secret service
Covert government agency
A secret service is any intelligence or espionage agency operating covertly on behalf of a government.
The term emphasizes clandestine operations—spying, counterintelligence, and gathering information that governments don't want publicly associated with official channels: He spent twenty years in the secret service before anyone knew. (Capitalized Secret Service is the specific U.S. agency.)
- MI6UK espionage agency
- espionageCovert intelligence gathering
- spycraftMethods of secret agents
- CIAU.S. foreign intelligence service
- intelligenceMental ability, cognitive capacity
detective · earpiece · motorcade · unmarked car · national security · classified information · code name · dead drop · lapel pin · treasury · mole · safe house · counterfeiting · tradecraft · Homeland Security · spies · security clearance · bodyguards
- Spy AgenciesCIA, MI6, MI5, KGB, Mossad
- espionagespy, spies, double agent, double agents, spying
- federal servicesSocial Security, Medicare, IRS, USPS, FBI
- protectorsprotector, guardian, guard, sentinel, keeper
- law enforcementFBI, police station, patrolmen, police officer, cop
- militarysoldiers, army, troops, officers, navy
secret servicepress office
Organization's media relations unit
open government · freedom of information · public disclosure · press corps · public broadcasting
secret servicearmed forces
Nation's combined military services
standing army · conventional forces · national guard · defense department
secret, service, secrecy, secretive, discreet, discretion, discretionary, secretiveness, secretively