FBI Counterintelligence Before Venona Although the origins of the FBI's counterintelligence responsibilities are to be found at its birth in 1908, the FBI's permanent emergence as a key part of America's intelligence community began the mid-1930's. As war broke out in Europe in 1939, the FBI received official confirmation of its role in counterintelligence in cooperation with ONI and MID. In June 1940, Roosevelt even tasked the Bureau with responsibility for foreign intelligence in the