From Newsmax By Ronald Kessler :
WASHINGTON - No known terrorist plots are planned to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, according to Kevin R. Brock, the principal deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center. However, Brock, an FBI agent detailed to the NCTC, said in an interview that the possibility cannot be ruled out.
The interview with Brock took place on the day before British authorities began making arrests of terrorists planning to detonate explosives in multiple airplanes flying from London to the U.S. The NCTC, CIA, FBI and NSA had been working closely with the British since the outlines of that plot became known last year. After the plot came out, Brock said, "Thankfully, a very serious plot in England was interrupted.
We obviously have concerns about the anniversary, and we have collection requirements out there to be sensitive to any possible anniversary related plotting. As I mentioned, while we have no reporting that there's attack-planning tied specifically to the anniversary right now, we're of course alert to it, especially in light of this week's events."
Despite this latest success and the fact that dozens of other plots have been rolled up in the U.S., the media and many politicians have continued to portray the war on terror as a failure. The critics' refrain is that the FBI and the CIA don't speak to each other, the intelligence community is dysfunctional, the FBI does not understand intelligence, and the CIA lacks any sources.
A visit to the NCTC, which rarely allows journalists inside, illustrates how wrong that criticism is. Created by President Bush in August 2004 on the recommendation of the 9/11 commission, the NCTC reports to John D. Negroponte, the director of National Intelligence. The center is charged with integrating and analyzing all intelligence relating to terrorism and counterterrorism and with conducting strategic operational planning.
The NCTC opened in January 2005 in a secure building in northern Virginia owned by the CIA. Only those cleared through a check with the FBI and other federal agencies are allowed to enter. At the entrance to the parking facilities, cars file past the security checkpoint, employees displaying their badges with familiar faces.
A member of the "United States Police" - actually the CIA's security force - comes out of the guard house to stop visitors and ask their business, as his walkie-talkie crackles with 10-4s. Just inside the lobby, two large welcome mats bear the words Liberty Crossing, the name of the six-story building. All sections of offices are secure, and most doors have a cipher lock, requiring the entry of lengthy codes on key pads to enter.
The offices inside, with their desks of warm colored wood and geometric patterned carpeting in wheat and gray, appear to be all seriousness-except for the occasional personal touch to the name plate, such as multiple M&M stickers. The heart of the complex is a 10,000 square foot operations center that looks like a giant television studio. Here, dozens of analysts from the CIA, FBI, NSA, and other intelligence agencies which supposedly don't talk to each other sit side-by-side sharing intelligence and tracking threats 24 hours a day.
On either end of the operations center are two additional spaces-for the watch centers of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division and the CIA's Counterterrorism Center. There is no wall separating any of the components, so anyone on the floor can walk into another agency's area and discuss the raw intelligence reports available to all of the NCTC's nearly 200 analysts.
Viewed from a balcony, the operations center has a huge television screen covering most of a two-story wall. On this screen a senior operations officer projects information on the latest threats and incidents, as well as Fox and CNN in segmented sections. For visitors, the screen is in unclassified mode, a condition signaled by two red flashing lights on the black ceiling. If a critical incident is occurring, such as the July 7, 2005 London bombings or a Cessna flying toward the White House, two flashing blue lights are turned on.
It's lunchtime, and about half of the 28 work stations on the floor are occupied. Most of the analysts, men and women in casual dress, are eating lunch at their desk, salads in clear plastic boxes or sandwiches on dark bread. Meanwhile, they look at cables they call up on their flat screens. Each desk has a minimum of three computer screens, and the center has 350 personal computers.
During each 24-hour period, 4,000 to 8,000 cables come into the NCTC. Throughout the interview with him, Kevin Brock never hinted at the presence of an elephant in the room-the foiling of the airlines plot in England, unraveling at that very moment.
In the interview, Brock said that since 9/11, al-Qaida has been "diminished," and their core leadership has been "severely damaged." Their ability to communicate and issue commands has been "degraded significantly." Mostly, they communicate through notes delivered by courier, Brock said. "From that standpoint, it's cumbersome for them to be as operational as they once were," Brock said. "That may be some good news, but the bad news is the degradation of AQ has contributed to a vacuum where other radical Sunni terrorist elements, in either direct or philosophical solidarity with AQ, have stepped into the breach in a worrisome way."
The latest threat is homegrown terrorists who emulate al-Qaida, Brock said. "These are young men who are not from the Middle East but become radicalized in the countries where they grew up," Brock said. "They take actions where they actually kill themselves. This type of threat is out there, it exists, it's very difficult to track, it springs up without a moment's notice.
So to gather the intelligence on this is very tricky. It's not a known, concrete enemy like the Soviet Union was - a hard intelligence target that could be studied and strategized against. This is moving fast. And it's changing shape every month. And so from that standpoint, we are still in an intense threat atmosphere." Yet while al-Qaida is "seriously degraded, and things are significantly harder for them thanks to our government's actions, that doesn't mean they're out of the game," Brock said. "They're still orchestrating plots, but with much greater difficulty than prior to 9/11."
The London plot to crash American airliners flying to the U.S. was homegrown in the sense that those arrested in Great Britain, in contrast to the 9/11 hijackers from the Middle East, were born there. But after the London plot was revealed, Brock said, "Apparent connections to al-Qaida are still being explored." As for the possibility of Hezbollah attacking U.S. interests, "We know they have the capability, or we assess that they have the capability around the world, less so here in the U.S., but we do not assess that there's an immediate threat from a Hezbollah terror attack in the U.S.," Brock said. "Now, the conflict's going on, and it's a fluid situation."
Brock presides over an 8 a.m. secure teleconference with the rest of the intelligence community, which is supposedly disorganized and not on speaking terms with each other. Additional conferences are held at 3 p.m. and at 1 a.m. seven days a week. The room where the conferences-known as SVTCs-take place is straight out of "Dr. Strangelove." On an oak oval table, which seats at least 20, are mice belonging to eight invisible computers which a command on a touch screen orders to rise like Atlantis from somewhere at the center of the table. At the end of the table are plasma screens that, during the SVTC, show talking heads of certain high-level, security-cleared members of the intelligence community-at the FBI, CIA, NSA, Pentagon, and Department of Homeland Security, as well as at the White House. The table has another surprise - an open space in the middle. Another command to the touch screen and voila, the table folds out at one end. This is so that during a video conference, everyone at the table can get into the picture.
During the conference, which lasts an hour or two, officials discuss the latest threats, get updates, plot strategy, and make sure leads are covered by the appropriate agencies. Clearly, the fact that the U.S. has not been attacked since 9/11 is testimony to the success of the war on terror. That is because, "Number one, we have seriously degraded al-Qaida's capabilities," Brock said. "Two, we have hardened ourselves. It's difficult to pull off the same type of event and conspiracy. Number three, radicalization in this country isn't happening as rapidly as it is around the world, possibly because of our long tradition of assimilation. And there's a lot of luck involved. And because we're on top of our threats, we're exchanging information rapidly, transparently, that's helped."
After 9/11, the criticism was that the intelligence community had not connected the dots. The truth was that there were no dots to connect. There were clues that, if followed up and put together, might have led to information about the plot. But the information necessary to uncover the 9/11 plots was not there. Now, "We're doing a pretty good job, not just the U.S. intelligence community but our allies around the world, of developing the sources that are needed to alert on a lot of potential plots out there," Brock said. In the case of the recent London plot, "The cooperation between the intelligence and law enforcement communities in our two countries was fantastic."
So, Brock said, "There's a lot of good success stories of plots being interdicted. But obviously there are others that are coming to fruition without anybody even knowing about it, till something goes bang."
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