DSA
Dienst für strategische Aufklärung; DSA | |
Agency overview | |
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Formed | April 18, 1974 |
Jurisdiction | Government of Mascylla |
Headquarters | Herbert Menning Center, Sankt Höhge, Mascylla |
Employees | 7,200 (2019) |
Annual budget | Ӄ1.94 billion (US$711.39 million) (December 2019) |
Minister responsible | |
Agency executives |
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Parent agency | Kronenrat |
Website | www.dsa.mc |
The Agency of Strategic Reconnaissance (Hesurian: Dienst für strategische Aufklärung, DSA) is the foreign and external intelligence agency of the Government of Mascylla, tasked and enabled with gathering, processing, analyzing and safeguarding national security-relevant information, surbordinated to and providing information for the Prime Minister and his cabinet. The Herbert Menning Center, the informal headquarters of the DSA, is located in Sankt Höhge, a town just outside Königsreh, as one of the world's largest intelligence agency headquarters, and the agency maintains 200 other locations in Mascylla and other foreign countries, the most important of which is its administrative center in Königsreh since 2015. As of 2019, it has around 7,200 employees, one third of which with military background, and is overseen by Director Helge Doppler.
The DSA has certain privileges to other government agencies and departments, and has been subject to the office of the Minister of Special Affairs since its foundation in 1974. The agency serves as the centre and manager of human intelligence (HUMINT) activities abroad. It is also entitled to legally exercise covert actions on behalf of the cabinet and to found tactical divisions in means to exert foreign political influence. Moreover, after the July 20 attacks, the DSA was able to move completely wihout restrictions of authorizing laws regarding counter-terrorism; these powers were revoked however in 2003. The agency does not hold responsibility for all security needs of the government though: the domestic counter-parts and secret services of the DSA are the Office of the Protection of the Constitution (Amt für den Schutz der Verfassung; ASV) and the Democracy Security Agency (Demokratieschutzdienst; DSD).
Today, the DSA acts as a mean for early warning of threats to Mascyllary sovereignty or safety. It heavily depends on the cyber space, and most notably conducts wiretapping, electronic surveillance, and the extraction of civil intelligence. As its only overseas intelligence agency, it also observes military intelligence, international non-state terrorism, organized crime, and information warfare.