Quote:
Originally Posted by Schroeder
the "Verfassungsschutz", that could be translated into "constitution protection"
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The "Office for the Protection of the Constitution" could be seen as a mixture of the fields of responsibility of the FBI, NSA and Secret Service. It is a intelligence service that operates on a national level only, with special focus to all sorts of activities that qualify as politically motivated violence or political crime, terrorism, threats to the constitutional poliltical order of the country and the 16 federal states, and threats to persons of poltical interest or rank. there is one nation-wide bureau and 16 federal bureaus, one per each federal state.
The BVS does not operate internationally. Outside Germany, Germany's major intelligence service is the Bundesnachrichtendienst BND, it compares to the CIA.
Additionally there is the Bundeskriminalamt BKA, in responsibility and authority it compares to the FBI.
A separate equivalent to the NSA Germany does not have, as I understand it. Elint missions are done by the BND, and the military weapon branches.