However, we concluded that the Department of Justice as a whole and components within the Department have not implemented adequate WMD response plans. As a result, the Department is not fully prepared to provide a coordinated response to a WMD incident. For example, the Department does not assign one entity or individual with the responsibility for the central oversight or management of WMD incident response. The Department has not updated its policies to reflect recent national policies, and the Department’s operational response policies and plans have not been fully implemented. Moreover, no components other than the FBI have specific WMD operational response plans or provide training on responding to a WMD incident.
Link to actual report below the story.
Wall Street Journal highlights the incompetence of our Government agencies and their total lack of preparation for a possible Weapons Of Mass Destruction (WMD) attack on US soil.
The most important overlooked story of the past few weeks was overlooked because it was not surprising. Also because no one really wants to notice it. The weight of 9/11 and all its implications is so much on our minds that it's never on our mind.
I speak of the report from the Inspector General of the Justice Department, issued in late May, saying the department is not prepared to ensure public safety in the days or weeks after a terrorist attack in which nuclear, biological or chemical weapons are used. The Department of Homeland Security is designated as first federal responder, in a way, in the event of a WMD attack, but every agency in government has a formal, assigned role, and the crucial job of Justice is to manage and coordinate law enforcement and step in if state and local authorities are overwhelmed.
So how would Justice do, almost nine years after the attacks of 9/11? Poorly. "The Department is not prepared to fulfill its role . . . to ensure public safety and security in the event of a WMD incident," says the 61-page report. Justice has yet to assign an entity or individual with clear responsibility for oversight or management of WMD response; it has not catalogued its resources in terms of either personnel or equipment; it does not have written plans or checklists in case of a WMD attack. A deputy assistant attorney general for policy and planning is quoted as saying "it is not clear" who in the department is responsible for handling WMD response. Workers interviewed said the department's operational response program "lacks leadership and oversight." An unidentified Justice Department official was quoted: "We are totally unprepared." He added. "Right now, being totally effective would never happen. Everybody would be winging it."
One agency, the FBI, has been preparing though, according to Peggy Noonan's report:
There is one bright spot in the Inspector General's report: the FBI, which was highlighted for its organizational seriousness about WMD readiness, including holding regular exercises and training sessions, and having an actual response plan with clear lines of responsibility. All credit to the bureau.
Read the entire piece.
For those blowing Noonan's column off, she and WSJ are not the only ones highlighting this report.
June 2, 2010, Wapo headlines with "FBI is sole Justice agency prepared for terror attack, report says," and June 1, 2010, NTY headlines with "Justice Dept. Faults Attack Readiness."
The report header is listed as "Review of the Department’s Preparation to Respond to a WMD Incident." It can be found here, 73 pages in total, PDF audit file.
Dated, May 2010.
The purpose, listed on Page 32 of the report:
This review evaluated the readiness of the Department and its components to respond to a potential WMD incident. In addition, we examined the readiness of Department components’ field offices in the National Capital Region (NCR) to respond in a coordinated way to a WMD incident.
RESULTS IN BRIEF (Starting on Page #3)
Our review found that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has taken appropriate steps to prepare to respond to a potential WMD attack. The FBI has implemented a headquarters-led program that has established WMD response plans, provides WMD training to its staff and regularly conducts and participates in WMD exercises.
However, we concluded that the Department of Justice as a whole and components within the Department have not implemented adequate WMD response plans. As a result, the Department is not fully prepared to provide a coordinated response to a WMD incident. For example, the Department does not assign one entity or individual with the responsibility for the central oversight or management of WMD incident response. The Department has not updated its policies to reflect recent national policies, and the Department’s operational response policies and plans have not been fully implemented. Moreover, no components other than the FBI have specific WMD operational response plans or provide training on responding to a WMD incident.
We also determined that the Department is not prepared to fulfill its role, assigned to it under the National Response Framework’s ESF-13, to ensure public safety and security in the event a WMD incident overwhelms state and local law enforcement. The Department designated the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) as the lead agency to implement this requirement, but we found that the Department and ATF have not fulfilled the Department’s role for coordinating the federal law enforcement response activities to an ESF-13 activation.3 For example, 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 the National Capital Region (NCR), we found that law enforcement agencies coordinate regularly because of the preparations and cooperation required for the frequent special events held there. However, improvements quickly and safely respond to a WMD incident. For example, the FBI’s Washington Field Office is the only Department component field office in the NCR with a written plan and checklist to respond specifically to a WMD incident in the NCR. Moreover, most component field offices in the NCR have conducted little or no planning specifically for responding to a WMD incident and have no defined role in the FBI’s WMD response plans. We also determined that some component officials in the NCR field offices are not aware of ESF-13 or that the Department designated ATF as the lead agency in carrying out the Department’s responsibility to ensure public safety and security if ESF-13 is activated in the aftermath of a WMD incident.
In the sections below, we discuss in more detail the status of the Department’s and its components’ preparations for responding to a WMD incident, as well as the preparations of Department component field offices in the NCR.
You can read the entire report for yourself to see how unprepared the US is for any WMD attack against America. The report details each agency and the lack of adequate preparation as well as suggestions to rectify our level of preparedness.
