National Counterterrorism Center NCTC

The 9/11 Commission found that warnings before the attacks were scattered among agencies that did not share them. President George W. Bush created the National Counterterrorism Center by executive order on August 27, 2004, and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of December 2004 placed it in the new Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Its director is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.

The center, in McLean, Virginia, brings together analysts and officers from the CIA, FBI, NSA, Defense, Homeland Security, State, and other agencies. It analyzes all intelligence on international terrorism except purely domestic terrorism, produces daily threat reports for the President and senior officials, and runs a central database of known and suspected international terrorists, which feeds the government's terrorist watchlist. It also does strategic planning for counterterrorism across agencies, though it does not direct operations.

The center has been credited with improving information sharing, but critics pointed to failures such as the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound plane on December 25, 2009, when warnings were not connected. Civil liberties groups have questioned the size of its databases and how long it keeps information on Americans. Its priorities have shifted over time from al-Qaeda and the Islamic State to a wider range of threats, and in 2025 the administration directed more focus to drug cartels designated as terrorist organizations.