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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.md

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+---
+category: "Government Agency"
+aliases:
+  - "CTC West Point"
+  - "Combating Terrorism Center"
+  - "CTC Sentinel"
+tags:
+  - Organization
+  - WestPoint
+  - Counterterrorism
+  - ThinkTank
+  - Military
+summary: "Privately funded counterterrorism research center at the U.S. Military Academy, founded in February 2003 with backing from Vincent Viola, which publishes the CTC Sentinel and releases captured al-Qaida documents."
+start: 2003-02
+location: "West Point, New York"
+relations:
+  - type: founded
+    with: "[[Vincent Viola]]"
+    reverse: true
+    start: 2003-02
+    fn: 1
+  - type: funded
+    with: "[[Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation]]"
+    reverse: true
+    fn: 1
+  - type: funded
+    with: "[[Morgan Stanley]]"
+    reverse: true
+    fn: 1
+created: 2026-09-22
+updated: 2026-09-23
+---
+
+The Combating Terrorism Center was created at the [[West Point|United States Military Academy]] in February 2003 "thanks to the vision and generous support of Mr. [[Vincent Viola]], former Chairman of the [[New York Mercantile Exchange]] and a 1977 graduate of West Point," with General (ret.) [[Wayne Downing]] and Brigadier Generals [[Russ Howard]] and [[Cindy Jebb]]. It is housed in the academy's Department of Social Sciences and describes itself as "privately funded," supported by named endowments from [[George Gilmore]] and several graduating classes and by the [[Audia Group]], [[Morgan Stanley]] and the [[Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation]]. It has provided counterterrorism education to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], the [[Department of Homeland Security]], the [[New York City]] fire department, the [[Army War College]] and "specialized [[Department of Defense]] units."[^1]
+
+### Harmony Program
+
+The center launched the [[Harmony Program]] in 2005 to release and analyze documents from the Defense Department's Harmony database, captured "in the course of operations in Iraq, Afghanistan" and elsewhere, among them letters from [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]] and `Atiyah `Abd al-Rahman to [[Abu Musab al-Zarqawi]] and a letter by [[Osama bin Laden]]. The center cautions that the documents "were collected on the battlefield unscientifically."[^2]
+
+### CTC Sentinel
+
+The center's monthly *CTC Sentinel* published [[H.E. Upchurch]]'s "The Iron March Forum and the Evolution of the 'Skull Mask' Neo-Fascist Network" in December 2021, on the history of [[Iron March]] and the groups that formed around it, including [[National Action]] and [[Atomwaffen Division]].[^3]
+
+### Footnotes
+
+[^1]: Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, "History." https://ctc.westpoint.edu/history/
+[^2]: Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, "Harmony Program." https://ctc.westpoint.edu/harmony-program/
+[^3]: Upchurch, H.E. "The Iron March Forum and the Evolution of the 'Skull Mask' Neo-Fascist Network." *CTC Sentinel* 14, no. 10, December 22, 2021. https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-iron-march-forum-and-the-evolution-of-the-skull-mask-neo-fascist-network/