Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell announced on May 15 several organizational changes to the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), which is part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Based on the recommendations of career Intelligence Community (IC) officers, the reforms will increase efficiency by avoiding duplication of effort, strengthen support to and burden-sharing with NCTC’s IC partners on counterterrorism issues, and enhance NCTC’s integration within the broader ODNI organization.
NCTC Acting Director Lora Shiao said the changes will allow NCTC to focus its mission to better address evolving national security needs.
“We are facing a time in our nation’s history where the threat picture is far broader than terrorism, and the IC needs to shift resources to address a wide range of complex, sophisticated adversaries,” said Shiao. “This reality does not alter the no-fail mission before us at NCTC, but it adds a driving impetus to be as smart and efficient as possible with our resources. In consultation with our entire NCTC senior leadership team, Executive Director Clare Linkins and I will be shifting some elements within NCTC to address previous studies and recommendations, and we will work in collaboration with our IC partners to best position NCTC and the wider CT community for the future.”
Highlights of the changes include:
- In the Directorate of Strategic Operational Planning (DSOP), which focuses on policy planning and mission management, streamlining coverage to better utilize support from Mission Performance, Analysis, and Collection in the Directorate of Mission Integration. DSOP will continue to drive the CT community forward as the lead implementer for the National Strategy for Counterterrorismsigned by the President in 2018 and will work across the CT enterprise to ensure that the mission is properly supported and aligned in a time of competing priorities.
- In the Directorate of Terrorist Identities (DTI), enhancing the Identities Intelligence mission with tactical resources previously located in the DI to focus on identity discovery, entity resolution, and vetting. DTI is a critical element of the CT Community’s border and security screening in support of the President’s Executive Order 13790 on protecting the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the U.S. andNational Security Presidential Memorandum 9on optimizing the use of the federal government in support of the National Vetting Enterprise.
- Aligning resources and eliminating certain redundancies on technical issues to better support NCTC’s IC partners by bringing together unique expertise on chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats from terrorist actors to provide unity of effort in analysis, mission management, and policy support.
- Across the ODNI enterprise, consolidating support and enabling functions in key areas to avoid duplication of effort, including shared services for strategic communications and legislative affairs under Strategy & Engagement, and talent development under the Chief Operating Officer in Talent Management.
- In collaboration with IC and law enforcement partners, building a surge-capable workforce to ensure NCTC is postured to address the increasingly diverse terrorist threat picture.
Source: ODNI
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