Intelligence Branch


August 15, 2014

In a move demonstrating the FBI’s valuable role of protecting national security, Director James Comey created a separate Intelligence Branch.


Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: In a move demonstrating the FBI’s valuable role of protecting national security, Director James Comey creates a separate Intelligence Branch.

Eric Velez-Villar: Intelligence allows us to make informative decisions to drive our investigations. As the Director says, we are a national security law enforcement organization that uses, collects, and shares intelligence in everything we do.

Halpern: Intelligence is intertwined in every investigative program the FBI is responsible for—from cyber, counterterrorism, to criminal. The integration of intelligence into the Bureau’s law enforcement operations is how the FBI has always mitigated threats and gotten ahead of emerging ones. Eric Velez-Villar, the executive assistant director of the new branch, says intelligence integration is a high priority.

Velez-Villar: The creation of this branch is simply about building new processes to ensure we are doing it in a thoughtful and more effective manner.

Halpern: The first class of intelligence analysts to graduate from the FBI Academy since sequestration reports to duty this month. From FBI Headquarters, I'm Mollie Halpern with FBI, This Week.

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