The group of industrialized countries known as The Eight has also been an active forum for discussing terrorism. Several of the group's summits have resulted in joint declarations that condemn terrorism and pledge to improve member-countries' individual and collective efforts to combat terrorism. In addition, ministerial-level and expert-level meetings have been devoted entirely to terrorism. Other forums that have also promoted cooperation in combating terrorism include the 1994 Summit of the Americas Conference in Miami, Florida, the 1996 Summit of Peacemakers in Egypt, and a 1996 conference on counterterrorism that was held in the Philippines.
16Congress has supported such efforts for a number of years. For example, Congress has urged the President to pursue multilateral cooperation in counterterrorism in the Omnibus Diplomatic Security and Antiterrorism Act of 1986 and the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.
Crisis Management in Terrorist Incidents
FBI Leads Crisis
Management for
Domestic Incidents
Crisis management includes measures to identify, acquire, and plan the
use of resources needed to anticipate, prevent, and/or resolve a specific
threat or act of terrorism. Specific crisis management response activities
emphasize prevention, crisis mitigation efforts, and criminal prosecution
of terrorists. The federal government has the primary role to respond to
acts of terrorism; state and local governments provide assistance as
required. The United States regards terrorist attacks against its territory,
citizens, or facilities as a national security threat and a criminal act,
wherever the attack may occur. Therefore, the U.S. policy is to react
rapidly and decisively to terrorism directed at the United States, whether it
occurs domestically or internationally and whether it involves the use of
conventional weapons or WMD involving nuclear, biological, or chemical
devices. Specifically, in PDD 39, the President stated that the objectives of
U.S. policy to combat terrorism are to protect Americans, minimize
damage and loss of life, terminate terrorist attacks, defeat or arrest
terrorists, and pursue and apprehend terrorists and bring them to trial for
their crimes.
The FBI and Department of State are responsible for crisis management
and marshal the federal assets required to defeat or punish terrorists
involved with domestic and international incidents, respectively. Rapidly
deployable, trained, and equipped interagency emergency support
teams—a DEST and a FEST-assist them to manage the crises on site. The
FEST is well-developed and has operated for 11 years. The DEST concept
and organization, however, is relatively new, and its guidelines were only
recently drafted. To build and maintain a quick and effective response
capability, the interagency teams exercise crisis management scenarios.
Since 1982, the Department of Justice, acting through the FBI, has been responsible for responding to terrorist incidents that occur domestically.1 The Department of Justice and the FBI not only are to resolve and manage a crisis caused by a terrorist incident but are also to conduct the criminal investigation and pursue, arrest, and prosecute the terrorists. An incident may involve U.S. citizens or foreign individuals or groups engaging in terrorist acts or threats on U.S. soil. When threats are communicated, particularly involving the use of WMD, the FBI is to initiate threat credibility assessments in accordance with its chemical/biological or nuclear incident contingency plans. These assessments are to entail close coordination
'In aircraft hijackings, the FAA is to coordinate law enforcement activity affecting the safety of passengers aboard aircraft within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States. FAA's federal air marshals have counterterrorism responsibilities aboard an aircraft. On the ground in U.S. territory, once the door of the aircraft is open, the FBI is responsible for the resolution of terrorist hijackings.
Crisis Management in Terrorist Incidents
with experts from other agencies-DOE, HHS, EPA, DOD, and FEMA-to assess the viability of the threat from a technical, operational, and behavioral standpoint. The FBI would direct an operational response, if warranted, based on the assessment. The FBI's contingency plans for crisis management of nuclear or chemical/biological incidents call for drawing appropriate tactical, technical, scientific, and medical resources from the federal community to bolster the FBI's investigative and crisis management capabilities. The FBI considers all three WMD possibilities-nuclear, biological, and chemical-to be equally serious. The nuclear threat is considered the least likely.
Each of the FBI's 56 field offices is developing contingency plans for wMD
incidents, identifying key facilities that might be attacked in such
incidents, and coordinating a response with local authorities. If there is no
warning of a terrorist threat or event, the FBI is expected to provide a rapid
on-scene response, typically in coordination with local law enforcement
authorities or other federal agencies.
The FBI Has a Variety of
Operational Response
Capabilities
In the event of a terrorist incident, the on-scene FBI commander is to
establish a command post to manage the crisis based upon the premise of
a graduated and flexible response. However, the FBI acknowledges that the
first priority in a crisis is public safety and the preservation of life.
According to FBI officials, when a threat or incident exceeds the
capabilities of a local FBI field office, the FBI Critical Incident Response
Group will deploy necessary resources to assist that office. The Group was
established in 1994 as a separate field entity to integrate the tactical and
investigative expertise needed for terrorist and other critical incidents that
require an immediate law enforcement response. The Group has crisis
managers, hostage negotiators, behaviorists, surveillance assets and
agents, and a trained and exercised tactical team-the Hostage Rescue
Team-that can operate in a chemical or a biological environment.2 Figure
3.1 shows the FBI's crisis management structure.
*Among Hostage Rescue Team skills are: hostage rescue tactics, precision shooting, advanced medical support, and tactical site surveys. The team receives frequent specialized training to maintain high levels of expertise and skills.
The FBI has a number of tactical response assets that it can employ. The
Hostage Rescue Team, which is authorized 90 special agents, is expected
to deploy rapidly upon notice of the FBI Director's authorization to rescue
individuals who are held illegally by a hostile force or to engage in other
law enforcement activities as directed. The FBI also has over 1,000 agents
in Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams located in its field offices,
with enhanced SWAT teams in 9 of the offices. FBI SWAT teams are capable of
planning and executing high-risk tactical operations that exceed the
capabilities of field office investigative resources. Figure 3.2 summarizes
the FBI's tactical response assets.
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