The National Security Branch (NSB) is a service within 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 ...
. The NSB is responsible for protecting the United States from
weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a Biological agent, biological, chemical weapon, chemical, Radiological weapon, radiological, nuclear weapon, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill or significantly harm many people or cause great dam ...
,
acts of terrorism, and
foreign intelligence operations and espionage. The NSB accomplishes its mission by investigating national security threats, providing information and analysis to other law enforcement agencies, and developing capabilities to keep the US nation secure.
Leadership
Headed by an FBI Executive Assistant Director, the NSB is responsible to the
FBI Director
The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a United States federal law enforcement agency, and is responsible for its day-to-day operations. The FBI director is appointed for a ...
through the
Deputy Director. As a unit of the FBI (which is a division of the
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...
), the NSB is ultimately responsible to the
Attorney General of the United States
The United States attorney general is the head of the United States Department of Justice and serves as the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government. The attorney general acts as the principal legal advisor to the president of the ...
. In addition, the critical role the NSB plays within the
United States Intelligence Community
The United States Intelligence Community (IC) is a group of separate US federal government, U.S. federal government intelligence agencies and subordinate organizations that work to conduct Intelligence assessment, intelligence activities which ...
places it within the purview of the
Director of National Intelligence
The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a Cabinet of the United States#Current Cabinet and Cabinet-rank officials, cabinet-level Federal government of the United States, United States government intelligence and security official. The p ...
.
Organization
The FBI created the National Security Branch (NSB) on September 12, 2005 in response to a presidential directive and as a result of the recommendations of the
Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission to establish a "National Security Service" that combines the missions, capabilities, and resources of the FBI's counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and intelligence elements under the leadership of a senior FBI official.
The NSB was formed by the unification of the FBI's various national security and intelligence gathering units:
[
* FBI Counterterrorism Division
* FBI Counterintelligence Division
* FBI Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate
* Terrorist Screening Center
* High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group
]
Future
It is speculated that this will lead to the formation of "career paths" for FBI Special Agent
In the United States, a special agent is an official title used to refer to certain investigators or detectives of federal, military, tribal, or state agencies who primarily serve in criminal investigatory positions. Additionally, some special ...
s; meaning that once a new agent has completed Special Agent Training at FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia
Quantico (; formerly Potomac) is a town in southeastern Prince William County, Virginia, United States. The population was 578 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Quantico is approximately 35 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., bound ...
, and has completed the mandatory probationary period, that he or she can choose to go into the National Security Branch, or go into the "Criminal" part of the Bureau and focus on crimes such as organized crime
Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...
, narcotics
The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "I make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...
, civil rights violations, fraud
In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...
, and violent crime
A violent crime, violent felony, crime of violence or crime of a violent nature is a crime in which an offender or perpetrator uses or threatens to use harmful Force (law), force upon a victim. This entails both crimes in which the violence, vio ...
. Advocates of this new program say that this re-organization will help the fight against terrorism by making it less bureaucratic.
See also
* United States Department of Justice National Security Division
The United States Department of Justice National Security Division (NSD) handles national security functions of the department. Created by the 2005 USA PATRIOT Act reauthorization, the division consolidated all of the department's national securi ...
References
*
*
External links
Federal Bureau of Investigation Website
National Security Branch Website
{{FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
United States intelligence agencies