“The National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) was established in 2004 to ensure that information from any source about potential terrorist acts against the U.S. could be made available to analysts and that appropriate responses could be planned..As a component of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the NCTC is composed of analysts with backgrounds in many government agencies and has access to various agency databases. It prepares studies ranging from strategic assessment of the future terrorist threats to daily briefings and situation reports. It is also responsible, directly to the President, for planning (but not directing) counterterrorism efforts. The NCTC received a statutory charter in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-458); it currently operates with a staff of some 600 analysts from a headquarters in northern Virginia. The Senate must consent to the appointment of the NCTC Director. Two recent incidents–the assassination by an Army Major of some 13 individuals at Fort Hood Army Base on November 5, 2009 and the failed attempt to trigger a bomb on an airliner approaching Detroit on December 25, 2009–led to increased concern about counterterrorism capabilities domestically and internationally. An Executive Branch assessment of the December bombing attempt concluded that, whereas information sharing had been adequate, analysts had failed to “connect the dots” and achieve an understanding of an ongoing plot…”
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