The Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) is a division of the

National Security Branch The National Security Branch (NSB) is a service within the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The NSB is responsible for protecting the United States from weapons of mass destruction, acts of terrorism, and foreign intelligence operations and e ...

of the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

. It is the duty of the TSC to identify suspected or potential

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

s. Though housed within the FBI, the TSC is a multi-agency organization, including representatives from the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

, the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

, the

United States Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the Federal government of the United States, U.S. United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the I ...

, the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

, the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

, and various private contractors. It is located in

Vienna, Virginia Vienna () is a town in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, Vienna has a population of 16,473. Significantly more people live in ZIP codes with the Vienna postal addresses (22180, 22181, and 22182), bordered approx ...

, near

Virginia State Route 123 State Route 123 (SR 123) is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. The state highway runs from U.S. Route 1 in Virginia, U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Woodbridge, Virginia, Woodbridge north to the Chain Bridge (Potomac River), Chain B ...

. Established by

presidential directive A presidential directive, or executive action, is a written or oral instruction or declaration issued by the president of the United States, which may draw upon the powers vested in the president by the U.S. Constitution, statutory law, or, in cert ...

George W. Bush.
Directive on Integration and Use of Screening Information To Protect Against Terrorism
(Homeland Security Presidential Directive 6). September 16, 2003. in the wake of the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

, the TSC's funding and manpower have significantly increased since that time.

Duties

The Terrorist Screening Center maintains a

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

, the

Terrorist Screening Database The Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) is the central terrorist watchlist consolidated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Terrorist Screening Center and used by multiple agencies to compile their specific watchlists and for screening. The l ...

(TSDB), the aim of which is to contain information about all known or suspected terrorists, and makes this information available to a number of different government agencies, including the federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies, the U.S. State Department,

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that administers the country's naturalization and immigration system. It is a successor to the Immigration and Naturalizati ...

and the

Transportation Security Administration The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has authority over the security of transportation systems within, and connecting to the United States. It was created ...

Leadership

The Terrorist Screening Center is headed by a director, who reports to the executive assistant director of the

FBI National Security Branch The National Security Branch (NSB) is a service within the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The NSB is responsible for protecting the United States from weapons of mass destruction, acts of terrorism, and foreign intelligence operations and e ...

. The current director is Charles H. Kable, IV.

Organization

The Terrorist Screening Center has three branches: * Information Technology Branch – oversees IT planning and systems architecture, including the design, maintenance, and modification of the TSDB that houses the consolidated watch list information * Administration Branch – handles personnel matters, security and guard services, budgetary issues, and logistics and physical space * Operations Branch – houses the TSC's 24-hour, 7-day a week call center, handling inquiries, complaints, and comments from law enforcement ** Nominations Group – responsible for additions, deletions, and modifications to the consolidated watch list. ** Tactical Analysis Group – performs analysis on encounters with potential terrorists to identify usable intelligence and forwards the information to the necessary parties

References

External links

* *
The Terrorist Screening Center homepage

Federal Bureau of Investigation Counterterrorism in the United States 2010s establishments in the United States {{US-law-enforcement-agency-stub

Duties

Leadership

Organization

See also

References

External links