General Intelligence Presidency

The General Intelligence Presidency is one of the security agencies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is officially tasked with collecting, processing, and analyzing intelligence and submitting it before the competent security entities for examination. It was established in 1956 under the order of King Saud Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Intelligence work began in the Kingdom during the reign of the founding King Abdulaziz Bin Abdulrahman Al Saud, who was proactive in predicting the movement of opponents within the scope of the campaigns for the unification of the Kingdom, through applying the information he requested obtaining from his assistants.

The General Intelligence Presidency was organized for the first time in the Kingdom when King Saud Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud assumed power. He ordered the establishment of the presidency with its responsibilities and arrangements in an organized manner. The prevailing necessity at that time was to establish a public agency for facilitating the security sectors' access to information. Then, King Saud ordered the establishment of an additional branch for the presidency in the western region, represented by the Jeddah office, and a branch for the Eastern Province, represented by Dhahran office.

Since its establishment, the presidency has been headed by nine presidents, including two of the sons of King Abdulaziz Al Saud and three of his grandchildren. The longest presidency term spanned around twenty-four years, and the shortest lasted for around eleven months only. The General Intelligence Presidency has internal bureaus across all the cities of the Kingdom. Its headquarters is located in the city of Riyadh.

The General Intelligence Presidency contributes to maintaining security by supplying the Kingdom's security entities with sensitive information regarding terrorist activities, espionage movements, disclosure of confidential documents and files, and other violations. It offers a unified number, 985, for reporting, enabling citizens and residents of the Kingdom to report any perceived risk for the safety and security of the society.

In 2018, a royal order was issued to restructure the General Intelligence Presidency and create one new committee and three new departments: the Intelligence Activity Committee, the General Department of Strategy and Development, the General Department of Legal Affairs, and the General Department for Performance Assessment and Internal Audit.