Special Intelligence Service

For a number of other organisations with similar names, see SIS (disambiguation).

Federal Bureau of Investigation
Common name	Federal Bureau of Investigation
Abbreviation	FBI
Seal of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Motto	Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity
Agency overview
Formed	July 26, 1908 (1908-07-26)
Employees	35,664 (February 29, 2012)
Annual budget	7.9 billion USD (2011)
Legal personality	Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
Federal agency (Operations jurisdiction)	United States
Legal jurisdiction	As per operations jurisdiction.
Governing body	United States Department of Justice
Constituting instrument	United States Code Title 28 Part II Chapter 33
General nature	Federal law enforcement Civilian agency
Operational structure
Headquarters	J. Edgar Hoover Building, Washington, D.C.
Sworn members	13,963 (May 31, 2011)
Unsworn members	21,474 (May 31, 2011)
Agency executives	Robert S. Mueller III, Director Timothy P. Murphy, Deputy Director List of FBI Directors, Other directors
Child agencies	FBI Academy FBI Laboratory Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) Counterterrorism Division (CTD) FBI Police (FBIP)
Major units	5 Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) Law Enforcement Bulletin Unit (LEBU) Hostage Rescue Team (FBI) (HRT) Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) FBI Police National Security Branch (NSB)
Field offices	56 (List of FBI Field Offices)
Notables People John Edgar Hoover, Director, for being the founding director William Mark Felt, former Federal Agent, for whistle blowing, Watergate scandal Joseph Leo Gormley, Forensic Scientist, for expert testimony Significant Operations COINTELPRO Special Intelligence Service
Website
www.FBI.gov
this information

The Special Intelligence Service was a covert counterintelligence branch of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) located in South America during World War II. It was established during the term of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to monitor Axis activities in Central and South America.

In 1934, President Roosevelt began to grow concerned about activities of Nazi groups within the United States. The FBI was ordered to begin investigating these groups operating within the country. The goal of this work was to determine if foreign agents were working within these American Nazi groups.

In 1940, the government decided to expand the scope of this mission. There were more than 1.5 million expatriate Germans living in South America, including Argentina and Brazil. As a result this area had become an active area of Axis espionage, propaganda and sabotage. In June 1940, President Roosevelt ordered the formation of the Special Intelligence Service to monitor these activities.

The headquarters of this organization was located on the 44th floor of the International Building, in the Rockefeller Center plaza in New York City. The front for the organization was actually an operating law firm. It took some time to become fully operational, due to language and cultural differences, but within a year the SIS had a number of agents in place under various covers.

This organization placed more than 340 undercover agents in regions of Latin America. They operated for seven years, and by 1946 a total of 887 axis spies had been discovered. Also found were 281 agents of axis propaganda, 222 smugglers shipping important war materials, and more than 100 saboteurs and other operatives. It located 24 secret Axis radio stations and confiscated 40 radio transmitters and 18 receiving sets.

Following the war the SIS was disbanded, having been in operation in 1940-1946. After it was disbanded, its region of operation was incorporated in those of the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency.

See also

• The Office of Special Investigations is a unit within the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice which detects and investigates individuals who took part in state sponsored-acts committed in violation of public international law, such as crimes against humanity. The OSI primarily focused on acts by Nazis abroad before and during World War II, and who subsequently entered, or seek to enter, the United States illegally or fraudulently.

External links

• The FBI's Special Intelligence Service, 1940-1946 www.fbi.gov Commemorative History page
• Prologue: Fleming by Mark Riebling.
• Kenneth Crosby, former SIS agent.