DOJ’s WMD report an embarrassment to U.S. citizens, government

By The Klaxon Staff / inquiries@theklaxon.com / 06.01.2010

Updated on: 06.01.10 at 8:32 pm

We’ve heard of an embarrassed government, but this is ridiculous. In its latest report, the Office of Inspector General has said the U.S. Department of Justice, who would coordinate public safety and security after an attack using a weapon of mass destruction, is not ready for a WMD incident.

The report, released Tuesday, screams that DOJ leadership failed to develop a Crisis Management Committee or name an official to coordinate such efforts.

“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 of a WMD incident,” states the report.

It also states the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was supposed to be the lead agency to implement the security, but, according to the report, the ATF and the Justice Department did not fulfill such a requirement.

This comes at a time when it’s already a black eye for the current administration, with a recent U.S. Homeland Security memo that states terrorist attacks are at an all-time high—and there’s little evidence of them decreasing.

It’s sad that millions of dollars get poured into agencies whose sole mission to protect the U.S. from known, er, unknown threats, but little gets done.

We guess that’s the whole point of such an embarrassment.

Read the entire report here.