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Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2003 22:00:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: AMBOLLC@xxxxxxx
Subject: Fwd: U.S. Terrorist Screening Center to be Operational by December 1
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From: US Dept of State Mailing List Mgr <Listmgr@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: U.S. Terrorist Screening Center to be Operational by December 1
To: WF-EUROPE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
U.S. Terrorist Screening Center to be Operational by December 1
(Multi-agency facility will consolidate terrorist watchlists) (2420)
The U.S. government is consolidating numerous terrorist screening
mechanisms into a single, comprehensive, anti-terror watchlist that will
be operational by December 1, 2003.
In a press release dated September 16, Attorney General John Ashcroft,
Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, Secretary of State Colin Powell,
FBI Director Robert Mueller and Director of Central Intelligence George
Tenet announced the establishment of the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC)
to consolidate terrorist watchlists and provide 24-hour-a-day,
seven-day-a-week operational support for thousands of federal screeners
across the country and around the world.
The new center will ensure that government investigators, screeners and
agents are working from the same comprehensive information -- and that
they have access simultaneously to information and expertise that will
allow them to act quickly when a suspected terrorist is screened or
stopped.
"The Terrorist Screening Center will provide 'one-stop shopping' so that
every federal anti-terrorist screener is working off the same page --
whether it's an airport screener, an embassy official issuing visas
overseas, or an FBI agent on the street," Ashcroft said.
The Department of State and the CIA are collaborating to ensure that the
identities of thousands of known and suspected terrorists are integrated
into the State Department's TIPOFF system and accessible to consular
officers and Department of Homeland Security border inspectors worldwide.
The TIPOFF program will form the basis for the TSC database.
In praise of the initiative, Secretary Powell said "We look forward to a
successful partnership with our fellow agencies in the war on terrorism."
The creation of the TSC does not provide any new law enforcement or
collection powers to any government official; it simply consolidates
information that law enforcement, the Intelligence Community, the State
Department, and others already possess.
The TSC was established by a presidential directive to the heads of all
departments and agencies.
The texts of the press release and fact sheet follow:
(begin press release)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Office of the Press Secretary
September 16, 2003
NEW TERRORIST SCREENING CENTER ESTABLISHED
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CONSOLIDATES TERRORIST SCREENING INTO SINGLE
COMPREHENSIVE ANTI-TERRORIST WATCHLIST
WASHINGTON -- Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of Homeland
Security Tom Ridge, Secretary of State Colin Powell, FBI Director Robert
Mueller and Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet today announced
the establishment of the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) to consolidate
terrorist watchlists and provide 24/7 operational support for thousands of
federal screeners across the country and around the world. The Center
will ensure that government investigators, screeners and agents are
working off the same unified, comprehensive set of anti-terrorist
information -- and that they have access to information and expertise that
will allow them to act quickly when a suspected terrorist is screened or
stopped.
Today's action marks another significant step forward in President George
W. Bush's strategy to protect America's communities and families by
detecting, disrupting and disabling terrorist threats.
"The creation of the TSC is one of several new critical initiatives taken
by this administration to increase the sharing of information at all
levels of government. The department's new Information Analysis and
Infrastructure Protection (IA/IP) unit allows DHS to analyze information
and take specific action to protect critical infrastructure. Another
important development, the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC), was
created to ensure that all members of the federal government's
intelligence community have access to the same information," said
Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge. "The job of the new Terrorist
Screening Center is to make sure we get this information out to our agents
on the borders and all those who can put it to use on the front lines --
and to get it there fast."
The TSC builds on numerous steps taken by this administration since the
attacks of September 11, 2001, to improve our ability to identify and stop
terrorists before they act against us. For example, the TTIC and the
IA/IP Directorate were designed to enhance intelligence fusion -- to bring
together all terrorist information in one place, enabling America's best
intelligence analysts and investigators from multiple departments to work
as a team to put together the pieces of the puzzle.
"President Bush's Number One priority is protecting the lives and
liberties of the American people by defeating terrorism," said Attorney
General Ashcroft. "Right now, there are several major watchlists and
related systems. But with each separate watchlist comes the potential for
another seam. The Terrorist Screening Center will provide 'one-stop
shopping' so that every federal anti-terrorist screener is working off the
same page -- whether it's an airport screener, an embassy official issuing
visas overseas, or an FBI agent on the street. The creation of the new
Center means that all government agents will be able to run name checks
against the same comprehensive list with the most accurate, up-to-date
information about potential terrorists. That's how we can stop terrorists
before they launch an attack."
"The Department of State is proud to be part of the Terrorist Screening
Center," Secretary of State Powell said. "This cooperative effort will
help the United States fight terrorism by identifying visa applicants and
others who are known to be threats to our security, before they can do us
harm. Combining the knowledge of the FBI, Department of Justice,
Intelligence Community, Department of Homeland Security and the Department
of State's TIPOFF program is a long-desired goal that is now reality. We
are gratified that the State Department's TIPOFF program, which contains
over 100,000 names of potential terrorists, will form the basis for both
the TTIC and TSC databases. Real-time access by our consular officers to
the information provided by the other agencies will make visa issuance
more secure and better protect America's borders. We look forward to a
successful partnership with our fellow agencies in the war on terrorism."
"The TSC will increase the chances of detaining or arresting terrorists
before they strike," said Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet.
"What's different about the TSC is the ability to make that information
available in real time, constantly updated, 24 hours a day and across the
board," said FBI Director Robert Mueller. "By providing this
around-the-clock service to anti-terrorist screeners throughout the
federal government, the new Center will ensure not only that those who
need it will have access to the best, most current information, but they
will also have access to on-call experts who can support them in taking
immediate and appropriate action to stop terrorists and prevent attacks at
any hour of the day or night."
In addition to establishing the IA/IP Directorate of the Department of
Homeland Security, the TTIC, and the new TSC, the administration since
2001 has undertaken a series of concerted steps to ensure the effective
use of watchlist information to disrupt and apprehend terrorists. The
Department of State and the CIA are collaborating to ensure that the
identities of thousands of known and suspected terrorists are integrated
into the State Department's TIPOFF system and accessible to consular
officers and Department of Homeland Security border inspectors worldwide.
The FBI has made information on subjects of their terrorism investigations
accessible through the National Crime Information Center system to 650,000
state and local law enforcement officers nationwide and has established a
24/7 watchlist unit to respond to calls from the field. The Department of
Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration has established
a "no fly" list, which has led to the successful apprehension of several
dangerous terrorist suspects.
The TSC is the government's latest step in an ongoing effort to integrate
counterterrorism efforts by all components of the federal government. The
consolidation of terrorist information and screening through the TSC is
vital to protecting the American people from terrorist threats. The 9/11
Congressional Joint Inquiry recommended the creation of such a center to
coordinate and integrate all terrorist-related watchlist systems.
The new TSC is a multi-agency center, anchored by the Departments of
Justice, Homeland Security, and State, and the intelligence community, and
administered by the FBI. The mission to develop the technical capability
for watchlist integration has been underway at the FBI's Foreign Terrorist
Tracking Task Force (FTTTF), where TSC operations will be phased in during
the coming weeks and operational by December 1, 2003. The TSC was
established today by a presidential directive to the heads of all
departments and agencies (Homeland Security Presidential Directive 6, or
"HSPD 6"). The Attorney General, the Secretaries of Homeland Security and
State, and the Director of Central Intelligence are implementing the
directive through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), an unclassified
version of which was made available today.
(end press release)
(begin fact sheet)
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Office of the Press Secretary
September 16, 2003
FACT SHEET: THE TERRORIST SCREENING CENTER
Today, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of Homeland Security Tom
Ridge, Secretary of State Colin Powell, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and
Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet announced the creation of
the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) to consolidate terrorist watchlists
and provide 24/7 operational support for thousands of Federal screeners
across the country and around the world. The TSC will ensure that
America's government screeners are working from the same unified set of
anti-terrorist information HBC comprehensive anti-terrorist list when a
suspected terrorist is screened or stopped anywhere in the federal system.
-- Better Informed: The TSC will allow federal, state, and local
officials to make better-informed decisions to protect the United States
from terrorist attacks. For example, better access to information will
make it easier for a consular officer posted in another country to
determine whether to grant a visa, or an immigration official at a U.S.
airport to decide whether a person is eligible to enter the United States.
-- Building Capabilities: Creation of the TSC marks another significant
step forward in the president's strategy to protect America's communities
and families by detecting, disrupting, and disabling terrorist threats.
The TSC builds on improvements to U.S. watchlist capabilities that began
in 2001, immediately following the September 11 attacks, including, most
recently, the president's creation of the Terrorist Threat Integration
Center (TTIC).
-- Consolidating Information: The TSC will receive the vast majority of
its information about known or suspected terrorists from the TTIC after
TTIC has assembled and analyzed that information from a wide range of
sources. In addition, the FBI will provide the TSC with information about
purely domestic terrorism, i.e., having no connection to international
terrorist activities. The TSC will consolidate this information into an
unclassified terrorist screening database and make the database accessible
to queries for federal, state, and local agencies for a variety of
screening purposes.
-- The TSC, through the participation of the Department of Homeland
Security, Department of Justice, Department of State, and Intelligence
Community representatives, will determine which information in the
database will be available for which types of screening.
-- For example, The Attorney General's and the Secretary of Homeland
Security's representatives to the TSC will decide which persons to include
in those records that may be queried directly by law enforcement officials
through the NCIC database. Similarly, the State Department
representative, consulting with the Department of Justice, Department of
Homeland Security, and Intelligence Community representatives, will
determine which information may be screened by foreign governments.
-- Safeguarding Information: The TSC will not independently collect any
information on U.S. citizens. In fact, the TSC does not collect
information at all -- it only receives information provided by the TTIC
and the FBI. The TTIC will provide to the TSC all appropriate and
necessary information connected to international terrorism about any
individuals -- U.S. citizens or not -- that TTIC partner agencies hold
pursuant to their own authorities and the FBI will provide to the TSC
appropriate and necessary information concerning domestic terrorism,
regardless of whether it involves U.S. citizens. If the TSC receives
information on U.S. citizens connected with terrorism, its use of that
information is subject to the same legal limitations to which it would be
subject if the information were not included in the database. Purely
domestic terrorism information will not go through TTIC, but will be
placed directly into the TSC database by the FBI. The Attorney General
has been directed to implement procedures and safeguards with respect to
information about U.S. persons, in coordination with the Secretary of
State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of Central
Intelligence.
-- The creation of the TSC does not provide any new law enforcement or
collection powers to any government official; it simply consolidates
information that law enforcement, the intelligence community, the State
Department, and others already possess and makes it accessible for query
to those who need it -- federal security screeners, state and local law
enforcement officers, and others. The TSC will have no independent
authority to conduct intelligence collection or other operations.
-- All information the TSC maintains will have been collected in
accordance with existing law, and TSC officials will continue to be bound
by any applicable laws and constitutional requirements that restrict the
use of that information and that protect privacy interests and other
liberties.
-- Information technology and information handling procedures will be
designed to comply with constitutional and other legal requirements, and
participants will continue to be answerable both to internal agency
oversight and congressional oversight.
-- Supporting the Mission: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will
administer the TSC. The Department of Homeland Security, the Department
of State, and others will coordinate with and assign operational and staff
support to the TSC.
-- The FBI is the appropriate administrator of the TSC's start-up
operations because of the Bureau's technical experience in watchlist
integration. Although the FBI will administer the TSC, the TSC will be an
interagency effort. As noted, the Departments of Homeland Security and
State and others will coordinate with and assign operational and staff
support to the TSC. The principal deputy director of the TSC will be a
Department of Homeland Security official. In addition to the Department
of Justice, the Department of State, and the Department of Homeland
Security, the intelligence community and other federal agencies will
assign representatives to the TSC. Each of these agencies will be
responsible for specific aspects of the TSC's work.
The TSC is being phased in via a coordinated interagency effort
administered by the FBI and will be operational by December 1, 2003.
(end fact sheet)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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