Reasons Why the Intelligence Services Are “Secret”
Intelligence services are "secret" because the main method of their activity is conspiracy, i.e. various ways of concealment of concrete tasks, persons who perform them and ways and means used for completion of the tasks. Intelligence service can work effectively only if certain sensitive spheres of their activities are kept secret. These areas usually are:
- Information about operations, sources, methods, procedures and means.
- Anonymity of services' employees and protection of their knowledge.
- Origin and details of intelligence and information provided by foreign governments or intelligence services.
The achievements of intelligence services often have to be concealed as well in order to enable obtaining of intelligence in the future. Hence the concrete knowledge and information of intelligence services should be concealed for a longer period of time, as its disclosure would reveal its aims as well as possibilities of the existing systems of gathering intelligence.
Source: Petr Zeman - lectures, trainings and public speeches