Opening of Intelligence Community Center-Bethesda

Located directly in the middle of most of the agencies that make up the Intelligence Community, ODNI Director James Clapper opened the new state of the art campus named Intelligence Agency Campus-Bethesda (ICC-B) that will house up to 3,000 employees who had been previously moved to Ft. Belvoir in 2011. According to the news release by the ODNI, the campus will primarily host employees from ODNI’s National Counterintelligence and Security Center, the National Intelligence University, and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The integration of various IC agencies, as well as its central location, will allow better collaboration and information sharing to coordinate and distribute mission services and support. According to the news release, the facilities and buildings on the new campus use a variety of green and energy efficient technologies that can actually generate more energy than they use. Construction included tearing down or renovating and refitting 70 year old buildings that previously belonged to the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency when it was known as the Sumner Campus.

Interestingly, the keynote speaker at the recent National Intelligence University graduation was Judge William Webster, the only one to have served as director for both the FBI and CIA. The NIU is the only accredited university for the Intelligence Community and its graduates permeate the upper ranks all seventeen IC agencies. Moving to the new campus will help NIU continue the push for the integration of all IC agencies to better serve the nation.