The newest agency in the intelligence community is picking up steam.
On Dec. 1, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center got its first director — William Evanina, the current director of the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive. He will head both organizations simultaneously.
The National Counterintelligence and Security Center was officially established on Nov. 21, 2014, by James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, to help integrate the functions of several organizations under the Director of National Intelligence.
The agency is responsible for crafting foreign threat assessments, an annual strategy for counterintelligence operations and a list of investigation and operations priorities for the government. The NCSC also produces in-depth espionage damage assessments and creates counterintelligence training standards.
Clapper wrote in a letter Nov. 21 that the new agency will help the national counterintelligence executive carry out his responsibilities and provide counterintelligence support.
Clapper also organized the creation of the Special Security Center and the Center for Security Evaluation underneath the National Counterintelligence Executive in November 2010. Those organizations will be integrated into the new framework underneath Evanina and the new organization, he said.
“I established NCSC to effectively integrate and align counterintelligence and security mission areas, and carry out counterintelligence and security responsibilities under a single organizational construct,” Clapper wrote in the memo.
