The Terrorist Threat Integration Center: Now Share This

The latest effort at government information sharing comes in the form of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, dubbed the TTIC.

By Paul Roberts

July 01, 2003 — CSO — They say there's safety in numbers. Well, the government has just added another agency. Feel any safer?

The latest effort at government information sharing comes in the form of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, dubbed the TTIC. The TTIC will collect information on terrorist activities, evaluate that information and circulate it to the appropriate government agency. "What we're trying to do is have the TTIC serve as the central hub to provide and receive information," says John Brennan, the TTIC's new director. But, because Brennan reports to George Tenet, director of the CIA, the new center is perceived by many as just another CIA operationwhich will deny the TTIC the independence it needs to succeed. If it is perceived as an offshoot of the CIA, some intelligence experts worry that the TTIC may face the same distrust that other Washington intelligence agencies have for the CIA. The CIA has long been viewed as an island unto itselfan island that has failed to share intelligence information. "The TTIC is not going to be as effective as it could be for the simple reason that it's going to be attached at the hip with the CIA," says Phil Anderson, a senior fellow and head of homeland security for the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

Still, the center will serve an important purpose, notes Anderson. "The TTIC is going to integrate information from the federal, state and local level as well as the private sector," he says. "You're talking about a lot of information and specific analysis that hasn't been done by one entity up to this point."

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