After the defeat of Galactic Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader at the Battle of Endor the Alliance to Restore the Republic, reorganized as the Alliance of Free Planets, began preparations to become as the New Republic and take Coruscant from the Galactic Empire, thereby establishing their legitimacy. The Empire began a HoloNet propaganda campaign under the Prophet of the Dark Side Lord Cronal, going so far as to claim Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker as a hero of the Empire. To counter the Imperial propaganda fears of autocratic leadership, Chief of State Mon Mothma had Alliance Intelligence reorganize as the Senate Planetary Intelligence Network, or SPIN. Though a true "Senate" did not yet exist at that time, leadership of the new intelligence agency was given to the New Republic Provisional Council which included Mon Mothma and Admiral Gial Ackbar. The heavy handed Alliance Special Operations units where phased out though Generals Airen Cracken and Crix Madine continued various SpecOp missions which they reported to the SPIN leadership and council admiral Hiram Drayson.
SPIN was headquartered on the New Republic's temporary capital on Yavin 4 in the refurbished Palace of the Woolamander where the Provisional Council met. They also built the Defense Research and Planetary Assistance Center (DRPAC) at Mount Yoda on the planet Dagobah. Both locations however had major security flaws that would later cause serious issues. Although said to be an analysis and infiltration network utilizing stellar agents such as Kea Moll, Mirith Sinn, and Kyle Katarn, SPIN also formed the Rapid Response Team to deal with covert missions. Composed of Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa Solo, Lando Calrissian, and Han Solo, the team had a major flaw in that all the operatives were extremely well-known. SPIN's existence would be defined by the short rule of Trioculus as Emperor and his search for the Lost City of the Jedi. When Trioculus bombarded Yavin 4 in search of the Lost City, SPIN relocated to DRPAC on Dagobah.
Even at DRPAC though the agency was confounded by security flaws and intelligence leaks. It was these issues and the ineffectiveness of SPIN that brought about Mothma's formation, unknown to her fellow councilors, of a second, ultra-secret intelligence network known as Alpha Blue, formed from Airen Cracken's "Shadow Operations". Additionally, Mothma began working behind the scenes with General Cracken in forming the New Republic Intelligence Service (NRI). SPIN had become largely powerless by the end of the Milagro campaign, and by the time the New Republic captured Coruscant, it had become little more than an outpost guarding the secrets of the Lost City of the Jedi. The organization was disbanded and its resources turned over to the NRI. SPIN's short existence was generally viewed as a complete intelligence failure or at the very least a very naïve attempt. However the agency did provide a useful testbed for the formation of the NRI and did, in its own way, conduct an effective campaign against Emperor Trioculus that kept him off balance and thereby giving other New Republic forces more freedom to act.
- The Essential Guide to Characters
- The Essential Chronology
- Power of the Jedi Sourcebook
- The New Essential Chronology
- The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia