IntelCenter is a United States company, founded in 1989. It is based near

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in Northern Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Washington, D.C., D.C. The city's population of 159,467 at the 2020 ...

. The company "is a private contractor working for intelligence agencies".Al-Qaida Deputy Speaks in New Video
, ABC News online, 5 July 2007, caption to video still (expand caption). Its stated purpose is to "study

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

groups and other threat actors and disseminating that information in a timely manner to those who can act on it. We look at capabilities and intentions, warnings and indicators, operational characteristics and a wide variety of other points in order to better understand how to interdict terrorist operations and reduce the likelihood of future attacks." IntelCenter has a sister company, Tempest Publishing. The company's CEO is Ben N. Venzke.

Al-Qaeda tapes

IntelCenter has provided several video tapes to the Western press that show professed al-Qaeda members, including the following. * ''April 2006:'' A video featuring Qaeda no. 2

Ayman al-Zawahiri Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (; 19 June 195131 July 2022) was an Egyptian-born pan-Islamism, pan-Islamist militant and physician who served as the second general emir of al-Qaeda from June 2011 until Killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, his dea ...

, in which he said the US military had "seen only 'loss, disaster and misfortune' in Iraq". It "was first obtained by IntelCenter". * In ''June 2006'', a video of "20th hijacker" Fawaz al-Nashimi, who died in a shootout in Saudi Arabia in 2004, "was released by IntelCenter". * On ''30 September 2006'', an 18-minute al-Qaeda tape in which Al-Zawahiri called Bush "a deceitful charlatan". It was "made available" by Intelcenter. * On ''2 October 2006'', IntelCenter and Venzke were again referenced as a source in an article detailing a silent

Al Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

video recently released in which two

9/11 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

hijackers,

Mohamed Atta Mohamed Atta (1 September 196811 September 2001) was an Egyptian terrorist hijacker for al-Qaeda. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism, pan-Islamist, he was the ringleader of the September 11 attacks and served as the Aircraft hijacking, hijacker-pi ...

, and Ziad Al-Jarrah, read their last wills and testaments. * ''27 April 2007'': A file picture "released by the IntelCenter of leading Al-Qaeda operative in Afghanistan Abu Laith al-Libi during an interview". As-Sahab logo on picture. (From a video.) * On ''4 July 2007'', an al-Zawahiri video was "provided by al-Qaeda's As-Sahab Media to ... IntelCenter". Another US-based intelligence group,

SITE Site most often refers to: * Archaeological site * Campsite, a place used for overnight stay in an outdoor area * Construction site * Location, a point or an area on the Earth's surface or elsewhere * Website, a set of related web pages, typical ...

, "said it had obtained the tape ahead of its release on the internet by militant web sites". The video was "first reported by IntelCenter and SITE". * On ''11 September 2007'', a "video" of bin Laden with an IntelCenter credit appeared on the news. The visuals consisted of a still picture of Osama (similar to, or the same as, the "frozen" image on the video "provided" by

to Associated Press on 7 Sept. 2007). The video also contained footage of

Waleed al-Shehri Waleed Mohammed al-Shehri (; December 20, 1978 – September 11, 2001) was a Saudi terrorist hijacker. He was involved in the September 11 attacks against the United States in 2001. He was one of the five hijackers who took control of American ...

, one of the

hijackers. ''See also Sept 11 2007 Osama bin Laden video.'' * ''14 September 2007'': A video of a dead US pilot, bearing the insignia of the "Islamic State of Iraq", an al-Qaeda affiliate. It "was first obtained by IntelCenter". * ''2 April 2008'': An online audiofile, in which Al-Zawahiri called the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

an enemy of Islam, was released via IntelCenter by As-Sahab (according to IntelCenter). IntelCenter offers "Qaeda" tapes for sale on its website.

Question of authenticity

Neal Krawetz did an error level analysis of the As-Sahab and IntelCenter logos on "a 2006 al Qaeda video of Ayman al-Zawahiri". He originally told Kim Zetter of ''Wired News'' that the logos had "the same error levels and that this indicated they were added at the same time" (Zetter's words). IntelCenter boss Venzke subsequently denied that his organization had added the As-Sahab logo. He commented: "just because the error levels are the same for two items in an image, that doesn't prove they were added at the same time, only that the compression was the same for both items when they were added" (Zetter's words). Krawetz then went back on his original statement, saying that "the error levels on the IntelCenter and As-Sahab logos are different and that the IntelCenter logo was added after the As-Sahab logo" (Zetter's words again).Kim Zetter,
Researcher's Analysis of al Qaeda Images Reveals Surprises -- UPDATED
, ''Wired'', Aug. 2, 2007, + updates; note 2nd and 3rd updates. IntelCenter has not revealed how it acquires these videos or explained the discrepancies of the As-Sahab and IntelCenter logos.

References

External links

IntelCenter
Official Corporate Site {{DEFAULTSORT:Intelcenter Intelligence websites Companies established in 1989