NCTC has integrated daily intelligence reports from all federal agencies

MISSOULA, May 8 (Al-Masakin)—The National Counterterrorism Center’s (NCTC) Director Michael E. Leiters, said today in a report made available by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), in sharp contrast to operational procedures of before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, in a speech to the American Bar Association’s (ABA) “national security section” in Washington D.C. May 6 that at the national level there is no longer a distinction made between foreign and domestic terrorist surveillance.

“[The] distinction between foreign and domestic, in almost every way, does not exist at this National Counterterrorism Center, working with our partners at the CIA, FBI, and DHS, there is no distinction. When we see a threat today emanating from Peshawar, I simply assume that that threat, in one way or another, may affect Phoenix, or may affect anywhere else in the United States. And what we try to do is take that information and uncover any possible links, anywhere in the world, to understand where that threat may ultimately manifest itself,” the Director of the NCTC told the ABA on Wednesday.

In the report Mr. Leiter went on to say that officers at the NCTC are detailed to the center from out of the many federal law enforcement agencies and that intelligence held by any agency is now shared with all agencies.

“The vast majority of my staff are detailed to me from other organizations, so I have sitting side by side CIA, FBI, Department of Defense and every other acronym-laden agency you can imagine. And the CIA people are not simply looking at CIA information, the FBI people are not simply looking at FBI information. They are looking at each other’s information, and I am looking at all of that information. And we are trying to ensure that that information is crossing those traditional boundaries,” Leiter told the audience.

Mr. Leiter went on to say in the process of this intelligence sharing that the NCTC teleconferences with 19 different federal agencies 365 days per year which includes the U.S. State Department, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Department of Transportation (DOT), Health and Human Service (HHS), and the United States Secret Service to name a few.

He went on to say that the NCTC aims to integrate state and local law enforcement agencies into this system as well and that any person contacted by the police for any reason related to criminal activity, including speeding, is cross-referenced with the NCTC database for possible ties to terrorism.

“Not only do I have individuals from every different department and agency in the national-security community, I am the proud, quote, unquote, “owner” of more than 10 state and state and local, tribal, officials from across the United States government.
“I have police officers from Clark County, Las Vegas; I have a firefighter from Seattle, New Jersey State Police, Boston Police Department. The list goes on and on.

“I have a representative from one of the Iroquois Nations. And the reason for this is because, believe it or not, they look at information differently than I do. And they certainly look at information differently from the way the CIA does, and others.

“And their job is to live in this sea of federal classified information and get that information back down, with the assistance of FBI and DHS, to state and local partners so they can do their part…regardless of whether you are applying for a visa overseas or regardless of whether or not you are coming to an airport in the United States or you get pulled over when you drive away from here because you are going too fast, when that official legitimately enters your name into whatever database they have, that information will be screened against the U.S.
Government’s repository of known and suspected terrorists.” the Director said.

The Director also spoke about the National Implementation Plan which seeks to consolidate the elements of national power: diplomacy, intelligence, covert action, law enforcement, economic policy, foreign aid, public diplomacy and homeland defense.

According to the NCTC’s Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) fact sheet released in March 2009, the NCTC maintains a database of 564,000 names. The agency claims that fewer than 5% of those identities are American citizens or permanent legal residents.
He went on to claim that the NCTC is not merely interested in apprehending suspected terrorists, but is also engaged in combating the root causes of terrorism and “whole-of-government” solutions.

ODNI / EHC
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