The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 was issued in response to the September 11 attacks. It reformed our nation’s intelligence enterprise, with a focus on terrorism, and created a government organization called the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC). NCTC was created from a post-9/11 world when the U.S. reorganized and restructured the IC to protect our nation from adversaries and terrorist attacks.
NCTC – A Counterterrorism Leader
NCTC leads and integrates counterterrorism efforts by fusing foreign and domestic information, providing terrorism analysis, sharing information with partners across the counterterrorism enterprise, and action to secure national objectives.
NCTC is a coordinating voice that unifies counterterrorism intelligence for the homeland and abroad, aligned under ODNI. They have four primary directorates—Directorate of Intelligence, Directorate of Terrorist Identities, Directorate of Operations Support, and Directorate of Strategic Operational Planning. These offices provide critical functions that include intelligence management and acquisition of innovative data.
NCTC leads the way for the government in terms of analyzing, understanding, and responding to terrorist threats to US interests at home and abroad.
NCTC Provides Key Mission Support
Like other intelligence shops, NCTC produces integrated and interagency-coordinated analytic assessments on terrorism issues and publishes warnings, alerts, and advisories as appropriate, while maintaining the national repository of known and suspected terrorists to share during joint operations efforts. NCTC performs five key missions in support of U.S. counterterrorism efforts. including threat analysis, identity management, information sharing, strategic operational planning, and national intelligence management.
Opportunities for Both Civilian and Contractors at NCTC
If you’re an Army 35F looking for your first intelligence career in the civilian sector, NCTC has permanent and rotational opportunities including cadre officers, whose long-term professional home is with NCTC, and detailees who are assigned here for multi-year rotations from 20 different federal agencies. Their workforce also includes a critically important population of contractors, whose essential contributions can be found across every mission area.
NCTC is always seeking candidates with backgrounds in foreign languages, area studies, international relations, and many other areas of expertise. If you’re interested in improving the integration and analysis of terrorism intelligence collected by other agencies or drawing on intelligence and analysis expertise from other agencies, here is where your next career lies.
