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• Safety at the Olympic Games

Operations Directorate (Ops)

The Operations Directorate (Ops) has two primary missions:

1. Assist the Department of Defense in developing and implementing overseas counterterrorism policies, plans, and operations. In turn, Ops advises senior Department of State officials, State Department bureaus, ambassadors and overseas embassies regarding Department of Defense counterterrorism concepts and proposals.
2.  Lead and maintain the Foreign Emergency Support Team (FEST). The FEST is the United States Government's only interagency, on-call, short-notice team poised to respond to terrorist incidents worldwide.

Ops plays a central role in coordinating the Congressionally mandated TOPOFF (Top Official) exercises. This continuing series of national-level domestic and international events are challenging, large-scale, role-play simulations designed to train senior federal, state, and local officials in managing a Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) attack.

Ops also co-chairs two interagency counterterrorism efforts under the United States Government's Counterterrorism Security Group (CSG).

• The Hostage Policy Subgroup refines and implements official United States Government policy toward Americans taken captive abroad.
• The Interagency Athletic Events Security Coordination Group targets American assistance aimed at ensuring safety at the Olympic Games and other major overseas international sporting events.

In addition, the Operations Directorate is responsible for staying in touch with families of American hostages and with organizations concerned with hostage issues.

To enhance its own manpower resources, the Ops Directorate is assisted by a pool of skilled Army and Air Force Reservists who have crisis management responsibilities and are integrated into every aspect of counterterrorist activities.

Mark Thompson is the Deputy Coordinator, Operations Directorate at the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism.