◆ SpookStack

PRIORITIZATION in 1998, the FBI established a five-year strategic plan to set investigative priorities in line with a three-tiered structure. Tier 1 included those crimes or intelligence matters — including terrorism ~ that threaten our national or economic security. Tier 2 included offenses involving criminal enterprises, public corruption, and violations of civil rights Tier 3 included violations that affect individuals or property. This priority structure allowed supervisors substantial flexibility in applying the priorities to their decision making. Consequently, though a top-tier priority, the Counterterrorism Program did not receive a sufficiently significant increase in focus or resources. On September 11, 2001, the prevention of further terrorism became the Bureau's dominant priority. On May 29, 2002, we formalized this prioritization by issuing a new hierarchy of programmatic priorities, with counterterrorism at the top. We developed these priorities by evaluating each criminal and national security threat wrthin the Bureau's jurisdiction according to three factors: 1) the significance of the threat to the security of the United States, as expressed by the President m National Security Presidential Directive 26; 2} the priority the American public places on the threat; and 3) the degree to which addressing the threat falls. mest exclusively within the FBI's jurisdiction. The New Priorities The FBI has ten top. prorities. Priorities one through eight.are program areas, and they are listed in the order in which they must be addressed. Priorities nine and ten are objectives that are key to the accomplishment of the programmatic priorities. The. priorities are: 1 Protect the United States from Terrorist Attack Every FBI manager, Special Agent, and support employee understands that the prevention of terrorist attacks 's the FBI's overnding prionty and that every terrorism-related lead must be addressed. Counterterrorism is the top priority in the allocation of funding, personnel, physical space, and resources, as well as in hiring and training. No matter their program assignment, all FBI field, operational, and support personnel stand ready to assist in our counterterrorism efforts, 2 Protect the United States Against Foreign intelligence Operations and Espionage The FBI is the lead federal agency with a mandate to investigate foreign counterintelligence threats within our borders. During the past 31 months, we have created a naticnally-directed program for counterintelligance, staffed by a highly trained specialized workforce with enhanced analytical support, and with closer tres to the Intelligence Community. The program's focus son. 1) preventing hostile groups and countnes from acquiring technology to produce weapons of mass destruction; 2) preventing the compromise of personnel, information, technolagy, and economic interests vital to our national security; and 3) producing intelligence on the plans and intentions of our adversaries. DOC. #5 7 600000346