WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is not prepared to ensure public safety in the aftermath of an attack using weapons of mass destruction, the agency’s inspector general said Tuesday in the latest warning about government readiness for a catastrophic terror event.
In the event of an attack by nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, the Justice Department is supposed to coordinate federal law enforcement activities and take over if the incident overwhelms state and local police, the report says.
“We are totally unprepared,” an unidentified Justice Department official was quoted as saying in the report by the inspector general, the agency’s internal watchdog. “Right now, being totally effective would never happen. Everybody would be winging it.”
The report praises the FBI for meeting planning requirements but says the department as a whole and its other component law enforcement agencies have not.
In written responses included in the report, Justice Department officials agreed that “the fundamental conclusion of the report is sound” and promised action to address the shortcomings.
The Department of Homeland Security is supposed to be in charge in the event of a WMD attack on the U.S., and every major government agency has an assigned role.
Each federal agency is supposed to develop separate plans to respond to eight scenarios representing the gravest dangers faced by the U.S., including attacks with nuclear, radiological, biological and chemical weapons; a cyber attack; and pandemic influenza.
