"During my time we disrupted a number of exceptionally serious terrorist operations." Why is this kind of work not law enforcement work instead of intelli

"During my time we disrupted a number of exceptionally serious terrorist operations." Why is this kind of work not law enforcement work instead of intelligence agency work? It seems like the current policy is to reclassify many types of illegal activities as being in the same category as aggression by nation states even when only a handful of individuals domestically are involved, and that this reclassification is done for the purpose of sidestepping civil liberties protections.