Photo Credit: James Tourtellotte

Commissioner Robert C. Bonner explains the concepts behind the National Targeting Center to President George W. Bush and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge during a February 2004 tour. The center disperses updated information and intelligence on terror-related activity as needed throughout CBP.

“The NTC has given CBP the ability to identify previously unknown, as well as known, persons involved in terrorism,” said Charles Bartoldus, executive director national targeting and security for CBP. “This center supports all cross-border activity and has dramatically increased the security of our country.”

Established in November 2001 in response to the terrorist attacks, the targeting center has evolved from a small office with fewer than 30 employees into the banner office in the fight against terrorism. Housed in a new state-of-the-art, high-tech, 30,000-square-foot facility with more than 100 employees, the center is at the heart of Commissioner Bonner’s strategy to extend security efforts beyond our physical borders.

Around-the-clock operation
Staff at the center, known as targeters, work around the clock conducting data analysis and querying electronic databases such as the Treasury Enforcement Communications System, the Automated Commercial System, the Automated Targeting System and the Automated Entry System. Their work is like panning for gold as they sift through information looking for nuggets of information that would trigger a closer examination or preclude a person or shipment from entering into the United States.

The center, originally staffed by CBP employees with specialized knowledge gained by working in field seaport, airport, and land border environments, now has integrated personnel from all DHS disciplines and has established liaisons with the U.S. Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration, Department of Energy and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Food and Drug Administration’s prior-notice center, established as a result of the Bioterrorism Act, is also part of the center.

Targeters are the “new frontline” of our security. Their work results in an advance electronic border through which people and products must pass. Constantly changing screens of data, reminiscent of a scene out of the Matrix, flash passenger and reservation information that is compared with lists of known terrorists to identify potential matches. Links with the ports and with other law enforcement databases can identify passengers who pose a potential risk in advance of their arrival into the United States.

A cooperative effort
And it isn’t just people who are scrutinized. With the initiation of the 24-Hour Advance Vessel Manifest Rule, every shipping company carrying cargo to the United States must provide advance information on every container on their ships before leaving a foreign port. The targeting center has designed the protocols for CBP’s cargo inspection strategy, which involves manifest review, pre-departure screening through the Container Security Initiative and NTC review. Targeters work around the clock to analyze the manifest information and correlate it with other data and online information and score each shipment from zero, for no risk, to 300 for highest risk.

Analysts also engage in “data mining” to develop targets, conducting broad-based research to collect and sift through information to establish a base line of data. The targeting center looks at any resource that could support a terrorist effort, ranging from individuals to raw materials that could be used in constructing nuclear and chemical weaponry. The goal of the center is to disrupt terrorist efforts by stopping the flow of materials or money needed for such an operation.

Wielding the power of information, the NTC provides critical support for the anti-terrorism effort and is the first alert to keep terrorists or instruments of terror from reaching our borders. LK