Europe

The BND grew from the Gehlen Organization, the network of former German officers run by the CIA in the early Cold War, gaining leg...

The Ministry for State Security ran domestic surveillance and foreign espionage for East Germany from 1950 to 1990, deploying info...

The Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure succeeded the SDECE in 1982 and collects foreign intelligence from the Boulevard ...

The Abwehr served as German military intelligence through the world wars, led from 1935 by Admiral Wilhelm Canaris. Its World War ...

The AIVD succeeded the BVD in 2002 and monitors espionage, terrorism, and proliferation threats to the Netherlands. Its oversight ...

Sakerhetspolisen, written with an umlaut and known as Sapo, protects Sweden against espionage, terrorism, and threats to the const...

Operation Gladio denotes the secret stay-behind networks armed across Western Europe after World War II to mount resistance behind...

Able Archer 83, a NATO command post exercise in November 1983 that rehearsed nuclear release procedures, alarmed Soviet leadership...

The Department of State Security, known as the Securitate, was founded in 1948 with Soviet guidance and became the main instrument...

The Cipher Bureau of the Polish General Staff recruited mathematicians from Poznan University, and in December 1932 Marian Rejewsk...

Operation Anthropoid was the killing of Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reich Security Main Office and acting Reich Protector of Bo...

In February 1943 a team of Norwegian commandos trained by the Special Operations Executive parachuted onto the Hardangervidda plat...

Operation Bernhard, named after SS officer Bernhard Kruger, put skilled prisoners to work in a secret workshop at Sachsenhausen co...

Margaretha Zelle, a Dutch exotic dancer who performed in Paris as Mata Hari, moved among senior officers of several nations during...

Vladimir Vetrov, a KGB officer in the directorate responsible for scientific and technical intelligence, offered his services to F...