Centro Nacional de Inteligencia

The National Intelligence Center (Centro Nacional de Inteligencia, CNI) is the Spanish official intelligence agency. Its headquarters are located in the A-6 motorway near Madrid. The CNI is the successor of the Centro Superior de Información de la Defensa, Higher Centre for Defense Intelligence. Its main target areas are North Africa and South America and it operates in more than 80 countries. CNI's official budget for 2010 (the CNI can get further resources from the reserve founds) is approximately 255 million euros.

The Secretary of State - Director of the CNI is currently General Félix Sanz Roldán.

Goals & operation
The Center's essential goal is to give the Spanish Government all the necessary information to prevent, and given the case, to avoid any risk or menace that affects the independence or integrity of Spain, its national interests, as well as the rule of law and its institutions. In the same way, the law states that the specific goals of the CNI will be determined and approved yearly by the Council of Ministers. These goals will be included in a secret document, the Intelligence Guidelines.

Besides this organic control of the Center by the Ministers Council, there is also a judiciary control, given the fact certain activities require such intervention. This control is carried out by a judge of the Spanish Supreme Court, chosen by a qualified majority. In this sense, those actions requiring previous authorization by the court are those regarding communications interdiction, entry and registration at home or enterprise addresses, or any other would-be violations of the fundamental rights granted by the Spanish Constitution of 1978.

Precedents & history
The first Spanish intelligence service was created in 1935, in a short-lived experience with an almost null activity, due to the Spanish Civil War paralyzing its development. Student revolts by the end of the 1960s decade motivated the creation of a National Countersubversive Organization, which was the seed for the Servicio Central de Documentación, (SECED), founded in 1972. The Centro Superior de Información de la Defensa, CESID, was formed between 1976 and 1977, from the fusion of the SECED and the High Staff of the Army Information Service (Spanish: Servicio de Información del Alto Estado Mayor (SIAEM))

Directors of the CESID / CNI

 * José María Bourgón López-Dóriga (1977–1979)
 * Gerardo Mariñas (1979–1981)
 * Emilio Alonso Manglano (1981–1995)
 * Félix Miranda (1995–1996)
 * Javier Calderón (1996–2001)
 * Jorge Dezcallar Manzanedo (civilian) (2001–2004)
 * Alberto Saiz Cortés (civilian) (2004–2009)
 * Félix Sanz Roldán (2009-now)