Ministry of Intelligence (MOI)

When the different departments of the Colonial Government were being created it was decided that there needed to be a covert intelligence branch. Great care was taken in its creation. The writers of the Articles of Colonization feared that granting it too much power could lead to a coup down the road, however it needed to be able to do the jobs that the other agencies would be unable to for legal and sometimes ethical reasons. The result of this struggle was the Ministry of Intelligence, or simply known as the MoI.

Location
The MoI is headquartered on Picon, in the city of Gray. It recruits its agents and officers from the various colleges and universities of the Colonies. Both undergo rigorous physiological and psychological examinations to make sure that they have what it takes to survive in the field and get the job done. Those who are accepted are trained on Leonis in a facility simply known as ‘The Ranch’.

Structure
The personnel of the MoI are split into two seperate categories; Agents and Officers.

Agents
'Agent' is the generic term given to all those in service of the MoI excluding Administrative staff who are referred to as Civilian Aids. The types of duties conducted by Agents vary but are essentially non-field related.

Officers
Field agents are referred to as 'Officers' and are superior in rank to 'Agents'. Officers carry a military style rank starting with Lieutenant up to Colonel. From then on they become known as Directors;

Assisstant Director - normally applies to a deputy regional commander.

Deputy Director - normally applies to a regional commander.

Executive Director - title held by the deputy head of the MoI.

Director of the MoI - title reserved for the commander of the MoI.

Operations
The types of operations carried out by the MoI vary greatly. More often than not these operations involve covert surveilance of subversive elements within the Twelve Colonies such as the Sagittaron Liberation Army (SLA). This information is then passed on by MoI liason officers to the relevent authorities (military, Police, Federal Law Enforcement Agencies). The MoI has been known to take a more 'active' role against such organizations however.

In the fourty year absence of the Cylons the MoI tried various methods to monitor Cylon operations across the Armistice Line but more often than not these failed to materialise into anything substantial.

Controversy
The Agents of the MoI are no strangers to controversy. Four years before 'The Fall' it was revealed that the MoI was conducting assassinations of high ranking members of the Basileus Crime Syndicate which is a violation of the Articles of Colonization which states ''"...the use of lethal force against a criminal or subversive element outisde of a court of Colonial Law can only be justified when there is a direct threat to the public or Law Enforcement officials." ''

A further violation of the Articles was revealed after 'The Fall' when the Battlestar Hermes discovered a Tiger-class Faststar operated by the MoI under the command of Major Galit Malka.