FBI National Security Branch

The National Security Branch (NSB) is a service within the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The NSB is responsible for protecting the United States from Weapons of Mass Destruction, acts of terrorism, and foreign intelligence operations and espionage. The NSB accomplishes it mission by investigating national security threats, providing information and analysis to other law enforcement agencies, and developing capabilities to keep the Nation secure.

Leadership
Headed by an FBI Executive Assistant Director, the NSB is responsible to the FBI Director through the Deputy Director. As a unit of the FBI (which is a division of the United States Department of Justice), the NSB is ultimately responsible to the Attorney General of the United States. In addition, the critical role the NSB plays within the United States Intelligence Community places it within the overview of the Director of National Intelligence.

The current NSB Executive Assistant Director is Mark F. Giuliano, who was appointed by Director Robert Muller on September 12, 2011.

Organization
The NSB was formed by the unification of the FBI's various national security and intelligence gathering units.
 * FBI Counterterrorism Division,
 * FBI Counterintelligence Division
 * FBI Directorate of Intelligence
 * FBI Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate
 * Terrorist Screening Center

Future
It is speculated that this will lead to the formation of "career paths" for FBI Special Agents; meaning that once a new agent has completed Special Agent Training at FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and has completed the mandatory probationary period, that he or she will choose to go into the National Security Branch, or go into the "Criminal" part of the Bureau and focus on crimes such as organized crime, narcotics, civil rights violations, fraud, and violent crime. Some advocates of this new program say that this re-organization will help the fight against terrorism by making it less bureaucratic.