Military Intelligence, Department 6, Secret Intelligence Service
The tradition of this service goes back to Henry VIII. The modern layout stands since 1911 made by he chairman M.Cummings. His initial ('M') had become the cipher for all the following chairmen, whose names are top secret. Only in the 1990s it was revealed that the chairman post was for the first time taken by a woman - Stella Rimington.MI-6 long operated under the acronym SIS. They had some problems before the Second World War, many people defected but they were lucky the Germans didn't believe them. After the war the SIS began to build up a new image which was hardly hit by the run over of K.Philby. The MI-6 partly erased this point by acquiring Oleg Penkovsky.
The staff is chosen from the army preferring college-men with scientist specialization. MI-6 is mainly responsible for military intelligence. They also closely cooperate with the GCHQ. The tasks are given by the Foreign Ministry and finances by ***. Their staff counts over 3,000 and the budget is around 150 mil. pounds. MI-6 consists of four directorates (tasks and production, foreign intelligence, supporting services (equipment) and personal department) plus eight territorial departments (the 7th was known as 'Soviet block'). After the reorganization the MI-6 was renamed into DI-6, but this name isn't used either.
