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Wait a minute. Intelligence agencies _are not_ law enforcement. This is a common misconception. Intelligence agencies do not engage in law enforcement, even though in some nation-states police have access to some intelligence agency information.

My bet is they didn't really consider Anonymous a threat, but just experimented to see how much effort it is to clobber them if need should arise at some point in the future.

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You're right about them not being law enforcement(See https://www.mi5.gov.uk/home/about-us/faqs-about-mi5/is-mi5-t... for example) but the level of collaboration between them is very close.

In most nations, intelligence agencies _are_ law enforcement.

The delineation between military intel and law enforcement is very much an Anglo thing.

Here in Germany, police and intelligence agencies are separated more clearly than in most other states[1]. The anglosphere tends to be rather sloppy with these things.

[1] http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=n&prev=...

I wasn't aware that the Germans had such a history of separation. That's awesome! :)

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