Counter Terrorism CIA

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Running head: COUNTERTERRORISM Counter Terrorism & the CIA By: Charles Brown CTU APA Format Instructor: Robert Uda 10/25/2013 Historically the FBI has been responsible for counterterrorism in the United States. It was during the Cold War that other agencies in the Intelligence Community became actively involved in domestic terrorism. Most notably the CIA took the forefront in counterterrorism/ counterespionage. After 9/11 military forces had FBI agents embedded with them in overseas operations. This served a twofold purpose for the FBI. Frist; it allowed for a more direct transfer of intelligence from the military to the FBI to aid in domestic investigations. Second; was to establish a chain of custody for the…show more content…
The CIA will still contribute to the counterterrorism effort by reporting information to the FBI as they come across it and I am sure they will provide their expertise in overseas operations. What authorizes an agency to engage in domestic investigations involved in overseas contingencies is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). FISA, as it is now, outlines procedures for the authorization of electronic surveillance, use of pen registers, trap and trace devices, physical searches, and business records for gathering foreign intelligence. With these procedures comes a court just for this cause; the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Court (FISC). In order to conduct surveillance on foreign agents and lone wolf (a non-United States individual involved in international terrorism) the Department of Justice must get a warrant authorized by FISC. When the target is a U.S. person or U.S. Corporation there are more stringent requirements. When involving a foreign agent or lone wolf, agents must show probable cause that the target is one of the aforementioned, surveillance is for the purpose of obtaining foreign intelligence, and that appropriate minimization procedures are in place. An agent does not need to show that a crime is imminent. The definition of foreign agent includes agents of political…show more content…
Right now the Department of Homeland Security is not set up to combat this type of uncoordinated threat. There is a federal financial allotment of billions of dollars annually for counterterrorism based on the 9/11 model of high-stakes, high profile attacks. While another 9/11 is unlikely at this point, it would not do any good to dismiss the possibility and focus solely on the new problem. Both types of threats must be addressed. Redirect some of the funds to better training of local law enforcement, information is key to thwarting both types of threats and hotlines are available but not advertised that greatly and they need to be, propaganda that promotes American values, society, and community is important in unifying the American people and our culture against extremism. America is like a quilt and each patch is representative of a different subculture, while diversity is a good thing it can also work against us if we cannot unify ourselves against a common threat. . An untapped resource is the basic security guard, they are virtually everywhere, they are already paid to observe and report, and with a few federal guidelines they can be required to get more training in situational profiling, identifying fake identifications, or at the very least circulate

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