A new U.S. intelligence center designed to improve information sharing among U.S. counterterrorism agencies is set to open tomorrow, but some experts have predicted that interagency disputes will hamper the new center’s effectiveness (see GSN, April 28).

The new center, the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC), will involve a number of U.S. agencies, including the Homeland Security Department, the CIA, the FBI and the Defense Department’s intelligence agencies, according to the Chicago Tribune.  As late as last week, however, the FBI had not named someone to lead its involvement in the new center.  In addition, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and congressional officials have said it could take at least another year before agreements are in place granting the agencies access to each other’s raw intelligence information.

“I know they’re determined to get it going in the next two to three months on a preliminary basis.  (But) it probably will not be fully functional at least for a year, is my guess," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon forum last month.

Some congressional officials have said the delays may help the center because of the rivalries among the various agencies.

“It will have so many enemies — better that it moves slowly and surely,” an official said.  “There are enough people out there who have a vested interest in not doing it this way.  They will be waiting for missteps so they can step away,” the official added.

One former senior U.S. official doubted that the old rivalries among the various agencies could be overcome.

“The TTIC was, in a sense, imposed on everybody, so there is nobody out there who owns it right now, and that doesn’t help,” the former senior official said.  “We were persuasive in getting the president to announce it, which is putting a lot of oomph behind it.  But I think there is going to be a lot of foot-dragging,” the official added (Cam Simpson, Chicago Tribune, April 30).

Even though the new center will help improve interagency access to raw intelligence information on potential threats, that information must still be effectively analyzed, which is a difficult task, according to experts.

One concern is the time factor, according to counterterrorism officials and ex-CIA analysts.  To be effective, information on possible terrorist activities must be analyzed quickly, which could make it difficult to properly evaluate often-unreliable sources, they said.

“Intelligence is put out, and then we go and investigate or try to collect additional intelligence to say, ‘Here’s the texture of it? … Was it good intelligence?  Was it hard?’” a senior counterterrorism official said.  “We try to work as quickly as we can to add that texture, but it takes time,” the official added (Cam Simpson, Chicago Tribune II, April 30),

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