Organization and structure
The NSS was subordinate to the Interior Ministry, and led by General Ahmed Saleebaan Abdalla ("Dafle") right through the 1970s until the mid-1980s. Abdalla was a son-in-law of the General and a member of the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC). After that point, Abdiqasim Salad Hassan directed the agency during the closing years of the Barré regime. Hassan would later become a one-time President of Somalia under the Transitional National Government. Conceived in the Soviet model and organized with the help of theNSS prisons
The NSS headquarters and interrogation center in Mogadishu, referred to as ''Godka'' or "the Hole", was particularly notorious. Other NSS centers included Mogadishu Central Prison, and stations at Lanta Bur, Labtanjirow and Burwein.1990 dissolution
In 1990 the NSS was formally dissolved as a palliative measure. However, its abolition was not accompanied by the demise of other security agencies who also had effectively unlimited powers of arrest and detention and similarly notorious reputations for torture and ill-treatment of detainees. These include the President's own bodyguards, the Red Berets (''Duub Cas''); the '' Dhabar Jabinta'' (or "Backbreakers") a branch of the military police; the '' Hangash'', another branch of the military police; the '' Guulwadayal'' (or "Victory Pioneers"), a uniformed paramilitary group; and the investigative wing of the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party (SRSP). Similarly, the decision to dismantle the NSC did not guarantee a fair system of justice because other courts, such as the Mobile Military Court and the Regional Security Court, retained the power to sentence people to long prison terms and even death without any pretense of due process. In an effort to show that the government was opening the political system, President Barre resigned as Secretary General of the ruling party, only to be replaced by a son-in-law who for many years headed the NSS.Politicians with ties to the NSS
Controversy surrounds the activities of the NSS, as well as those politicians who served in or assisted the NSS during the Barre regime. This is a partial list of Somali and Horn of Africa politicians who had known or alleged ties to the NSS: * Abdiqasim Salad Hassan TNG President of Somalia (2001–2004); asForeign politicians
Former Ethiopian president Meles Zenawi and Eritrean president Isayas Afewerki were also alleged to have had contacts with the NSS. IRIN news wrote, citing an unnamed former official of Somalia, that: "Meles knew Somalia very well, as he lived in Mogadishu when he was a liberation leader in the 1980s. Meles and Eritrean leader Isayas Afewerki “lived together in a villa behind Tawfiq Hotel, north Mogadishu, and were handled by the National Security Service, provided with travel documents and Somali passports, trained and given a Tigrayan radio frequency”, a former senior Somali government official told IRIN".Successor
In January 2013, the new Federal Government of Somalia established the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) in place of the defunct NSS. Mandated with assuring national security, NISA is headquartered in the capital Mogadishu.References
{{Reflist, 2 1970 establishments in Somalia 1990 disestablishments in Somalia Defunct intelligence agencies Government agencies established in 1970 Government agencies disestablished in 1990 Somali intelligence agencies Politics of Somalia Political organisations based in Somalia Secret police