Secretaría de Inteligencia Secretaría de Inteligencia ( " Secretariat of Intelligence " , S . I . ) is the premier intelligence agency of the Argentine Republic and head of its National Intelligence System . Chaired by the " Secretary of State Intelligence " who is a special member of the " Cabinet of Ministers " , the Secretariat of Intelligence is a technical and operational service charged with the collection and production of intelligence and counterintelligence in internal and foreign areas , as well as the analysis and formation of a national intelligence strategy in order to handle state affairs . The Secretariat is charged with the duty of producing a complete intelligence cycle for the government . Structurally , S . I . has the biggest intelligence gathering capabilities in Argentina , as it counts with numerous delegations within Argentina as well as foreign operational bases and delegations . Under the law , the Secretariat is subordinated to the Presidency and is ruled by secret decrees and laws . Even though the official acronym was renamed to S . I . as the new intelligence system became active , during most of its history it was called Secretaría de Inteligencia de Estado ( " Secretariat of State Intelligence " , SIDE ) and it still is referred to as SIDE by the public . History . The Secretariat of Intelligence was created in 1946 when Juan Perón ' s first presidency established it by Executive Decree 337 / 46 under the denomination of Coordinación de Informaciones de Estado ( " State Intelligence Coordination " , CIDE ) . Its mission was to act as a national intelligence agency to be run by civilian personnel and to handle foreign and domestic intelligence operations for the federal government . Before CIDE was established , national intelligence was jointly handled by the División de Informaciones ( " Information Division " , DI ) of the Presidency , and the military intelligence services such as the Servicio de Inteligencia del Ejército ( " Army Intelligence Service " , SIE ) and the Servicio de Inteligencia Naval ( " Naval Intelligence Service " , SIN ) . Even though throughout Argentina ' s history military intelligence organs have been involved in handling both internal and external intelligence , reforms enacted in the last few decades have legally given them a role alongside civilian managed services in the National Intelligence System . The Secretariat ( as it is commonly referred ) had its first structural and functional reform in 1956 , under the Pedro Aramburu government when by Executive Decree 776 / 56 of January 20 , CIDE adopted the name Secretaría de Informaciones de Estado ( " Secretariat of State Information " ) , and the subsequent famous acronym " SIDE " . The newly restructured agency was closely modeled on the British intelligence system . During Juan Carlos Onganía ' s government , SIDE was under the administration of Gral . Señorans , one of the most well regarded Secretaries of Intelligence of all time . During those years , SIDE started to orchestrate its first complex foreign espionage missions , the staff was increased substantially to about 1 , 200 , and the knowledge and operational capabilities were dramatically improved . During Señorans administration , many Argentine women began participating in what was then a male - only field . The Secretariat began appreciating certain advantages of the female sex , especially when operations required the exploitation of human weaknesses . However , in 1966 , Señorans restructured the Secretariat , expelling 900 employees ( of about 1 , 200 total ) , including all of the female intelligence operatives contracted at the time . It has been noted that Señorans had a phobia of females , and would not tolerate women working in administrative positions . In that same year , a failed kidnapping attempt of the Soviet Consul in Buenos Aires , led the USSR to enact a formal protest , threatening to take the matters to international organizations . Onganía , against his will , had no other choice but to ask Señorans to resign , the Secretary in his final statement exposed that " " Consul Petrov commands a group of spies of the KGB in Argentina " . " After Señorans departure , women regained their positions in the civil intelligence community , but it was at that time , with the onset of the Cold War , that the CIA began taking special interest in SIDE . The growth of communist groups and guerrillas in Latin America , backed by Fidel Castro ' s regime , as well as the special interest the Soviet Union began to take in Latin America , made the American intelligence community influence what was then thought as an area of minor concern to American interests in the war . The Secretariat of Intelligence was no exception , the ' communist problem ' was made a priority , and surveillance of foreign embassies and delegations of communist countries became common . Secret law Nº 20 . 195 / 73 came into effect on February 28 , 1973 during the government of Gral . Lanusse , literally establishing the mission , functions , personnel , and other important aspects of the agency ; it is also known as the secret decree Nº 1 . 792 / 73 , dated March 9 , 1973 . During the de facto government of Jorge Rafael Videla , on May 13 , 1976 , by Executive Decree 416 it adopted the name " Secretaría de Inteligencia de Estado " . Under the National Reorganization Process , SIDE transformed itself into a secret police conducting espionage on guerrilla organizations , labor unions , or any other organization or person considered subversive , or a supporter of subversive activities . SIDE also took part in coordinating Operation Condor with other Latin America n intelligence services . After the return of democracy in 1983 , during Raúl Alfonsín ' s government , SIDE began to renew its staff , and to become a civilian intelligence agency who would entirely focus its activities on national interests . In December 2001 , the Intelligence Reform Law was approved , changing the structure , denomination and functions to adapt it to the new National Intelligence System . On February 2001 , during the Fernando de la Rúa government , SIDE was suffering from budget cuts ( reduced by half ) and political pressure to renew itself . The staff was reduced by half , 1 , 300 personnel were laid off . One of the reasons given for the clean - up were that many staff members had been involved in human rights violations during the National Reorganization Process . This restructuring included laying off personnel who were past their retiring age according to the agency ' s standards , and removing most of the personnel from the return to democracy under the Alfonsín administration . During October 2003 , under Néstor Kirchner ' s government , a crackdown on illegal phone taps , as well as political and ideological espionage was ordered to Secretary of Intelligence Sergio Acevedo . More than 160 personnel were expelled from the organisation for violations of regulations . An integral security review was also conducted , later producing a report which stated several security holes and cases of corruption and theft in the organisation ( i . e . , theft of food , extraction of gasoline from cars and poor security at facilities . ) . Counter - terrorism . In the aftermath of the 1992 Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires , SIDE augmented its focus on terrorist activities in the Triple border region . The lingering threat of another act of Islamic terrorism on Argentine soil , especially against Jewish entities in Buenos Aires , required the Secretariat to adapt to a previously unknown national security threat . Foreign intelligence agencies cooperated in the formation on subjects as Islamic terrorism and how to neutralize it . The U . S . Central Intelligence Agency provided SIDE with extensive training , and experts from all over the world were contracted to teach classes in the National Intelligence School . SIDE also began instructing its personnel on Persian and Arabic languages and history , and how to handle operations with people and organizations pertaining to such cultures . After the 1994 AMIA Bombing , SIDE recognized that Islamic terrorism became an extremely serious threat to national security . A plan codenamed Operation Centaur ( " Operación Centauro " ) to monitor terrorist organizations on the Triple border was orchestrated in cooperation with the CIA , and included phone taps , mail interceptions , and covert surveillance of many suspects . Its reports detailed the existence and activities of terrorist organizations in the area , which benefited from the huge black market in Paraguay and served as a financial laundering center for other organizations abroad . A 1997 report including evidence of such activities was shared with the intelligence agencies of the United States , Brazil , Paraguay , France and Germany . The Sala Patria group , formed to investigate clues about the AMIA bombing outside of Argentina , started operating in Paraguay and gave crucial information that led to the capture of many suspected terrorists and the neutralization of a suspected plan to bomb the U . S . Embassy in Asunción , Paraguay . Organization . SIDE is the head of the National Intelligence System , and also the biggest intelligence agency of Argentina . It depends on the Presidency . It reports to the President of Argentina , who is required to set the national intelligence plan and policy . Besides being an intelligence agency that handles foreign and internal intelligence , it also assists nationwide criminal investigations , somewhat like the American Federal Bureau of Investigation , SIDE frequently collaborates with the Justice System . The Secretariat embodies special internal suborganizations that aid its duties . The Escuela Nacional de Inteligencia ( " National Intelligence School " , ENI ) acts as the main intelligence academy , training and recruiting agents for SIDE , and providing tuition and assistance for personnel of other intelligence and law enforcement agencies . The ENI also analyzes Argentine intelligence doctrine and gives specialized intelligence post - graduate formation to students in the country , including courses given over the Internet . In 2001 , the Intelligence Reform Law 25 . 520 came into effect , subsequently making significant modifications to SIDE ' s traditional internal organization , as well as branching out some of its tasks to other newly created organizations such as the National Directorate of Criminal Intelligence . The President of Argentina is charged to assign the positions of Secretary and Undersecretary of Intelligence , but restrictions apply on the Secretary of Intelligence ' s authority to assign his or her own contracted staff to the organism . The Secretariat itself counts with three Undersecretariats of Interior and Exterior Intelligence , and Apoyo ( " support " ) . They are subsequently codenamed A , B and C , or with numbers . In the foreign field , officers are usually disguised with diplomatic immunity in Argentine embassies and consulates around the world ( practice common to the world of espionage ) . The positions of ' Media consultant ' , ' Cultural attaché ' , or ' Tourism consultant ' are the most frequently used . The current Secretary of Intelligence is Héctor Icazuriaga and the Undersecretary is Francisco Larcher , both appointed by President Néstor Kirchner . The third most - important position in SIDE is the Director General de Operaciones ( " General Director of Operations " ) , which administers all intelligence and covert operations inside and outside the country ; legendary secret agent Horacio Antonio Stiusso " ( Alias : Jaime Stiles ) " currently holds the position . Silvia Fornasaro is in charge of the Dirección de Finanzas ( " Finances Directorate " ) , which handles all of the Secretariat ' s accounting and budget balancing . Objectives . The Secretariat ' s objectives in the functions of intelligence as mandated by law are : Other more specific objectives of the Secretariat : Subjects of interest . The Secretariat ' s main interest points are the following : Structure . Internally composed of three Subsecretarías ( " Undersecretariats " ) : Interior , Exterior ( " Foreign " ) , and Apoyo ( " Support " ) . all of its divisions have specific identification numbers assigned . Facilities . The Secretariat is a nationwide intelligence agency , and has delegations and bases in most provinces of Argentina , as well as representations in most important countries . Reports state that SIDE has about 24 operation bases around the world . Its main building is located in Ave . 25 de Mayo 11 ( with a backdoor access through Ave . Leandro N . Alem 10 ) , at the heart of Downtown Buenos Aires , near to the Presidential Palace and Plaza de Mayo . Although the central base is the 25 de Mayo building and annexes , many buildings , known as bases or operation centers , are spread throughout the city of Buenos Aires . The main building was built in 1929 by architect Alejandro Bustillo , for the original owner Federico L . Martínez de Hoz . Inaugurated in 1930 , was originally used as a housing called " Martinez de Hoz Building " . In 1940 the federal government bought it . Valued at US $ 1 , 607 , 022 , its street surface is 413 square meters , inside it is 5430 square meters ; and it has ten floors , the fifth floor being the Secretary of Intelligence ' s office , and the tenth floor the special operations division . Security on the facility is meticulously strict , the whole building is covered with dark tinted windows , and when a person approaches the door , guards inquire the visitor for his or her name and the reason of visit . Once they are approved to enter , they must go through a metal detector and be accompanied throughout the visit by a staff member who will guide the visitor through the building and provide the necessary magnetic card to access restricted areas . Two annexes in Ave . 25 de Mayo are internally connected to the main facility thus extending the Secretariat ' s offices . Surveillance around the whole surroundings of the Presidential Palace and Plaza de Mayo is tight for obvious reasons . In the late 1960s , there was a serious incident when members of Montoneros breached the building and stayed inside for a whole weekend , taking objects , folders , and other sensitive material . During the late 1970s and 1980s , the tenth floor of the Correo Central building was provided to the Secretariat to be used for mail interception . Infrastructure . Communications in the agency are a crucial infrastructure and policy issue . For the southern bases in Patagonia , communications is provided by the " Servicios y Tecnologia S . R . L . " ( SyT ) company . The rest of SIDE ' s communications , phone tapping abilities , data transfer , etc . are handled by Telecom and Telefónica of Argentina , Movistar , Nextel , CTI Móvil , and " Compañía de Radiocomuncaciones Móviles , S . A . " Data processing computers for SIDE are provided by Bull . In 2001 , under Secretary of Intelligence Fernando de Santibañes , the Secretariat began a major upgrade of its computer infrastructure . Personnel . Recent reports ( since the Secretariat does not declare the exact amount of personnel it embodies ) state that about 2 . 500 to 3 . 000 agents are currently working both inside and outside of Argentina for the Secretariat . Only the Secretary and the Undersecretary of Intelligence are public functionaries , the rest of SIDE personnel must act and work secretly , as stated by the Intelligence Reform Law 25 . 520 . About 80 % of the personnel works in areas depending of the Interior Undersecretariat , and the remaining on the Exterior and Support Undersecretariats . According to the agent ' s rank , they get paid from 1 . 800 to 2 . 678 Argentine Peso s a month ; directors , reach $ 3 . 000 ARS . Delegates abroad are inserted in the frame of the Ministry of Foreign Relations , but receive monthly salaries by the Secretariat . Their job mainly consists of producing reports on current events of interests in the country they are stationed in , as well as establishing links with the local intelligence services . Recruitment . Citizens are recruited into SIDE using a well - known and widely used method by worldwide intelligence agencies during the Cold War . The procedure was simple , recruiting students from national universities based on an assessment of their character , behavior and intelligence . The method was first used during the Onganía government , under the command of Secretary of Intelligence Gral . Señorans , who himself said " " a person who enters at 20 years of age having studied in an university , should be an excellent professional at 30 years of age " " . During the process of recruitment , experts focused on four essential points when assessing their targets : When the student accepted the invitation to join SIDE , he was sent to be trained in the National Intelligence School . Nevertheless , not all spies where chosen from universities ; it was common that experienced agents recommended people they dealt with their personal life , and who they thought were apt to develop a career in the world of intelligence . Spies recruited that way were classified as " confidents " , they received a monthly pay while their abilities to carry out espionage activities were being tested . Once a confident proved that they could be trusted they were promoted to the " contracted collaborators " category . In those cases , agents were targets of specific controls , an " ambiental " surveillance on them done by the counter - intelligence division . If agents met their superiors expectations , they signed a temporary work contract which was renewable periodically . In the " confident " career , the third step was denominated " temporary personnel " ( Personal Temporario , in Spanish ) , as soon as they reached that stage , they were allowed to take courses in the National Intelligence School . Finally , after two years of being assigned as temporary personnel , they were reassigned as permanent " civil personnel " ( PC , in Spanish ) . There was not a specified period of time between the steps of a " confident " and " civil personnel " , there were cases of people who took 15 years before they were fully integrated . Today SIDE is rumored to be a " " very closed family " " , one which nobody enters without a recommendation . Interviews with agents state that " " the first rule is to forget your name " " , and that new personnel are baptized with a fake identity . Associates . ' Associates ' are companies used for support in covert operations , known cases detailed by Argentine justice include masquerade companies such as : Tecnit , CF COM , OSGRA S . R . L , Tiumayú S . A , AMSUD S . A , EMCOSUD S . A , IDIS ( " Instituto de Investigaciones y Servicios " ) S . R . L , and " Canteras Brandsen S . R . L . " Apparently all of them are run by SIDE personnel , and are used for covert operations inside of Argentina , and as well to set up agents in foreign countries . One known example is that of an agent acting as a broker of EMCOSUD in Santiago de Chile . Culture . The Secretary and Undersecretary of Intelligence are referred as " Señor Cinco " ( " Mr . Five " ) and " Señor Ocho " ( " Mr . Eight " ) respectively , because of the location of their offices , the fifth and eight floor of the 25 de Mayo building . Other aliases include " Señor Tres " ( " Mr . Three " ) for the Undersecretary of Foreign Intelligence and " Señor Nueve " ( " Mr . Nine " ) for the Undersecretary of Logistics . Cafeterias in buildings of the Secretariat are referred to as " casinos " . Although unconfirmed , the name " Señor Cinco " is alleged to the 1956 restructuring of SIDE , closely modelled on the British MI6 whose first director was Captain Sir George Mansfield Smith - Cumming . Often dropping the " Smith " , Cumming used his initial " C " as a codename which was also used by all subsequent directors of MI6 . The name " Señor Cinco " was allegedly adapted from it . The main building in Ave . 25 de Mayo is referred to as " Central " . Agents working for SIDE call the Secretariat simply as " La Casa " ( " The House " ) . Foreign personnel whose function is to act as a link between their agency and SIDE are referred as " COI " . Also , spies are sometimes referred by politicians as " Servis " , meaning somebody pertaining to " " The Service " " ( in English ) . The official mascot of SIDE is the Fox ( " Zorro " ) . Among SIDE personnel the Dirección de Observaciones Judiciales ( " Directorate of Judicial Surveillance " , DOJ ) is referred to as " Ojota " ( " Sandal " ) ; furthermore , " Ojota " implies " Ojo " ( " Eye " ) . Numbers . An interesting and sometimes confusing fact about the Secretariat ' s internal organization is the use of a specially structured sequence of numbers to refer to different internal divisions . For example , the Undersecretariat of Interior Intelligence is numbered ' 8 ' , and its dependencies , such as the Directorates of Counterintelligence and Judicial Surveillance are numbered ' 84 ' and ' 85 ' respectively . The same case applies for the Undersecretariat of Exterior Intelligence , or ' 3 ' , its divisions go from ' 32 ' for the Directorate of Foreign Intelligence to ' 34 ' for the Division of Transnational Crime and International Terrorism . Even though it is still hard to discern how exactly SIDE ' s number sequence is structured because of the lack of an official explanation , it is known that single numbers used to refer to a certain director , ' 3 ' , ' 5 ' , ' 8 ' , ' 9 ' . Sometimes the numbers represent their location in the 25 de Mayo buildings . Public media and fiction . As with most intelligence agencies , the Secretariat only makes public statements when dealing with national issues or scandals . For the Secretariat , the AMIA investigation , the Sofía Fijman incident , and the participation in the Senate Bribes scandal were the most notorious episodes of media attention . During the AMIA investigation , Claudio Lifschitz , a judicial employee involved in the investigation wrote a book about his experiences and theories that the Secretariat knew beforehand about the bombing and could not stop it . In 2005 , Tiempo de Valientes , a comedy made by Damián Szifron dealt with the age old rivalry between the Secretariat and the Federal Police . The Secretariat had a major role in the film ' s plot , it was portrayed as containing very sinister and corrupt individuals for the most part . In the end , the movie vindicates the role of intelligence in the national government . In the American ABC TV show " Alias " , Nadia Santos ( " Mía Maestro " ) is an ex - SIDE agent who now works for the CIA . ' Argentine intelligence ' has been referenced several times in the show . Publications . Every three months , SIDE publishes an official magazine through the National Intelligence School . Books dedicated to the Secretariat ' s history and scandals include " Los sospechosos de siempre : Historia del espionaje en la Argentina " by Jorge Boimvaser . The book was to be published in 1995 , but then Secretary of Intelligence Hugo Anzorreguy allegedly made a monetary deal with its author and " Editorial Planeta " to hold off on the book ' s publication . The book was finally published in 2001 , and actually is one of the most complete sources of information about historical SIDE facts , even though it elegantly evades a clear definition of its inner structure . In July 2006 , " SIDE : La Argentina secreta " by Gerardo Young was published . Young ' s book is aimed towards more personal aspects of the Secretariat , such as its most famous members , internal rules , and details about its management and operations . Historical operations . Dirty War . The SIDE played a role during the Dirty War and participated to Operation Condor , the international network of South American intelligence agencies . A secret detention camp for Operation Condor in Buenos Aires , known as Automotores Orletti ( also known as " Tactical Operations Centre 18 " ) , functioned under the orders of SIDE from 1976 to 1979 . One of the most important operations carried out by SIDE was the planning of a triple assassination attempt in Europe with the collaboration of the Chilean DINA , and the Uruguayan intelligence service . The objective was to murder , if possible at the same time , three special personalities living in Paris , France : Isabel Allende ( daughter of Salvador Allende , Chile ) , Rodolfo Matarollo ( member of the ERP , Argentina ) , and Enrique Erro ( ex - senator , Uruguay ) , all of them opposed the South American defacto regimes , and well known dissidents . The idea was originally suggested by DINA director Manuel Contreras , and was planned out in the Billinghurst base in Buenos Aires , previous approval of Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla . The assassinations were to be carried with 9 mm or 22 caliber guns brought to France via Argentine diplomatic carriage . The operation failed due to the Argentine Ambassador in Paris ' s reluctance to give the bag to the agents without first revealing what was in it . Operation Marylin . When Héctor José Cámpora assumed the presidency of Argentina on May 25 , 1973 , Cuba sent a wave of diplomats and official delegates to Argentina , proposing that was the time to resume cultural interchanges with the Argentine government . However , the Argentine intelligence services distrusted the real motives for the influx of the Cubans . It was then that an analyst in the Secretariat discovered a human weakness in the Cuban delegates : their extreme sensitivity for blonde women that stood out . The Café La Biela in the neighbourhood of Recoleta was a common place for the Cubans to be spotted hunting for their female counterparts by SIDE agents . The Secretariat orchestrated a plan to infiltrate , assess and obtain information as fast as can be possible . In this operation , the main actors would be blonde women , SIDE began recruiting capable women in known ' hot ' spots of the city , some of them managed by people closely connected with the Secretariat . Three women were cited for an interview in downtown Buenos Aires , proposed a job opportunity that involved establishing a solid and stable link with the Cuban delegates , all accepted . They would be paid almost the same money they earned at their previous jobs , plus a few honoraries for the services provided . During a week , the agents were taught basic intelligence theories and practices , they observed photographs of the Cubans they were going to ' mark ' , and they had time to elaborate complex backstories for their supposed identities . The director in charge of Operation Marylin selected divorced women with children on purpose , so they would not raise any suspicions in their families or targets . The three females claimed to work doing ' sales ' for a living , allowing them to be available at many hours in which to be in direct contact with the Cubans . Finally , after a subtle approximation scene played out in Café La Biela , two of the Cuban delegates fell for the trap , but the third one apparently was not interested in establishing relations . After six weeks of observations and wire - taps ( the spies made sure to plant the Cuban ' s rooms with microphones ) , the Cuban embassy unexpectedly ordered its delegates to return to La Habana . SIDE did not obtain any relevant information about their suspicions that the Cubans were assisting and supporting Argentine leftists groups , but the agency realised that women are a very useful tool in the espionage world . All three females that participated in the operation were offered permanent jobs in SIDE ; only once accepted , the rest went back to the Buenos Aires night scene . Operation Marylin proved that using women to exploit weaknesses in men was a feasible and convenient method of extracting information , and observating both foreign and internal adversaries of Argentina . Although the real insertion of females into the Argentine espionage community started in the mid - 1960s , during the 70s , one of Argentina ' s most agitated eras , the women of SIDE started playing a crucial role in its operations . Operation Veinte Años . On October 28 , 1995 , Enrique Gorriarán Merlo , Argentina ' s most wanted terrorist , was captured in the little town of Tepoztlán , 60 miles away Mexico City , and flown back to Argentina in a plane rented by SIDE . Merlo had been involved in numerous criminal , activities during the 1970s and 1980s , most notably the assassination of Anastasio Somoza Debayle on September 17 in Paraguay , and for orchestrating the 1989 attack on the La Tablada military barracks by the MTP group . Merlo , who claims it was a kidnapping orchestrated by SIDE , had traveled to Mexico to meet with Mexican politicians of the PRD , who were cooperating in an international push to free the guerrillas responsible for the La Tablada attack who were , and still are , serving prison term in Argentine jails . Merlo arrived in the Mexican capital with a fake Uruguayan passport , where he soon realized that the Mexican security forces were following him . He thought they were just doing basic surveillance on him to see if he was doing any illegal activity in Mexican territory . On Saturday , October 28 , he spotted three Argentine - looking men in Tepoztlán Square , " " one of which " - he said - " looked like he was from the Argentine intelligence service or the police " " . Merlo was driving a friend ' s truck , after spotting the Argentines , he tried to lose his entourage of followers by driving into the town of Cuatula . A few minutes later , Merlo claims he was stopped , surrounded , and shot several times until he put his hands out the truck ' s destroyed window . Merlo goes on to claim that the Mexican security services handcuffed him , and made him face the Argentine , who nodded silently ( " affirming that he was who they were looking for " ) . Merlo was taken into the Mexican Migrations Department , where he claims was interrogated three times by SIDE agents . The last time they interrogated him , they asked if he was Gorriarán Merlo , he answered back " " yes " " , and simultaneously asked for asylum . ( " Mexico has a tradition for giving asylum to politically prosecuted people in other Latin American countries " ) . One of the Mexican police man told them that there was " " receptiveness " " about his request , but at five in the morning , Mexican authorities took him to the airport and put in him in SIDE ' s plane , where the same SIDE agent from Tepoztlán and the interrogation was present . The operation was carried out by the Sala Patria group of the Secretariat . Gorrarián Merlo served prison time in Argentina for his crimes , and was later pardoned in 2003 by President Eduardo Duhalde . AMIA investigation . Judicial reports during the investigation have displayed sufficient evidence of SIDE ' s involvement in the AMIA case investigation . In 2003 , President Néstor Kirchner signed a decree that opened all SIDE ' s files ( " about 15 , 000 " ) and allowed the ex - Secretary of Intelligence , Hugo Anzorreguy , and many intelligence personnel involved in the case ( including Horacio Antonio Stiusso , Patricio Miguel Finnen , and Alejandro Brousson ) to be available to declare in the investigation about Judge Galeano ' s mishandling during his job as official judge of the case . Several critics blame SIDE for failing to stall the attack on the AMIA as the warnings of an impeding attack on Argentine soil were received . Judicial evidence presented during the AMIA investigation show that the Argentine Embassy in Beirut , the Brazilian Intelligence Service , and the Argentine Consulate in Milan warned SIDE about the attack on the Jewish organization . Operation Cabildo . Juan José Galeano , the judge in charge of the AMIA Bombing investigation , asked Hugo Anzorreguy to help him advance the investigation by bribing a key witness who refused to testify , Carlos Telledín . The Secretariat provided 400 thousand dollars so he would change his testimony , thus forcing progress on a case that had been stuck for two years . SIDE explicitly participated in the operation to give the money to Telledín ' s wife , Ana Boragni in a Lloyds Bank located on Ave . Cabildo in Buenos Aires . The public importance about this operation is that it explicitly implied SIDE working to orchestrate a cover - up in the AMIA case . The operation was described thoroughly by SIDE agents who testified later on , during President Néstor Kirchner ' s push for new leads on the case . Surveillance of foreign embassies . During the 1960s , SIDE set up constant surveillance on embassies from the Eastern bloc as well as other communist nations in Buenos Aires . During the investigation of the AMIA case , then counter - intelligence operations director Horacio Antonio Stiusso , was asked about why SIDE had been tapping the phone lines and setting bugs in the embassies of Iran and Cuba in Buenos Aires . Stiusso alleged that those tasks were simply counter - intelligence operations and had no relationship with the AMIA case . Nevertheless , in 1998 , Argentina fired many Iranian diplomats on the basis of " phone taps " that provided evidence Iran was involved in the AMIA bombing . Sofía Fijman incident . In the late 1990s , an employee of the Secretariat in charge of the National Intelligence School ' s security was convicted for murder . For more information see the School ' s incidents . Operation Ciprés . In the late nineties , Nasrim Mokhtari an Iranian prostitute and hairdresser , who was believed to be involved with an Iranian support group that helped carry out the bombings of the Israeli Embassy in 1992 , and the AMIA building in 1994 , was tricked by the Secretariat into coming back to Argentina from Europe . The information on her involvement came from Wilson Dos Santos , a suspect in the AMIA case . Dos Santos was a Brazilian taxi boy and thief who did a significant amount of smuggling in the Triple Frontier . Mokhtari had a romantic relationship with Dos Santos in Buenos Aires , and claims he knew about the plot to bomb the AMIA building through her connection in the Buenos Aires islamic community . It is suspected that Dos Santos worked , or works for the Brazilian Intelligence Service , or the Brazilian Police . Furthermore , a few weeks before the bombing , Dos Santos entered the Argentine , Israeli , and Brazilian consulates in Milán , Italy , to warn about the upcoming attacks . There was no trace of him until he was captured in Switzerland years later , holding 8 passports , and extradited to Argentina on charges of false testimony , of which he is currently serving prison time . When Dos Santos was declared for the Argentine justice ministry , even though there were weak points in his statements , he named Mokhtari and alleged she knew about the bombings ( " he later testified that he warned the consulates on information he got from her " ) . The Argentine justice system , needing new leads because of all the pressure that put on them to solve both bombings , ordered SIDE to find Mokhtari and bring her back to Argentina for interrogation . A plan codenamed " Operation Ciprés " was orchestrated to locate her in Europe and bring her back to Argentina . Once located in Switzerland , she was conned into coming back to Argentina by SIDE agents , who posed as meat businessmen who proposed her a job as a translator to do business with Iran . The operation was carried out by the Sala Patria group , and it has been said that the operation cost the Secretariat about half a million dollars , which included locating her , paying costs , agents and buying information in Cyprus , France , Belgium and Switzerland . The French intelligence service also helped SIDE locate Mokhtari in while she was living in Paris , France . Mokthari was on an Air France flight to Montevideo , Uruguay , that made a stop in Buenos Aires . When she got off to change planes , she was arrested by a special counter - terrorism team of the Federal Police . Mokhtari was eventually let free , there were no sufficient proofs to incriminate her in anything , or even being involved in the Iranian support group that carried out the AMIA bombing . A restriction on leaving the country was imposed on her , and later lifted , but Nasrim Mokhtari had already lost her contacts in Paris , had no money , and become a publicly known ' international terrorist ' . The Secretariat declined to provide sufficient accommodations for Mokhtari to stay in Argentina , and Iran did not want her in its territory because of the sufficient international problems she brought to them with Iran being blamed in participating in the AMIA bombing . She currently is hospitalized at a mental institution in Buenos Aires . Breakdown of CIA relations . In January 2001 , Página / 12 newspaper published an article on the Secretariat ' s troubled relations with the American Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) . Along with the article was a photo and personal details of Ross Newland , then CIA Station Chief in Buenos Aires , who was expected to become head of the Latin America n division in the CIA . Official reports say that the CIA wanted SIDE to investigate the operations of the Russian Mafia and ex - KGB agents who had just arrived in Argentina . The reasons were that the Russian Mafia was using Argentina as an intermediate country for smuggling illegal aliens to the U . S . At the time , Argentines did not require visas for tourist visits to the United States , and obtaining Argentine citizenship had recently been relatively easy . Other reasons to investigate the recently arrived ex - KGB and Russian Mafia was that many ex - CIA and ex - FBI personnel had private security businesses in Argentina and in many other Latin American countries . The arrival of the Russian gang in Argentina put their businesses at risk of competition . A few months before , Newland , a 50 year old who loved living in Buenos Aires accused SIDE of following him and fellow CIA operatives in Argentina , as well as doing audio surveillance on them . Information leaked out that " Patricio Finnen " and " Alejandro Brousson " , two old notorious important staff members of the Secretariat , were responsible for carrying out the operation from the Billinghurst base . The Americans were not the only ones affected by the Secretariat ' s peculiar attention , the Israeli Mossad and the German Federal Intelligence Service ( BND ) . American reports state that the Secretariat never helped the CIA on its requests , instead , the U . S . alleged that SIDE helped the " newcomers " insert themselves in the market by selling them information . The CIA became furious since they had historically contributed funds for SIDE to do their operations , and SIDE was indirectly helping the Russians in their smuggling operation . They expected the Secretaria to be on their side , and to make the ' Russian problem ' a government issue , therefore putting pressure on the Russia ns . The head of the Secretariat ' s counter - intelligence service at the time , retired Major Alejandro Broussoun , an ex military servicemen from the Argentine Army Engineers Corps , and an ex - follower of the ultra - nationalist right wing " Carapintadas " organization in the 1980s and 1990s , was blamed by the CIA for the leak of their station chief on the popular newspaper . The United States investigation into the incident with SIDE , revealed that the picture and information of Ross Newland was given to the newspaper by the Secretariat itself . Meanwhile , SIDE tried to repair relations by explaining the scandal through another theory . At the end of the scandal , with Ross Newland ' s identity uncovered , and the episode becoming a major embarrassment for the U . S . and Argentina in the worldwide intelligence community , the CIA removed its Station Chief from Argentina , and said they were going to permanently move their offices to Montevideo , Uruguay because of their problems working together with SIDE . Also , as a result of this , the head of the SIDE counter - intelligence service , retired Major " Alejandro Brousson " was expelled because of the American diplomatic pressure to punish the responsible of an act they considered " " a violation of game rules " " ( in the intelligence community , that is ) . The scandal not only put a stain in the CIA ' s relations with SIDE , but also made the Americans distrust the Argentine intelligence community which they had come to collaborate extensively during the Carlos Menem administration . Bribes in the Senate . In 2001 , the National Executive Power ( " Poder Ejecutivo Nacional " , PEN ) under President Fernando de la Rúa used the Secretariat ' s reserved funds to orchestrate the bribery of several senators in the Argentine Congress . The motive behind the operation was to assure the promotion of the new labor reform law that the De La Rúa was promoting . When it became known to the public the level of involvement of the Executive Branch a national scandal broke out , and De La Rúa ' s administration took heavy criticism . The Secretariat was then under the command of banker Fernando de Santibañes , a close friend of then President De La Rúa , who promised to make sweeping changes to the Secretariat of Intelligence . The opposition parties in Argentina , specially during the government of Carlos Menem , saw SIDE as a political tool and promised sweeping reforms if it won the 1999 presidential elections . After the details participation of SIDE in scandal became publicly known , then President Fernando de la Rúa asked then Secretary of Intelligence , Fernando De Santibañes to resign . He is currently charged with participating in the Senate bribes case . Recently more details were described about the operation by Pontacuarto , the participation of SIDE was so deep to even include visits of people involved with the bribes to the main SIDE headquarters . Assassination of Piqueteros . The Justice system and the press blame the Secretariat participating in the organization of events on 2002 that led to the deaths of Darío Santillán and Maximiliano Kosteki , two piqueteros that were protesting in the Pueyrredón Bridge in Buenos Aires . Both men were shot in the back by Buenos Aires Police ' s officers armed with shotguns . Months before the tragedy , the Secretariat had produced intelligence reports that the Piqueteros ' assemblies and protests were being attended by the Colombian extremist group FARC . Furthermore , minutes before the assassinations , there were three phone calls , between Alfredo Fanchiotti , a policeman involved in the incident , and the Undersecretary of Intelligence , at the time , Oscar Rodríguez . During the trial , police officers involved in the scene that day , declared that a man from SIDE approached them and told them that " " Today there will be incidents " " , furthermore incriminating the Secretariat on the assassinations . Carlos Soria , then Secretary of State Intelligence , later declared that " " democracy works in order , we needed to establish order " " , making the public theory that the assassinations were orchestrated by SIDE to psychologically reduce the Piqueteros movements motivation and their influence in Argentine society . The assassinations , which sparked outrage by Piquetero groups , made then interim President Eduardo Duhalde to call for elections earlier than planned , and since then , the federal government has established a non - repressive policy towards the Piqueteros . In 2005 , President Néstor Kirchner , signed a decree that released all of the Secretariats ' s files about the tragedy to the public , and made some SIDE staff and agents available for questioning if necessary . The files released don ' t include any relevant information in them . Nobody in SIDE has yet been charged with participating in the case . On the second anniversary of the assassinations , protesters and piqueteros marched towards the Billinghurst base were the phone calls originated and proceeded to deface the property and manifest public outrage towards the organization . It was the first time ever people protested at one of SIDE ' s facilities .