NATIONAL COUNTERTERRORISM CENTER

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 2, 2006

REDD SUBMITS STRATEGY ON COMBATING TERRORIST TRAVEL

John Scott Redd, (VADM, USN-ret.), Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), today submitted to Congress the unclassified National Strategy to Combat Terrorist Travel (NSCTT).

“I am acutely aware that our terrorist enemies continue to seek ways to exploit the international travel system to plan and carry out attacks against Americans and our allies at home and abroad,” Admiral Redd said.

“Combating terrorist travel is a key component in the War on Terror,” the Admiral added. “The Strategy demonstrates that we are in this fight to win, and signals our aggressive pursuit of terrorists as they attempt to move around the world.”

Today’s submission of the unclassified version of the Strategy follows the February 2006 submission to Congress of the classified version. Both were prepared pursuant to Section 7201 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which required the Director of NCTC to submit a Strategy addressing the problem of terrorist travel.

In a letter to Congress, Admiral Redd said the NSCTT is built on the premise that constraining terrorist mobility is a critical front in the War on Terror – and that this fight is taking place overseas and at home. The Strategy contains an overview of the many US Government initiatives currently underway to address the terrorist travel problem. In addition, the Strategy describes continuing challenges the nation faces in restricting terrorist mobility.

To address these challenges, the NSCTT proposes specific actions aimed at strengthening US efforts at home and abroad to constrain terrorist travel. These actions include: preventing terrorists from crossing US and international borders; building the capacity of partner nations; limiting terrorists’ access to the resources necessary to travel; and promoting increased information sharing on terrorist travel across the government.

“In developing the NSCTT, we considered the full range of instruments of national power,” Admiral Redd said, emphasizing that the proposed actions are in full accordance with US laws, especially those relating to privacy and civil liberties protections of US persons.

The unclassified version of the Strategy is on NCTC’s public web site.