The Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland

Posted: January 31st, 2019

By John Bennett

John Bennett retired from the Central Intelligence Agency in 2013 after a 33 years of service. His senior assignments included: Director, National Clandestine Service, Deputy Director, NCS for Community Humint, Chief, Special Activities Division and Deputy Chief, Africa Division. Mr. Bennett served 18 years overseas, mostly in Africa, including four tours as a Chief of Station. He engaged in Cold War programs directed against Libya and Angola, managed counter-terrorism operations in East Africa and Southwest Asia and led collaboration between the NCS and other Intelligence Community, Defense and Law Enforcement partners. Prior to joining CIA, he served as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps. Mr. Bennett has Bachelor's Degree from Harvard University and a Masters Degree from Georgetown University. His many awards Include Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal, the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the DNI's National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal and The Secretary of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal. Mr. Bennett currently serves on the board of the Intelligence Community's professional journal "Studies in Intelligence and is on the Board of Directors of the CIA Retirees Association.

As part of the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Worldwide Threat Assessment this week, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that “Global jihadists in dozens of groups and countries threaten local and regional U.S. interests, despite having experienced some significant setbacks in recent years, and some of these groups will remain intent on striking the U.S. homeland. Prominent jihadist ideologues and media platforms continue to call for and justify efforts to attack the U.S. homeland.”

The Cipher Brief is bringing you a range of expert perspectives this week on the global terrorist threat. We asked Cipher Brief Expert and former Director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, John Bennett, a range of questions about how he sees today’s terror threat.

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

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