PROTECTING
AMERICA FROM TERRORIST ATTACK
Sharing Terrorist Information, From the Ground Up
05/19/04
When
it comes to terrorism issues, different agencies have different beats – so it's
a legitimate question: how does all the diverse intelligence collected
on these different beats get shared?
Answer: From
the ground up.
Today, people in these
intelligence agencies are not only working together more closely to coordinate
operations and to share information across their databases, increasingly
they are physically SITTING TOGETHER ... in the same space ... accessing
each other's databases ... so that there are literally and figuratively
no walls dividing them.
Just how extensive
is this people-sharing? Here's a brief rundown:
- The FBI today has 34
people detailed to the CIA, including 16 in the CIA's Counter
Terrorism Center. The FBI also has agents and intelligence analysts
working at the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Security
Council, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Defense Logistics Agency,
the Defense Department's Northern Command, and the Department of Energy.
CIA personnel are also working at FBI Headquarters in key positions,
including as the Associate Deputy Assistant Director for Operations
in our Counterterrorism Division.
- Later this year,
for the first time in history, the entire national counterterrorism
divisions of the FBI and the CIA will co-locate in a single
facility.
- At the Terrorist
Threat Integration Center (TTIC), analysts from the CIA, FBI, Homeland
Security, Defense, and other agencies work side-by-side in one location
to collect and analyze the universe of threats. This fusion enables
TTIC to produce the daily terrorist threat matrix used by the heads
of the CIA and FBI to brief the President, and to produce a host of
other finished analytic reports besides, literally putting everyone
on the same page.
- In 33 FBI field
offices, the CIA has officers co-located with Special Agents in our Joint
Terrorism Task Forces. The NSA also has analysts detailed to
FBI Headquarters and to field offices in New York, Washington, and Baltimore.
- CIA officers and
FBI Agents stationed at 46 Legal Attaches around the world work
together in U.S. embassies along with diplomatic and other government
personnel.
At the end of
the day, it's the diversity of intelligent, motivated people
working shoulder-to-shoulder to turn random bits of information into
useful intelligence that prevents terrorist attacks – and that's
precisely what these initiatives are all about.
