fact that some governments are heavily involved in sponsoring terror-
ism for their own purposes. Furthermore, states tend to define terrorism
differently, oftentimes lending support to “freedom fighters” with
whom they empathize while condemning the others as terrorists.TERRORISM THREAT INTEGRATION CENTER (TTIC).The
TTIC, established by President George W. Bushin early 2003 as part
of his “war on terrorism” strategy, marshaled resources from across
the intelligence, law enforcement, and homeland security communi-
ties in a common fight against terrorism. Specifically, the TTIC
brought intelligence analysts from across the intelligence commu-
nity (IC) together to assess, analyze and disseminate terrorist threat
information. Under the terms of its mandate, TTIC analysts were re-
sponsible for assessing, integrating, and expeditiously disseminating
available threat information and analysis; maintaining an all-source
database on known and suspected terrorists; and identifying collec-
tion requirements related to the terrorist threat. The TTIC’s establish-
ment was a tacit acknowledgment that there was little cooperation
and coordinationamong U.S. intelligence agencies on terrorism is-
sues prior to the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. The TTIC,
along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) countert-
errorism division and the Counterterrorism Center(CTC) of the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is slated eventually to be en-
tirely absorbed by the National Counterterrorism Center(NCC)
announced by President Bush in August 2004.TERRORIST ATTACKS OF 11 SEPTEMBER 2001. The terrorist at-
tacks of 11 September 2001, commonly referred to as the 9/11 attacks,
were a series of coordinated suicide attacks against the World Trade
Center towers in New York City and the Pentagon in suburban Wash-
ington, D.C. The attacks included the hijacking of three commercial
airliners and flying them into the buildings. Afourth hijacked aircraft
crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania. The U.S. government is con-
vinced that al Qai’da(also commonly referred to as al Qaeda) was re-
sponsible for the attacks, in which an estimated 3,000 people perished.
The attacks sparked the “war on terrorism,” part of which was the
invasion of Afghanistanin the fall of 2002 and the ouster of the rul-
ing Taliban Islamist government. President George W.Bushalso
tried to justify the 2003 war on Iraq with the 9/11 events, but the link202 • TERRORISM THREAT INTEGRATION CENTER05-398 (2) Dictionary.qxd 10/20/05 6:27 AM Page 202