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+--- Thread: Difference between MI-5 versus MI-6...today? (/showthread.php?tid=2807)
Difference between MI-5 versus MI-6...today? - FCD - 05-29-2025
I'm not sure I fully understand the differences in roles between MI-5 and MI-6. As I understand it, MI-5 is basically focused on domestic issues / crimes within the UK. They also have some other roles which perform some of the duties of the US Secret Service. So, if I were to draw a rough analogy, MI-5 is akin to the FBI and the SS rolled into one. Is this close? And, do they do anything beyond this.
MI-6, on the other hand, is principally focused on international issues outside the UK. However, they also perform a national intelligence gathering role. So, if I were to draw another rough analogy, MI-6 is like the CIA and the NSA rolled into one. Is this close? And, do they perform other roles too?
I see a lot of references to MI-5 get thrown around in UK media, and don't see much about MI-6 except on rare occasions being discussed in any media, so I could be off base here, hence my questions.
I guess maybe a different way to ask these same questions would be...is there any coordination between these two agencies and/or do they have hard boundaries of jurisdiction, where one agency has to hand something off to the other based on the location of whatever it is they are investigating.
Lastly, is MI-5 a law enforcement arm (i.e. can they arrest and charge people), or do arrests have to be performed by the 'police' based on information from MI-5? Same question for MI-6(?)
TIA
RE: Difference between MI-5 versus MI-6...today? - F2d5thCav - 05-29-2025
My understanding is that "6" is intel, and "5" is counter-intel.
But with so many asshats swimming outside of their lanes these days, who knows ?
RE: Difference between MI-5 versus MI-6...today? - FCD - 05-29-2025
(05-29-2025, 06:54 PM)F2d5thCav Wrote: My understanding is that "6" is intel, and "5" is counter-intel.
But with so many asshats swimming outside of their lanes these days, who knows ?
Exactly! Thus my confusion. Seems like they step on each other's toes quite a bit...just like the US federal agencies. Everyone is trying to steal the other guy's thunder.
RE: Difference between MI-5 versus MI-6...today? - F2d5thCav - 05-30-2025
Just as an aside. It seems to me, that since that long-ago affair with Kim Philby and the other traitors, that British intel/counter-intel became and remained quite mediocre.
Not that we didn't have problems in the USA ... and how. People like John Walker should have been publicly drawn and quartered, and I am NOT exaggerating.
German intel has been a joke forever. They've been penetrated so much their security apparatus doesn't know up from down (and it took effort to express that thought without resort to profanity).
France ? Oh yeah, the guys who had so much sympathy for the Serbs in the Balkan wars when they were committing crimes against humanity ... with Trump in the WH, they're probably focused on Washington now instead of asking why fully ten per cent of their army has to be dedicated to internal security
No wonder so many people in the West today act in treasonous ways. After all, there are no obvious consequences for doing so.