The Senate confirmed Matthew Olsen to be director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), which integrates and analyzes all intelligence related to counterterrorism outside of the United States.
Olsen succeeds Michael Leiter, who stepped down in June after nearly four years leading the NCTC. Leiter reorganized the center after it was criticized for failing to uncover a plot that ultimately failed by Nigerian Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up an airliner he was a passenger on during a flight to Detroit from Europe.
Olsen was previously general counsel of the National Security Agency and prior to that served in the Justice Department.
The NCTC is the government’s “central and shared knowledge bank on known and suspected terrorists and international terror groups,” the center says on its web site. The NCTC manages the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, a database of information on international terrorist identities that supports the Terrorist Screening Center and the government’s watchlisting system.