8. Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst – BND)
Country: Germany
The Federal Intelligence Service was formally created in 1956, from the members of the Gehlen Organization. Major General Reinhard Gehlen was the head of Wehrmacht’s Abteilung Fremde Heere Ost, the section of Nazi General Staff charged with keeping tabs on the Red Army. After the war, Gehlen cooperated with the allied, mainly American, occupational forces and was tasked with creating a new German intelligence agency. Today, BND has a budget of more than $600 million and it considered one of the best intelligence agencies in Europe, a status they intend to keep in 2017. With Brexit on the horizon, BND will be one of the premiere foreign gathering agencies within the EU.
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