Terrorist Threat Integration Center

In comments made at a September 16, 2003, Department of State briefing, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Tom Ridge said that the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC) (a.k.a. the CIA Counterterrorism Center) "'was created to ensure that all members of the federal government's Intelligence Community have access to the same information ... The job of the new Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) is to make sure we get this information out to our agents on the borders and all those who can put it to use on the front lines -- and to get it there fast.'"

The TTIC and the also newly created Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection (IA/IP) unit "allows DHS to analyze information and take specific action to protect critical infrastructure." Together, they "were designed to enhance intelligence fusion -- to bring together all terrorist information in one place, enabling America's best intelligence analysts and investigators from multiple departments to work as a team to put together the pieces of the puzzle." 

According to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, the combined "knowledge of the FBI, Department of Justice, Intelligence Community, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State's TIPOFF program is a long-desired goal that is now reality. We are gratified that the State Department's TIPOFF program, which contains over 100,000 names of potential terrorists, will form the basis for both the TTIC and TSC databases."

Ironically, the TTIC was blamed for embarrassing inaccuracies in the 2003 "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report. The report claimed terrorist attacks declined 45% and minor terrorism events declined more than 90% since 2001, and was touted by the Bush administration as proof that America is winning the "War on Terrorism." At its April 2004 release, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage called the report "clear evidence that we are prevailing." Upon questioning from Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman, however, it was revealed that those numbers are wrong. The corrected report will show an increase in significant terrorist incidents, according to experts. Waxman remarked that the terrorist incident data "manipulation may serve the Administration's political interests." One State Department official called the report's errors "clerical," and likely due to the recent transfer of responsibility for generating the report from the CIA to the TTIC.

Related SourceWatch Resources

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 * Cofer Black
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 * Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force
 * internet surveillance
 * National Counterterrorism Center
 * Passenger Profiling
 * Patriot Act I
 * Patriot Act I headlines
 * Patriot Act II
 * Patriot Act abuses
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 * September 11, 2001
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 * War on terrorism
 * watchlist