80 years of Intelligence Activity in Brazil

 

• The National Defense Council
• The Federal Information and Counter-Information Service
• The National Information Service
• The Secretariat for Strategic Affairs
• The Under Secretariat for Intelligence
• The Brazilian Intelligence Agency

The National Defense Council

In the 1920´s Brazil was marked by the rise of military movements led by lieutenants and by the emergence of labor movements which sought deep changes in the political and social structures of the country. This scenario was further complicated due to serious difficulties in the economy of Brazil and the world in general, reaching its climax with the crash of the New York Stock Exchange, in 1929.

Worried with this sequence of events, the Brazilian government decided to create an intelligence organization to follow, in an interdisciplinary way, the important evolution of events and evaluate its consequences to the interests of the Brazilian State.

In 1927, President Washington Luís Pereira de Souza created the National Defense Council as a support tool to the strategic actions of the Executive Power, thus initiating the intelligence activity in Brazil.

 

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The Federal Information and Counter-Information Service

After the end of the Second World War, in 1946, the President of the Republic, General Eurico Gaspar Dutra, subdivided the structure of the General-Secretariat of the National Security Council in three sections in charge of “organizing the Industrial and Commercial Plans, as well as the plans for Internal Policies and Economy regarding the War Plan”. In addition, he charged the 2nd Section with the responsibility of “organizing and directing the Federal Information and Counter-Information Service - SFICI", organization belonging to the structure of the National Security Council, which would then be responsible for information in Brazil.

In 1949, the Regulation for the Safeguarding of Information of National Security interest - RSISN was approved, becoming the first legal tool which concretely sought to protect information deemed classified by the Brazilian State.

In 1958, the SFICI became the main Information and Counter-Information tool of the Brazilian State, which, due to the political state of affairs, started to act in cooperation with countries of the so-called occidental block during the peak of the Cold War.

 

 

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The National Information Service

Brazil, in the beginning of the 60’s, presented a very disturbed scenario which gave rise to demonstrations of segments of the society. This state of affairs led to a military intervention in the national political process in 1964.

In the same year the National Information Service - SNI was created through Law # 4.341, which assigned to the organization the function of “overseeing and coordinating Information and Counter-Information activities, in particular those of National Security interest”. The new agency was directly linked to the Presidency of the Republic, and would act in favor of the President and of the National Security Council.

The SNI incorporated all patrimony belonging to the SFICI, including all civil and military employees who worked there. According to the law, the head of the SNI would have its appointment subject to previous approval by the Federal Senate and would have the status of minister.

The SNI was organized with a structure similar to that of the extinct SFICI, with necessary adaptations due to the new political scenario. In sum, a Central Agency and twelve Regional Agencies were created, distributed throughout the national territory. The Central Agency was organizationally divided in subdivisions responsible, at a national level, for External Information, Internal Information, Counter-Information, and Information Operations.

Due to situational requirements, subsequent governments of the period (1964-1985) established the juridical order which would regulate the information activity through the creation of new organizations, the composition of systems, the implementation of a school, and the development of a specific doctrine.



In 1971 the National Information School - EsNI was created; its operational structure based in models adopted by other similar countries, in particular Germany, the United States of America, and England.

According to the legal text EsNI’s purpose was to: "prepare civil and military employees to answer to information and counter-information needs of the National Information System; cooperate with the development of the national information doctrine; and conduct research that would improve the performance of the activities of the National Information System”.

EsNI, in its historical path, started to conduct specific training programs, called courses and internships, besides promoting special events, such as seminars and panels, always aiming for the betterment of the national information doctrine.

OThe operation of the National Information System - SISNI was implemented as a consequence of the National Information Plan - PNI, which established that the purpose of the “National Information Objectives - ONI" was to "guide the production of information necessary for the planning of the national policy, as well as its appropriate follow-up, towards the implementation of national objectives”.

SISNI was coordinated by the SNI at its highest level, and consisted of departmental information organizations inside civil and military ministries of the Executive Power, reaching autarchies and related public enterprises.

Linked to SISNI through technical channels were also Information organizations from State and Federal governments.

In the 70’s, in order to assure communication security of confidential information, the Brazilian State utilized cryptographic equipment of foreign origin, which represented serious vulnerability to the preservation of its confidentiality. At that time, analyses conducted by the Ministry of Foreign Relations (MRE) indicated an urgent need for Brazil to develop its own cryptographic equipment, utilizing exclusively national technology.

In 1977, the Ministry of Foreign Relations and the SNI celebrated an agreement called “The Prolog Project”, the main aim of which was to conduct cryptographic research and the development of cryptanalysis, cryptographic projects, and equipment.



The Prolog Project resulted in the creation of the Research and Development Center for the Security of Communication - Cepesc.

The first products were built in the beginning of that decade; of these we can cite the pieces of equipment AS-2T, for online use in telex channels, CP-1 and CF-1, for offline use.

Since then, Cepesc has become the supplier for several national strategic entities, having as priority clients the Presidency of the Republic, the Ministry of Foreign Relations, Information agencies, military ministries and the Central Bank.

During the administration of President José Sarney a specific work group was constituted with representatives from the Central Agency of SNI, and of EsNI, which elaborated SNI’s Information handbook, approved by Decree # 36, 1989, which redefined doctrinal concepts for Information in Brazil. Thus a new concept for information activities was conceived, the consequence of which was felt in two basic fields:

Information – geared towards the production of knowledge; and 

Counter-Information – geared towards the safeguarding of knowledge.

Later, next to the end of the Sarney administration, a new work group was constituted, to identify the actual developmental needs of SNI’s objective, organization, and performance. 

In consequence, a new organizational concept was proposed, which would be compatible with national reality, through the elaboration of Project SNI, which delimited the field of competence of the structure. The “new SNI” should act in the areas of production of knowledge related to the defense of Brazil’s objectives in the international arena, and of the safeguarding of the interests of the State against actions of espionage, sabotage, terrorism, and others which would put national institutions in risk.

This way, the cleansing of the agency was sought, eliminating from its functions the possible tasks which escaped its real competence, and which were not focused on the safeguarding of Society and State. However, even when finished, Project SNI was not implemented; its proposals became then available to the new government.

 

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The Secretariat for Strategic Affairs

Keeping the promises made during his presidential campaign, President Fernando Collor de Melo, inaugurated in 1990, extinguished the SNI, in the midst of its wide administrative reform.

In order to continue the Information activity, the Secretariat for Strategic Affairs - SAE was created. Its concept was similar to that which guided the actions of the former SFICI; that is, a return to the model constituted by a higher organization linking Intelligence products and the President of the Republic.

According to the new law, EsNI became the Center for Development and Improvement of Human Resources - CEFARH.

There was, in reality, one more trial to cleanse the performance of the Intelligence activity, particularly in relation to the production of knowledge on the internal state of affairs, which sought to eliminate issues involving ideological matters.

After that, a new Bill was forwarded which created the Federal Intelligence Center and reorganized the Secretariat for Strategic Issues of the Presidency of the Republic.

 

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The Under Secretariat for Intelligence

The impeachment of President Collor and the rise to power of President Itamar Franco in 1992 led to new and profound administrative restructuring within the Executive Power.

Law # 8.490, 1992, created the Under-Secretariat of Intelligence - SSI, subordinating to it the Intelligence Department and CEFARH, which then integrated the second organizational line of the Secretariat for Strategic Affairs. Keeping, this way, the concept in force since the creation of SAE, in 1990, which positioned the Intelligence organization with no direct access to the President of the Republic.

Until the end of the administration of President Itamar Franco, the Intelligence activity was conducted by the SSI, with the proper care and limitations imposed by a period still in transition to its complete institutionalization.

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The Brazilian Intelligence Agency

With the end of the Cold War, there was a new direction of interests in the public and economic world scenario. Enemies and targets to be reached changed. The war against organized crime, terrorists, narco-traffic, bio-piracy, industrial and economic espionage and transnational illicit became the aim of the intelligence activity in the XXI century.

In 1995, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso enacted the provisional edict # 813, which maintained the SSI subordinated to SAE, and authorized the creation of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency - Abin, federal autarchy linked to the Presidency of the Republic. The new entity had, within its objectives, the responsibility to plan and carry out activities of permanent nature, regarding the gathering, collection, and analyses of information, and the performance of activities of classified nature, necessary to the Safeguarding of State and Society.

In 1997, Bill # 3.651 was sent to the National Congress. It dealt with the creation of the Brazilian Intelligence System and the creation of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency - Abin, organization which maintained its link to the Military House until 1999, when the Institutional Security Cabinet – GSI was created, encompassing, among other functions, all responsibilities related to the extinct Military House. After presidential sanction, the SSI was extinct, and Abin created as an organization of direct support to the President of the Republic.

Still in 1999, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso sanctioned Law # 9.883, which created the Brazilian Intelligence System - Sisbin and regulated the creation of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency - Abin.

Law # 9.883 attributed to Sisbin the responsibility of integrating all planning and implementation of actions of intelligence activities in the country, which included the process of obtaining, analyzing, and disseminating “information necessary to the decision-making process of the Executive Power”, as well as the safeguarding of information “against the access of unauthorized people or organizations”. The article also highlights as main fundaments of the system the preservation of national sovereignty, defense of the democratic State of Law and dignity of the human person.

This law created the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin) as an organization for the direct support of the President of the Republic and as a central organization of Sisbin, with the mission to “plan, execute, coordinate, oversee, and control intelligence activities in the country”, and in addition established that the Intelligence activity will be developed, in reference to its limits, and to the use of techniques, always in strict observance of constitutional principles.

The new law established that the Director-General of the agency should have his/her name approved by the Federal Senate, and would be responsible for the elaboration and publication of the by-laws of Abin, to be approved by the President of the Republic.

The creation of the Agency allowed the Brazilian State to institutionalize the Intelligence activity, through actions of coordination of the flow of information necessary to Government decisions, in relation to taking advantage of opportunities, and in relation to antagonisms and threats, real or potential, to the highest interests of society and country.

In 2002, the National Congress, through the Joint Committee for the Control of Intelligence Activities, promoted the seminar “Intelligence Activities in Brazil: Contributions for Sovereignty and Democracy”, with the participation of authorities from the government, legislative, academy, and research fields, and professionals from the Intelligence field. The contributions of the event were significant for the deepening of discussions about the intelligence activity in Brazil.

 

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