Four of the terrorists behind the deadly attacks in Paris last Friday were listed in a U.S. intelligence community counter-terrorism database, according to multiple U.S. officials.
Moreover, the name of at least one of the terrorists was present on a U.S. "no fly" list.
Reuters reported:
The U.S. officials said four of the attackers who have been publicly named by France were listed before the attacks in TIDE, a central, highly classified database of raw information maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), a division of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. They did not name those who were listed in TIDE. A paper issued by NCTC last year reported that as of December 2013, TIDE contained "about 1.1 million persons," many including "multiple minor spelling variations of their names."
According to the officials, the names of the attackers had been entered into the database after European authorities shared information with the United States. They are not believed to be citizens or residents of the United States, though thousands of names of U.S. citizens are in the database.
Separately, the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC), which is maintained by an official with the FBI, compiles a large list of terrorist suspects called the Terrorist Screening Database in addition to two more selective lists called the "select list" and the "no fly" list.
Three of the anonymous U.S. officials said that one of the Paris attackers, and perhaps more, was on the "no fly" list. A spokesman for TSC would not confirm or deny the report.
Airlines are required to give lists of passengers to TSC so the government entity can screen passengers before flights depart.
The gun attacks and suicide bombings in Paris last Friday killed 129 people and wounded over 350 others. Authorities believe that nine people were behind the attacks, eight of whom are now dead.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the terrorist who French authorities suspected was the ringleader behind the attacks, was killed in a police raid in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis Wednesday.