The National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) is a United States government organization responsible for national and international

counterterrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or ...

efforts. It is based in Liberty Crossing, a modern complex near

Tysons Corner Tysons, also known as Tysons Corner, is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, developed from the corner of Chain Bridge Road ( SR 123) and the Leesburg Pike ( SR 7). Located in Northern Virginia between the c ...

McLean, Virginia McLean ( ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. McLean is home to many diplomats, military, members of Congress, and high-ranking government officials partially due to its prox ...

. NCTC advises the United States on terrorism. Part of the

Office of the Director of National Intelligence The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a senior, cabinet-level United States government official, required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to serve as executive head of the United States Intelligence Comm ...

, the group brings together specialists from other federal agencies, including the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

, the FBI, the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

, and the

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-ter ...

. In 2012, the

United States Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

Eric Holder Eric Himpton Holder Jr. (born January 21, 1951) is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from 2009 to 2015. Holder, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama, was the first African Amer ...

granted the agency the authority to collect, store, and analyze extensive data collections on U.S. citizens compiled from governmental and non-governmental sources for suspicious behavior through pattern analysis and to share the databases with foreign states. The effort has drawn controversy for its

pre-crime ''Pre-crime'' (or ''precrime'') is the idea that the occurrence of a crime can be anticipated before it happens. The term was coined by science fiction author Philip K. Dick, and is increasingly used in academic literature to describe and critici ...

effort, which has been likened to the

Information Awareness Office The Information Awareness Office (IAO) was established by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in January 2002 to bring together several DARPA projects focused on applying surveillance and information technology ...

and its proposed

mass surveillance Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizati ...

History

The precursor organization of NCTC, the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC), was established on May 1, 2003, by

President George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

by Executive Order 13354. President Bush announced the creation of TTIC in his 2003

State of the Union Address The State of the Union Address (sometimes abbreviated to SOTU) is an annual message delivered by the president of the United States to a joint session of the United States Congress near the beginning of each calendar year on the current conditi ...

. TTIC was established in response to recommendations by the

National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002, "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11 attacks", includin ...

(9/11 Commission) that investigated the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Among other things, the 9/11 Commission concluded that "none of the measures adopted by the U.S. government before 9/11 disturbed or even delayed the progress of the

al Qaeda Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

plot". The

Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA) is a 235-page Act of Congress, signed by President George W. Bush, that broadly affects United States federal terrorism laws. The act comprises several separate titles with var ...

of 2004 renamed TTIC to NCTC and placed it under the

United States Director of National Intelligence The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a senior, cabinet-level United States government official, required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to serve as executive head of the United States Intelligence Comm ...

. It has access to various

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases ...

s, including those from the

NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collec ...

and the

, and is in charge of the

Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment The Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) is the U.S. government's central database on known or suspected ''international'' terrorists, and contains highly classified information provided by members of the Intelligence Community such as ...

(TIDE) database. It also operates the publicly accessible

Worldwide Incidents Tracking System The Worldwide Incidents Tracking System (WITS) was the US government's database on tracking acts of terrorism. It contained details about incidents of violence against civilians and non-combatants (including military personnel and assets outside of ...

database.

Activities

The center analyzes

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can ...

including potential domestic threat intelligence; monitors communications internationally and domestically for potential threats; generates actionable information to potentially prevent criminal acts domestically; stores terrorism information; supports U.S.

activities using

information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology syste ...

(IT); and plans counter-terrorism activities as directed by the

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...

, the

National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...

, and the Homeland Security Council. In August 2019, ''The Daily Beast'' reported that the NTC had begun to work on counterintelligence to combat domestic terrorism.

Goals

Its goals include providing terrorism information to the intelligence community; providing detailed lists of terrorists, terrorist groups, and worldwide terrorist incidents; supporting the response to terrorist incidents in the United States and worldwide; and writing assessments and briefings for policymakers. After the Christmas 2009 terrorist attempt on

Northwest Airlines Flight 253 The attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 occurred on December 25, 2009, aboard an Airbus A330 as it prepared to land at Detroit Metropolitan Airport following a transatlantic flight from Amsterdam. Attributed to the terr ...

, the NCTC was tasked with creating a process to "thoroughly and exhaustively" prioritize terrorism threat threads; identify follow-up action by intelligence, law enforcement, and homeland security; and enhance the "Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment" database, to add names to watchlists.

Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment

The Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) is a database compiled by the NCTC containing over 1,200,000 identities of individuals suspected of terror links and domestic individuals of interest including the names of known or suspected terrorists as well as those affiliated.

Leadership

Directors

Source: * John O. Brennan (Interim) (August 27, 2004 – August 1, 2005) * Vice Admiral (Ret.)

John Scott Redd John Scott Redd (born September 10, 1944) is a retired vice admiral of the United States Navy, and afterward the first Senate-confirmed Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, serving from 2005 until 2007. According to David Martin at ...

(August 1, 2005 –November 10, 2007) * Michael E. Leiter (Acting) (November 10, 2007 – June 12, 2008) * Michael E. Leiter (June 12, 2008 – July 8, 2011) *

Matthew G. Olsen Matthew Glen Olsen (born February 21, 1962) is an American attorney who has served as the Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division since 2021. He is the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Born in Fargo ...

(August 16, 2011 – July 2014) * Nicholas Rasmussen (December 18, 2014 – December 24, 2017) * Russell Travers (acting) (December 24, 2017 – December 27, 2018) * *

Joseph Maguire Joseph Maguire (born August 14, 1951) is an American officer who served as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center and Acting Director of National Intelligence under President Donald Trump. He retired from the United States Navy as a v ...

(December 27, 2018 – August 15, 2019) * Russell Travers (acting) (August 16, 2019 – March 18, 2020) * Lora Shiao (acting) (April 3, 2020 – August 10, 2020) * Christopher C. Miller (August 10, 2020 – November 9, 2020) * Steve Vanech (acting) (November 10, 2020 – June 29, 2021) * Christine Abizaid (June 29, 2021 - Present)

Deputy Directors

* Arthur M. Cummings (2004–05) * Kevin R. Brock (2005–07) * Michael E. Leiter (2007–08) * Geoff O'Connell (2008–2011) * Andrew Liepman (2011–2012) * Nicholas J. Rasmussen (2012–2014) * L. Joseph Camilleri (2016–2017) * John J. Mulligan * Lora Shiao (April 2020 – November 2020) * Steve Vanech (acting) (November 2020 – present)

References

External links

NCTC WebsiteOffice of the Director of National Intelligence Website
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20051129180743/http://www.fbi.gov/page2/aug05/nctc082905.htm News about new NCTC on FBI websitebr>BBC News article with internal photograph

A Comparison of the 2008 and 2012 NCTC Guidelines

WSJ ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

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