German Intelligence Community
The German Intelligence Community is the collective of intelligence agencies in Germany. Germany has three federal intelligence services and 16 state intelligence services. Because they do not form a single entity and because their responsibilities are split between multiple government ministries and even jurisdictions, this is an informal term for all government agencies and components with intelligence duties, used by commentators, scholars and journalists. The activities of the three federal intelligence agencies are coordinated out of the German Chancellery by the Commissioner for the Federal Intelligence Services and Directorate-General 7. Additionally, they are subject to parliamentary  oversight through the Parliamentary Oversight Panel (PKGr). In cases where the agencies want to surveil electronic communications, they have to get permission by the G10-Commission, which acts much like the FISA Court. The traditional primary focus of the German Intelligence Community, originally the West German Intelligence Community, was the threat posed by the Soviet Union and its satellite states. The German Intelligence Community has been closely aligned with the United States Intelligence Community, especially the CIA, since the start of the Cold War.