Behind The Scenes: Getting Inside The National Counter Terrorism Center
In seeking a story for last night’s special, “Five Years: How Safe Are We?” back in June, a look at the National Counter Terrorism Center “was a natural choice,” said correspondent David Martin. “It was new, it was secret and it was directly relevant to 9/11. It was created specifically to correct the intelligence failures of 9/11.”
Video: So, Martin had the subject of his story. “The question, of course, was how do you get in there?” he said.
He started in the most logical (and somewhat ironic) of places – the National Counter Terrorism Center’s Public Affairs Office. “Even for a secret place, they have a public affairs officer,” said Martin. The PA officer happened to be someone Martin had been acquainted with for some time, and he was receptive to the idea. He took it to his boss, Vice Admiral Scott Redd, who was willing to consider it.
By July, Martin spent a few hours with Redd at the center without cameras to determine “whether our mutual needs could be met,” said Martin. “Their primary need being not to give away any secrets and our primary need to provide pictures of what goes on out there.”
Author Thomas Friedman on Obama's Afghanistan plan and the war on terror.
