FBI and terrorism
The fight against terrorism is the first and primary duty of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). The FBI is the central law enforcement and domestic intelligence unit; the responsibilities of this security agency have significantly increased in recent years, especially after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. The primary goal of the Justice Department is to deter terrorism from taking place; that is reflected in how the FBI allocates resources to its employees who are around 35,000. The FBI had approximately 12,000 employees who were only focused on counterintelligence and counterterrorism, and about 7,000 who were solely focused on collecting intelligence information. Additionally, the FBI deals with other national security issues such as violation of civil rights, corruption in the public sector, white-collar crimes, and organized crime. The FBI has significantly grown without the legislative charter. Its mandate has been considerably shaped by directives from the executive arm of the government, piecemeal legislation, and prerogative from its leaders, which have sometimes led to lawsuits because of overstretching its responsibilities. The paper in this stance seeks to discuss the role of the FBI in fighting terrorism in the United States and globally.
Tracking of terrorists and terrorism operations
The United States believes it is in a constant war with an international terrorist organization powered by a radical ideology of murder, oppression, and hatred. The country’s strategy of fighting terrorism that as first penned down in 2003 recognizes that the United States is at war to protect its people, their livelihoods, and its homeland (Meloy, 2018). The United States holds that war on terror is unique because it involves the battle of ideas and battle of arms. The U.S battles terrorists on the battlefield to promote human dignity and freedom to depose the vision of terrorists that revolve around totalitarian rule and oppression (Meloy, 2018). The paradigm of combating terror is spearheaded by the FBI which provides intelligence services by applying the national influence and power. The United States does not limit itself to the use of military power after collection of intelligence information, but it works through law enforcement, intelligence, financial, and diplomatic activities to protect its homeland and defenses, to break down the chain of terrorist activities and hamper its enemies of what they needs to succeed (Meloy, 2018). The FBI has helped the United States to break down the old orthodoxies that once limited the war on terror to the criminal justice system. The updated strategy which is steered by the FBI sets the United States on the course to win the war on terrorism. The approach was developed from the National Security Strategy that was developed in 2006 and also the February 2003 National Strategy for Combating terrorism that helps in increasing the understanding of the enemy (Meloy, 2018). From the start, the understanding was that the battle on the terror does not only entail searching, and bringing to justice the people who planned and executed the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. The strategy has been to find and destroy the operations of the Al-Qaeda fighters and destroying the radical ideology that inspire other people to join the insurgents or to promote the activities of the movement. Since the September 11 terror attack, the U.S through the FBI has made tremendous progress in destroying the Al-Qaeda networks, capturing and killing key leaders of the group, destroying the existing line of support (Meloy, 2018).
However, the situation has not been that easy as the terrorists have responded by adjusting on how they execute their malicious activities. This has been compelling the FBI to refine its methods as it innovates others to counter the evolving threat. The FBI helps the United States in facing global terror networks and confronts the radical ideologies used by the terrorist fighters to justify the application of violence against innocent people by hiding behind religion (Meloy, 2018). The U.S is doing that by employing different approaches that are involved by the investigations carried out by the FBI. First, the U.S is promoting the advancement of democracy as the long term solution to the antidote of countering terrorism ideologies. Secondly, it is working hard to prevent terror attacks instigated by terrorist groups. Third, break the support given to terror groups by some rogue state operatives. Fourth, destroy the control of terror groups on any country. This is important because it cuts the terror groups from the base from which they launch their attacks. Lastly, the FBI helps the United States in laying the foundations and establishes the structures that re needed in carrying out the war against terror and ensure that success is realized (Meloy, 2018).
The FBI and air control
The FBI is intelligence-driven to avert threats emanating from terrorists. All FBI professionals understand the need to prevent threats facing the United thus making them work more hard to remain efficient and effective. The FBI is compelled to constantly evolve and innovate in fighting terror because the terrorist are continuously evolving in executing their terror activities (Chhaya et al., 2018). The FBI understands that the terrorists are always focused on hurting the people and the economy and thus have no choice, but to forever stay awake to fight this problem. The complexity of terrorism makes the FBI closely work with the transport sector to reduce vulnerability of the transport system to terror attacks (Chhaya et al., 2018).
The FBI’s counter terrorism division’s (CTD) Civil Aviation Security Program (CASP) is widely engaged in uncovering and preventing the operations of terrorists from attacking the aviation sector of the United States. The
FBI has task force officers and special agents working as airport liaison Agents (ALAS) at airports in the United States (Chhaya et al., 2018). This is important as it will help in quick response to the threats facing the aviation industry in the country. Further, the FBI presence in all airports is meant to interact with private sector stakeholders based in the airports around the United States to help in exercising threat mitigation of threats and other risks to secure the people traveling on air (Chhaya et al., 2018).
The ALA and CASP programs were launched in 1990 to formalize the FBI’s liaison, intelligence, and investigative roles at the country’s airports. CASP based in the FBI’s at the National Joint Terrorism Task force with the objective of enhancing and supporting the commitment to defeat, disrupt, and prevent acts of terrorism that target civil aviation and foster preparedness against terrorism and assist the local, state, and federal agencies responsible for protecting the aviation industry of the United States. One of the central duties of CAST is to offer program management and support ALAs (Chhaya et al., 2018).
FBI intelligence production and liaison
The objective of the intelligence program is to efficiently situate the FBI to meet emerging and current national security and criminal threats by doing the following: first, provision of timely, appropriate, and useful information and analysis to the law enforcement, homeland security, and national security agencies. Secondly, the FBI builds sustaining intelligence policies and technical and human services across all enterprises. Lastly, the FBI aims at core investigation duties in a proactive manner to avert all threats against the United States and its interests (Walker, 2018). The core principles that guide the FBI’s intelligence program include the following:
First, independent requirements and collection management: the collection, analysis, and reporting of the intelligence information is done both at the headquarters and at the field. The intelligence office manages the requirements and the process of collecting intelligence information (Walker, 2018). This ensures that the FBI remains focused on collection of intelligence data and helps in filling key gaps on the information at its disposal. Secondly, centralized management and distributed execution. The strength of the FBI lies on its 600 field offices, over 400 resident agencies, and fifty-six attaché offices that are located across the world (Walker, 2018). The intelligence offices are strictly focused on providing these entities with adequate guidance to champion the gathering of intelligence with efficiency; the field operations cannot be micro-managed as the officials are required to carry out information without much problems. Thirdly, the FBI is concerned with focused strategic analysis. The intelligence office formulates strategic analysis goals and ensures that they are executed both at the field and the headquarters. This is realized by daily production meetings. Finally, the intelligence program is engaged in integrating of analysis and operations. The best way to realize this is to have information collectors and analyst working together in integrated operations (Walker, 2018).
Terrorism screening center (TSC)
The United States government created the terrorism screening center in 2003. This was necessitated by the September 11, 2001 terror attack that killed nearly 3000 Americans. The terrorist screening center is a body that serves security agencies, but is working under the FBI. The screening center has a duty of managing and operating the terrorist screening database which is often known as “the watchlist.”
The watchlist represents a single database that stores sensitive national security and law enforcement data regarding the identity of people suspected to be engaged in terrorism (Bjelopera, Elias & Siskin, 2016). The TSC activities is support by a watchlist that supports the operations of frontline screening agencies in positively identifying suspected or known terrorists who attempt to obtain Visas, board aircraft and enter the United States or engage in other activities. The TSC plays a vital role in helping the United States government in fighting terror by revealing the early warning signs and respond quickly before damage occurs (Bjelopera, Elias & Siskin, 2016).
Conclusion
The paper sought to discuss the role of FBI in fighting terrorism in the United States and all parts of the world. The several functions of the FBI has been highlighted in realizing this objective in this paper. The FBI is active in air control, tracking and monitoring the activities of the terrorists, air control in the United States aviation, production of intelligence information and liaison, and screening of terrorists.