FBI has yet to thoroughly assess terrorist threat, report says

The FBI needs to complete a thorough, written assessment of terrorist threats facing the country, instead of just relying on the informal judgment of agency managers, according to a new report from the Justice Department's inspector general.

At the recommendation of the General Accounting Office, the FBI completed a draft report before Sept. 11, 2001 on the terrorist threat. The report described terrorist organizations, but did not adequately assess the capabilities or potential targets of terrorists groups, the IG's report concluded. But the FBI has yet to complete a final report on terrorist methods, intelligence threats or the likelihood of an attack involving weapons of mass destruction, according to the audit's executive summary, which was released Tuesday. The full report is classified.

"Determining what scenarios are most likely to occur in a comprehensive and more formal manner would better position the FBI to meet its new counterterrorism priority," the report said. The report, which acknowledged that the FBI has made important efforts to revamp its counterterrorism program since last year's terrorist attacks, nonetheless criticized agency managers for failing to make a comprehensive, written terrorist threat assessment a top priority. The IG wrote: "FBI counterterrorism managers had a tendency to rely on their experience and professional judgment regarding the overall terrorist threat and did not value a formal written assessment that uses a structured methodology. In fact, the terrorist threat project had such a low profile within the FBI that it took the FBI nearly a month to identify to us anyone familiar with the project and the draft report." The FBI disputed the IG's conclusion that the agency had not adequately assessed the threat of terrorism in its draft report. In response to the report, Dale Watson, the FBI's executive assistant director for counterterrorism and counterintelligence, said he was fully aware of terrorist threats before and after the Sept. 11 attacks and that the information he receives from the intelligence community is incorporated into his division's strategic planning process. Watson also said that the IG's report did not cover the FBI's overall counterterrorism efforts, creating the impression that agency employees were not doing enough to address counterterrorism priorities. In addition to producing a detailed, written assessment of the terrorism threat, the report recommended that the FBI provide better training to employees assigned to counterterrorism; hold managers accountable for meeting goals in the agency's strategic plan; and develop criteria for evaluating and prioritizing incoming threat information for analysis.