The NID is a shadowy intelligence agency that appears throughout the run of Stargate SG-1, but also in the Stargate Atlantis episodes "Critical Mass", "Miller's Crossing" and "Outcast". Its official mandate is to provide vital civilian oversight of top secret military operations, but one of their unofficial primary goals is to procure alien technologies. The producers initially wanted to call the organization NRD for "No Real Department", but its sound and affinity to Joseph Mallozzi, Paul Mullie and Don S. Davis convinced them to rename it to "NID" instead. Although the acronym still stands for nothing in particular, the Stargate SG-1 Roleplaying Game says it stands for National Intelligence Department. The NID is made up of federal agents like Malcolm Barrett, bureaucrats like Richard Woolsey, and military personnel such as Colonels Simmons and Harry Maybourne. A set of well-resourced illegal cells named the Rogue NID uses unscrupulous methods to achieve the goals of the official NID and is later replaced by the Trust. With the creation of the IOA, the NID becomes a more legitimate organization, working for the security of the Stargate program and aiding the SGC.
Throughout the run of Stargate SG-1, the work of the Rogue NID is associated with Colonel Harry Maybourne. The group initially uses the second Stargate unearthed in "Solitudes", and later bases their operations off-world or in disused warehouses throughout the Earth. The rogue elements justify their unscrupulous methods as defense from the Goa'uld attack on Earth regardless of considerations like inter-planetary diplomacy, criticising the diplomatic contacts and negotiations of the SGC as too slow. The leading shadow group of the rogue NID, "The Committee", are made up of various individual businessmen, politicians and corporations who wish to exploit alien technology for financial gain. The more prominent members of the rogue NID are later revealed to be Senator Robert Kinsey and Colonel Frank Simmons. The SGC puts an end to the rogue NID in "Smoke and Mirrors" after arresting and imprisoning the majority of its upper echelon.
The Trust is a shady interplanetary terrorist group composed of rogue ex-NID operatives and the international business and political cabal which funds them. The Trust is more radical in their methods and objectives than the Rogue NID, coming into direct conflict with the SGC and the U.S. Air Force several times. When the producers came up with story ideas for this group, they found that Alias had used all the names they could think of. It was not until several weeks after they had decided on the name "Trust" that they found out that Alias had used that name as well. Faced with the choice to either go with the Trust or with what Joseph Mallozzi called "The Former Rogue Elements of the N.I.D. Now Working for Private Interests Bent on Global Domination", they chose the first option.
After Vice President Kinsey still shows his strong ties to the rogue ex-NID agents in season 7's "Inauguration" and is subsequently forced into resigning, the SGC learns the name "the Trust" in season 8's "Covenant". The Trust use a Goa'uld ship in "Endgame" to launch an all-out attack on the Goa'uld with symbiote poison, without regard to Jaffa or Tok'ra life. Season 8's "Full Alert" reveals that the Goa'uld have successfully infiltrated and captured some of Trust members, providing an immediate power base for the Goa'uld; Ba'al has taken control of the Trust by "Ex Deus Machina". The Trust last appears in Stargate SG-1 in season 10's "Memento Mori", capturing Vala to find an infinite treasure, but they also appear in the Stargate Atlantis season 2 episode "Critical Mass", planting an explosive device in the City of Atlantis.
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