel in 1967. EE AIA Air Intelligence Agency. (USAF) AIB Allied Intelligence Bureau. Combined US-Australian intelligence organization for Gen. Douglas MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Area command during World War II. The AIB was established in Australia on July 6, 1942 -- four months after MacArthur fled from the Japanese armies engulfing the Philippines. The AIB served as an umbrella organization for a number of sabotage and other clandestine units already in existence. In addition to planning and carrying out intelligence collection, sabotage, and guerrilla support missions ... the AIB operated the chain of coast watchers who kept track of Japanese movements in the region. AIB teams were sent into islands behind Japanese lines to collect intelligence or undertake sabotage missions. The existence of the AIB and its activities caused MacArthur to reject the use of the Office of Strategic Services in his theater. The bureau was abolished at the end of the war in the Pacific. SB AMAN The intelligence corps of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). EE Military intelligence was established as a department of the operations branch of the Army's General Staff shortly after the State of Israel came into being on May 14, 1948 .... During the summer of 1948 military intelligence underwent several reorganizations and increased its effectiveness, in part due to an influx of cryptanalysts, radio operators, and other technicians, many of whom had served in the US and British armies. Both intelligence collection -- including signals intelligence against Arab radio transmissions -- and intelligence analysis were improved, and special operations for both intelligence collection and sabotage were undertaken in neighboring Arab states. In 1953 military intelligence was elevated to the Intelligence Branch of the armed forces, generally called Aman, the Hebrew acronym for Agaf Modi'in (information wing). Aman specializes in intelligence about Arab countries with a secondary emphasis on African states ... and the Soviet Union-Russia. The last has been an intelligence target because of the large-scale arms transfers from the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc states to Arab and African countries beginning in 1955, as well as training provided to officers from those countries. In the 1970s the activities of Aman expanded  ...to counter the increase in worldwide terrorist activities against Israeli interests. In the early 1950s counterintelligence functions were removed from Israeli military intelligence. Accordingly, except for field security of military forces, all security functions are now performed in Israel by the civilian police (Special Branch) and the (civilian) Shin Bet (Security Service). Aman is the largest of the Israeli intelligence organizations; according to Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman in Every Spy a Prince (1990), it has a strength of some 7,000 men and women. SB Argentina CNI-National Intelligence Centre. A coordination and intelligence analysis organization with only a limited operational ability. It was created in 1972 and is governed by a secret Presidential decree. SIDE-State Intelligence Secretary. Responsible for foreign intelligence, counterintelligence and internal security. It is the most important service in the Argentinian intelligence community. Originally established in 1946, it became the SIDE in 1956. It has gained an appalling reputation for human rights abuse involving rape, torture, illegal imprisonment and murder. National Direction of Internal Intelligence. A weak coordination intelligence unit responsible for domestic security within the Ministry of Interior. Established only in the mid 1990s. J-2-Intelligence, Joint Staff of the Armed Forces. This department controls the G-2 Army Intelligence and a CRIM Military Intelligence Collection Centre originally called Intelligence Battalion 601. This unit was deeply involved in domestic intelligence and played a major part in the Military Dictatorship's so-called "dirty war" [marked by the] gross violation of human rights during that period (1976-83) in which thousands were murdered or disappeared. EE Armenia KGB. After the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, the local KGB organization and much of its staff were transferred to the newly independent Armenia. It still includes a number of officers who maintain covert links with Moscow and the new FSB. EE ASA US Army Security Agency (1945-77). US Army agency responsible for all signals intelligence (SIGINT) and communications security (COMSEC) activities,  establishments, units, and personnel from 1945 to 1977. Previously the Army's Signal Security Agency (SSA) and before that the Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) had those responsibilities. SSA was renamed the Army Security Agency on Sept. 15, 1945. At that time administrative responsibility for the Army's SIGINT efforts was removed from the chief signal officer and placed under Army Intelligence (G-2). The ASA...had a major role in the development of advance computers for use in cryptologic operations, a porject that was taken over by the NSA after its establishment. The ASA's ... activities and components were merged with Army Intelligence in 1977 to form the Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM). SB ASIO Australian Security and Intelligence Organization. Internal security agency whose principal mission is counterintelligence. It also engages in intelligence collection. The ASIO evolved from the Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB) of World War II. [It] was founded in 1949, with Sir Charles Spry as its first director. The agency has strong ties with both British and US intelligence agencies. SB ASIS Australian Secret Intelligence Service (also known as MO9) was established on 13 May 1952 as Australia's prime foreign intelligence service, though it was not officially acknowledged until October 1977. Created very much in the image of SIS (MI6) the relations between the two services have remained extremely close. EE Association of Former Intelligence Officers Formed in 1975 to promote "public understanding of, and support for, a strong and responsible intelligence establishment," the organization believes that effective intelligence is the first line of defense for the United States against surprise from abroad, subversion at home, and possibly dangerous miscalculation by national leaders in the conduct of foreign and defense policy." The group publishes a monthly newsletter called Periscope. In 1996 its membership was 2,800. SB ATOMAL Classification used by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)  to identify restricted data (i.e. atomic energy material) provided by the United States to NATO. SB Austria Despite being at the centre of international intelligence operations for much of the early Cold War period, Austria maintains a relatively small counterintelligence capability based on the Heeres-Nachrichtrenamt of the Ministry of Defense. Probably the most important elements of Austrian intelligence are, however, the two major SIGINT sites at Kongswarte and Neulengbach. It is reported that both stations have provided the German BND with additional coverage, particularly during the Balkan conflicts. EE Azerbaijan Ministry of National Security, effectively a revamped local verstion of the old Soviet KGB. It still maintains close links with Russia's SVR. EE