Monitoring all your steps in real time 24 hours a day. This is how the National Intelligence Center (CNI) has protected the lives of its agents for three years, although it had always monitored them. It is the great mechanism for defending national interests and its personnel of an agency specialized in this field and which has around a thousand members spread around the world, many of them exposed to high risk.
Dozens of agents on the ground – the number may vary depending on the missions – are currently computerized through some type of electronic device. Are beaconsas they say in CNI jargon.
The person responsible for this work is the so-called CCI, a specialized unit made up of specifically trained people, whose creation significantly boosted the reaction capacity in the operation of the Center and placed it in the first division of the intelligence services.
More than 20 years ago the CNI suffered its hardest blow. Eight of its members died in Iraq. At the main entrance to the agency’s headquarters, a monument with nine llamas remembers the “heroes” who gave their lives for Spain. Its semicircular shape allows it to be seen from any part of the premises. Eight of these flames have their own names and the ninth is dedicated to all those who, secretly, died in the act of service.
They all died in Iraq in the fall of 2003, one of them in Baghdad on October 9 and the rest in an ambush in Latifiya on November 29. Therefore, this monolith makes clear the risk that intelligence officers constantly face. The CNI had long felt the need to have an instrument that would increase security in the area of operations. Finally, three years ago the CCI was launched.
Despite the lack of ego that characterizes intelligence personnel, those responsible for the Information Continuity Center find it difficult to hide their pride when talking about it and they count the time it has been operating with millimeter precision: 1,097 days (to date may 14). “Immediacy and 24-hour support is its added value,” Luis and Eduardo, fictitious names, repeat like a mantra.
The decision of which agents beacon It is taken once the risk that they run has been evaluated based on the activity they carry out or the situation of insecurity that exists in the areas in which they operate.
Although the scope of action of the intelligence service is the entire world, deployment abroad is a secret matter, so there is no answer to the question of where the monitored personnel are mainly located. However, it is not hidden from anyone that the Sahel, Ukraine or Gaza are “hot spots” at the moment, they confess. In any case, they affirm that in all risk areas in which the Spanish State has an interest, the CNI is present with personnel beacon.?
The time factor is crucial
With almost 20 years of experience on average and hardened in the field, the key for the men and women of the National Intelligence Center is to work as a team following procedures established in the regulations, without forgetting an aspect that cannot be minimized: uncertainty .
These expert analysts work in shifts to cover 24 hours a day. In a room full of screens, they follow step by step the information obtained by different means in the indicated areas of interest and carry out monitoring of the agents’ activities. beacons to verify that “they do not go beyond the established script.”
That is, they verify that no anomalies are detected that could indicate a security incident, as well as that they comply with the plan that they have previously communicated, both in terms of the itinerary and schedules.
Safe, non-commercial means are used to carry out technical monitoring, a vital aspect for the protection of the members of the Center deployed in these risk areas.
They assure that until now no eventualities have occurred due to the use of these mechanisms, perhaps because the counterpart to which the CNI members have to go unnoticed is less technologically developed.
Sometimes with very little data, these analysts have to make decisions in which the time factor is crucial. It is a very stressful but, on the other hand, rewarding job, although they are aware that given the risk involved in some missions, the possibility of a serious incident cannot be completely excluded.
With the information obtained, the CCI staff prepares daily reports that are sent to the CNI management and agency bodies for which they may be of interest.
The CCI has been monitoring the situation in Ukraine for almost 1,000 days regarding what may constitute a threat to the interests of Spain and submitting reports to the corresponding organizations every day. It’s just an example.
Quick reaction. This specialized unit contributes to the gearing of the entire CNI structure to increase its efficiency. The final objective is to try to reduce reaction times to any threat or risk for agents.
In a hypothetical case we can place a team in any area of interest. Its members communicate that they are not going to move from the location assigned for their deployment and what their activities for the day will be. If, instead of attending the meeting scheduled at 6:00 a.m. in the north of the city, they are seen moving towards the south, the center’s specialists already know that there is a problem.
Immediately, a plan is activated to reduce time and make it easier for the support of the different organizations to act.
It is also important to have them monitored 24 hours a day to be able to alert them in the event of a suspected attack in the environment or any other threat to their safety.?
For those responsible for the CNI, the almost 3,300 members that make up its staff are its main asset. 76 percent are civilian personnel, 18 come from the Armed Forces and six percent from the State Security Forces and Corps. 65.56 percent are men and 34.44 are women.
