Objective 2.2: Counter Foreign and Domestic Terrorism

Two decades after September 11, 2001, the Justice Department remains committed to combating terrorism, from any place, by any actor, regardless of motivating ideology.  Foreign terrorist organizations continue to pose a threat to the United States and U.S. interests abroad.  In addition, terrorist threats to the United States come from lone actors – citizens who travel overseas and join forces with extremists; individuals radicalized in the United States; those inspired to violence by harmful foreign ideologies; and domestic violent extremists motivated by racial and ethnic bias, anti-government or anti-authority sentiment, or conspiracy theories.  The Department recognizes that the most efficient and effective means of fighting terrorism is to communicate, coordinate, and cooperate with our partners, including foreign partners and multilateral organizations.  The Department will also continue to use every appropriate tool at its disposal to deter, disrupt, and prosecute acts of domestic violent extremism and domestic terrorism.

Strategy 1: Deter, Disrupt, and Prosecute Terrorist Threats
The Department will continue to deter, disrupt, and prosecute domestic and international terror plots and actors through directed intelligence collection and analysis.  We will protect the United States by disrupting terrorists’ sources of financial and material support; prosecuting those who plot or act to threaten our national security; and targeting the methods and technologies terrorist networks and organizations rely on for radicalization and recruitment.  We will also continue to use all available tools to monitor terrorist threats – from developing sources to using court-authorized electronic surveillance – while ensuring that civil liberties are protected.

Strategy 2: Strengthen Federal, State, Local, Tribal, and International Counterterrorism Partnerships
The Justice Department will protect national security by maintaining strong partnerships with law enforcement and intelligence community partners.  In addition, the Department will focus on innovative intelligence analysis that supports: disrupting terrorist actors who threaten the United States government, its interests, or civilian populations; understanding the spread of violent extremist ideology; anticipating new and evolving terrorist threats; and building adaptive capabilities to counter terrorism globally.  The Department will also continue to exploit, analyze, and share intelligence with the intelligence community; state, local, and Tribal law enforcement community partners; and partner nations.  And the Department will support foreign government efforts to investigate and prosecute, in their own courts, terrorists who threaten U.S. national security, through information sharing with foreign law enforcement, capacity building, and, where consistent with foreign law, the optional participation of U.S. victims of overseas terrorism in foreign justice processes.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Number of terrorism disruptions effected through investigations
• Percent of counterterrorism defendants whose cases were favorably resolved
• Number of individuals in the Department trained to prosecute domestic terrorism and domestic violent extremism
• Percent of Department-issued Intelligence Information Reports used in the development of United States Intelligence Community Intelligence Products

Contributing DOJ Components: CRM, NSD, USAO, ATF, DEA, FBI, USNCB, COPS, OJP, JMD