Khadamat-e Aetla'at-e Dawlati (Pashto/Persian 'خدمات اطلاعات دولتی') translates directly to English as: "State Intelligence Agency". However, this phrase is more precisely translated as "State Information Services". Khadamat-e Aetela'at-e Dawlati, almost always known by its acronym KHAD (or KhAD), is the main security agency and intelligence agency of Afghanistan, and also served as the secret police during the Soviet occupation. The successor to AGSA (Department for Safeguarding the Interests of Afghanistan) and KAM, KHAD was nominally part of the Afghan state, but it was firmly under the control of the Soviet KGB until ****. In January 1986 its status was upgraded and it was thereafter officially known as the "Ministry of State Security" (Wizarat-i Amaniyyat-i Dawlati, or WAD).