The General Intelligence Service (COP) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) was established in 1957. Structurally, it is subordinate to the KSA government. Its headquarters is located in the capital of the KSA, Riyadh, and is headed by Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who was included in the list of the "500 most influential people in the world" in 2013.
Until the mid-1950s. internal and external security issues in the KSA were dealt with directly by the king, who personally controlled all incoming information about threats to the kingdom and made decisions on national security issues. In connection with the growing confrontation of the Arab states of the Middle East with Israel, the creation of the "Baghdad Pact" organization and the outbreak of hostilities in Egypt during the "Triple Aggression", in 1956 the Saudi king decided to organize the Office of General Intelligence (UOR), the first which was headed by Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Iban. But already at the beginning of 1957, Major General Said Kurdi, close to the monarch's family, was appointed head of the intelligence service, who reorganized the service. Two directorates were established: the western district centered on Jeddah and the eastern district centered on Dhahran. General Said Kurdi was allowed to transfer professional specialists from among the officers of the Ministry of Defense and Aviation into his service.
In the 1950s and 60s. the main task of the RBM was to counter the neighboring Arab states, including Egypt and Iraq. In the mid-1960s. Saudi intelligence began to provide assistance to the extremist organization "Muslim Brotherhood" in Egypt, which was in opposition to President Gamal Abdel Nasser. During the same period of the UOR, more radical Islamic groups began to be involved in intelligence and subversion activities.
In 1964, General Said Kurdi retired and was replaced by Omar Mahmoud Shamsa, who led Saudi intelligence until 1977.
By 1976, UOR residencies were established in almost all countries of the Middle East; regional offices operated in all provinces of the kingdom.
In the 1970s. Saudi intelligence begins to work closely with the secret services of France, the United States and Great Britain in countering the Soviet presence in Muslim countries. In 1976, on the initiative of the UOR, the "Safari Club" was created, which includes the intelligence services of the KSA, Egypt, Iran and Morocco, which created and supported Islamist organizations in Africa and Asia, opposing the pro-Soviet national liberation movements. After the Saur revolution in 1978 in Afghanistan, similar cooperation was established with Pakistani intelligence, and a few years later, with the participation of the Safari Club, the Maktab al-Khidma (Service Bureau) organization was created to mobilize volunteers for the war in Afghanistan., together with Egypt, the KSA supported the Islamic opposition of South Yemen, and together with Morocco - the Angolan group UNITA.
In 1977, a leading position in Saudi intelligence was occupied by a representative of the ruling family of Al Saud, the nephew of the Saudi King Khaled (1975-1982), Prince Turki al-Faisal. The prince graduated from Georgetown University (USA), which explains the subsequent cooperation of the UOR with the intelligence services of the United Kingdom and the United States. Most analysts and media representatives considered Prince al-Faisal to be the head of operations to support the Taliban and the war with the USSR in Afghanistan. In 2001, Prince al-Faisal was appointed Ambassador of Riyadh to London, and in 2005.- for the post of ambassador to Washington. The attempt of Prince al-Faisal with the help of the United States to reconcile Israel and Palestine, as well as to relieve tension on Iran's nuclear program by peaceful means, led to his withdrawal in September 2006. It is known that the Saudi King Abdullah, wishing to correct the resulting actions of contradictions in relations with the United States, invited US Vice President Dick Cheney to Riyadh for negotiations without informing the prince. The reluctance of the ruling monarch to see the prince at this meeting forced him to resign.
During the reign of King Fahd (1982-2005), organizational changes were made to Saudi intelligence. A "High Committee for the Development of Intelligence" was created under the leadership of the president of the service, which included the heads of its leading divisions, and the organizational structure of its information center was approved.
In the early 1980s. Saudi intelligence began direct operations against the USSR. In 1978, the International Organization for Free Press and Information was created in Cairo, whose activities were coordinated by the CIA and the UOR and aimed at destabilizing the situation in the Muslim regions of Central Asia and the Caucasus. A number of Islamist organizations (Summer Linguistic Institute, Hizb-i Islami, etc.) created conditions for the use of Arab students studying in the USSR as agents. In the first half of the 1990s. Saudi intelligence, together with Pakistani intelligence, was directly involved in the creation of the Taliban movement, remaining until 2002 the main source of funding for this organization. Religious figures, diplomatic staff, local Muslims, students were used to work directly on the territory of the USSR.
In the same years, UOR's ties with US intelligence were strengthened. Current CIA Director John Brennan 1996-1999 headed the CIA office in the KSA. According to former FBI agent John Gwandolo on the Trento Radio Show, Brennan converted to Islam and visited the holy cities of Medina and Mecca during the Hajj accompanied by KSA officials, which is impossible for a non-Muslim to do.
In 1991, as a result of organized bankruptcy, the third largest bank in the world, the Banc of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), was liquidated. Asia and the Caucasus of the Soviet Union, Africa and Latin America, Afghan mujahideen, Pakistani nuclear program. The BCCI board of directors included CIA leaders William Casey and Richard Helms, COP leaders Türki al-Faisal al-Saud, Kamal Adham, and Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi, the representative of the Saudi Bin Laden Group in the United States. One of the BBCI's affiliated structures was the Carlyle Group of George W. Bush, George W. Bush, US Secretary of State James Baker, Adnan Khashoggi, Khaled bin Mahfooz (director of BCCI) and the Saudi Bin Laden Group.
Through BCCI and subsidiaries in Switzerland, France and the Cayman Islands 1984-1985. the financing of an arms deal dubbed "Iran-Contra", which led to a scandal known as "Iran Gate", almost led to the resignation of US President R. Reagan. The key role in this scam was played by people from the leadership of the BCCI: Casey, Khashoggi, Gorbanifar, Prince Bandar, Syrian arms and drug dealer Mansour al Kassar, US Vice President D. Bush, US President's National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane. As a result of the deal, the Nicaraguan contras, who fought with the pro-Soviet Sandinistas, illegally obtained the money and weapons they needed. In addition, the KSA illegally received 400 Stinger MANPADS, and Iran more than 500 anti-tank missiles.
The leadership of the BCCI and the Carlyle Group were involved in planning and implementing the collapse of prices in the oil market in late 1985 - early 1986, which aimed to deliver a final blow to the Soviet economy.
The SOR has taken and continues to take an active part in the formation of Islamist organizations and the Wahhabi underground in the North Caucasus, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Nizhny Novgorod and Astrakhan regions of Russia. Funding for fundamentalists comes through various religious and social organizations.
In the early 1990s. the first Saudi emissaries began to appear in the North Caucasus. KSA citizen Servakh Abed Saakh organized financing of the Islamic school in Kizil-Yurt (Dagestan) and the Wahhabi printing house "Santlada" in Pervomayskoye through B. Magomedov.
In 1996, representatives of the International Islamic Organization “Salvation” were expelled from Russia, who were engaged not only in supporting the Islamists, but also in organizing the “fifth column” in the republic’s authorities. This organization got into the development of the Russian special services back in the late 1980s - early 1990s.
In 1995, not without the help of Saudi emissaries, the main base of the Wahhabis was organized in the Bass River gorge, an Islamic combat battalion was created under the command of Jordanian citizen Abd al-Rahman Khattab with a location in the villages of Makhkety, Khatuni and Kirov-yurt, weapons were purchased and Arab instructors were provided …
In the hostilities in the North Caucasus, the IDF agents, field commander Habib Abdel Rahman (aka Emir Khattab, Black Arab) and Aziz bin Said bin Ali al-Ghamdi (aka Abu al-Walid), took part.
The COP residency in Moscow and St. Petersburg works with sources of information in Russian scientific institutions and government organizations, territorial government bodies and legislative assemblies, buying confidential information and state secrets for a lot of money.
In 2001, Prince Nawaf Al Saud, a direct descendant of one of the founders of the Saudi state, King Abdel Aziz, became the head of Saudi intelligence. During his leadership, the name of the Saudi secret service was changed to General Intelligence Service. The prince's poor health led to his resignation in January 2005.
Prince Mukrin Al Saud (born 1945), who received a special military education in Great Britain in 1968 and served as a pilot at the Dhahran Air Force Base, was appointed by royal decree to replace Prince Nawaf Al Saud. In 1980, the prince was appointed governor of the Hail province, in 1999 - the governor of the Medina province. In October 2005, Prince Mukrin Al-Saud was appointed as the head of the COP in the post of minister. Under his leadership, the service was reorganized: the Chairman is at the head, then the Deputy Chairman, the heads of the two main departments for communications and protocol, as well as the department for monitoring the implementation of tasks, who are assistants to the head of the RRF for intelligence, planning and training staff, technical issues and, finally, an administrative and financial assistant. Prince Mukrin advocated the need to transform both the Middle East and the entire Gulf region into a zone free of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
A possible pretext for removing Prince Mukrin from office was a scandal in early May 2012 in the press related to the daughter of the former head of Saudi intelligence, Princess Lamya, who used the cover of Saudi intelligence to export from Cairo many billions of dollars belonging to the family of ex-President Hosni Mubarak. on royal yachts and charter flights.
On July 19, 2012, Prince Bandar bin Sultan (born in 1949), son of Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the first crown prince of the incumbent King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, head of the KSA National Security Council, former KSA ambassador to the United States, was appointed head of the SOR most of the princes, which is important in the context of the ongoing civil strife in the ruling house. According to a number of foreign analysts, the appointment of Prince Bandar bin Sultan to the main key positions of power in the hierarchy of the royal house testifies to the KSA's intentions to pursue aggressive domestic and foreign policies in order to regain the status of a regional leader, given the events of the Arab Spring and the strengthening of Qatar.
Prince Bandar was the organizer of cooperation and financing of Pakistan's nuclear program, the initiator of the agreement concluded in 2008 with the United States in the field of nuclear energy, visited Kazakhstan in July 2011, where he had a meeting with the leadership of the national uranium mining company Kazatomprom. In 2008, Prince Bandar met with Russian Prime Minister V. Putin and signed a number of agreements on joint space programs and the purchase of Russian weapons (tanks, helicopters and S-300 air defense systems). In March 2012, the prince visited China, where he negotiated the supply of Chinese ballistic missiles to the KSA.
Currently, the IDF takes an active part in the events in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, solving the problem of the Iranian nuclear program and Hezbollah, fighting for influence in Iraq, settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, eliminating Shiite unrest in the Eastern province of the KSA and Bahrain.
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