Opinion: Why It’s Time To Have Two Separate Intelligence Services.
I want to prefix my article by saying that the following is my own personal opinions based on commonsense and general observation. I do not in anyway claim to be an expert in neither security nor intelligence. With that said, I am of the opinion that the government should follow the model of developed countries such as the U.S., U.K., Israel and others in creating two or more separate and independent agencies for internal security and oversees intelligence. Under Tanzanian Intelligence and Security Services (TISS), everything is housed under one umbrella with internal security and oversees intelligence being departments headed under one DGI (Director General of Intelligence).
Before delving deep into the discussion, I would like to give a brief legal history of intelligence in Tanzania. Before 1970, there was no legal structure for intelligence services in Tanzania rather it was a loosely organized group working under the President’s office. Then on 30th March, 1970, President Nyerere signed into law the National Security Act, formally establishing what was the predecessor to TISS. The purpose of the Act was “..to make better provision relating to State Security; to deal with espionage, sabotage and other activities prejudicial to the interests of the United Republic; and for purposes incidental thereto or connected therewith.” The Act established the legal framework for the working of intelligence and security officers, their duties, code of conduct, and their relation to the public etc.
However the National Security Act of 1970 did not make very clear the organizational hierarchy of the intelligence services. The Tanzania Intelligence And Security Service Act of 1996 in part aimed at closing loopholes and filling in gaps left by the 1970 Act. Thus on 12th January, 1997, President Mkapa signed into law what established TISS. Unlike the 1970 Act, the 1996 Act went farther to list certain designations by name such as the Director General, Deputy Director General and head of departments (even though no specific departments are mentioned). The Act also lists other management structures such as Officers and employees of TISS, grading of offices, conditions of employment, role of Director-General, role of Minister, process for resolution of staff disputes and oaths.
There is no doubt that both the 1970 and 1996 Acts aimed at improving the efficiency and functionality of the intelligence organ. With that said, in my opinion, it is now time to divide the intelligence and security service into two organs, with one dealing with internal security and the other dealing with oversees intelligence. Both these agencies should operate independently with each having its own Director General and with both having a separate reporting line to the President. This is because, in the 21st century, we as a country need to have a special focus on diplomatic and economic espionage. Having a separate agency dealing exclusively with oversees intelligence will give our country the edge it needs in terms of 1. trade deals, 2. technologies to adapt, 3. where our focus should be geopolitically and internationally and ideally to figure out what other countries intentions in relation to Tanzania are, and 4. recruitment of officers who are completely and exclusively focused on external affairs. In my opinion the 4th reason carries the most weight and makes the other three reasons feasible. It might be expensive to separate the two functions but I believe it is an investment worth funding.
I can’t stress enough the importance of having separate recruiting processes for both the agencies. While officers of both agencies would have some common traits and receive some common basic training, I believe both these fields require different skillsets and character. Be mindful that I am not suggesting that an officer of one intelligence service would be superior to the other but there is a reason in the U.S. you have several intelligence services which have different recruitment criteria. Same case with the UK where you have MI6 (Secret Intelligence Services) which deals exclusively with foreign intelligence, MI5 (Security Service) which deals exclusively with domestic intelligence and GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) which deals exclusively with cyber warfare and you have the Joint Intelligence Organization (JIO) which handles joint intelligence analysis for all intelligence services. Ideally agents from all three services would have some things in common but each need something extra to manage and handle their individual organizational functions.
While the organ focused on internal security would continue to report to the State Minister in the President’s office, the one focused on oversees intelligence would ideally be under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Both DGIs would be independent members of the National Security Council. The two organs would have information sharing mechanisms but the collection of information and analysis of data would be done individually and separately by each organ.
In conclusion, all the above are just independent opinions of an outsider making an observation based on what is going on in the world today and how Tanzania can better equip itself for the 21st century. There might be legitimate internal reasons why this would not be possible or even feasible but this is just food for thought for other outsiders who are intrigued by the world of spyfare and espionage. At the end of the day, the experts know best.
Thomas Joel Kibwana.
