Secret police

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Secret police (sometimes political police) are a police organization which operates in secrecy for the national purpose of maintaining national security against internal threats to the state. Secret police forces are typically associated with totalitarian regimes, as their activities are not transparent to the public, their primary purpose is to maintain the political power of the state rather than uphold the rule of law, and they have often been used as an instrument of political repression. A state with a significant level of secret police activity is sometimes known as a police state.

Secret police forces may be contrasted with the domestic security agencies found in modern liberal democratic states, which are generally subject to government regulation, reporting requirements and other accountability measures. Despite such oversight there still exists a possibility that they can act unlawfully and take on at least some characteristics of secret police.

Organizations with the role and function of a secret police force have existed throughout history, whether or not they have had policing functions or been described as "secret".

Methods and history

Secret police forces in dictatorships and totalitarian states usually use violence and acts of terror to suppress political opposition and dissent, and may use death squads to carry out assassinations and "disappearances".

Secret police have been used by many types of government. Their proliferation was most significantly brought about by the puppet regimes that Napoleon installed in northern Italy and in the lands between France and the Rhine. When he was overthrown, so were his puppets, and the reinstated monarchical governments maintained secret police to defend their rule against republicanism. The republics of France have in turn had to defend themselves against Bonapartists as well as monarchists. The dictatorships of Latin America have used secret police almost as much as true fascists.

They employ internal spies and civilian informants to root out the instigators of protest and revolt, and also employ agents provocateurs to get their opponents to perform a violent criminal act in protest, whereupon they can be captured and tried on grounds that are made public so as to get the general public to side with the regime. Mail is opened, read, and resealed; telephones are tapped; prostitutes, friends, and relatives are tricked, blackmailed, or coerced into telling what they know about suspects. The secret police are renowned for appearing at one's house between midnight and dawn, to take people away. These people are not tried openly, they may seem to have disappeared. Many of them are tortured.

The classic example of the political power that a secret police can provide a dictatorship is the destruction of the communist party in Germany by rooting out and imprisoning the "ward leaders". Thus the leaders of the party had no way of mobilizing the party members at the lowest level.

The secret police of East Germany, the Ministry for State Security or Stasi, is considered to be one of the most formidable historical examples. There are, different varieties of democracy and, in times of emergency or war, a democracy may lawfully grant its policing and security services additional or sweeping powers which may be seen or construed as a secret police.

Controversy over the term

Which government agencies may correctly be classed or characterised (in whole or part) as "secret police" is hotly disputed, as it is considered to be a highly pejorative phrase in democratic and even quasi-democratic societies. Some, for instance, would include the CIA and MI6 under the heading of "secret police," while others maintain that organisations engaged in foreign intelligence-gathering and monitoring are not "police" at all, since they lack executive powers (such as arrest and detention), and they do not directly influence affairs in foreign lands so as to "maintain order".

In an effort to end all dispute and controversy over the definition, some political scientists and sociologists are working to revise and redefined the universally accepted definition of "secret police" (just as astronomers recently revised and redefined the universally accepted definition of a planet, demoting Pluto to a dwarf planet in the process). A revision and redefining of the term "secret police" will make a much clearer, less ambiguous distinction between "secret police" forces and civil police forces. One proposed revision is a slight broadening of the definition, which includes all of the following:

As stated at the beginning of the article, the basic, fundamental attributes of any secret police is:

1. A police organization with executive powers to arrest and detain suspected criminals, while simultaneously enforcing law and order, and conducting surveillance, intelligence and investigation of crime
2. Operates entirely or partially in secrecy (i.e., most or all of their operations are virtually obscure and hidden from the general public and from all government officials, except for the topmost executive officials)
3. Acts to protect the government and its officials against internal/domestic threats (Specific foreign threats are pursued ONLY at the national government's command; e.g., Saddam Hussein ordered his secret police to assassinate George H.W. Bush in Kuwait in 1993, a failed attempt.)
4. Operates domestically on a national or federal level, unlike civil police forces, which operate on a state, provincial or local level. It is possible for a secret police force to operate outside of the borders of its nation-state in foreign territories, in a CIA-like manner, however, this normally does not occur.

Based upon the basic, fundamental attributes of all secret police organizations, political scientists and sociologists are beginning to postulate two types of secret police organizations, depending upon the type of government within the nation-state:

Anti-civil secret police – are a police organization which operates in secrecy for the national purpose of maintaining national security against internal threats to the state, often through the use of terror tactics against dissidents and political opponents. The connotation "anti-civil" means negative toward citizen affairs ^Wiktionary. The only objective of this type of secret police is serving and protecting the national government and its political leaders; they are not bound to obligations regarding the liberties and well-being of citizens. The executive powers of this type of secret police are mostly unrestricted by the government, resulting in a deficiency of political and civil rights for citizens. Such a secret police organization is above the law and is not bound to the rule of law concept. Anti-civil secret police arrests people for even minor acts of dissent against the government, such as expressing a dissenting opinion, launching a peaceful protest, or getting involved in dissenting political parties, hoping to destroy the seeds of dissent and political opposition before they germinate and grow into far more serious oppositions, like coup d'états and revolts. An anti-civil secret police organization often establishes its own courts and detention facilities in an effort to keep its judicial and penal operations secret and separate from the civilian court system and other civilian functions within the nation-state, and to maintain its "above the law" status. As documented throughout history, most secret police organizations of this type use torture, blackmail, death threats and other terror tactics against both detained citizens and free citizens to suppress dissent. This type of secret police is typically part of totalitarian and communist regimes. An example of this type of secret police organization would be the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) or the Mukhabarat of the nation-state of Iraq during the Saddam Hussein era (1979-2003). Furthermore, numerous developments that have occured in the United States after 9/11 and the passage of the enabling Patriot Act have led to Federal law enforcement agencies to aptly fit the criteria given above. Many people, including citizens of the United States, have been unlawfully held without charge or right to a lawyer (Jose Padilla). Also, the Patriot Act allows for the creation of secret courts and secret detention facilities, such as the one at Guantanamo Bay. Furthermore, there has been numerous crackdowns on protests, especially with the use of restricting the movement of citizens in to "free speech zones", in order to curb their freedom of speech. Federal law enforcement officials, such as the FBI, are no longer required to obtain search warrants on suspects, and even in many cases are not required to obtain arrest warrants since the Patriot Act allows for the indefinite and arbitrary detention of suspects. The Patriot Act also eliminates much of the judicial oversight for the actions of Federal law enforcement.

Pro-civil secret police – are a police organization which operates in secrecy for the national purpose of maintaining national security against internal threats to the state, while respecting and protecting human dignity and maintaining and upholding the human rights of all citizens in the performance of their duty. The connotation "pro-civil" means positive toward citizen affairs ^Wiktionary. Terroristic tactics, such as torture, are not used by this type of secret police organization, and the internal security of the government is maintained without seriously infiltrating or detracting from the civil liberties of citizens. The executive powers (including arrest powers) of this type of secret police are restricted to a certain extent by the government to maintain citizen rights; consequently, such a secret police organization is not above the law, unlike an anti-civil secret police organization. Pro-civil secret police do not arrest people who merely express a dissenting opinion, launch a peaceful (nonviolent) protest, or get involved in dissenting political parties, instead they arrest people for much more serious acts against the government, such as violent protests or demstrations, terrorism, assassination plots against government officials, counterfeiting currency, stealing or sabotaging government property, etc. A pro-civil secret police organization does not secretly or independently judge and penalize criminals, instead interrogated suspects are sent to the civilian court system in order that they may receive legal representation and an open trial. This type of secret police is typically part of quasi-democracies as well as some democracies. An example of this type of secret police organization is the General Security Service (GSS) or the Shabak of the democratic nation-state of Israel.

Once again, it should be noted that civil police forces are never assigned the duties of protecting national government officials and securing the national government as a whole. These are duties that are typically assigned either to a secret police force, an organization of secret service agents, or other national security departments/organizations.

Secret police in fiction

The concept of secret police is also popular in fiction, usually portraying such an institution at its most extreme. Perhaps the most well-known example is the Thought Police from George Orwell's famous novel Nineteen Eighty-four. In that world, the Thought Police used psychology and virtually omnipresent surveillance to find and eliminate members of society who have the mere thought of threat toward the country.

In C. S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, the White Witch makes use of secret police. These dreaded individuals are vicious Talking Wolves, and their leader is named Maugrim.

References

R. J. Stove, The Unsleeping Eye: Secret Police and Their Victims (Encounter Books, San Francisco, 2003). ISBN 1-893554-66-X

External links

Methods and history

Controversy over the term

Secret police in fiction

See also

References

External links