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.