Title 50, War and National DefenseRelease 119-110
§3056 National Counterterrorism Center
Title 50 › CHAPTER 44 — NATIONAL SECURITY › SUBCHAPTER I — COORDINATION FOR NATIONAL SECURITY › § 3056
Summary
Creates a National Counterterrorism Center inside the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The Center is led by a Director chosen by the President and approved by the Senate, and that person cannot hold any other executive-branch job at the same time. The Director reports to the Director of National Intelligence about the Center’s budget, its intelligence analysis unit, and intelligence operations run by other agencies, and reports to the President about planning and progress of joint counterterrorism operations (not intelligence operations). The Center’s main jobs are to collect and combine U.S. government intelligence on terrorism (except intelligence that is only about domestic terrorists), make strategic plans that use diplomacy, finance, military, intelligence, homeland security, and law enforcement tools, and assign lead agencies for parts of those plans without running the operations. The Center must make sure agencies get the intelligence and support they need and keep a central catalog of known and suspected terrorists and groups. It may receive domestic counterterrorism information when allowed by law and can share information with agencies that need it. The Director must advise the Director of National Intelligence, prepare civilian and military counterterrorism plans, review agencies’ budgets against presidential priorities, share threat information with top officials and Congress, help coordinate information sharing with state, local, and foreign partners as allowed, develop travel-intercept strategies, lead threat assessments, and set collection needs. The Director cannot order the actual carrying out of operations. The Director of National Intelligence settles disputes about roles or plans, and those decisions can be appealed to the President. The Center must include an intelligence analysis division and a strategic planning division that writes plans, assigns tasks, and monitors progress.
Full Legal Text
Title 50, §3056
War and National Defense, Source: USLM XML via OLRC
(a)Establishment of Center
There is within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence a National Counterterrorism Center.
(b)Director of National Counterterrorism Center
(1)There is a Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, who shall be the head of the National Counterterrorism Center, and who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.
(2)The Director of the National Counterterrorism Center may not simultaneously serve in any other capacity in the executive branch.
(c)Reporting
(1)The Director of the National Counterterrorism Center shall report to the Director of National Intelligence with respect to matters described in paragraph (2) and the President with respect to matters described in paragraph (3).
(2)The matters described in this paragraph are as follows:
(A)The budget and programs of the National Counterterrorism Center.
(B)The activities of the Directorate of Intelligence of the National Counterterrorism Center under subsection (i).
(C)The conduct of intelligence operations implemented by other elements of the intelligence community; and
(3)The matters described in this paragraph are the planning and progress of joint counterterrorism operations (other than intelligence operations).
(d)Primary missions
The primary missions of the National Counterterrorism Center shall be as follows:
(1)To serve as the primary organization in the United States Government for analyzing and integrating all intelligence possessed or acquired by the United States Government pertaining to terrorism and counterterrorism, excepting intelligence pertaining exclusively to domestic terrorists and domestic counterterrorism.
(2)To conduct strategic operational planning for counterterrorism activities, integrating all instruments of national power, including diplomatic, financial, military, intelligence, homeland security, and law enforcement activities within and among agencies.
(3)To assign roles and responsibilities as part of its strategic operational planning duties to lead Departments or agencies, as appropriate, for counterterrorism activities that are consistent with applicable law and that support counterterrorism strategic operational plans, but shall not direct the execution of any resulting operations.
(4)To ensure that agencies, as appropriate, have access to and receive all-source intelligence support needed to execute their counterterrorism plans or perform independent, alternative analysis.
(5)To ensure that such agencies have access to and receive intelligence needed to accomplish their assigned activities.
(6)To serve as the central and shared knowledge bank on known and suspected terrorists and international terror groups, as well as their goals, strategies, capabilities, and networks of contacts and support.
(e)Domestic counterterrorism intelligence
(1)The Center may, consistent with applicable law, the direction of the President, and the guidelines referred to in section 3024(b) of this title, receive intelligence pertaining exclusively to domestic counterterrorism from any Federal, State, or local government or other source necessary to fulfill its responsibilities and retain and disseminate such intelligence.
(2)Any agency authorized to conduct counterterrorism activities may request information from the Center to assist it in its responsibilities, consistent with applicable law and the guidelines referred to in section 3024(b) of this title.
(f)Duties and responsibilities of Director (g) Limitation
(1)The Director of the National Counterterrorism Center shall—
(A)serve as the principal adviser to the Director of National Intelligence on intelligence operations relating to counterterrorism;
(B)provide strategic operational plans for the civilian and military counterterrorism efforts of the United States Government and for the effective integration of counterterrorism intelligence and operations across agency boundaries, both inside and outside the United States;
(C)advise the Director of National Intelligence on the extent to which the counterterrorism program recommendations and budget proposals of the departments, agencies, and elements of the United States Government conform to the priorities established by the President;
(D)disseminate terrorism information, including current terrorism threat analysis, to the President, the Vice President, the Secretaries of State, Defense, and Homeland Security, the Attorney General, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and other officials of the executive branch as appropriate, and to the appropriate committees of Congress;
(E)support the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, and other appropriate agencies, in fulfillment of their responsibilities to disseminate terrorism information, consistent with applicable law, guidelines referred to in section 3024(b) of this title, Executive orders and other Presidential guidance, to State and local government officials, and other entities, and coordinate dissemination of terrorism information to foreign governments as approved by the Director of National Intelligence;
(F)develop a strategy for combining terrorist travel intelligence operations and law enforcement planning and operations into a cohesive effort to intercept terrorists, find terrorist travel facilitators, and constrain terrorist mobility;
(G)have primary responsibility within the United States Government for conducting net assessments of terrorist threats;
(H)consistent with priorities approved by the President, assist the Director of National Intelligence in establishing requirements for the intelligence community for the collection of terrorism information; and
(I)perform such other duties as the Director of National Intelligence may prescribe or are prescribed by law.
(2)Nothing in paragraph (1)(G) shall limit the authority of the departments and agencies of the United States to conduct net assessments.
(h)Resolution of disputes
The Director of National Intelligence shall resolve disagreements between the National Counterterrorism Center and the head of a department, agency, or element of the United States Government on designations, assignments, plans, or responsibilities under this section. The head of such a department, agency, or element may appeal the resolution of the disagreement by the Director of National Intelligence to the President.
(i)Directorate of Intelligence
The Director of the National Counterterrorism Center shall establish and maintain within the National Counterterrorism Center a Directorate of Intelligence which shall have primary responsibility within the United States Government for analysis of terrorism and terrorist organizations (except for purely domestic terrorism and domestic terrorist organizations) from all sources of intelligence, whether collected inside or outside the United States.
(j)Directorate of Strategic Operational Planning
(1)The Director of the National Counterterrorism Center shall establish and maintain within the National Counterterrorism Center a Directorate of Strategic Operational Planning which shall provide strategic operational plans for counterterrorism operations conducted by the United States Government.
(2)Strategic operational planning shall include the mission, objectives to be achieved, tasks to be performed, interagency coordination of operational activities, and the assignment of roles and responsibilities.
(3)The Director of the National Counterterrorism Center shall monitor the implementation of strategic operational plans, and shall obtain information from each element of the intelligence community, and from each other department, agency, or element of the United States Government relevant for monitoring the progress of such entity in implementing such plans.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
Codification Section was formerly classified to section 404o of this title prior to editorial reclassification and renumbering as this section.
Amendments
2010—Subsec. (c)(2)(B). Pub. L. 111–259 substituted “subsection (i)” for “subsection (h)”.
Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries
Effective Date
Section effective not later than six months after Dec. 17, 2004, except as otherwise expressly provided, see section 1097(a) of Pub. L. 108–458, set out in an
Effective Date
of 2004 Amendment; Transition Provisions note under section 3001 of this title. Strategy for Counterterrorist Travel Intelligence Pub. L. 108–458, title VII, § 7201(b), Dec. 17, 2004, 118 Stat. 3809, directed the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, not later than 1 year after Dec. 17, 2004, to submit to Congress unclassified and classified versions of a strategy, to be developed in coordination with all relevant Federal agencies, for combining terrorist travel intelligence, operations, and law
Enforcement
into a cohesive effort to intercept terrorists, find terrorist travel facilitators, and constrain terrorist mobility domestically and internationally.
Executive Documents
Executive Order No. 13354 Ex. Ord. No. 13354, Aug. 27, 2004, 69 F.R. 53589, which established a National Counterterrorism Center, was revoked by Ex. Ord. No. 12333, § 3.6, Dec. 4, 1981, 46 F.R. 59954, as amended by Ex. Ord. No. 13470, § 4(j), July 30, 2008, 73 F.R. 45341, set out as a note under section 3001 of this title.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
50 U.S.C. § 3056
Title 50, War and National Defense
Last Updated
Sep 22, 2026
Release point: 119-110