By Excutive Order on 27 August, 2004, the CIA's Terrorism Threat Integration Center morphed into the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) under the authority of the DCI. With the passage of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, the NCTC was placed under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence.
The NCTC Website is at http://www.nctc.gov/.
NCTC's Worldwide Incident Tracking System (WITS) Data Portal can be accessed via http://www.tkb.org/.
Materials arranged chronologically.
Curl, Joseph. "Bush Signs Intelligence Orders." Washington Times, 28 Aug. 2004. [http://www.washingtontimes.com]
On 27 August, 2004, President Bush signed a executive order "to expand the power of the CIA director.... [T]he president temporarily granted to the CIA director many of the functions of [the 9/11] commission-proposed national intelligence director." According to a senior administration official, the move gives "the CIA director temporary authority over budgetary issues at the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office....
Bush signed another executive order creating "a new National Counterterrorism Center (NCC) tasked with enhancing information sharing among intelligence agencies. That order says the center will 'serve as the primary organization in the United States government for analyzing and integrating all intelligence possessed or acquired by the United States government pertaining to terrorism and counterterrorism.' The CIA director -- whom the order designates as the president's principal adviser on intelligence matters -- will appoint the NCC director, with the approval of the president, and oversee the new agency."
Reuters. "Key facts: U.S. Intelligence Bill." 7 Dec. 2004. [http://www.reuters.com]
"The following are the highlights of legislation that would enact key intelligence reforms.... The legislation:
"* establishes the new Director of National Intelligence post to oversee the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. The director is to be approved by the Senate and will have control over much of the budget for U.S. spy agencies. The Pentagon retains control over battlefield assets.
"* establishes the National Counterterrorism Center to coordinate terrorism-related intelligence and conduct 'strategic operational planning,' which will include the mission, objectives, tasks and interagency coordination."
Baker, Peter, and Walter Pincus. "Bush Signs Intelligence Reform Bill: President Now Must Find an Experienced Hand to Guide 15 Agencies." Washington Post, 18 Dec. 2004, A1. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
On 17 December 2004, President Bush signed into law "the broadest reorganization of the nation's intelligence community in more than half a century.... [T]he legislation left many recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission still unfulfilled, including restructuring congressional oversight as well as broader strategic efforts to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Nor did it address commission recommendations to rethink U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia or to expand diplomatic efforts to win friends in the Muslim world."
Pincus, Walter. "Counterterrorism Policies in Conflict, Report Says." Washington Post, 28 Mar. 2005, A7. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
According to a report released by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), President Bush's executive order of August 2004 "that established the new National Counterterrorism Center [NCTC] and the intelligence reform legislation that he signed in December [2004] have created conflicts in counterterrorism policy that need to be resolved.... In what the report calls a 'possibly stark contradiction,' the law specifies that the NCTC director is to report directly to Bush on 'planning and progress of joint counterterrorism operations,' and to the director of national intelligence [DNI] on budgetary and other issues."
Pincus, Walter. "Counterterrorism Center Awaits Presidential Action: Director and Chain of Command Are Needed by June 17." Washington Post, 3 Jun. 2005, A21. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
"The legislation that established the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) requires the organization to begin operations by June 17." However, it "is waiting for President Bush to name its director and settle whether that person will report directly to the president or go through Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte." At present, longtime CIA official John O. Brennan is serving as acting NCTC director.
VandeHei, Jim. "Bush Taps Admiral as Chief of Counterterrorism Center." Washington Post, 11 Jun. 2005, A4. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
On 10 June 2005, President Bush "nominated retired Vice Adm. John Redd ... to run the National Counterterrorism Center" (NCTC). Redd commanded the Fifth Fleet, was deputy administrator and chief operating officer of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, and served as executive director of the Silberman-Robb presidential commission on U.S. intelligence in Iraq.
Bedard, Paul. "Washington Whispers: Bingeing on Terrorism Analysts." U.S. News & World Report, 15 May 2006, 16.
DNI John Negroponte "is adding 75 more analysts ... from other agencies" to the ranks of the National Counterterrorism Center. "He eventually wants to hire several hundred more to double the analyst ranks of the secretive operation."
DeYoung, Karen. "A Fight Against Terrorism -- and Disorganization." Washington Post, 9 Aug. 2006, A1. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
A new strategy for combating terrorism is now on President Bush's desk. "The highly classified National Implementation Plan for the first time set government-wide goals and assigned responsibility for achieving them to specific departments and agencies. Written by officials at the National Counterterrorism Center ... the 160-page plan aspires to achieve what has eluded the Bush administration in the five years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: bringing order and direction to the fight against terrorism."
Gardner, Frank. "The US Counter-Terror Nerve Centre." BBC, 5 Dec. 2006. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6210090.stm]
The reporter visits "one of America's newest and most secret establishments: the National Counterterrorism Center, the NCTC.... The data flow here is enormous: more than 6,000 reports come through every day from satellite, electronic and human intelligence sources.... It is here..., three times a day, every day, that America's specialists in counter-terrorism gather to share information."
DeYoung, Karen. "Terror Database Has Quadrupled In Four Years: U.S. Watch Lists Are Drawn From Massive Clearinghouse." Washington Post, 25 Mar. 2007, A1. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
The Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) is the nation's central list of terrorists and terrorism suspects. It "is a storehouse for data about individuals that the intelligence community believes might harm the United States. It is the wellspring for watch lists distributed to airlines, law enforcement, border posts and U.S. consulates." But in addressing the problem of information sharing, "TIDE has spawned others. Ballooning from fewer than 100,000 files in 2003 to about 435,000, the growing database threatens to overwhelm the people who manage it.... TIDE has also created concerns about secrecy, errors and privacy. The list marks the first time foreigners and U.S. citizens are combined in an intelligence database."
Waterman, Shaun. "Military Intelligence Pulled from NCTC Ops Center." United Press International, 29 Mar. 2007. [http://www.upi.com]
"For more than four months there have been no representatives of military intelligence in the 24-hour operations room at the ... U.S. National Counter-Terrorism Center" (NCTC). According to NCTC spokesman Carl Kropf, three DIA representatives "were withdrawn from the operations center" in November 2006. "A representative of Northern Command, or Northcom, the U.S. military command with responsibility for the defense of the continental United States, had been withdrawn earlier, he told United Press International."
Shrader, Katherine. "Terror-Fighting Center Chief Steps Down." Associated Press, 17 Oct. 2007. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
The head of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), Vice Adm. (Ret.) John Scott Redd, announced his resignation on 17 October 2007. "Redd said he is stepping down [in November] to have a long-delayed surgery and spend more time with ... his family." NCTC Deputy Director Michael Leiter will be acting head when Redd leaves.
O'Harrow, Robert, Jr. "Controversy Snarls Upgrade of Terrorist Data Repository." Washington Post, 3 Sep. 2008, A1. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
In a 21 August letter, Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), chairman of the House Science and Technology subcommittee on investigations and oversight, asked the O/DNI inspector general to investigate "the technical failure and mismanagement" of the Railhead project. The program, launched in 2006 at an anticipated cost of $500 million over 5 years, is supposed to improve and eventually replace the current Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE). Operated at the National Counterterrorism Center, TIDE "serves as the central repository of information about more than 400,000 suspected terrorists around the world."
Kingsbury, Alex. "Michael Leiter Works to Keep Tabs on Terrorists." U.S. News & World Report, 14 Aug. 2009. [http://www.usnews.com]
Michael Leiter is head of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). "One of NCTC's chief roles is coordinating the intelligence that the United States gathers and seeing that it is distributed to those who need it across all branches of government."
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