Imperial Intelligence

Imperial Intelligence was the central intelligence service of the Galactic Empire. It was dedicated to collecting information and was a rival of the Imperial Security Bureau, the Empire's secret police and part of the larger COMPNOR organization.

Description
Imperial Intelligence was the primary intelligence service for the Galactic Empire and its successor organizations. The agency made use of covert operations which it used to spy on its enemies as well as itself and other branches of the Galactic Empire and its successor organizations. They were also responsible for watching the activities of various governments, corporations and other forces in the galaxy. Furthermore, they kept an eye out for any notable mercenary, bounty hunters and other outlaw activities. They also supplied any information to the various branches in the Imperial Armed Forces regarding any potential targets and strategies, which made them valuable despite being kept off the front lines.

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 within the 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, 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 a new director, a man who would remain loyal to the Council and the Empire. As a result, Intelligence remained intact during the Post-Endor Imperial power struggle.