The Justice Department is inadequately prepared to respond to an attack on the U.S. involving weapons of mass destruction, according to the department’s watchdog.
Under a national framework established in 2008, the department is responsible for coordinating federal law enforcement in the event of a WMD attack and intervening if the attack overwhelms state and local law enforcement agencies.
Only the FBI, the department’s largest investigative agency, is adequately prepared for a potential attack, Inspector General Glenn Fine said in a report released Tuesday.
Officials designated the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as the lead agency to plan the response, the report said, but more than two years after the National Response Framework was issued, the department has made little progress.
According to the a summary of the report,
The department and ATF have not made personnel assignments to manage these activities, and ATF has not developed a catalog of law enforcement resources — people and equipment — available to be deployed in the event of a WMD incident. In addition, ATF had only trained its personnel in field offices in states prone to hurricane activity for an incident activation resulting from a hurricane, but had not provided training on responding to a WMD incident.
The FBI’s Washington branch was the only field office with a written plan and checklist for a WMD attack. Some officials in the Washington D.C. capital region field offices of the ATF, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshals Service weren’t even aware ATF was the lead agency, the report said.
“The use of a weapon of mass destruction poses a potential threat to the United States,” Fine said in a statement. “It is critical that the department address the deficiencies identified in our report so that it would be better prepared to respond if such an attack occurs.”
In response to the report, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General said it would appoint people in each component to liaise with the leadership offices on emergency response protocol and ensure policies are current. The department will also create an intra-agency committee on a wide range of preparedness issues.
Click here to read the full report.
