ISA (Days of Our Lives)

The International Security Alliance (ISA) is a fictional spy agency on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. A highly secretive organization, its agents have been operating in the Midwestern town of Salem at least since the early 1980s.

Several of Salem's more recognizable citizens have served at one time or another as agents for the ISA, including Roman Brady, John Black, and Rafe Hernandez. Agents formerly on the show include Shane Donovan, Bo Brady, Steve Johnson, Billie Reed, and Philip Kiriakis.

The agency was conceived as a multinational crime-fighting task force, well-funded and highly secretive, with agents and operations all over the world. Made up of mostly British and American agents, the ISA's focus tends to be more toward crime-fighting than actual espionage. The agency specializes in the sort of high-level, international criminal conspiracies that center in the otherwise quiet town of Salem -- such as those controlled by the DiMera, Kiriakis, and Alamain families, as well as the "Phantom Alliance" established by John Black's father Timothy Robecheaux (aka Yo Ling). The multinational element is often illustrated by the fact that American agents refer to "headquarters" as being in Washington, D.C., while British agents such as the aforementioned Donovan typically report to London.

The show's writers present the ISA with a somewhat muddled (and unrealistic) mission--the criminal investigation mandate of Interpol or the FBI, combined with the methodology of the CIA or military "black ops". Some of the agency's methods come straight out of Robert Ludlum or Ian Fleming, including sophisticated gadgets, top-secret operations, and such questionable actions as kidnapping, blackmail, corruption, and assassination. The organization works fairly openly with local police, "undercover" agents readily identify themselves as ISA members, and they have legal arrest powers in their own right. The ISA also has several advanced scientific and medical facilities throughout the world, dealing with problems encountered by its agents such as brainwashing and biological warfare.

However effective it may be, the ISA appears to be highly susceptible to infiltration, counterespionage, and corruption by its targets. The agency also experiences both partnerships and conflicts with real-life agencies such as the FBI and the CIA.

ISA directors depicted on the show include chiefs Nickerson, Vaughn, Tarrington, and Van Damme. None of these officials have shied away from unsavory actions to meet their objectives, and most (except Tarrington) have proven to be outright corrupt, if not psychotic. In fact, the agency itself occasionally finds itself acting as badly (or worse) than its targets.