This year, the United States and its allies have sustained pressure against key terrorist organizations, including al-Qa’ida, ISIS, and groups aligned with Iran, disrupting numerous plots and further diminishing their ability to target the United States and U.S. interests overseas.
By: Christopher Miller, National Counterterrorism Center Director
Remnants of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization that launched the 9/11 terror attacks 19 years ago remain active throughout the world. But it is now possible to see the contours of how the war against al-Qaeda ends.
The United States had three aims in this war: strengthen the country’s border defenses, pursue our enemies and facilitate our allies’ ability to lead the counterterrorism fight. We have succeeded in making it extremely difficult for terrorists to enter the United States to conduct cataclysmic attacks, and we have bolstered our allies’ capabilities.
Chairman Johnson, Ranking Member Peters, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to be with you today. I will begin with a brief overview of the terrorism threat before discussing related threats to the homeland in more detail. I will close my opening remarks with a discussion of global trends impacting counterterrorism efforts, along with comments on the way forward, from NCTC’s perspective.
The National Counterterrorism Center, together with FBI and DHS, held a conference September 23-24, 2019, to examine the U.S. government’s approach to confronting the threat of domestic terrorism (DT) and to inform future DT policy. The conference convened stakeholders from academia, the private sector, and across the federal government, including intelligence and Non-Title 50 agencies, to explore four themes: Terminology, Authorities, Operations, and Expanding Partnerships. Click here to view the full report.
At the main operations room inside the National Counterterrorism Center, the flow of incoming data never stops. Analysts from across the government sit in front of their blinking computers, all facing huge TV screens tuned to news channels.