CIA transnational anti-terrorism
activities
This article deals with activities of the U.S.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) related to
terrorism. Especially after the CIA lost its co-
ordinating role over the entire Intelligence
Community (IC), it is impossible to under-
stand US counterterrorism by looking at the
CIA alone. Coordinating structures have been
created by each president to fit his adminis-
trative style and the perceived level of threat.
The US has a different counterterrorist
structure than other close allies, such as Aus-
tralia, Canada, France, and the United King-
dom. Each has a structure that fits its partic-
ular legal system and culture; there is no
ideal solution. A continuing issue is whether
there needs to be a domestic intelligence ser-
vice separate from the FBI, which has had
difficulty in breaking away from its law en-
forcement roots and cooperating with other
intelligence services[1].
The National Counterterrorism Center
(NCTC)[2] is no longer in the CIA proper, but
is in the Office of the Director of National In-
telligence (ODNI). NCTC, however, contains
personnel from the CIA, Federal Bureau of
Investigations (FBI) of the Department of
Justice, and other members of the IC. A coun-
terterrorism center did exist in the CIA be-
fore the NCTC was established.
Given the restrictions of the National Se-
curity Act of 1947, which created the CIA but
strictly forbade it from having any domestic
police authority, the role of the CIA still has
multiple dimensions. The National Clandes-
tine Service (NCS) of the CIA can infiltrate or
otherwise
gain
human
intelligence
(HUMINT) from terrorist organizations, their
supporters, or from friendly foreign intelli-
gence services (FIS). The NCS has a covert
operations capability that, possibly in com-
bination with military units from the United
States
Special
Operations
Command
(USSOCOM), may take direct action against
terrorist groups outside the United States.
Above all, the key CIA counterterror part-
ner is the FBI, which has the domestic oper