6/1/2010

“The Justice Department’s inspector general [Glenn A. Fine] has concluded that the department is not fully prepared to respond to a terrorist attack involving a weapon of mass destruction. In a report issued on Tuesday [June 1, 2010], the inspector general said that none of the law enforcement agencies within the department, other than the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had operational response plans in place to deal with such an attack. Other than F.B.I. specialists, the department’s staff receives little training on how to respond to a biological, chemical, nuclear or radiological attack; there is no central oversight plan in place for such a crisis; and the management of the department’s plan is ‘uncoordinated and fragmented,’ the report determined. ‘The Department as a whole does not have policies or plans for responding to a W.M.D. incident,’ the 61-page report concluded.”

 – Eric Schmitt, “Justice Dept. Faults Attack Readiness,” The New York Times, June 1, 2010