National Security Service (Somalia)
| Governmental overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1970 |
| Preceding Governmental |
|
| Dissolved | 1990 |
| Type | Intelligence Agency |
| Jurisdiction | Supreme Revolutionary Council |
| Headquarters | Mogadishu, Somalia |
The National Security Service (NSS) was the primary intelligence agency of Somalia under the government of Siad Barre. Headquartered in Mogadishu, it existed from 1970 to 1990, when it was formally abolished. In 2013, the new Somali federal government re-established the national intelligence service, renaming it the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA).
The NSS was subordinate to the Interior Ministry, and (in the closing years of the Barré regime) was headed by Abdiqasim Salad Hassan (who would later be a one-time President of Somalia under the Transitional National Government.) Conceived in the Soviet model and organized with the help of the KGB, the NSS was an elite organization whose key officers maintained close links to Barré's Supreme Revolutionary Council. The new Somalian Government has recreated the NSS from scratch. the NSS headquarters is at the villa in the Modagadishu International Airport. the NSS has 18 branches across the country. The aim of the NSS is to protection of Somalian national security and its interests around the world. the NSS is divided into several sections which deal with issues of foreign affair to internal policing.
The NSS headquarters and interrogation center in Mogadishu, referred to as Godka or "the Hole", was particularly notorious. Other NSS centers included Mogadishu Central Prison, and stations at Lanta Bur, Labtanjirow and Burwein.
In 1990 the NSS was formally dissolved as a palliative measure. However, its abolition was not accompanied by the demise of other security agencies who also had effectively unlimited powers of arrest and detention and similarly notorious reputations for torture and ill-treatment of detainees. These include the President's own bodyguards, the Red Berets; the Dhabar Jabinta (or "Backbreakers") a branch of the military police; the Hangash, another branch of the military police; the Guulwadayal (or "Victory Pioneers"), a uniformed paramilitary group; and the investigative wing of the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party (SRSP).
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