General Intelligence Service (Zorasan)
| اجمل اطلاعات خدمت Ajmal-e Ettelaat-e Khidmat | |
 Seal | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1980 |
| Type | Intelligence agency |
| Jurisdiction |  Zorasan |
| Employees | Classified |
| Annual budget | Classified |
| Minister responsible | |
| Agency executives |
|
| Parent department | Inter-Services Strategic Intelligence Unit |
| Parent agency | Central Command Council |
| Child agencies | |
The General Intelligence Service (Pasdani: اجمل اطلاعات خدمت; Ajmal-e Ettelaat-e Khidmat; Rahelian: جهاز المخابرات العامة; Ḵidma al-Mukhabarat al-Amma), commonly known by the abbreviation AKHIDAT (Ajmal-e Ettelaat-e Khidmat; Pasdani: اخیدات Rahelian: ;أخيدات) is the domestic and foreign military intelligence agency of the Central Command Council and the Revolutionary Military Command of the Armed Forces. Unlike the Union Ministry of State Intelligence and Security (MSIS), the General Intelligence Service heads report directly to the Central Command Council and is subordinate to the Zorasani military command structure. Despite its founding goal to be the gathering and protection of military intelligence, since its inception in 1980, the Akhidat has expanded its role in domestic matters, conducting operations similar to MSIS against domestic threats or opponents. Since 2012, Akhidat has also maintained control over the Inter-Services Cyber Unit (cyberwarfare), the Inter-Services Communications Unit (signals intelligence) and the Takavaran Corps (special forces).
The Akhidat is reportedly Zorasan's largest intelligence agency, and is the one primarily responsible for domestic operations against perceived enemies and threats to the Zorasani civic-military regime. The Akhidat according to Hossein Abdolrahimi in 2013, claimed that it had deployed over ten-times more agents to foreign agents than MSIS and through its control of the Takavaran Corps possesed up to 12,000 elite special forces troops.
History
Akhidat was formed on 1 January 1980, the same day the Union of Zorasani Irfanic Republics was established. It is the legal successor to the Military Intelligence Service of the Union of Khazestan and Pardaran. Between 1980 and 1990, its primary focus was assisting the Union Ministry of State Intelligence and Security in combating Irvadi, Riyadhi and Rahelian nationalists who opposed Zorasani Unification. Akhidat played a prominent role in the Al-Thawra Rebellion and the Al-Hizan Uprising. By the late 1980s, the domestic situation had calmed and the level of integration of Riyadha and Irvadistan into the UZIR was increasing dramatically, however, Akhidat remained active in domestic affairs until the early 1990s.
With the onset of the Saffron Era with the election of the liberal-reformist Abdelraouf Wazzan and Faris-Ali Erekat and the rollback of military influence over political matters, Akhidat was steadily removed from the domestic sphere. Between 1992 and 2004, Akhidat was consigned solely to its military intelligence tasks. However, as tensions rose between the liberal government and the military over the former's planned reforms entering the 2000s, Akhidat was claimed to have placed several ministers under surveillance. In 2006, Daryush Bakhtiar, an Akhidat agent who defected to Gaullica in 2002, said, "they placed the entire government under surveillance, from the State President, to the First Minister, down to the Sub-Secretary for National Parks and Marine Sanctuaries. The plan was to find any skeleton, any hidden secret that would bring the whole government crashing down." Bakhtiar also claimed the rise of and effectiveness of the Black Hand of International Liberation was mostly due to the Akhidat witholding key information and evidence from the Union Ministry of State Intelligence and Security, enabling the group to conduct attacks in Zorasan against the union-government.
In wake of the Tufan (2005-2008), which saw the defeat of the liberal-reformist political movement and the restoration of Sattarist government, Akhidat's role in domestic matters increased markedly. The 2008 constitution which granted the Zorasani armed forces considerable powers and influence over government and politics, also mandated a domestic role for the service. By 2012, Akhidat had surpassed MSIS as the principal internal security service, however, Akhidat's actions domestically grew increasingly focused on repression and the persecution of critics and opponents of the civic-military state. From 2012, it was believed to have re-established a vast network of informants across Zorasan, openly competing with MSIS for human intelligence within the country.
In 2014, leading member of the Central Command Council, major general Ataollah Shamshiri was appointed Director-Commander and oversaw a significant reorganisation, modernisation and shakeup of the service. This included the transfer of Zorasan's signals intelligence and cyberwarfare agencies under Akhidat's control. In 2015, Akhidat was blamed for series of cyber-attacks on Euclean companies and over 3,500 cases of intellectual property theft.
Organisation
The Akhidat is subordinate to the Zorasani military command and its overarching leadership body, the Central Command Council. According to public source information, the Akhidat is not held accountable to either the civlian executive or the national legislature and its budget is pre-determined each financial year under the "National Security Provision", which enables the military to devise its own annual budget with limited input from the government. The Akhidat itself is divided into "Divisions" (Laškar) and then into "Sections" (Bakhš), which are in turn divided into "Units" (Daneh).
- First Division: is responsible for domestic operations.
- First Section: is responsible for internal state security and counter-intelligence.
- Internal Security Affairs Unit: believed to be responsible for domestic operations against critics of the civic-military state.
- Second Section: is responsible for domestic signals and communications security.
- Inter-Services Cyber Unit: the national cyberwarfare service.
- Inter-Services Communications Unit: the national signals intelligence service.
- First Section: is responsible for internal state security and counter-intelligence.
- Second Division: is responsible for foreign operations.
- First Section: geographically responsible for Coius.
- Second Section: geographically responsible for Euclea.
- Third Section: geographically responsible for Asteria Superior.
- Fourth Section: geographically responsible for Asteria Inferior.
- Third Division: is responsible for analytics.
- First Section: is responsible for military technology.
- Second Section: is responsible for war economics.
- Third Section: is responsible for strategic doctrines and arms.
- Fourth Section: is responsible for information warfare.
Methods and reputation
Notable activities
Director-Commanders
| No | Director-Commander | Tenure | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 
|
General Ershad Chamran | 1 January 1980 - 31 October 1984 |
| 2 | 
|
Brigadier General Masoud Borazjani | 31 October 1984 - 12 March 1989 |
| 3 | 
|
Brigadier General Shahrdad Rohani | 12 March 1989 - 10 July 2001 |
| 4 | 
|
General Ziad al-Bizri | 10 July 2001 - 19 September 2008 |
| 5 | .jpg)
|
Brigadier General Ghassan Hamid Ali | 19 September 2008 - 3 February 2014 |
| 6 | .jpg)
|
Major General Ataollah Shamshiri | 3 February 2014 - 10 July 2016 |
| 8 | 
|
General Saeed Deghan | 10 July 2016 – present |