Emni

The Joint Security Committee (Arabic: لجنة الأمن المشتركة lajnat al-aman al-mushtarakah), colloquially known by the acronym Emni (امني; lit. "secure, covert"), is an executive state committee under the Council of Ministers of the Arab Union. It is the premier security agency of the government of the Arab Union, overseeing all national security, domestic and foreign intelligence, and counterintelligence activities, and also functions as a federal law enforcement agency. The Joint Security Committee is governed by military laws and regulations and uses the same ranking system as the Arab Army, but has jurisdiction over civilian affairs like internal security and federal law enforcement in addition to its intelligence role. The Arab Union's 20 republics (its federated states) each have a unique national police service responsible for regular civilian law enforcement at the republican (state) and local level, attached to the Ministry of Interior of the respective republic, while most federal law enforcement responsibilities are handled by the Judicial Police under the Attorney General of the Arab Union; while the Joint Security Committee only handles the most important federal law enforcement operations, it is empowered to direct or exclusively handle any and all federal law enforcement matters at its sole discretion.

The Emni was formed in 1975 by merging several separate agencies into a single streamlined apparatus. As a state committee, it acts on an inter-agency level, and thus retains a degree of jurisdiction over government ministries and subordinate agencies as far as national security is concerned, including oversight of federal policing, corrections, and customs and border security activities. Its foreign intelligence operations involve setting up clandestine espionage residencies abroad, and recruiting sources working in sensitive positions in target countries' governments or military. Agents are either placed in Arab Union embassies and consulates, where they work under official cover and are protected from arrest by diplomatic immunity (legal residency), or assume false identities which are used to infiltrate government agencies and organisations or other official hierarchies in the target country (illegal residency); both forms of residents are directly and indirectly supported by handlers who work out of the embassy and/or covert safehouses in target countries. Operatives typically engage in gathering political, economic and military-strategic information, as well as planting disinformation. The agency is also responsible for combatting internal subversion within the Arab Union, maintaining complex public surveillance operations including a vast network of confidential informants both at home and abroad. It is active against the Zionist Resistance Front and the Muslim Brotherhood.

The incumbent Chairman of the Joint Security Committee is Ilyas Mosa, in office since 2010.

Name
Upon its establishment, the Joint Security Committee was referred to exclusively by this name, with staff informally referring to the agency simply "the Committee" (اللجنة al-lajnah); this usage was mostly unambiguous given the context of the agency's work, with other state committees responsible for matters quite separate from intelligence and state security; it thus remains a common colloquialism amongst committee staff. The colloquial name "Emni" was popularised in an April 1979 article of The Damascus Post.

Directorates

 * "A" Directorate: The premier foreign intelligence service, responsible for HUMINT operations involving foreign intelligence-gathering and planting strategic disinformation; maintains foreign safe houses and espionage residencies in target countries;
 * "B" Directorate: Upholds political security, combats internal subversion, and monitors political activity across society including within the government and armed forces; also responsible for domestic intelligence operations;
 * "J" Directorate: Responsible for border patrol and security of border crossings and international airports;
 * "M" Directorate: The premier anti-drug trafficking agency, responsible for combating trafficking and related organised crime both within the Arab Union and abroad:
 * "T" (Criminal Intelligence) Directorate: One of two agencies handling law enforcement matters under federal jurisdiction (the other being the much larger Judicial Police, which handles most federal policing responsibilities); "T" Directorate has multiple specialised departments each with unique responsibilities, including investigating and combatting serious crimes like serial or spree murder, child kidnapping and human trafficking, infiltration of organised criminal networks, professional forensic pathology and behaviour analysis, and leading other major investigations and operations under federal jurisdiction;
 * "Th" Directorate: Responsible for the security of all federal government ministries, agencies and state enterprises as well as personal security of senior federal government personnel;
 * "H" Directorate: Responsible for public surveillance and hosting the shared database used by all federal and republican law enforcement agencies;
 * "Kh" Directorate: Handles secure government communications, cryptology and cyber-security;
 * "D" Directorate: Responsible for detaining and transporting prisoners of war and terrorists, typically excommunicado;
 * "Dh" (Anti-Corruption) Directorate: Investigates allegations of professional misconduct, corruption or criminality within law enforcement;
 * "R" Directorate: Responsible for domestic counterintelligence operations;
 * "Z" Directorate: Responsible for censorship, propaganda and information warfare;
 * Joint Military Counterintelligence Directorate: Responsible for military counterintelligence operations and supporting the military intelligence directorates under the Ministry of Defence;
 * Special Operations & Counterterrorism Directorate: The paramilitary division of the Joint Security Committee, responsible for counterterrorism and other serious operations;

Other departments

 * Human Resources Department: Recruits, trains and compensates all committee personnel;
 * IT Department: Responsible for supplying and maintaining all technical equipment;
 * Finance Department: Responsible for the budget and funding operations;
 * Legal Department: Handles all legal matters for the committee;
 * Research & Development Department: Responsible for scientific research and the development of technologies relevant to state security and intelligence operations, from pinhole cameras and spyware to drugs and poisons.
 * Transport Department: Responsible for operation and maintenance of all vehicles used by the agency, including sedans, boats, private jets, helicopters, and logistical transport aircraft.
 * Residential Office: Responsible for procuring and maintaining safehouses for the Emni's agents and their handlers in all major cities across the globe, maintaining all other agency facilities including black sites, training academies, storage and logistical facilities, etc., and coordinating the living arrangements for and fulfilling all domestic needs of agency personnel.