the United States, the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) was created and the Intelligence Community (IC) was reorganized and restructured in order to better serve the country, protecting the United States from terrorist attacks (Office of the Director of National Intelligence, n.d.).

Post 9/11 in the United States, the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) was created and the Intelligence Community (IC) was reorganized and restructured in order to better serve the country, protecting the United States from terrorist attacks (Office of the Director of National Intelligence, n.d.). The “NCTC leads US IC efforts to optimize CT community performance and capabilities, and advocates on behalf of the CT community to ensure the US IC is postured to support national strategy and policy objectives.” (Office of the Director of National Intelligence, n.d.).

The IC is made up of sixteen organizations (UMGC, 2020):

Central Intelligence Agency
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Department of Defense Intelligence Agency
National Security Agency
National Geospatial Intelligence Agency
National Reconnaissance Office
Air Force Intelligence
Marine Corp Intelligence
Army Intelligence
Naval Intelligence
Department of State
Department of Energy
Department of the Treasury
United States Coast Guard
Department of Homeland Security
Drug Enforcement Administration
These various intelligence agencies are used to identify links to determine potential and active terrorist cells, both domestic and on foreign soil. Help determine terrorist organizations numbers, potential future members, who/what/why they are targeting and the means of which the attacks will occur. Then the targeting cycle to eliminate or neutralize said terrorist cells are all something that the intelligence community does to counter terrorism for the safety of the United States.

In the United States, law enforcement agencies are utilized in collaboration with the execution phase for many intelligence agencies efforts when it comes to countering terrorism. Law enforcement are being used to combat terrorism domestically to help eliminate the enemy’s ability to threaten the United States (Trump, 2018). They bring a certain aspect to the fight as many law enforcement officials know the locals they protect and are able to bring more pieces of the puzzle together when trying to fight terrorism.