Washington Post: Why Omaha, NCITE at UNO are Perfect Fit for Transforming Counterterrorism

Little more than a year ago, a new counterterrorism research center officially launched on the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) campus. The center is already making national headlines.

NCITE, the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center, housed within UNO’s Mammel Hall, is the result of a 10-year, $36.5 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security.

Washington Post reporter Hannah Allam recently visited the center and wrote a wide-ranging story on counterterrorism efforts headquartered at NCITE. The story was published on the newspaper’s website on Saturday, Aug. 14 and was featured on the second page of the newspaper on Monday, Aug. 16.

Director Gina Ligon is featured in the story discussing her vision of the center, the apolitical, any-and-all-threats focus, and how Omaha is an important place for a research center like this.

“If DHS picked Omaha, Ligon pledged, her team would work relentlessly to stop ‘the next Timothy McVeigh [Oklahoma City bombing].’ She urged officials to build their center ‘here, in the middle of the country,’ the region he had targeted in a landmark act of domestic terrorism.”

The work at NCITE has drawn researchers from across the country to UNO. New faculty researchers have joined NCITE coming from other institutions like Penn State University and Eastern Kentucky University.

The Post story also discusses the challenges that lie ahead in counterterrorism research.

“For researchers like Ligon, the challenge is formidable: how to remake U.S. counterterrorism without the never-ending conflicts and civil liberties violations that are a legacy of the war on terror.”

The full article can be seen on Page A02 of the Monday, Aug. 16 edition of the Washington Post and on washingtonpost.com.

NCITE at UNO is a Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence and an academic hub focused on bolstering counterterrorism efforts and terrorism and targeted violence prevention. It is comprised of 50-plus academics at 18 universities in the U.S. and U.K. working on 16 research projects. The projects aim to generate innovation, technology, and education for today’s counterterrorism workforce and inspire the workforce of the future.