has status "stable".
).
| Group Type | Description | | Authority | In addition to the standard meaning, "Authority" and "Authoritative" are sometimes used on WikiSpooks not as an accolade, but to suggest distrust, reflecting the fact that 'the establishment' often seeks to bolster its power through specious claims of "authority". |
| Commercial | |
| Criminal | |
| Front | Front groups are intended to deceive the casual observer by carrying out actions without disclosing who instigated them. They include astroturf (fake 'grassroots' organisations) operated by legitimate companies as well as fronts operated by groups with more questionable legitimacy to provide plausible deniability to as criminal groups, governments or intelligence agencies. |
| Hit squad | Teams of assassins |
| Intelligence agency | The distinction between secret societies, intelligence agencies or international groups may be slightly moot on occasions. Many are officially allowed to commit serious crimes such as murder, and are subject to minimal effective oversight anyway. |
| International | International groups. |
| Military | Military groups, generally hierarchical in nature, often controlled by nation states, are organisations that specialise in using violence to achieve political ends of their masters. |
| Regulator | Government agencies tasked with trying to make markets work in the public interest by e.g. protecting the environment, preventing fraud etc. Often (especially in US) these are subjects of "regulatory capture" whereby they are effectively controlled by the exact same commercial groups they are nominally in charge of regulating. |
| Secret society | Nothing to see here. Move along! |
| Think tank | |
Academi
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Martin Luther King/Assassination/Perpetrators
Interpen
US/Police
Central Washington University
+
+
