---
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/