Terrorist threat center to lead intelligence analysis, collection efforts

The Bush administration on Tuesday announced that a new intelligence analysis center has expanded its mission to improve communications among intelligence agencies.

The one-year-old Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC) is now the lead government entity responsible for analyzing intelligence related to international terrorism and tasked with collecting and analyzing terrorism-related intelligence by other agencies, including the CIA, FBI and Homeland Security Department.

"Both of these roles are substantially different from what was originally envisioned when TTIC was created last year, and represent a significant expansion of TTIC's mission," Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in a statement.

The new responsibilities were outlined in a letter to Collins from top intelligence officials in response to questions she posed last year about the new center.

The letter also said some "critical decisions" like transferring more analytic resources to TTIC have yet to be made.