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PREVENTING FUTURE ATTACKS INSIDE THE UNITED STATES

SUGGESTED QUESTIONS FOR JOHN O. BRENNAN

Designated Commissioners: Fred Fielding & Jamie Gorelick

Background: When the President announced the formation of the Terrorist Threat
Integration Center in his State of the Union speech in January 2003 he said that he had
instructed that this new center be created to "close the seam between analysis of foreign
and domestic intelligence on terrorism ...[and that]...this new center will merge and
analyze terrorist related information collected domestically and abroad in order to form
the most comprehensive possible threat picture. " The White House also noted in a news
release that: [TTIC will] "be responsible and accountable for providing terrorist threat
assessments to our national leadership. " Our investigation so far has indicated that TTIC
has struggled to get started, but currently has 123 "assignees "from CIA, DHS, FBI,
DoD, State and other agencies. It produces the President's daily Terrorist Threat Report
(PTTR or "putter"), the Terrorist Threat Matrix, a twice daily situation report (SitRep),
as well as threat warnings andSEIB articles. TTIC currently receives its funding from
"taxes " on the agencies it draws staff from and is working toward moving out of CIA HQ
to a new facility.

1. How has the establishment of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center helped to
make America safer?
2. Does the Terrorist Threat Integration Center have lead responsibility for warning
of terrorist attacks, and if so, what steps have you taken to meet this
responsibility?
3. What authority do you have over the agencies that collect and produce
intelligence that the Terrorist Threat Integration Center must rely on for its
reporting? Can you task the agencies that collect intelligence data?
4. Can you drive the analytic agendas of the large intelligence agencies?
5. How does the Terrorist Threat Integration Center differ from the CIA's
Counterterrorism Center and the Department of Homeland Security's Directorate
of Information Analysis (DHS/IA)?
6. Will the Terrorist Threat Integration Center perform long term strategic analysis
on emerging terrorist organizations, their intentions, and their possible methods of
attack?
7. Do you have responsibility for assessing and analyzing the leadership, strategy,
organization, and long term threat potential of al-Qa'ida and affiliates and other
terrorist groups or are you limited to analyzing only threat information?
8. Since you report to the Director of Central Intelligence, what is his charge to you,
what does he want you to accomplish in the first year? Over the next five years?
What goals have you set for the Terrorist Threat Integration Center?

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9. What is the Terrorist Threat Integration Center's responsibility to state and local
government authorities?
10. We understand the DCI asked former Deputy DCI Mr. Richard Kerr to lead a
panel last year to assess the division of labor between the Counterterrorist Center
and the Terrorist Threat Integration Center. What were the findings of that panel
and its major recommendations? What is your time horizon for implementing
them?

Fusion and Confusion. Commission staff has found that the establishment ofTTIC and
IA in the Department of Homeland Security has created more confusion than clarity. In
fact, the Second Report of the Markle Foundation Task Force released in December
2000, says "...the very fact of the TTIC's creation has caused confusion within the
federal government and among state and local governments about the respective roles of
the TTIC and the DHS. Moreover, we understand that the TTIC is presently focused on
only one part of its assigned mission - 'providing terrorist threat assessments' ...for our
national leadership... While this is an important function, the TTIC's single-minded focus
on this one aspect of its mission has prevented it from addressing the urgent intelligence
needs of operational entities throughout the government and serving as a key locus for
intelligence fusion and sharing. "

1. hi your view has the creation of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center and the
Department of Homeland Security's Directorate of Information Analysis helped
with the critical fusion of terrorist information that was lacking before the 9/11
attacks or exacerbated the problem? How can you assure us that similar
information sharing problems that occurred prior to 9-11 are fixed?
2. How have databases been combined or networked across the Intelligence
Community to aid the Terrorist Threat Integration Center in meeting its
responsibilities? To what data bases do your analysts have direct access? Do
they each have all accesses or do assignees only have access to their own
agencies' databases?

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