The foundation of power of Saddam Hussein's regime is a network of security and intelligence agencies which protect the president and the regime from internal and external enemies. The number and size of these agencies have multiplied over time, and by design the areas of responsibility of different agencies are duplicative, to ensure both competition among the services and to ensure that no agency emerges as a threat to the power of Saddam. Agency responsibilities can be broadly divided among foreign operations, internal security [including both against foreign intelligence agencies and domestic opponents], leadership protection [primarily physical security and counter-coup military rapid-reactionf forces], as well as specialized agencies providing signals intelligence [SIGINT] and limited imagery intelligence [IMINT] technical collection capabilities. Nearly 70,000 troops are assigned to leadership protection tasks [not counting Republican Guard military formations], while the total staff level of agencies with other intelligence and security function is another 30,000 persons.
| Agency | Staff | Foreign Ops | Internal Security | Leader Security | SIGINT | IMINT |
|
National Security Council/Bureau [Maktab al-Amn al-Qawmi] | NA | |||||
| Special Security Committee | 2,000 |  | ||||
|
Special Security Service - SSS [Jihaz al-Himaya al-Khas / Al Amn al-Khas] | 5,000 | | | | | |
|
Iraqi Intelligence Service - IIS General Intelligence Directorate - GID [Jihaz al-Mukhabarat al-Amma] | 4,000 | | | | ||
|
Military Intelligence [Al-Istikhbarat al-Askariyya] | 6,000 | | | | ||
|
Project 858 Al Hadi Project | 800 | | ||||
| Air Force | ??? | | ||||
|
Military Security Service [Al Amn al-Askariyya] | 6,000 | | ||||
|
General Security Service [Mudiriyat al-Amn al-Amma] | 8,000 | | ||||
| Special Republican Guard (SRG) | 26,000 | | ||||
| Republican Guard (RG) | NA | | ||||
|
Saddam's Martyrs ["Men of Sacrifice"] Fedayeen Saddam | 40,000 | |