By KATHERINE SHRADER
Associated Press Writer
Thu Oct 13, 3:46 AM ET
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A top-secret bulletin zips across the globe, from Iraq to the National Counterterrorism Center, a leading nerve center for U.S. intelligence. The tip is critical: Terrorists may be plotting to blow up New York subways.
The operations center swings into action. Is the information credible? Are the people about to be grabbed in Iraq truly a threat? Well before the sun rises, counterterrorism chief John "Scott" Redd has already received several updates.
Morning, afternoon and middle of the night, conference calls connect counterterrorism experts to as many as a dozen U.S. agencies, including FBI, CIA and the Defense and State departments.
In New York, city officials decide to warn the public to be on the lookout for suspicious packages and behavior. In Washington, federal officials decide the tip isn't credible.
No bombs have gone off.
As the new NCTC chief, Redd was at the center of last week's efforts to analyze the threat.
In an interview at the start of his third month on the job, Redd described how the four years since 9/11 have brought sweeping changes to the way counterterrorism agencies communicate.
His center, for instance, has access to 26 different computer networks containing intelligence information and brings that information together into NCTC online, available to 4,000 counterterrorism experts across the government. That, he says, is unprecedented.
Some information is also shared directly with foreign allies. While Redd declines to offer specifics, intelligence experts have long said countries such as Britain are among the United States' closest partners.
The NCTC's operations center — complete with flat-panel televisions and easy-on-the-eyes lighting — is considered state of the art. Most of the desks can move, allowing the al-Qaida and weapons experts to sit together — or in whatever configuration best addresses the current threats.
The center officially came into existence in December, absorbing a counterterrorism analysis operation called the Terrorist Threat Integration Center. In the process, the NCTC won more authority.
A mathematician, Redd was reluctant to give a score on the progress the U.S. government has made in working together. But, he said, on a 10-point scale, "It's above five."
As often happens in government, the center has had growing pains.
Redd's predecessor and senior CIA leaders fought for months over how many counterterror analysts the CIA should share with the NCTC. Some in Congress and elsewhere have also questioned whether the wave of intelligence reforms has only created more bureaucracy and confusing chains of command.
Redd said he comfortably wears two hats: He's the president's top adviser on terrorism, but he also answers to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte while serving as his "mission manager" for terrorism analysis and strategy.
The retired Navy vice admiral, who spent much of his career aboard ships, has come a long way from Sidney, Iowa, population 1,000.
He remembers making up a street number for his amateur radio license application because the town was so small actual numbers weren't necessary. Redd's first trip east of the Mississippi River was to report for his freshman year at the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1962.
In the bureaucratic hierarchy, Redd is now considered an equal to CIA Director Porter Goss.
Here's a look at some of Redd's views on the latest threats:
• Osama bin Laden can't communicate with his followers the way he had in the past. "The more you communicate, the more you try to directly run an organization, the more vulnerable you are," Redd said. "And he is pretty deep in hiding. We know he is not communicating very much."
• Al-Qaida is changing. "My analysts would probably tell you that since 9/11, there have been very few terrorist operations which have been directed directly by al-Qaida," Redd said. "They may have influenced them, they may have had prior knowledge, but by and large, we have really set them back on their heels."
• While Redd directs specifics on the July attacks in London to British investigators, he said it appears that al-Qaida may have had a closer connection to the successful bombings on July 7 than the failed attacks two weeks later. But "the jury is still out" on any connections to al-Qaida's central leadership, he said.
• The London attacks provide a valuable lesson. "'Fortress America' doesn't work. ... You can't assume that every threat that comes to the country is going to come across the border," Redd said. "There is always the possibility that it could be internal."
• Terrorists are paying attention to events in the United States, including the hurricanes. "We know that they are reasonably media savvy," he said.
• The war on terror may take a generation and that's part of the reason Redd said he took the job. "The Cold War took 40 years. We don't know how long this one is going to take. I may not be around before this is finished, but my grandchildren will be around."
What threat keeps Redd up at night? "The one I don't know about."
