Counterterrorist Intelligence Center
Encyclopedia
A Counterterrorist Intelligence Center (CTIC) is, according to a Washington Post November 18, 2005 front page article by Dana Priest
, a counterterrorist operations center run jointly by the CIA and foreign intelligence
services as part of the US "War on Terror
" .
The CTIC were modeled on the CIA's counternarcotics centers
in Latin America and Asia. In the 1980s the CIA persuaded these states to let it select individuals for the assignment, pay them and keep them physically separate from their own institutions. Officers from the host stations serving in the CTICs are vetted by the CIA, and usually supervised by the CIA's Chief of Station and augmented by officers sent from the Counterterrorist Center
at Langley
.
According to two intelligence officials interviewed by Dana Priest, "the first two CTICs were established in the late 1990s to watch and capture Islamic militants traveling from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt and Chechnya to join the fighting in Bosnia
and other parts of the former Yugoslavia." The National Security Agency
is a partner in the CTICs, and has established a Foreign Affairs Directorate that now handles sharing information and equipment with 40 countries.
CIA former director George Tenet
convinced Yemen
ite president Ali Abdullah Saleh
to work with the CIA. Tenet sent material and 100 Army Special Forces trainers to help Yemen create an antiterrorism unit after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. He also obtained the authorizations to fly Predator drones over Yemen. The CIA killed six al Qaeda operatives, including Abu Ali al-Harithi, suspected mastermind of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, with such a drone, sent from the French military base in Djibouti
.
is run by a General of the DGSE French intelligence agency, and gathers the CIA, the MI6, the BND
, and Australian and Canadian intelligence agencies. It took part in the arrest of the German convert to Islam Christian Ganczarski
, imprisoned in Fresnes Prison
in Paris in June 2003. Investigative journalist Dana Priest
referred to the Alliance Base in a July 3, 2005 article , and its existence was confirmed on 8 September 2006 by Christophe Chaboud, chief of the UCLAT ("Unité de Coordination de la Lutte contre le Terrorisme", "Fight against Terrorism Coordination Unit"), in an interview to RFI
.
and the SID. However, in the current Imam Rapito affair
, the Milan magistrates have spoken of a "concerted CIA-SISMI operation." Former CIA responsible in Italy, Jeffrey W. Castelli
, Milan station chief Robert Seldon Lady
, as well as 24 others CIA agents, and head of SISMI Nicolò Pollari
and his second Marco Mancini
have been indicted in 2006 by the Italian justice for this affair.
Dana Priest
Dana Priest is an American author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Priest has worked almost 20 years for The Washington Post. As one of the Post's specialists on National Security she has written many articles on the United States' "War on terror." In 2006 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Beat...
, a counterterrorist operations center run jointly by the CIA and foreign intelligence
Intelligence (information gathering)
Intelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...
services as part of the US "War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
" .
Description of CTIC
According to Dana Priest's article, on which the CIA declined to comment at the time:- CTICs exist in more than two dozen countries, including UzbekistanUzbekistanUzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
, IndonesiaIndonesiaIndonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
(intelligence services headed by Lt. Gen. Abdullah Hendropriyono), FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
(see Alliance BaseAlliance BaseAlliance Base was the cover name for a secret Western Counterterrorist Intelligence Center that existed between 2002 and 2009 in Paris. The existence of CTICs were first revealed by Dana Priest in a November 17, 2005 Washington Post article, while she referred to the Alliance Base in a July 2,...
in Paris, which is headed by a DGSE French General and includes British, GermanBNDBND may stand for:* Bundesnachrichtendienst, German intelligence agency* Bank of North Dakota* Buy Nothing Day* Brunei dollar * BTEC National Diploma...
, Canadian and Australian intelligence agencies).
- They are "financed mostly by the agency and employ some of the best espionageEspionageEspionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...
technology the CIA has to offer". They also have "computers linked to the CIA's central databases, and access to highly classified intercepts."
- They are used by the CIA and the foreign services to jointly "make daily decisions on when and how to apprehend suspects [of terrorism], whether to whisk them offExtraordinary renditionExtraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...
to other countries for interrogationInterrogationInterrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime...
and detentionDetention (imprisonment)Detention is the process when a state, government or citizen lawfully holds a person by removing their freedom of liberty at that time. This can be due to criminal charges being raised against the individual as part of a prosecution or to protect a person or property...
, and how to disrupt al Qaeda's logistical and financial support."
- They are distincts from the CIA "black sites", or secret detention centers.
The CTIC were modeled on the CIA's counternarcotics centers
War on Drugs
The War on Drugs is a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid and military intervention being undertaken by the United States government, with the assistance of participating countries, intended to both define and reduce the illegal drug trade...
in Latin America and Asia. In the 1980s the CIA persuaded these states to let it select individuals for the assignment, pay them and keep them physically separate from their own institutions. Officers from the host stations serving in the CTICs are vetted by the CIA, and usually supervised by the CIA's Chief of Station and augmented by officers sent from the Counterterrorist Center
Counterterrorist Center
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's Counterterrorism Center was established in 1986. It is not to be confused with the National Counterterrorism Center, a separate entity.-Foundation and early years:...
at Langley
Langley, Virginia
Langley is an unincorporated community in the census-designated place of McLean in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States.The community was essentially absorbed into McLean many years ago, although there is still a Langley High School...
.
According to two intelligence officials interviewed by Dana Priest, "the first two CTICs were established in the late 1990s to watch and capture Islamic militants traveling from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt and Chechnya to join the fighting in Bosnia
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
and other parts of the former Yugoslavia." The National Security Agency
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is a cryptologic intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and foreign signals intelligence, as well as protecting U.S...
is a partner in the CTICs, and has established a Foreign Affairs Directorate that now handles sharing information and equipment with 40 countries.
CIA former director George Tenet
George Tenet
George John Tenet was the Director of Central Intelligence for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, and is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University....
convinced Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
ite president Ali Abdullah Saleh
Ali Abdullah Saleh
Field Marshal Ali Abdullah Saleh is the first President of the Republic of Yemen. Saleh previously served as President of the Yemen Arab Republic from 1978 until 1990, at which time he assumed the office of chairman of the Presidential Council of a post-unification Yemen. He is the...
to work with the CIA. Tenet sent material and 100 Army Special Forces trainers to help Yemen create an antiterrorism unit after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. He also obtained the authorizations to fly Predator drones over Yemen. The CIA killed six al Qaeda operatives, including Abu Ali al-Harithi, suspected mastermind of the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, with such a drone, sent from the French military base in Djibouti
Djibouti
Djibouti , officially the Republic of Djibouti , is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east...
.
Alliance Base
In Paris, the Alliance BaseAlliance Base
Alliance Base was the cover name for a secret Western Counterterrorist Intelligence Center that existed between 2002 and 2009 in Paris. The existence of CTICs were first revealed by Dana Priest in a November 17, 2005 Washington Post article, while she referred to the Alliance Base in a July 2,...
is run by a General of the DGSE French intelligence agency, and gathers the CIA, the MI6, the BND
BND
BND may stand for:* Bundesnachrichtendienst, German intelligence agency* Bank of North Dakota* Buy Nothing Day* Brunei dollar * BTEC National Diploma...
, and Australian and Canadian intelligence agencies. It took part in the arrest of the German convert to Islam Christian Ganczarski
Christian Ganczarski
Christian Ganczarski, born 1966 in Gliwice, Silesia, Poland, is a German citizen of Polish ancestry who converted to Islam. He is one of the individuals who has been described as the head of "al Qaeda in Europe"...
, imprisoned in Fresnes Prison
Fresnes Prison
Fresnes Prison is the second largest prison in France, located in the town of Fresnes, Val-de-Marne South of Paris...
in Paris in June 2003. Investigative journalist Dana Priest
Dana Priest
Dana Priest is an American author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. Priest has worked almost 20 years for The Washington Post. As one of the Post's specialists on National Security she has written many articles on the United States' "War on terror." In 2006 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Beat...
referred to the Alliance Base in a July 3, 2005 article , and its existence was confirmed on 8 September 2006 by Christophe Chaboud, chief of the UCLAT ("Unité de Coordination de la Lutte contre le Terrorisme", "Fight against Terrorism Coordination Unit"), in an interview to RFI
Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale was created in 1975 as part of Radio France by the Government of France, and replaced the Poste Colonial , Paris Mondial , Radio Paris , RTF Radio Paris and ORTF Radio Paris...
.
Italy
Italy was not invited to participate in Alliance Base, allegedly because of jealousies between the SISMISISMI
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977-2007....
and the SID. However, in the current Imam Rapito affair
Imam Rapito affair
The Abu Omar Case refers to the abduction and transfer to Egypt of the Imam of Milan Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar...
, the Milan magistrates have spoken of a "concerted CIA-SISMI operation." Former CIA responsible in Italy, Jeffrey W. Castelli
Jeffrey W. Castelli
Jeffrey W. Castelli is a noted member of the U.S. intelligence community. He was the CIA station chief in Rome at the time the Niger uranium forgeries were received by U.S...
, Milan station chief Robert Seldon Lady
Robert Seldon Lady
Robert Seldon Lady is a convicted kidnapper and a noted member of the U.S...
, as well as 24 others CIA agents, and head of SISMI Nicolò Pollari
Nicolò Pollari
Nicolò Pollari is a general of the Italian Guardia di Finanza, who was the former head of Italy's national military intelligence agency, or SISMI, until his resignation on 20 November 2006.He was born in Caltanissetta, Sicily....
and his second Marco Mancini
Marco Mancini
Marco Mancini was the second-highest ranking officer of Sismi, the military intelligence agency of Italy until his 5 July 2006 arrest for his participation in the kidnapping of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr...
have been indicted in 2006 by the Italian justice for this affair.