Intel reorganization

High-ranking Kremlin official dismisses media report of planned ‘KGB revival’

Former head of the Russian presidential administration Sergey Ivanov says media reports about plans to merge all of the country’s security agencies into one are untrue and most likely a hoax concocted by reporters to boost their popularity.

“I can say with all certainty – this is a classic example of an invented fake that was first launched and then discussed at length. This is what I call making news when they have no real news,” Ivanov said in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper when reporters asked him about the allegations made by popular business daily Kommersant in mid-September.

Back then, Kommersant predicted that before the presidential elections in 2018 Russia will get a new Ministry for State Security, or MGB – an agency uniting the currently independent Federal Security Committee (FSB), Federal Bodyguard Service (FSO) and Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

Intel reorganization

The CIA's massive reorganization continues under the radar: The Brennan plan

A significant but largely unnoticed transformation has been percolating for the past year — CIA Director John Brennan's restructuring of the agency. The Brennan plan is the most far-reaching organizational shake up since the CIA's creation in 1947. If fully implemented, this restructuring will drastically change the way espiocrats perform their duties.

The Brennan plan shifts the traditional power center of the CIA — away from separate operational, analytical and technical components focusing largely on strategic intelligence — to 10 more tactically oriented mission centers focusing on regional and transnational issues. The affect of this reorganization on intelligence is not clear. Perhaps it means a faster, more nimble approach, as Brennan contends. But long-range thinking, source protection and analytical objectivity might be the first casualties.

Intel reorganization

The CIA unveils a radically new org chart

The CIA unveiled a radically altered org chart on Thursday, formally unveiling the first new directorate in 50 years, completing a sweeping realignment of its ranks of spies and analysts, and unleashing an avalanche of new acronyms.

The changes are part of a reorganization that CIA Director John Brennan began mapping last year, one that will largely replicate the structure of the agency’s Counterterrorism Center across other categories of espionage and analysis.

But Thursday marked the formal launch date of more than a dozen new—or at least newly named—entities, all outlined on the CIA’s Twitter feed and Facebook page in social media posts that reflect the cultural forces reshaping the once-secret spy service.