Imperial Intelligence

Imperial Intelligence, also known as the Bureau of Imperial Intelligence or the Imperial Intelligence Agency, abbreviated Imperial Intel, was an elite intelligence agency of the Galactic Empire. It was the rival to the larger Imperial Security Bureau.

History
During the height of the Galactic Republic's decay, the four intelligence agencies of the Republic found themselves routinely being used by corrupt Senators who bribed lower level functionaries withint he agencies to pass along misinformation through agency channels, in order to influence important intelligence reports which were presented to the Senate. The greed of the Senators caught up with them; they were often too cheap to bribe operatives of all the agencies, relying on the innate distrust of the intelligence agencies toward each other to prevent them from comparing scandocs.

The directors of these four agencies, the Senate Bureau of Intelligence, the Interstellar Consortium on Technology, the Republican Security Organization, and the Special Acquisitions Branch of the Library of the Republic|Special Acquisitions Branch of the Library of the Republic, met in secrecy to negotiate fixing the terrible issues plaguing the Republic. The negotiations were open, and the directors were surprisingly willing to compromise their own personal power in order to maintain an effective intelligence agency for the Republic. They agreed to quietly and unofficially merge their four organizations: information would be shared and compared among the branches in order to decrease the odds that information was hampered with. To oversee this process and the new intelligence organization, the Ubiqtorate was created, which served as the organization's governing body.

The Ubiqtorate strongly supported Palpatine in his rise to office in the Republic. They saw in Palpatine a strong body able to bring the corruption plaguing the Republic down and bringing the bureaucracy under control. It was possible that Palpatine filled the Ubiqtorate in on his grand plan for replacing the Republic with a firm and powerful Empire, as the Ubiqtorate themselves saw the need for a strong central government. At the outbreak of the Clone Wars, the four intelligence agencies (unknowing to all but Palpatine that they were already under the control of the Ubiqtorate) were officially amalgated together to form Republic Intelligence. Republic Intelligence was officially watched over by the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee, but Palpatine's sweeping reforms throughout the war drew only more power to his office and inevitably to the Ubiqtorate, who remained the true powerholders over the newly formed Republic Intelligence and remained close ties with Palpatine.

Clone Intelligence would later be inducted into Republic Inteligence, but by the end of the Clone Wars, the new government the Ubiqtorate had been planning for had finally given rise. Palpatine issued his famed Declaration of a New Order address just days after the "Jedi Rebellion", and within weeks any reminders of the Republic were swept away by the Galactic Empire and its New Order. Republic Intelligence was transformed into Imperial Intelligence, and Armand Isard was placed as its Director. The speed, efficiency and professionalism that which Imperial Intelligence was reorganized and so firmly established frightened many of Palpatine's advisors, many of whom had utilized the division amongst the agencies as they pleased in the old days of the decaying Republic. Many in the high circles of the Empire believed that the flawless transition and expansion of capabilities of Imperial Intelligence were the reasons Crueya Vandron created COMPNOR and the Imperial Security Bureau.

The Ubiqtorate and Intelligence as a whole considered COMPNOR to be a misuse of valuable resources; a case of arming and authorizing talented but untested amateuers to defend the Empire, their strategies based solely on holos of Imperial political propaganda. Thus, Imperial Intelligence felt it was their responsibility to do the whole job themselves, including cleaning up "the muck left behind by COMPNOR."

In 0 BBY, Armand Isard, who had served as Intelligence's Director since its inception, was executed by orders of Palpatine, under false information provided by Isard's daughter, Ysanne, who would go on to serve as the new Director. After the fragmentation of the Empire at the Battle of Endor, Intelligence under Isard would remain on Imperial Center. Isard had plans for taking control of the Empire for herself, but she was executed during the Battle of Coruscant by agents of the Interim Ruling Council, the powerholders in the Empire and the remnants of the Imperial Ruling Council, who had secured the Empire for themselves. The Council installed Dekan as the new Director, a man who would remain loyal to the Council and the Empire. As a result, Intelligence remained intact during the Imperial Civil War, and after the fall of Imperial Center, they would relocate with the Interim Ruling Council to Dreven.

Intelligence would faithfully serve the Empire over the years preceding Bacharan Valak's rise to the throne. In 8 ABY, however, they were, as they largely felt, betrayed by Valak and had its infrastructure cut down, its branches liquidated, and a majority of its personnel sent off to COMPNOR or other Imperial branches. Intelligence became a shell of its former self, cut down by Valak who preferred COMPNOR and its fanatical loyalty over Intelligence's military precision. Nevertheless, Intelligence survived and continued to operate, and remained patient for their return to power. This would come in 14 ABY when the Empire's Supreme Commander and Military Executor issued reforms that revitalized Intelligence and brought it back to its former status.

Organization
Unlike the Imperial Security Bureau, Imperial Intel personnel were not organized according to a military-style system of ranks. Rather, they were assigned on a case-by-case basis. They were formally addressed as "Agent (Name)", in lieu of a rank.

Imperial Intelligence consisted of six subdivisions:
 * Ubiqtorate
 * Adjustments
 * Internal Organization Bureau
 * Analysis Bureau
 * Bureau of Operations
 * Intelligence

Function
Imperial Intelligence was responsible for covert operations in the Empire. They had a strong reputation: it was said that the IBS never succeeded in intercepting and decoding a single Imperial Intel document. Whereas the Security Bureau investigated morale adn coordinated the military with COMPNOR and the Emperor's objectives, Imperial Intelligence was an older organization, descended from the intelligence-gathering offices of the Republic that specialized in external esionage. Many of the security officers present in the Imperial Palaces (Imperial Center, Castle Tsabak, Selene) were Imperial Intelligence agents.