April 1,
2008: The U.S. FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) is running a six month
intelligence course for Filipino police and soldiers, on Jolo Island in the
southern (mostly Moslem) Philippines. The FBI course concentrates on
counter-terrorism techniques.
For nearly
70 years, the FBI has had a presence overseas. While the CIA was created half a
century ago to specialize in collecting intelligence overseas (and is forbidden
by law from doing that in the United States), the FBI always maintained some
presence abroad. Even before September
11, 2001, the FBI was sending more agents overseas as part of domestic
counter-terror operations. Currently, there are over 200 FBI personnel
stationed overseas, in nearly fifty countries. The FBI usually operates out of
the local U.S. embassy.
