ISB vs Imperial Intelligence What's the Difference?

We take a look at the difference between the Galactic Empire's two main intelligence agencies, the ISB and the Imperial Military Intelligence.

Follow our Host
ALLEN XIE
INSTAGRAM AXIEFILMS
TIKTOK AXIEFILMS

[roger]

Random, but I just love the fact that Admiral Yularen as an ISB officer was technically in ANH; since, in Rebels, they designed him to look exactly like that Imperial ISB officer that was sitting with the other Imperial officials and Vader in that meeting held on the Death Star.

[mpalfadel]

Easy
Imperial Intelligence is a apolitical, professional organization
ISB, the Imperial Security Bureau, is a political organization that also dabbles in intelligence gathering, etc… as well as focusing politics, culture, youth organizing, and ‘Party’ politics

[penguinsrockrgryt]

The fact the empire had restrictions on the core worlds with who could own weapons implies the existence of an imperial version of the ATF which implies the existence of the Star Wars prohibition era

[GlamorousTitanic]

The difference was similar to the difference between Wehrmacht intelligence service; the Abwehr, and the Waffen SS. One was the intelligence branch for the main military command structure, while the other worked at the behest of the Nazi Party and answered only to Hitler, while being composed of people super loyal to the regime.

[josephmariani]

Did anybody else notice how Allen said Purpose, seems pretty dolphin to me.

[dont-rump]

I know this is a Star Wars video but given the opening part just thought it’s important to note the US/CIA/FBI/other intelligence agencies are also politically driven especially ones like the CIA that work internationally. There’s that old cliche of it being “Capitalism’s Invisible Army” for precisely those ideological reasons.

[patrickstewart]

And this STILL doesn’t scratch the surface of Imperial Intelligence. All those divisions have subdivisions under them (this is probably why some think there are smaller agencies in the Empire). Though in practice, the only one who aren’t office workers are the Operations agents. If you meet someone from II, they are almost certainly in Operations. If they kill you, they are a part of the Assassination office. If he’s a double agent, that’s Infiltration. And if, suddenly, the commander of a Rebel garrison suddenly turns on the government of the Rebel colony and begins rounding up people for a purge, congratulations! You’ve just been visited by Destabilization (Destab), the department that makes even Assassination queasy.

[Wedgekree]

If anyone's interested in the 'original' establishment of the lore for these grous in the EU, look up the old West End Games Imperial Sourcebooks. They came out in the 80's and 90's and helped developed a lot of the things in the EU for how the Imperial military worked. A very fun read and extremely well written and they set a lot of the foundational blocks for how things worked.

[basher]

Another important distinction is the general attitude toward the Rebellion. To the II and Imperial Military generally, the rebels were enemies. Yes, you fight your enemies, but you can respect, and even in some ways admire them. To the ISB, the rebels were effectively heretics. They had seen the "truth" according to Compnor and rejected it. You don't respect heretics; you most certainly don't admire them. You simply destest them, as they are no more worthy of respect or mercy than a bug or a discarded food wrapper. You either dispose of it or recycle it into something useful via the Reeducation Corps.

[casbot]

0:34 _"what their Porpoise's were" …_
The mask is slipping.

[augiegirl]

The ISB sounds like the Romulan Tal Shiar from Star Trek. “Face of the Enemy” (TNG Season 6, Episode 14) clearly portrays the hatred that the Romulan military feels toward the Tal Shiar.

[AR-iofv]

Thank you for being one of my few regular rotation SW creators that loves Andor! I love it too and can’t get enough of it.

[isaackim]

TK-532, “Do you care if it falls?”
TK-226, “What?”
TK-532, “The Galactic Empire?”
TK-226 reveals as ISB, “Gotcha you traitor!”

[apacheattackhelicopter]

2:14 bruh ussr got Batman working for them

[Superkai]

I like how you make real word connections in your videos. It provides comparisons and further depth into the subject. Great work!

[KS-slji]

I like how you drew the comparisons of the Empire’s Intelligence agencies with real world ones like the KGB, GRU, SS, CIA and others. The history nerd in me enjoyed this. 👏🏽
I’m subscribing to you

[toportime]

This is my favorite channel for SW info because you don't needlessly repeat things just to pad your video length like some others do. Thank you for that.

[Rikki]

Shouldn't that be only two KNOWN intelligence services? I'd imagine something the size of this empire would have quite a few nefarious sercret organisations.

[Team_BaM]

0:34 "....explain what their porpoises were..."
Alan would never make a flub like that... (gasp) The dolphins must have him!

[Kubinda]

The GRU/KGB comparison is a very good one.