Times report - War against Terrorism without Shot in CIA Headquarters

As entering CIA headquarters building in Langley of Virginia, something attracts people’s eyes. It is the road signs in which ‘Saddam Street’ and ‘Osama Bin Laden’ is written respectively. After the 9.11 Terrorism, many buildings which are involved in terrorism were established near CIA headquarters, and thus groceries and suppliers to CIA put up the road signs not to lose the way.

Offices of Headquarters are crammed with the buzz of supercomputer, the sound of bell, TV monitor, etc. The scene is absolutely different from the secret missions in movies. CNN is still the first subject to monitor, however, Aljazeera, Arab satellite broadcasting is also one of main subject to monitor because Osama Bin Laden appears sometimes.

The busiest post is The Counterterrorism Center. The center was established in 1986. It is a mammoth post. For information analysis, 1,100 specialists are working at the post. The number of intelligence agents is top secret.

About 2,500 intelligence documents are flowed into the center every day. So the center works day and night, and the canteen also opens 24 hours 7days.

The center produces ten to twenty information reports for more than 80 governmental organizations. The center also produces daily terrorism report ‘Treat Matrix’ with important information for President George Bush. The copy of ‘Treat matrix’ is sent to top 200 high rank officers.

Once, the invitation list of ‘Georgetown Party’ that was called ‘the heart of unofficial power’ was known as ‘A list of Washington’. Now the people who receive this report are regarded as influential people.

The Counterterrorism Center collects millions of data unrelated each and makes mosaic to find out the clue of terrorism. The arrest of Zubayda, Strategy Command of Al-Qaeda March of this year was the results of this process.

However, 14 of 24 close associates to Osama Bin Laden are still on the run and thousands of members of Al-Qaeda are estimated being in action. CIA agents are struggling day and night to pursue them.

Jong-Dae Ha orionha@donga.com