Secret police (or political police) are intelligence, security or police agencies that engage in covert operations against a government's political opponents and dissidents. Secret police organizations are characteristic of totalitarian regimes. Used to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian regime, secret police often operate outside the law and are used to repress dissidents and weaken the political opposition, frequently with violence. They are similar to death squads.
List of secret police forces edit
- Agence Nationale de Documentation (Zaire)
- ÁVH (Hungary)
- BOSS (South Africa)
- Bureau for the Repression of Communist Activities (Cuba)
- Central Intelligence Organisation (Zimbabwe)
- Cheka (Soviet Union)
- CNI (Chile)
- COINTELPRO (United States)
- DINA (Chile)
- DIPC (Paraguay)
- Dirección Federal de Seguridad (Mexico)
- DOI-CODI (Brazil)
- Documentation and Security Directorate (Chad)
- Darzhavna Sigurnost (Bulgaria)
- ESA (Greece)
- Federal Security Service (Russia)
- Force Publique (Congo Free State)
- Gestapo (Nazi Germany)
- Inter-Services Intelligence (Pakistan)
- JİTEM (Turkey)
- Kenpeitai (Imperial Japan)
- KGB (Soviet Union)
- KHAD (Afghanistan)
- Kopkamtib (Indonesia)
- Los Esbirros (Costa Rica)
- Mabahith (Saudi Arabia)
- Metrocom Intelligence and Security Group (Philippines)
- Ministry for National Security (Turkmenistan)
- Ministry of Public Security (Poland)
- Ministry of State Security (China)
- Ministry of State Security (North Korea)
- Mongoose Gang (Grenada)
- Mukhabarat (Ba'athist Iraq)
- National Security Service (Somalia)
- Nicaraguan National Guard (Nicaragua)
- Nigerian Security Organization (Nigeria)
- NISS (Sudan)
- NKVD (Soviet Union)
- OCOA (Uruguay)
- Okhrana (Russian Empire)
- ORDEN (El Salvador)
- OVRA (Fascist Italy)
- PIDE (Portugal)
- Policia Militar Ambulante (Guatemala)
- Political-Social Brigade (Spain)
- Reich Main Security Office (Nazi Germany)
- Santebal (Democratic Kampuchea)
- SAVAK (Iran)
- SBU (Ukraine)
- SEBIN (Venezuela)
- Securitate (Romania)
- Servicio de Inteligencia Militar (Dominican Republic)
- SIDE (Argentina)
- Sigurimi (Albania)
- SIN (Peru)
- SNB (Uzbekistan)
- Special Higher Police (Imperial Japan)
- Stasi (East Germany)
- State Research Bureau (Uganda)
- State Security Committee (Belarus)
- StB (Czechoslovakia)
- Taiwan Garrison Command (Taiwan)
- Teşkilât-ı Mahsusa (Ottoman Empire)
- UDBA (Yugoslavia)