United States General Accounting Office GAO Briefing Report to Congressional Committees June 1999 COMBATING TERRORISM Analysis of Federal Counterterrorist Exercises GAO NSIAD-99-157BR United States General Accounting Office Washington D C 20548 National Security and International Affairs Division B-282723 Letter June 25 1999 The Honorable Ike Skelton Ranking Minority Member Committee on Armed Services House of Representatives The Honorable Christopher Shays Chairman Subcommittee on National Security Veterans’ Affairs and International Relations Committee on Government Reform House of Representatives Terrorist attacks against U S personnel and interests domestically and abroad highlight the need for effective U S efforts to combat terrorism U S policy and implementing guidelines call for robust tailored and rapidly deployable interagency teams to conduct well-coordinated and highly integrated operations Federal agencies enhance their ability to respond to terrorist incidents by conducting exercises that train key personnel and test response plans We recently briefed your staffs on our analysis of federal counterterrorist exercise data that we had gathered in producing our February 1999 classified report to you This report summarizes the contents of those briefings Our objective was to determine the numbers types scenarios and participants involved in federal counterterrorism exercises conducted from June 1995 to June 1998 Background Presidential directives assign leadership and supporting roles to various federal agencies Federal agencies’ activities to combat terrorism include responding to a terrorist crisis and managing the consequences after a terrorist attack Presidential Decision Directive PDD 39 issued in June 1995 required key federal agencies to ensure that their counterterrorist capabilities are well exercised Counterterrorism exercises include tabletop exercises in which agency officials discuss scenarios around a table or other similar setting and field exercises where agency leadership and operational units actually deploy to practice their skills and Leter Page 1 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism B-282723 coordination in a realistic field setting One of the highest priorities in the federal government is to prepare for terrorist attacks involving weapons of mass destruction WMD 1 Results in Brief Federal agencies conducted 201 counterterrorism exercises in the 3 years following PDD 39 The number of exercises per year more than tripled over the 3-year period with the largest increase in the last year Agencies used a variety of types of exercises and scenarios during this period More than half of the exercises were field exercises where command and response personnel actually deployed with their equipment and the rest were tabletop exercises where personnel discussed a particular scenario Very few of the exercises included no-notice deployments of personnel and equipment Over one-half of the exercises dealt with managing the immediate crisis resulting from a terrorist incident including stopping a terrorist attack while the others dealt with managing the consequences of the incident such as caring for the injured Until recently very few exercises dealt with the likely situation of both crisis and consequence management occurring simultaneously More than two-thirds of the exercises had WMD scenarios while the others had more traditional and more likely terrorist scenarios involving conventional arms and explosives Over half of the WMD exercises used scenarios that used chemical agents There was a variety of participants in these exercises More than two-thirds of the exercises included more than one federal agency and almost one-half of them included three or more federal agencies Some exercises also included participants of organizations other than federal agencies For example one-third of the exercises included state and or local government participants almost one-tenth of them had nongovernmental participants and a few had foreign government participants Federal agencies played various roles in these exercises depending on their roles and their level of participation 1 For the purpose of this report we define WMD as chemical biological and nuclear weapons or agents Within the federal government there is disagreement as to the precise definition especially whether large conventional explosives should be included Leter Page 2 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism B-282723 This report contains no recommendations However in our February 1999 classified report on interagency counterterrorist operations we made five recommendations to several agencies to improve counterterrorist exercises 2 Agency Comments We received oral comments from the Department of State the Department of Defense DOD the U S Secret Service USSS the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI the Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA the Department of Health and Human Services HHS the Environmental Protection Agency EPA the Department of Energy DOE the Department of Veterans Affairs VA and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms ATF In general these agencies stated that the report was an accurate reflection of federal counterterrorist exercises conducted in the period we reviewed Many of these agencies provided technical comments which we incorporated as appropriate The FBI commented that the report was an accurate empirical survey of federal counterterrorist exercises However the FBI believed that clarification would be beneficial in four areas tabletop exercises state and local participation in exercises no-notice exercises and our methodology to collect and analyze exercises led by federal agencies The FBI said that tabletop exercises can sometimes take months to prepare for and that it was sometimes difficult to get state and local officials to participate in federal exercises We changed the text to reflect these comments Regarding no-notice exercises the FBI noted some of the difficulties involved in conducting these type of exercises in a domestic scenario According to the FBI no-notice exercises especially those broad in scope can be disruptive to an agency’s normal functions and daily responsibilities It noted that the FBI’s ability to dedicate resources and personnel to no-notice exercises is limited by its primary mission to investigate violations of federal law According to the FBI the primary goal of the exercise program should be to train the participants in the crisis management process not to test how fast they can respond to a no-notice exercise PDD 39 and the guidelines and plans that implement it call for robust rapidly deployable interagency teams Thus we believe that it is also 2 For an unclassified summary of this report see Combating Terrorism Issues to Be Resolved to Improve Counterterrorist Operations GAO NSIAD-99-135 May 13 1999 This summary however does not contain our recommendations because they were classified Leter Page 3 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism B-282723 important to test how fast federal teams can respond to a no-notice event Such exercises could lead to improvements in recall and deployment procedures to ensure that state and local first responders receive federal assistance as soon as possible Along these lines the Senate Committee on Appropriations recently directed the Attorney General to conduct no-notice exercises with domestic scenarios that include the participation of all key personnel who would participate in the consequence management of a major terrorist event involving the use of a chemical biological or cyber weapon Regarding our methodology the FBI commented that the number of FBI-sponsored exercises identified in our report was incomplete because we focused on national level exercises The data included in the report was based on information that the FBI and other agencies provided to us during our review We provided our list of exercises to FBI and other agencies to review for completeness and accuracy To the extent the agencies such as FBI were not aware of counterterrorist exercises that their field offices led or participated in we may not have included such exercises in our analysis FBI also commented that our methodology consisted of a simple tally of conducted exercises rather than a more in-depth analysis of exercise scope objectives and number and type of participants We did perform such an analysis in our February 1999 classified report which included five recommendations to several agencies including FBI to improve counterterrorist exercises Scope and Methodology We focused our analysis on federal counterterrorism exercises in the 3-year period following the issuance of PDD 39 To gather data on exercises we obtained documents and interviewed officials at the Department of State DOD USSS FBI FEMA HHS EPA DOE VA and ATF We compiled a list of 201 counterterrorism exercises that were conducted from June 1995 to June 1998 To ensure the accuracy of our list of exercises appropriate federal agencies reviewed it for completeness and accuracy We also observed interagency meetings planning sessions and exercises We performed our analysis in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards between March 1999 and May 1999 on data we gathered in 1997 and 1998 This report is organized into three briefing sections Section I includes background information Section II presents our analysis of all federal counterterrorist exercises including their number type focus scenarios and participants Section III presents similar information on individual Leter Page 4 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism B-282723 agencies For the four agencies that led most of the exercises our data is presented in terms of the exercises that they led For the other six agencies that participated in many exercises but led relatively few the data is presented in terms of the exercises in which they participated As agreed with your offices unless you publicly announce the contents of this report earlier we plan no further distribution until 30 days after its issuance date At that time we will send copies to appropriate congressional committees the federal agencies discussed in this report and to the Honorable Jacob Lew Director of the Office of Management and Budget We also will make copies available to other interested parties upon request If you have any questions about this report please contact me at 202 512-5140 Major contributors to this report are listed in appendix I Mark E Gebicke Director National Security Preparedness Issues Leter Page 5 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Contents Letter 1 Briefing Section I Background Policy and Strategy on Combating Terrorism Counterterrorist Roles and Responsibilities Purpose and Types of Exercises 8 10 12 Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall Counterterrorist Exercises From June 1995 to June 1998 Counterterrorist Exercises Field and Tabletop Counterterrorist Exercises With Notice and No Notice Counterterrorist Exercises Crisis and or Consequence Management Counterterrorist Exercises Conventional and WMD Counterterrorist Exercises Chemical Biological and Nuclear Counterterrorist Exercises Federal Agencies Participating Counterterrorist Exercises by Types of Participants Counterterrorist Exercises State and Local Participation 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises Counterterrorist Exercises by Lead Agency Counterterrorist Exercises Participation and Leadership by Agency Department of Defense Counterterrorist Exercises U S Secret Service Counterterrorist Exercises Federal Bureau of Investigation Counterterrorist Exercises Federal Emergency Management Agency Counterterrorist Exercises Department of Health and Human Services Counterterrorist Exercises Environmental Protection Agency Counterterrorist Exercises Department of Energy Counterterrorist Exercises Department of State Counterterrorist Exercises Department of Veterans Affairs Counterterrorist Exercises Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Counterterrorist Exercises 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 Appendix I Major Contributors to This Report 56 Related GAO Products 59 Page 6 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Contents Abbreviations ATF DEST DOD DOE EPA FBI FEMA FEST HHS PDD USSS VA WMD Page 7 Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Domestic Emergency Support Team Department of Defense Department of Energy Environmental Protection Agency Federal Bureau of Investigation Federal Emergency Management Agency Foreign Emergency Support Team Department of Health and Human Services Presidential Decision Directive U S Secret Service Department of Veterans Affairs Weapons of Mass Destruction GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section I Background onISn iB g ectfri Policy and Strategy on Combating Terrorism • Presidential directives establish policy and strategy • Strategy includes prevention crisis management and consequence management • Priority is to prevent and respond to terrorist attacks involving weapons of mass destruction Page 8 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section I Background In 1986 the President formalized U S policy to combat terrorism by signing National Security Decision Directive 207 which primarily focused on terrorist incidents overseas After the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City Oklahoma the President issued Presidential Decision Directive PDD 39 in June 1995 which enumerated responsibilities for federal agencies in combating terrorism including domestic incidents In May 1998 the President issued PDD 62 that reaffirmed PDD 39 and further articulated responsibilities for specific agencies Federal agencies drafted agency and interagency guidance to implement these directives These PDDs divide activities to combat terrorism into three elements preventing and deterring terrorism responding to a terrorist crisis and managing the consequences after a terrorist attack 1 Crisis management includes efforts to stop a terrorist attack arrest terrorists and gather evidence for criminal prosecution Consequence management includes efforts to provide medical treatment and emergency services evacuate people from dangerous areas and restore government services When terrorist attacks occur without adequate threat warning crisis management and consequence management will be concurrent activities One of the highest priorities in the federal government is to prevent and prepare for terrorist attacks that use weapons of mass destruction WMD These attacks include terrorist use of nuclear biological or chemical weapons or agents to cause mass casualties The President via PDD 39 and PDD 62 and the Congress via legislation and committee reports have emphasized the importance of preparedness against this type of threat 1 Activities to prevent and deter terrorism were not included in the scope of this report Page 9 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section I Background Counterterrorist Roles and Responsibilities State leads crisis management and consequence management overseas FBI leads domestic crisis management FEMA leads domestic consequence management Supporting roles are assigned to other key agencies e g DOD DOE EPA and HHS Page 10 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section I Background PDDs 39 and 62 assigned or reaffirmed lead and support roles to various federal agencies and established interagency support teams The Department of State is the lead agency for both crisis management and consequence management for terrorist incidents overseas The State Department would lead an interagency Foreign Emergency Support Team FEST to provide advice and support to U S ambassadors Washington decision-makers and host governments For domestic terrorist incidents the leadership of crisis management and consequence management is divided The Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI is the lead federal agency for domestic crisis management and would lead an interagency Domestic Emergency Support Team DEST to provide advice and support to FBI on-scene commanders The Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA is the lead agency for consequence management of domestic terrorist incidents Other federal agencies such as the Department of Defense DOD the Department of Energy DOE the Environmental Protection Agency EPA and the Department of Health and Human Services HHS are designated as support agencies that would assist the lead agencies in crisis and consequence management Depending on the nature of the terrorist attack these support agencies could be part of the interagency FEST or DEST Briefing section III provides more detailed information on the lead and supporting roles of specific agencies 2 2 In addition to briefing section III our earlier report provides detailed information on the roles and responsibilities of lead and support agencies See Combating Terrorism Federal Agencies’ Efforts to Implement National Policy and Strategy GAO NSIAD-97-254 Sept 26 1997 Page 11 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section I Background Purpose and Types of Exercises • PDD-39 directed key agencies to exercise their capabilities • Exercises train agency personnel and test their response plans • Interagency exercises enhance coordination and ability to work together • Agencies use both field and tabletop exercises PDD 39 required key federal agencies to maintain well-exercised counterterrorist capabilities Exercises test and validate policies and procedures test the effectiveness of response capabilities and increase the confidence and skill levels of personnel Because a federal counterterrorist response is inherently interagency agencies also exercise together These interagency exercises enhance coordination among agencies and help them work together They also allow personnel to become familiar with other agencies’ procedures and identify those areas needing further coordination In the absence of actual operations exercises are an Page 12 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section I Background important indicator of the preparedness of federal agencies to deal with a variety of terrorist incidents Exercises fall into two general categories tabletop and field exercises 3 Tabletop exercises are performed around a table a classroom or a simulated command post as the players progress through a scenario or series of scenarios and discuss how their agency or unit might react to different situations Tabletop exercises are used to emphasize higher level policy and procedural issues and frequently include more senior level agency officials Tabletop exercises are limited to discussions only there is no actual deployment of operational or tactical personnel or equipment Thus tabletop exercises do not test the government’s ability to actually use and coordinate personnel and assets in a realistic setting However they are a relatively inexpensive and expeditious way to identify and resolve problems in policies and procedures Given the relatively few logistical requirements agencies can plan and conduct tabletop exercises within a few weeks or months Field exercises are performed in the field under simulated operational conditions Such exercises focus on performing tasks at the operational and tactical levels and typically include tactics techniques and procedures that would be used in a real incident Field exercises test agency and interagency capabilities to actually deploy personnel and their equipment and coordinate them as they perform their tasks in a realistic setting Field exercises are generally more expensive than tabletop exercises because they involve more players increased transportation and other travel expenses and added wear and tear on equipment Depending on their scope field exercises may require up to a year of advance planning to prepare detailed objectives identify essential tasks script the scenario develop an evaluation plan and schedule transportation and other logistic support 3 Different agencies use slightly different nomenclature to categorize types of exercises Our definition of tabletop exercises includes “seminar” exercises “command post” exercises and “functional exercises ” Our definition of field exercises includes “full field” exercises “full-up” exercises and “muddy boots” exercises Page 13 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall nIo Sn B iegctfri Counterterrorist Exercises From June 1995 to June 1998 116 53 32 June 1995 - June 1996 Page 14 June 1996 - June 1997 June 1997 - June 1998 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall Federal agencies sponsored a large number of counterterrorism exercises in the 3-year period following the issuance of PDD 39 In total federal agencies sponsored 201 counterterrorism exercises to improve their preparedness for counterterrorist operations Most of the exercises responded to a domestic terrorist attack and were conducted in the United States while some addressed international attacks and were conducted overseas The number of exercises increased from 32 to 116—an increase of 263 percent—over this 3-year period The 1996 Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act commonly known as the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici Act required DOD to enhance domestic preparedness by providing local emergency response personnel with training and advice DOD’s program to accomplish this known as the Domestic Preparedness Program had some impact on the overall increase in exercises There were 26 Domestic Preparedness Program exercises conducted in the third year which is 13 percent of all the exercises done over the 3-year period While we did not collect data beyond June 1998 DOD has continued to sponsor these types of exercises in conjunction with local governments and other federal agencies We reported earlier on this program 1 1 See Combating Terrorism Opportunities to Improve Domestic Preparedness Program Focus and Efficiency GAO NSIAD-99-3 Nov 12 1998 and Combating Terrorism Threat and Risk Assessments Can Help Prioritize and Target Program Investments GAO NSIAD-98-74 Apr 9 1998 Page 15 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall Counterterrorist Exercises Field and Tabletop 70 60 60 56 50 40 37 30 23 20 10 16 9 0 June 1995 - June 1996 Field Exercises Page 16 June 1996 - June 1997 June 1997 - June 1998 Tabletop Exercises GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall As discussed earlier exercises are categorized as tabletop or field exercises We found that federal agencies conducted a mixture of tabletop and field exercises Of the total 201 exercises in the 3-year period 116 58 percent were field exercises and 85 42 percent were tabletop exercises Although field exercises exceeded tabletop exercises overall the number of tabletop exercises increased at a much faster rate 567 percent versus 143 percent One factor in the increase in tabletop exercises was DOD’s implementation of the Domestic Preparedness Program in the third year This trend may reverse somewhat in future years as program exercises shift from tabletop to field exercises Some agencies such as FEMA relied mostly on tabletop exercises and others such as the U S Secret Service USSS held mostly field exercises DOD FEMA and FBI led the most tabletop exercises during this period and DOD USSS and FBI led the most field exercises Page 17 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall Counterterrorist Exercises With Notice and No Notice No Notice - 4 With N otice - 197 Page 18 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall Very few of the counterterrorism exercises were conducted without advance notice to the participants Such exercises known as “no-notice” exercises provide the highest degree of challenge and realism to federal counterterrorism teams Only four 2 percent of the total exercises had no-notice field deployments of federal personnel and equipment All of the no-notice exercises had international scenarios and were sponsored by DOD or DOE They included rapid deployments of command elements and tactical units to locations worldwide and included the FEST to practice supporting the ambassador at a post in a terrorist situation Page 19 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall Counterterrorist Exercises Crisis and or Consequence Management 60 55 50 38 40 33 30 28 30 20 13 10 2 2 0 0 June 1995 - June 1996 Crisis Management Page 20 June 1996 - June 1997 June 1997 - June 1998 Consequence Management Both GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall Counterterrorist exercises generally focus on either crisis management or consequence management While the number of both types of exercises increased consequence management exercises rose dramatically Crisis management exercises increased from 30 to 55 83 percent while consequence management exercises rose from 2 to 28 1 400 percent over the 3-year period Initially very few exercises focused on both crisis and consequence management as there were none in the first year and only two in the second year In a major terrorist incident without adequate threat warning crisis management and consequence management would need to occur simultaneously By the third year however there were 33 exercises that included both crisis management and consequence management Of these 33 most of them 26 exercises were tabletop exercises sponsored by DOD under the Domestic Preparedness Program Crisis management exercises include both international and domestic scenarios Each year DOD and DOE sponsor several international interagency field exercises The State Department uses these exercises to practice its leadership role in international terrorist incidents Domestic crisis management exercises are led by law enforcement agencies and primarily provide training to prepare for crisis response The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms ATF have crisis management exercise programs that periodically test crisis response teams and include field office personnel The USSS conducts many field exercises related to its mission to protect the President and other key officials and to ensure continuity of operations at the White House Consequence management exercises generally had domestic scenarios 2 FEMA sponsored a series of interagency tabletop exercises that focused on interagency and intergovernmental issues Other federal agencies such as DOD and the Department of Veterans Affairs VA have also sponsored consequence management exercises 2 While there have been some DOD and State Department sponsored consequence management exercises with international scenarios we did not include them in our review Page 21 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall Counterterrorist Exercises Conventional and WMD 90 84 80 70 60 50 40 32 30 23 32 21 20 10 9 0 June 1995 - June 1996 June 1996 - June 1997 C onventional Page 22 June 1997 - June 1998 W MD GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall Federal counterterrorist exercises included both conventional and WMD scenarios to prepare their personnel for a wide variety of possible situations Exercises with both conventional and WMD scenarios increased more than 250 percent over the 3-year period The ratio of conventional scenarios to WMD scenarios was roughly the same about 2 5 in the third year as in the first year 3 DOD FEMA FBI and USSS led the most exercises that included WMD scenarios All of the 26 Domestic Preparedness Program exercises that were conducted in the third year had WMD scenarios Although the number of exercises with WMD is more than double those with conventional scenarios conventional terrorist incidents are more likely to occur According to intelligence agencies conventional explosives and firearms continue to be the weapons of choice for terrorists Terrorists are less likely to use WMD agents in part because they are more difficult to obtain develop and weaponize or otherwise disseminate However the likelihood that terrorists may use chemical and biological materials may increase over the next decade according to intelligence agencies DOD led the most WMD exercises 89 exercises and a high percentage 92 percent of the exercises that it led had WMD scenarios DOD officials said that they need to train against the most challenging threat i e WMD and that such training also prepares their personnel for less challenging conventional threats Another factor in the relatively high number of exercises with WMD scenarios is the strong emphasis on WMD voiced by the President in PDDs and the Congress in legislation and committee reports 3 To some extent the number of WMD scenarios is overstated because we classified exercises that had both WMD and conventional scenarios as WMD exercises Page 23 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall Counterterrorist Exercises Chemical Biological and Nuclear 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% WMD - 139 Chemical - 59 Page 24 B iological - 18 Nuclear - 21 Multiple WMD 41 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall Federal agencies had scenarios that used all three types of WMD chemical biological and nuclear in their counterterrorism exercieses during the 3-year period Chemical agents such as sarin were the most common and were included in 59 42 percent of the WMD exercises All of the 26 Domestic Preparedness Program exercises included chemical agents Biological agents such as anthrax were less common and were included in 18 13 percent of the WMD exercises Nuclear threats including radiological such as uranium bombs and plutonium were included in 21 15 percent of the exercises In addition of the 139 WMD exercises 41 29 percent including more than 1 type of WMD in the scenario 4 An example of a multiple WMD scenario was a DOD exercise where terrorists teams were at two locations one team with a chemical weapon and one team with a biological weapon While DOD officials acknowledged that such a multiple WMD scenario was not likely they said each individual team in the exercise focused on its individual target so the training they received at the tactical level was the same as in a single WMD scenario 4 To some extent the number of multiple WMD scenarios is overstated because we included exercises in that category if the data indicated they were WMD but we could not determine the exact type of agent in the scenario Page 25 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall Counterterrorist Exercises Federal Agencies Participating 61 94 46 One Agency - 61 Two Agencies - 46 Three or More Agencies - 94 Page 26 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall The number of federal agencies participating in exercises ranged from a single agency to many agencies Of the 201 exercises 61 exercises 30 percent only included the agencies that led them There were 140 exercises 70 percent that were interagency exercises—they involved at least 2 federal departments or independent agencies 5 Ninety-six 47 percent of the total exercises were major interagency exercises because they included three or more departments or independent agencies DOD FEMA FBI and USSS led the most major interagency exercises during this period 5 For the purpose of this report we define interagency as involving more than one federal department or independent agency For example DOD-led exercises that included both Army and Navy participation or FBI-led exercises that included other Department of Justice participants e g the Bureau of Prisons were not considered interagency exercises Page 27 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall Counterterrorist Exercises By Types of Participants 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Total Exercises 201 S tate and or Local Non-government - 69 18 Page 28 Foreign - 4 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall In some of the 201 exercises federal agencies gained experience working with state and local authorities nongovernmental organizations and foreign governments Of the 201 exercises 69 34 percent had state and or local government participation such as police and fire departments In addition 18 9 percent of the total exercises included nongovernmental or other private organizations Examples of such organizations include disaster relief charities e g the Red Cross private firms e g hospitals airlines and oil companies and organizations set up for special events e g the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Four of the exercises 2 percent included foreign government participation and simulated federal agency integration in international incidents DOD led most of the exercises with state and local participation because of the intergovernmental nature of the Domestic Preparedness Program exercises After DOD FBI and FEMA led more exercises with state and local participation than the other agencies Page 29 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall Counterterrorist Exercises State and Local Participation Federal State and or Local Field and Tabletop Federal State and or Local WMD Versus Conventional 9 20 49 60 Field Tabletop Page 30 Conventional WMD GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section II Federal Exercises Overall Federal counterterrorist exercises that included state and or local participation tended to be tabletop exercises with WMD scenarios Of the total 69 exercises 49 71 percent were tabletops and 60 87 percent had WMD scenarios The 26 Domestic Preparedness Program exercises which were all tabletops using WMD scenarios accounted for 26 38 percent of the 69 exercises that included state and or local participation According to the FBI field exercises offer hands-on training that cannot be replicated by tabletop exercises and valuable opportunities to test interactions among federal state and local agencies For this reason the FBI views participation by state and local agencies in federally sponsored field exercises as a top priority as it continues to plan and execute counterterrorist exercises However staffing and budget considerations or restrictive union contracts sometimes hinder state and local participation in federal exercises according to the FBI The FBI noted that it is not budgeted to pay state or local overtime for participation in FBI-led exercises and until this budget problem is resolved there will never be extensive state and local participation in FBI-led exercises The FBI stated that the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs may be able to provide funding for state and local participation in federally sponsored field exercises Page 31 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises nB Io Sg iefcrti Counterterrorist Exercises By Lead Agency FEMA - 16 USSS - 46 HHS - 3 EPA - 1 FBI - 24 DOE - 5 Other State - 1 VA - 4 ATF - 4 Other - 3 DOD - 97 Page 32 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises Federal counterterrorist exercises were generally led by one agency The lead agency was responsible for planning the exercise setting the objectives scripting the scenario coordinating the logistics and evaluating the results Thus the lead agency usually expended the bulk of the personnel and resources to conduct an exercise This is especially the case in field exercises which are more resource intensive than tabletop exercises The role of agencies that just participated varied by exercise and by agency Some participating agencies were very involved in exercise planning and provided substantial resources to exercises led by other agencies For example in some field exercises participating agencies attended numerous planning sessions and deployed several personnel and substantial equipment to the exercise location In contrast in some tabletop exercises some participating agencies contributed one or two personnel just for the day of the exercise Four agencies led more than 90 percent of the counterterrorist exercises These four agencies and the number and percentage of federal exercises that they led were DOD with 97 48 percent USSS with 46 23 percent the FBI with 24 12 percent and FEMA with 16 8 percent No other single agency led more than five 2 percent of the total exercises over the 3-year period For the few cases when more than one agency led an exercise we counted all sponsoring agencies as a lead agency thus the total in our briefing slide 204 slightly exceeds the 201 exercises conducted during this period and Page 33 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises Counterterrorist Exercises Participation and Leadership by Agency 160 143 140 Participated in Exercise Led Exercise 120 100 97 99 76 80 68 65 60 46 47 36 40 24 24 16 20 12 3 5 1 10 4 1 4 0 DOD FBI FEMA HHS Page 34 USSS EPA DOE State VA ATF GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises Some agencies e g DOD USSS FBI and FEMA not only led many exercises but also participated in many exercises led by other agencies Other agencies we reviewed led 5 or fewer exercises but participated in at least 10 exercises in the 3-year period These agencies generally exercise their personnel and equipment through their participation in other agencies’ exercises For example State Department officials told us that they leverage DOD-sponsored exercises to exercise their counterterrorism responsibilities including their lead agency status As discussed earlier because some exercises were sponsored by more than one agency the number of exercises that agencies led 204 slightly exceeded the 201 exercises conducted in this period Additional information on agencies leading and participating in exercises is provided by the individual agencies in the remainder of this section For the agencies that led the most exercises DOD USSS FBI and FEMA the data is displayed by exercises that each agency led These agencies are presented in descending order of the number of exercises they led For the other agencies the data is displayed by exercises in which they participated These agencies are presented in descending order of the number of exercises they participated in Page 35 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises Department of Defense Counterterrorist Exercises DOD Leadership and Participation in Exercises Type of Exercises That DOD Led 46 44 97 Exercises Led Participated Only 53 Field Exercises Breakdown of DOD-Led Exercises by Number of Participating Agencies Tabletop Exercises Type of Scenarios for Exercises That DOD Led 8 35 62 89 One or Two Three or More Page 36 Conventional WMD GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises DOD is not a lead federal agency for response to terrorist incidents but it provides significant and unique capabilities to support other agencies in conducting their responsibilities DOD works with the State Department to support its international crisis management role DOD also supports the domestic lead agencies FBI and FEMA and other agencies for domestic crisis and consequence management This support includes not only tactical units but also logistics and technical units trained to deal with all types of WMD Examples of response units include the Army’s Technical Escort Unit and the Marine Corps’ Chemical and Biological Incident Response Force During this period DOD participated in a wide variety of counterterrorist exercises and sponsored major exercises with interagency participation DOD participated in the most exercises with a total of 143 and it led 97 68 percent of these exercises Of the DOD-led exercises 53 55 percent were tabletop and 44 45 percent were field exercises Most included WMD scenarios primarily chemical weapons and 62 66 percent of the DOD-led exercises included 3 or more federal agencies many of which included State FBI DOE HHS and EPA DOD also sponsored the four exercises that included foreign government participants as well as three of the four no-notice exercises DOD sponsored a variety of major interagency tabletop exercises and field exercises DOD sponsored the Domestic Preparedness Program exercises carried out in major U S cities This program also included major federal state and local field exercises in Denver in 1997 and Philadelphia in 1998 DOD also established the Interagency Terrorism Response Awareness Program which includes tabletop exercises that bring together senior agency officials within the counterterrorism community to coordinate policy issues DOD schedules several interagency field exercises including the Eligible Receiver series which are sponsored by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Ellipse series which are field exercises conducted by one of the geographic theatre commanders These major exercises usually include participation by other federal agencies For example in June of 1998 DOD conducted a weeklong WMD crisis management exercise which included FBI State FEMA DOE and HHS Page 37 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises U S Secret Service Counterterrorist Exercises Type of Exercises That USSS Led USSS Leadership and Participation in Exercises 5 19 46 41 Exercises Led Participated Only Field Exercises Breakdown of USSS-Led Exercises by Number of Participating Agencies Tabletop Exercises Type of Scenarios for Exercises That USSS Led 6 10 40 One or Two 36 Three or More Conventional Page 38 WMD GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises Among other responsibilities USSS provides protection to the President and other key officials USSS conducted exercises for its special agents related to its protective mission These exercises generally involved continuity of operations at the White House or protecting the President and other officials Some of these exercises practiced the USSS role in providing security at certain special events such as national political conventions presidential inaugurations and state of the union addresses USSS generally led field exercises with conventional scenarios that had few other federal agencies participating USSS participated in a total of 65 exercises and led 46 71 percent of these exercises Forty-one 89 percent of the exercises led by USSS were field exercises and the other 5 11 percent were tabletop exercises Of the 46 exercises that USSS led 40 87 percent of them had only the USSS or the USSS and 1 other agency participating and 6 13 percent of them had 3 or more federal agencies Of the exercises it led 36 78 percent had conventional scenarios and 10 22 percent had some type of WMD threat in their scenarios USSS-led exercises involve protecting the President and other officials from attacks and are held at a variety of locations including the White House complex These exercises include some other federal agencies such as DOD the White House Military Office FEMA and the U S Capitol Police The exercises that practice defense against attacks on the President and other officials such as during motorcades are held at the USSS training center and involve some other agencies as participants or observers Exercises have been performed with other agencies before some special events such as the Presidential Inauguration in 1997 and the Summit of the Eight in Denver in 1997 Page 39 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises Federal Bureau of Investigation Counterterrorist Exercises FBI Leadership and Participation in Exercises Type of Exercises That FBI Led 24 7 75 17 Exercises Led Participated Only Field Exercises Breakdown of FBI-Led Exercises by Number of Participating Agencies Tabletop Exercises Type of Scenarios for Exercises That FBI Led 6 11 13 18 One or Two Three or More Page 40 Conventional WMD GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises The Department of Justice including the FBI has many responsibilities related to terrorism including conducting criminal investigations arresting individuals who commit terrorist acts and prosecuting them The FBI has been designated as the lead federal agency responsible for domestic terrorism crisis management including responding to terrorist incidents The FBI has a variety of operational capabilities that it can deploy to respond to a crisis Its Critical Incident Response Group can deploy additional resources to assist field offices in responding and is also responsible for sponsoring FBI crisis management exercises The FBI also can establish a Joint Operations Center to provide for interagency participation in managing a crisis The FBI can also deploy an interagency DEST to advise and assist the FBI special agent in charge The FBI’s crisis management field exercises provide training in response capabilities to FBI field personnel The FBI participated in 99 exercises during the 3-year period and led 24 24 percent of these exercises Even though many FBI-led exercises focus on training for FBI response units the FBI also led some exercises with participation by several other federal agencies Of the 24 exercises that the FBI-led 6 25 percent had 3 or more federal agencies participating The other 18 exercises 75 percent included only the FBI or the FBI and one other federal agency as well as some other Justice Department organizations The exercises also included some state and local organizations FBI-led exercises included 17 71 percent field exercises and 7 29 percent tabletop exercises FBI’s crisis management exercises had a variety of scenarios and terrorist threats Thirteen of the scenarios 54 percent were WMD and the other 11 46 percent were conventional The FBI’s exercises were primarily crisis management field training exercises that focused on training FBI’s operational response units such as Special Weapons and Tactics teams and evaluating their response plans FBI’s field training exercises are often held at locations where actual crises could occur and include participants from FBI’s field offices These exercises test command and control by establishing command posts and tactical operations centers and include support such as equipment communications and logistics The FBI exercises had a variety of scenarios including hostage barricades aircraft hijackings terrorist attacks conventional bombing attacks threat of WMD kidnappings and prison disturbances The FBI was also a significant player in some exercises that it did not lead For example it played a major role in a June 1998 DOD-sponsored exercise and established a Joint Operations Center with representatives from other agencies such as DOE FEMA and HHS Page 41 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises Federal Emergency Management Agency Counterterrorist Exercises FEMA Leadership and Participation in Exercises Type of Exercises That FEMA Led 0 16 60 16 Exercises Led Participated Only Field Exercises Breakdown of FEMA-Led Exercises by Number of Participating Agencies Tabletop Exercises Type of Scenarios for Exercises That FEMA Led 1 5 11 15 One or Two Three or More Page 42 Conventional WMD GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises FEMA is the lead agency for coordinating the federal response to manage the consequences of a domestic terrorist attack FEMA has various emergency response responsibilities for disasters including maintaining the Federal Response Plan which includes a counterterrorism annex FEMA using the Federal Response Plan would coordinate the federal efforts to support state and local governments The Stafford Act 1 provides FEMA with authority to assign missions to any federal agency in the event of a disaster or an emergency declared by the President including acts of terrorism FEMA’s counterterrorism exercises focused on its consequence management role and FEMA also participated in crisis management field exercises led by other agencies The exercises that FEMA led have generally been interagency tabletops centered on a variety of WMD threats and scenarios Of the 76 exercises that FEMA participated in 16 21 percent were led by FEMA Many of the exercises were interagency with 11 of the 16 exercises that FEMA led or 69 percent having three or more federal agencies participating The other five exercises 31 percent included only FEMA or FEMA and one other federal agency The 16 exercises that FEMA led were all tabletop exercises FEMA’s consequence management exercises were almost all 94 percent WMD and had a variety of scenarios and terrorist threats The exercises led by FEMA included some major interagency exercises with WMD scenarios The Ill Wind series of tabletop exercises which began in September 1996 focused on preparing emergency management personnel to deal with the consequences of terrorism incidents The scenarios of the exercises involved the use of WMD in the Washington D C area The FBI and several other agencies provided briefings and there were participants from many other agencies More recently FEMA held consequence management seminars and tabletop exercises for its personnel in each of its 10 regions to highlight terrorism issues and they included FBI regional participants The regions chose the scenarios and seven included chemical agents and three included nuclear threats FEMA also participated in major field exercises led by DOD and FBI to practice planning for consequence management 1 42 U S C section 5121 et seq Page 43 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises Department of Health and Human Services Counterterrorist Exercises HHS Leadership and Participation in Exercises Type of Exercises That HHS Participated In 3 13 65 Exercises Led 55 Participated Only Breakdown of Number of Agencies Participating in Exercises Including HHS Field Exercises Tabletop Exercises Type of Scenarios for Exercises That HHS Participated In 2 3 66 65 One or Two Three or More Page 44 Conventional WMD GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises HHS has a support role related primarily to consequence management to provide the health and medical response to a terrorist incident HHS can provide a number of services in a terrorist incident including threat assessment consultation agent identification epidemiological investigation hazard detection and reduction triage treatment decontamination pubic health support medical support pharmaceutical support overflow hospital capacity mental health services and mortuary services The Office of Emergency Preparedness coordinates the overall HHS support HHS could activate a number of specialized resources that include the National Disaster Medical System Disaster Medical Assistance Teams National Medical Response Teams and Disaster Mortuary Teams For biological agents HHS can help identify the agent and conduct epidemiological investigations through its network of laboratories HHS generally participated in tabletop exercises with WMD scenarios that included several federal agencies HHS led 3 4 percent of the 68 exercises it participated in Of these three HHS-led exercises two 66 percent were field exercises two 66 percent involved three or more federal agencies and all had WMD scenarios Of the 68 exercises that it participated in 13 19 percent were field exercises 65 96 percent involved three or more agencies and 66 97 percent had WMD scenarios An example of an exercise sponsored by HHS also cosponsored by DOD and VA was “Consequence Management 98” which was conducted in April 1998 This exercise included five HHS Disaster Medical Assistance Teams focused on the medical aspects of a WMD attack and included training to develop a field medical unit perform triage decontaminate patients and provide additional treatment The exercise had over 600 participants who practiced their clinical skills in an emergency field setting HHS officials also stressed the importance of major special events e g inaugurations and sporting events in exercising their staff’s capabilities Page 45 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises Environmental Protection Agency Counterterrorist Exercises EPA Leadership and Participation in Exercises Type of Exercises That EPA Participated In 1 4 43 46 Field Exercises Exercises Led Tabletop Exercises Participated Only Breakdown of Number of Agencies Participating in Exercises Including EPA Type of Scenarios for Exercises That EPA Participated In 1 0 47 46 One or Two Three or More Page 46 Conventional WMD GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises EPA is a support agency for both crisis management and consequence management in terrorist incidents involving WMD EPA provides expertise and technical support for identification of contaminants collection and analysis of samples monitoring of contaminants on-site safety and decontamination EPA also issues permits for the custody transportation and transfer of hazardous chemical The Office of the Emergency and Deputy Emergency Coordinator would coordinate overall EPA support in chemical and nuclear terrorist incidents Examples of EPA resources include an Environmental Response Team a Radiological Emergency Response Team the Environmental Radiation Ambient Monitoring System and the National Enforcement Investigations Center EPA generally participated in tabletop exercises with WMD scenarios that included several federal agencies EPA led 1 2 percent of the 47 exercises in which it participated The one EPA-led exercise was a tabletop exercise that only involved EPA and used a WMD scenario Of the total 47 exercises that EPA participated in 4 6 percent were field exercises 46 98 percent involved three or more agencies and all had WMD scenarios The exercise that EPA sponsored was “Olympic Sparkler” in April 1996 This EPA-only tabletop exercise used a scenario where terrorists dispersed radioactive material at the Atlanta Olympics The purpose of the exercise was to test EPA plans and procedures to respond to a terrorist incident involving radiation dispersal among a civilian population Page 47 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises Department of Energy Counterterrorist Exercises Type of Exercises That DOE Participated In DOE Leadership and Participation in Exercises 5 13 23 31 Exercises Led Participated Only Breakdown of Number of Agencies Participating in Exercises Including DOE Field Exercises Type of Scenarios for Exercises That DOE Participated In 3 6 30 One or Two Tabletop Exercises 33 Three or More Page 48 Conventional WMD GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises DOE is a support agency in WMD incidents for both crisis management and consequence management providing support and technical assistance related to nuclear devices and radiological events Specifically DOE can provide threat assessments search operations diagnostic and device assessments containment relocation and storage of special nuclear material and post-incident cleanup DOE’s Office of Emergency Response generally provides coordination of the Department’s support In the event of a nuclear terrorist threat or incident DOE could activate and or deploy several teams including a Nuclear Incident Team the Nuclear Radiological Advisory Team the Nuclear Emergency Search Team the Federal Radiological Monitoring and Assessment Center Accident Response Group the Aerial Measuring System the Radiological Assistance Program Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability and the Radiation Emergency Assistance Center and Training Site These response teams are composed of DOE employees and contractors who work at DOE facilities as weapon designers engineers and physicists DOE generally participated in a mixture of field and tabletop exercises with WMD scenarios that included several federal agencies DOE led 5 14 percent of the 36 exercises it participated in Of the five DOE-led exercises three 60 percent were field exercises three 60 percent involved three or more federal agencies and all had WMD scenarios Of the total 36 exercises that DOE participated in 13 33 percent were field exercises 30 83 percent involved three or more agencies and 30 83 percent had WMD scenarios The exercises that DOE led were generally deployments including one no-notice deployment of DOE’s rapid response capabilities and included personnel and equipment from other agencies as well Most of them were field exercises that focused on crisis management Given DOE’s role most of the exercises that DOE led or participated in had nuclear or radiological scenarios Page 49 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises Department of State Counterterrorist Exercises State Leadership and Participation in Exercises Type of Exercises That State Participated In 1 9 15 23 Exercises Led Participated Only Field Exercises Breakdown of Number of Agencies Participating in Exercises Including State Tabletop Exercises Type of Scenarios for Exercises That State Participated In 1 6 18 23 One or Two Three or More Page 50 Conventional WMD GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises The State Department is the lead agency for international terrorist incidents for both crisis management and consequence management The State Department through its Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism leads a FEST to provide advice and support to U S ambassadors Washington decision-makers and host governments The FEST is an interagency team tailored to the specific terrorist incident that could deploy at the request of the ambassador and with the permission of the host country The Department determines the composition of the FEST which could include FBI DOD DOE HHS or EPA if the incident involved WMD For consequence management a Consequence Management Advisory Team would deploy with the FEST to assess the need for follow-on assets that would assist a host government in planning for and managing the consequences of a WMD incident overseas The State Department generally participated in field exercises with WMD scenarios that included several federal agencies The State Department sponsored 1 4 percent of the 24 exercises that it participated in This was a field exercise with participation by several federal agencies that used a conventional scenario Of the total 24 exercises that State participated in 15 63 percent were field exercises 23 96 percent involved three or more agencies and 18 75 percent had WMD scenarios In general the State Department uses DOD- and DOE-led exercises to practice its leadership role in international incidents These exercises test rapid and no-notice deployments of command elements and tactical units to locations worldwide and frequently test the FEST so deployments can be practiced by the full cadre of interagency players The one exercise that the State Department sponsored—also cosponsored by DOD—was a bilateral exercise with another friendly nation This was a field exercise where personnel and equipment deployed to a foreign country and worked with embassy personnel to practice dealing with a conventional hostage barricade situation Page 51 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises Department of Veterans Affairs Counterterrorist Exercises Type of Exercises That VA Participated In VA Leadership and Participation in Exercises 4 6 6 8 Exercises Led Field Exercises Participated Only Breakdown of Number of Agencies Participatiing in Exercises Including VA Tabletop Exercises Type of Scenarios for Exercises That VA Participated In 2 3 9 10 One or Two Three or More Page 52 Conventional WMD GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises VA is a support agency that could provide health and medical support for consequence management VA works with HHS and DOD to maintain the National Medical Disaster System a combination of private and government hospitals that could provide health and medical support in a terrorist incident involving mass casualties Under PDD 62 VA works with HHS to ensure that adequate stockpiles of antidotes and other necessary pharmaceuticals are available for terrorist attacks nationwide HHS in consultation with VA will determine the makeup and size of the pharmaceutical caches for such emergencies 2 In a terrorist attack VA could activate its Response Support Unit to manage the agency’s overall response and provide support to other agencies such as FEMA under the Federal Response Plan VA also has two response teams the Emergency Medical Response Team and the Medical Emergency Radiological Response Team The later team consists of physicians and nuclear physicists that could supplement any federal response to a terrorist threat involving nuclear material VA generally participated in a mixture of field and tabletop exercises with WMD scenarios that included several federal agencies VA led 4 33 percent of the 12 exercises it participated in Of these four exercises all were field exercises two 50 percent involved three or more federal agencies and all had WMD scenarios Of the total 12 exercises that VA participated in 6 50 percent were field exercises 9 75 percent involved 3 or more agencies and 10 83 percent had WMD scenarios An example of a VA-sponsored exercise was “Radex North” conducted in March 1997 VA sponsored this exercise in conjunction with the state of Minnesota which simulated a terrorist attack on a federal building with explosives laced with radioactive material and the subsequent decontamination and treatment of hundreds of casualties One of the exercise’s objectives was to test the concept of operations for the VA’s Medical Emergency Radiological Response Team The exercise had 500 participants and attempted to fully integrate the federal medical response into the state and local responses including local hospitals VA officials noted that they participated in numerous other disaster-related exercises which were outside the scope of our review to improve the Department’s consequence management capabilities 2 VA is not involved in the development of the national stockpile of pharmaceuticals and vaccines The Pharmaceutical caches referred to in PDD 62 are for medical response teams Page 53 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Counterterrorist Exercises Type of Exercises That ATF Participated In ATF Leadership and Participation in Exercises 1 4 6 9 Exercises Led Field Exercises Participated Only Tabletop Exercises Type of Scenarios for Exercises That ATF Participated In Breakdown of Number of Agencies Participating in Exercises Including ATF 3 3 7 7 Conventional One or Two WMD Three or More Page 54 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Briefing Section III Individual Agencies Exercises ATF has a crisis response role and investigation jurisdiction related to incidents involving conventional bombings ATF has a Critical Incident Management Response Team that is a standardized deployable command organizational structure for managing responses to incidents which include acts of terrorism ATF also has teams that respond and deploy to the crisis site For example there are Special Response Teams that provide crisis response ATF leads exercises that test the crisis response capabilities of its Special Response Teams ATF participated in 10 exercises during the 3-year period including 4 exercises 40 percent that it led Of the 10 exercises that ATF participated in 9 90 percent were field exercises Seven 70 percent of the 10 exercises that ATF participated in had less than three federal agencies participating in them and had conventional scenarios including all of the exercises led by ATF the other three 30 percent had some type of WMD in their scenario ATF also participated in six other exercises led by other agencies including three that had three or more federal agencies participating During this period ATF led field exercises for its regional personnel that included the Special Response Teams in each of the five ATF regions These exercises focused on developing ATF’s internal crisis response capabilities lasted up to 1 week and included both classroom training and field exercises The exercises also included ATF tactical operations centers response teams hostage negotiators communications and logistics The exercises had scenarios that generally included domestic antigovernment groups and hostage situations These exercises included conventional firearms and explosives not WMD ATF officials said they have completed field exercises in all ATF regions and are conducting tabletop exercises in their 23 field divisions to update their staff on their new Critical Incident Management System Page 55 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Appendix I Major Contributors to This Report AppeIx ndi Carol R Schuster Stephen L Caldwell Davi M D’Agostino Alan M Byroade Lee Purdy Page 56 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Page 57 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Page 58 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Related GAO Products Combating Terrorism Observations on Growth in Federal Programs GAO T-NSIAD-99-181 June 9 1999 Combating Terrorism Analysis of Potential Emergency Response Equipment and Sustainment Costs GAO NSIAD-99-151 June 9 1999 Combating Terrorism Use of National Guard Response Teams Is Unclear GAO NSIAD-99-110 May 21 1999 Combating Terrorism Issues to Be Resolved to Improve Counterterrorist Operations GAO NSIAD-99-135 May 13 1999 Weapons of Mass Destruction DOD Efforts to Reduce Russian Arsenals May Cost More and Accomplish Less Than Expected GAO NSIAD-99-76 Apr 13 1999 Combating Terrorism Observations on Biological Terrorism and Public Health Initiatives GAO T-NSIAD-99-112 Mar 16 1999 Combating Terrorism Observations on Federal Spending to Combat Terrorism GAO T-NSIAD GGD-99-107 Mar 11 1999 Combating Terrorism FBI's Use of Federal Funds for CounterterrorismRelated Activities FYs 1995-98 GAO GGD-99-7 Nov 20 1998 Combating Terrorism Opportunities to Improve Domestic Preparedness Program Focus and Efficiency GAO NSIAD-99-3 Nov 12 1998 Combating Terrorism Observations on the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici Domestic Preparedness Program GAO T-NSIAD-99-16 Oct 2 1998 Combating Terrorism Observations on Crosscutting Issues GAO T-NSIAD-98-164 Apr 23 1998 Combating Terrorism Threat and Risk Assessments Can Help Prioritize and Target Program Investments GAO NSIAD-98-74 Apr 9 1998 Combating Terrorism Spending on Governmentwide Programs Requires Better Management and Coordination GAO NSIAD-98-39 Dec 1 1997 Combating Terrorism Efforts to Protect U S Forces in Turkey and the Middle East GAO T-NSIAD-98-44 Oct 28 1997 Page 59 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR Combating Terrorism Related GAO Products Combating Terrorism Federal Agencies' Efforts to Implement National Policy and Strategy GAO NSIAD-97-254 Sept 26 1997 Combating Terrorism Status of DOD Efforts to Protect Its Forces Overseas GAO NSIAD-97-207 July 21 1997 701164 Leter Page 60 GAO NSIAD-99-157BR 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