The Counterterrorism Division (CTD) is a division of the National Security Branch of the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

. CTD investigates

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

threats inside the United States, provides information on terrorists outside the country, and tracks known terrorists worldwide. In the wake of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

in 2001, CTD's funding and manpower have significantly increased. The Division employs counterterrorism field operations organized into squads, the number of which varies according to the amount and diversity of activity in the local field office's jurisdiction. Larger field offices, such as

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, maintain counterterrorism squads for each major terrorist group, as well as for domestic terrorism and terrorist financing, while smaller field offices combined such responsibilities across two to three squads.

Leadership

The Counterterrorism Division is headed by an assistant director, who reports to the executive assistant director of the FBI National Security Branch.

Organization

The Counterterrorism Division has several branches: * Intelligence Branch * Operations Branch I * Operations Branch II * Operations Branch III * Analytical Branch * Operational Support Branch Operations Branch I is composed of two sections: International Terrorism Operations Section I (ITOS-I) and International Terrorism Operations Section II (ITOS-II). The ITOS-I covers

al Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

terrorist activity on a regional basis in the United States and abroad. ITOS-II focuses on four non-al Qaeda groups:

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

rejectionist groups,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

, and other global terrorist groups. ITOS II has a

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

officer serving as Deputy Section Chief, and an FBI agent is detailed to the CIA's Counterterrorism Center as that unit's Deputy Director. Operations Branch II includes three more disparate sections: the Domestic Terrorism Operations Section (DTOS), Exploitation Threat Section (XTS), and Terrorist Financing Operations Section (TFOS). ** The DTOS mission is overseeing and providing operational support to FBI domestic terrorism investigations nationwide. ** The TFOS is an operational and coordinating entity. It directs

terrorism financing Terrorism financing is the provision of funds or providing financial support to individual terrorists or non-state actors. Most countries have implemented measures to counter terrorism financing (CTF) often as part of their money laundering law ...

investigations and works jointly with partners to block and freeze assets. However, its primary role is to coordinate and support the financial components of terrorism investigations conducted by ITOS I and II. The TFOS mission is to identify, investigate, prosecute, disrupt, and incrementally dismantle all terrorist-related financial and fund-raising activities. The section is composed of four units: *** Radical Fundamentalist Financial Investigative Unit *** Domestic WMD and Global Financial Investigations Unit *** Global Extremist Financial Investigations Unit *** Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit. The Analytical Branch includes two sections: the Counterterrorism Analysis Section (which supports Operations I and II) and the Terrorism Reports and Requirements Section (TRRS). The Branch also includes a Strategic Assessment and Analysis Unit, Production and Publications Unit. The Operational Support Branch manages the CTD's administrative and resource functions, FBI detailees to other agencies, and the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force. The various local Joint Terrorism Task Forces falls under the domain of this branch.

Notable former members

* Mark F. Giuliano, former assistant director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division, former 15th

Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation The deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (formerly known as the associate director) is a senior Federal government of the United States, United States government position in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The office is se ...

* Andrew McCabe (born 1968), former agent in the FBI Counterterrorism Division, former acting Director of the FBI * Max Wise (born 1975), former agent in the FBI Counterterrorism Division, serving as a member of the Kentucky Senate

References

External links

Federal Bureau of Investigation Website

National Security Branch Website
*
FBI Terrorism Website
{{FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation Non-military counterterrorist organizations

Leadership

Organization

Notable former members

See also

References

External links