Intelligence Directorate

The Intelligence Directorate, often abbreviated to **Aman**, is the central, overarching military intelligence body of the IDF. Aman was created in 1950, when the Intelligence Department was spun off from the IDF's General Staff (the Intelligence Department itself was composed largely of former members of the Haganah Intelligence Service). Aman is an independent service, and not part of the ground forces, Navy or the Air Force.

## Command

### Commander's Rank

Aluf

It is one of the main entities (and the largest component) of the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Mossad and Shin Bet. It includes the cyber warfare branch Unit 8200 and the training course Havatzalot Program. Its special forces unit is Sayeret Matkal.

## **Roles and Jurisdiction**

The IDF's Intelligence Corps, abbreviated as Haman and headed by a brigadier general, has been detached from Aman since the Yom Kippur War, but remains under its jurisdiction.

In April 2000, the newest IDF corps was founded (the IDF's fifth land corps), the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps, abbreviated as Modash. It was designed to fulfill some of Aman's former combat intelligence functions, and is also headed by a Brigadier General. Although it fell under the operational jurisdiction of the GOC Army Headquarters, it also fell under Aman's professional jurisdiction. In 2020, the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps merged into the Ground Force's Border Protection Corps.

In 1976, according to the *Lexicon of National Security*, some of Aman's principal roles consisted of:

1. Intelligence evaluation for security policy, military planning and "fluid security policy," and the dissemination of intelligence to IDF and governmental bodies.
2. Field security at the level of the General Staff, and the training and operation of field security in general (all levels).
3. The operation of military censorship.
4. Direction and operation of the 'Collection Agencies'.
5. Drawing maps; providing the direction and supervision for the dissemination of maps.
6. The development of 'special measures' for intelligence work.
7. The development of intelligence doctrine in the realms of research, collection, and field security.
8. Staff responsibility for military attachés overseas.

## **Structure**

### Staff Units

* Operational Division
* Research Division
* Special Operations Division (Includes Sayeret Matkal)
* Information Security Department
* Intelligence Corps
* Military Censor *(Part of Aman, but an entirely independent unit, not subordinate to any military or political level, only to parliamentary and judicial oversight)*

### Collection Units

* Signal Intelligence Branch (Unit 8200)
* Visual Intelligence Branch (Unit 9900)
* Human Intelligence Branch (Unit 504)
* Camp 1391

### Other Units

* Ro'im Rachok
* Unit 81
* Havatzalot Program

### Professionally Subordinate Units

* Air Intelligence Group (Part of the Air Force)
* Naval Intelligence Division (Part of the Navy)
* Comabat Intelligence Collection Corps (Part of the Border Protection Corps)
* The intelligence units of the Regional Commands: Central, Northern, Southern and Home Front Commands
* Center for Consciousness Operations: a psychological warfare unit of the Operations Directorate.