COURIC: The 9/11 attacks were a kind of puzzle the government
couldn't solve with all kinds of warnings and clues. Would we get it
right today? David Martin found an unmarked building in the
Washington suburbs where secrets are being shared.
SCOTT REDD (Director, National Counterterrorism Center): Before
9/11, there were 13 different databases on known terrorist identities.
They were disconnected, different agencies and people didn't talk to
each other.
DAVID MARTIN: Scott Redd may be the most important person
you've never heard of. As head of the new and very secret National
Counterterrorism Center, it is his job to make all the different
intelligence agencies and their computers talk to each other and share
everything they know about terrorist plots against this country.
So you're the guy in charge of the war plan for the war against
terror?
REDD: That's one way of putting it, yes, sir.
MARTIN: And you give that to the President?
REDD: Well, yes, sir, I do.
MARTIN: Another way of describing your job might be to make
sure something like 9/11 never happens again.
REDD: That's what we worry about every day, David.
MARTIN: Known by the initials NCTC, the Counterterrorism Center
is normally off-limits and we're not allowed to tell you exactly where
this building is, but we were given unprecedented access to this brand
new, state-of-the-art nerve center.
Because this center is so new, it is loaded with the kind of
gadgets that make this make this conference room look like a made-for-
TV movie, but it's not the gadgets that make this room the hub of the
war against terror; it's the business that's transacted here.
You do this every morning?
KEVIN BROCK (FBI Agent): Every morning at eight o'clock.
MARTIN: FBI agent Kevin Brock chairs the morning's top-secret
meeting.
BROCK: Here is where we exchange current intelligence, daily
intelligence about what the terrorism threat is out there, and we talk
about and we make sure that information is being exchanged freely
among the agencies in the intelligence community.
MARTIN: For the first time in the history of this country, 18
different intelligence agencies are routinely sharing the kind of
sensitive information they used to keep to themselves. We're not
allowed to stay long.
BROCK: Good morning, everybody, we're going to get started.
MARTIN: And when you listen to the roll call, you'll understand
why.
BROCK: CIA, good morning. NSA, good morning. White House,
good morning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: White House here.
MARTIN: Every morning begins with an update of the threat
matrix, intelligence that has come in overnight on plots against this
country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, everyone. We have two SIT
items and seven threat matrix items to brief this morning.
MARTIN: One of those SIT reps, short for situation report
contains the latest developments in the London bomb plot, which was
just broken up the day before we were here. Redd recited for us the
message he sent to his staff after that.
REDD: I said this was just the type of event that NCTC was
established to address. The amount of effort that went into foiling
this plot was admirable and extremely effective. Bottom line is: We
save lives.
MARTIN: And the corollary is, watch out for the next one?
REDD: Watch out for the next one. Never let your guard down.
MARTIN: That's why the operation center goes 24/7. Randy
Crawford is the supervisor of this watch.
Is this some sort of an airline -
RANDY CRAWFORD (National Counterterrorism Center): That's an
aircraft tracker and what that is used for tracking aircraft movement
around the United States. These are aircraft that are inbound to the
Washington National Capital Region, and we can go in and pull up their
flight numbers.
MARTIN: They can also call up the passenger manifest and check
it against the no-fly list of known or suspected terrorists.
CRAWFORD: Earlier this week, there was a no-fly on a flight
bound from Heathrow into the United States, and sure enough, we got
the list and there was a no-fly on it and the plane turned around and
landed at Heathrow.
MARTIN: There's a name on there that corresponds to a name on
that huge database that you keep of all suspected terrorists, and then
that's enough for someone else to make the decision to turn a plane
around.
CRAWFORD: Yes.
RUSS TRAVERS (National Counterterrorism Center): Information
sharing is undoubtedly the most complex thing I've ever been
associated with.
MARTIN: Russ Travers is responsible for keeping that list of
suspected terrorists accurate and up to date.
How big is that database?
TRAVERS: It's got between 300,000 and 400,000 names in it now.
It's huge. It doubled in '04 and it doubled again in '05.
MARTIN: Sorting through the 6,000 cables that come in each day
and the six million documents stored on the Center's internal Web site
is a task of mind-boggling complexity, but Redd insists it's night and
day better than before 9/11.
REDD: Five years on, we're better prepared today to fight this
war than we have been at any time in our history.
MARTIN: We're better prepared, but are we winning?
REDD: You don't know a commander that is going to tell you that
he is winning the war in the midst of a war. There are too many
unknowns out there, but I will say this, it's a long war and if we
have the perseverance to stick with it, we'll lose a few battles along
the way and that's almost inevitable, but we're going to win most of
the battles and at the end of the day, Lord willing, we'll win the
war.
PRESIDENT BUSH: If the United States ever says, oh, my
goodness, I don't want to defend democracy because somebody might harm
us, we will have lost our soul.
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