Counter Terrorist Unit


 * You may be looking for CTU Los Angeles or CTU New York.

The Counter Terrorist Unit (also referred to as the Counter Terrorism Unit or CTU) was an intelligence and law enforcement agency in the United States of America which worked to investigate and prevent terrorist acts within U.S. borders.

After Day 6, CTU was disbanded following the supposed extralegal activities of several agents and was under investigation for human rights abuses. Its functions were then delegated to other agencies, and the personnel had their government clearance revoked. However, following Day 7, CTU was resurrected with the help of Rob Weiss, who convinced President Taylor to reestablish the agency in full capacity.

Position within U.S. government
The Counter Terrorist Unit was an elite branch of the CIA that operated under the Department of Defense. It was the first and only branch of the CIA that operated within U.S. borders. The agency was overseen by the National Security Council, of which the Secretary of Defense is a part. Thus, the Secretary of Defense had some legitimate authority over CTU. CTU was established in 1993 after the bombing of the World Trade Center.

CTU was headquartered in Washington, DC, and established domestic counter-terrorism divisional field offices in major U.S. metropolitan areas. CTU was to investigate the activities of domestic or foreign terrorists inside America's borders and to prevent terrorist attacks. CTU employed a range of people ranging from investigative agents, intelligence agents and undercover operatives to tactical field teams and special agents to oversee unit activities.

CTU was specifically set up to coordinate activities with the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the Secret Service, as well as local authorities. As a branch of the CIA, CTU operations were overseen by both Congress and the Executive Branch of the federal government.

Disbandment
A trial was launched into the past activities of CTU in tracking down and torturing suspects, preventing attacks, and in their methods of practice and activity. CTU was disbanded and all its personnel had their government status revoked, some offered jobs at other agencies but most left jobless.

A Senate Subcommittee subpoenaed former agent Jack Bauer to stand trial for violations of human rights set forth in the Geneva Convention. Evidence relating to the charges was collected from Bauer's classified dossier, including information on his torture of Ted Cofell, Graem Bauer and Ibrahim Haddad, his cold-blooded killing of Nina Myers, Marshall Goren and Christopher Henderson, his former heroin addiction, his illegal assault on the Chinese consulate and many others.

The hearing was interrupted by the FBI, who required Jack's assistance in tracking down former CTU agent and supposedly deceased Tony Almeida. The halting of the trial led to Jack stopping several terrorist attacks including an attempt on the President's life and the discovery of biological weapons. However, in the process Senator Blaine Mayer, who was leading the charges against Jack, was killed.



Movement underground

 * For more information on this undercover mission, see Taylor administration conspiracy

Bill Buchanan and Chloe O'Brian, along with Tony Almeida, were still working at what they liked to call CTU, albeit underground. They were attempting to bring down a conspiracy within the President's government and decided to not cooperate with any agency as they did not know how deep the corruption within the government ran.

As part of the operation Tony went undercover with David Emerson and his group to get to the CIP firewall and eventually Ike Dubaku, who had the names of all the people within the government working against President Taylor. Their aim also was to stop Dubaku from unleashing his attack on America.

They, along with Jack Bauer, were successful in bringing down the conspiracy by getting to Marika Donoso, Dubaku's American girlfriend who was unaware of his past crimes. She sacrificed her life to help CTU get to Dubaku. With the chip Jack retrieved from Dubaku, almost 100 corrupt government officials were taken out. However, in the process of the operation, Bill Buchanan lost his life.

What Chloe and Bill did not realize was that Tony was using them to get to Alan Wilson, the man ultimately responsible for his wife Michelle's death.



Partial re-establishment within the FBI
In an effort to discover who Tony Almeida and his cabal with control of a prion variant bioweapon, Jack Bauer suggested that the FBI used the old CTU servers that were decommissioned when the agency was shut down. President Taylor agreed and signed off on the proposal, whilst agent Renee Walker contacted the Department of Justice where the servers were being held. Jack then asked Chloe O'Brian, a former CTU analyst, to come in and work on using the servers as she was familiar with the CTU system.

Restoration
By Day 8, CTU had been re-established in full capacity. Rob Weiss convinced President Allison Taylor to do so with Brian Hastings (Rob's "guy") operating as Special Agent in Charge at the New York division. After Jack Bauer brought them information on a possible hit against IRK President Omar Hassan, the division began to analyze the threat.

Organization and structure


CTU was based in Washington, D.C. but had many field offices across the United States.

District
District Command oversaw a larger region than Division Command, and reported directly to CTU Headquarters in Washington, D.C. When David Palmer flew to Los Angeles during Day 2, he operated out of District Headquarters. District had the authority to order a lock-down of domestic offices, as George Mason locked down CTU Los Angeles on the authority of District Office on Day 1.

Division
Division Command oversaw the Domestic Units in a given region. Division also had the authority to order a lock-down, halting all operations within a unit.

Domestic units
CTU Domestic Units covered operations within a single city or metropolitan area. Domestic Units reported directly to Division Command, but were also subject to evaluation and interference from District. At least one Domestic Unit had an "old CTU substation" not far from its main office.

The domestic unit of CTU Los Angeles had been seen as the most active, as it responded to a wide variety of terrorist threats, including the attempted assassinations of Senator David Palmer, a nuclear bomb threat, a deadly viral threat, the abduction of Secretary of Defense James Heller, the attempted meltdown of multiple nuclear power plants, a nuclear missile launch, the theft of twenty canisters of weapons-grade nerve gas, and the threat of five Russian suitcase nuclear weapons. On many occasions, CTU LA was assisted by other domestic units.

Background information and notes

 * Throughout the majority of the series preceding Season 7, CTU has often been associated with the recurring, distinct ring tone of the phones within CTU's Los Angeles branch. This four-noted tone, which in real life originated from the AT&T Merlin telephone system developed in 1984, is heard in the background of almost every scene that features CTU Los Angeles. The popularity of the show and the unqiue nature of this tone have led to it becoming one of the world's most recognizable ring tones.
 * While there is no Counter Terrorist Unit in real life, the United States Department of Defense created the Counterintelligence Field Activity Agency in 2002, designed to investigate and repel terrorism within the United States and its interests. Another counterterrorism organization, the National Counterterrorism Center, was established in 2003. In a commentary track on "Day 7: 1:00am-2:00am," actor Jeffrey Nordling, who plays Larry Moss, mentions that he and other actors on the show visited NCTC while filming in Washington, DC, remarking that many of its employees are fans of 24 and that the interior strongly resembles the old CTU sets. In Issue 2 of the Official Magazine an article looks at the Terrorism and Research Centre, a supposed real life CTU counterpart. Issue 4 looks at "The Real Jack Bauer"; a.k.a. Charles Allen who is Chief Intelligence Officer of the Department of Homeland Security. He explains what the real-life counterpart of CTU actually does.
 * In the 2004 film The Punisher, one of Frank Castle's first jobs was an agent for CTU. Likewise, a CTU agent by the name of Lee Castle is featured in 24.
 * The other District Officers (besides Washington) presumably oversee other regions of the country including Midwest, Northwest, Southwest, Southeast and Northeast. This may be contradicted by the conversation between Jack Bauer and George Mason during Day 1, where Mason, the District Director, tells Jack that he reports to Chappelle, chief of Division. However, Chappelle tells Tony Almeida during Day 2 that he has his orders from District.
 * CTU is also mentioned in The West Wing, Season 4, Episode 5 at 05:50, by President Bartlet on a telephone conference after having received the latest news about a military conflict between Israel and the fictional arabic state of Qumar. Ken Kato says (over phone): "Sir, It's Ken. On your order, we'll put CTU on high alert."