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Good
morning, Chairman Langevin, Ranking Member McCaul, and members
of the Subcommittee. I am pleased to be here today to demonstrate
the commitment of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to strengthening
our nation's ability to conduct effective technical nuclear
forensics.
The number
one priority of the FBI is to protect the nation from terrorist
attacks. Within that priority, the weapons of mass destruction
(WMD) terrorist threat is clearly our most pressing concern.
The FBI established the WMD Directorate in 2006 to bring together
the units within the FBI that were addressing the response,
investigation, intelligence dissemination, and analysis and
countermeasures programs into one unified structure. This
unity of leadership has strengthened the FBI's ability to
prevent a WMD terrorist attack significantly. Key to our prevention
efforts is a strong forensic program that includes all aspects
of WMD and traditional forensic expertise. Additionally, we
at the FBI recognize that it is through interagency cooperation
that the WMD terrorist threat is best addressed.
The FBI
Laboratory Division is central to our support to interagency
efforts of the departments of Justice, Homeland Security,
Energy, and Defense, and members of the intelligence community
(Interagency) in nuclear forensics. We view our Laboratory
as the world's premier forensics laboratory and are proud
of the role it fulfills in preventing WMD terrorism and in
responding to crimes when they occur.
The Laboratory's
Hazardous Materials Response Unit (HMRU) provides the personnel,
equipment, and know-how to effect the safe and secure collection
and transport of radiological and nuclear materials and debris
to an appropriate facility for analysis and characterization.
These capabilities include the people who work at HMRU in
Quantico, Virginia, and their gear, as well as those of 27
Hazardous Materials Response Teams that are trained, equipped,
and certified by HMRU. These teams are located throughout
the United States with various FBI field divisions and provide
over 400 personnel to augment our operational response capabilities.
HMRU
also provides training on WMD crime-scene awareness so that
our personnel will know how to properly enter, exit, and work
within any scene where biological pathogens, toxic chemicals,
and radiological or nuclear materials might be present. This
training, which historically has been directed toward our
own personnel, has recently been adapted to provide WMD crime-scene
awareness training for personnel from the Interagency.
We are
pleased to be offering the training beginning this fall to
selected personnel from the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS), Department of Defense (DOD), and Department of Energy
(DOE). In keeping with the importance we attach to nuclear
forensics, we have targeted those DHS, DOD, and DOE elements
most directly involved in nuclear activities as the first
priority to receive this training from the FBI.
No one
agency has the necessary resources, experience, and capabilities
to solely perform technical WMD forensics. The Laboratory
leverages the capabilities of the Interagency through the
efforts of its Chemical Biological Science Unit (CBSU), an
all-discipline WMD analysis unit. CBSU develops and maintains
the Laboratory's ability to conduct and/or direct the forensic
examination of evidence that either contains or is contaminated
with hazardous chemical, biological, or radiological material.
To that end, CBSU has formalized partnerships with a variety
of government, academic, and private labs to carry out specific
examinations of FBI evidence.
We have
formal agreements in place with Savannah River National Laboratory
(SRNL) in Aiken, South Carolina, for recovered radiological
materials and detonated radiological dispersal devices; with
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California,
for recovered special nuclear materials as well as intact
improvised nuclear devices; and with the U.S. Air Force Technical
Applications Center for debris resulting from the detonation
of an improvised nuclear device.
In November
2006, we began operations at Savannah River of the Radiological
Evidence Analysis Laboratory Suite (REALS), which was stood
up with our funds plus funding from DHS. REALS provides dedicated
space at SRNL for our forensic examiners and technicians to
perform selected activities, including the storage of evidence.
The joint DHS/FBI funds also enabled us to begin planning
and designing a unique set of fully functional forensic laboratory
spaces that we refer to as the Radiological Evidence Examination
Facility (REEF). Thanks to specifically-targeted congressional
funding received this past fiscal year, we began renovations
of existing space at SRNL to create REEF. It is projected
to become fully functional in fiscal 2009, thereby allowing
our Laboratory examiners and technicians to conduct a full
range of traditional forensic examinations on evidence that
is contaminated with nuclear materials.
The final
pillar to our Laboratory's support for technical nuclear forensics
speaks to our ability to conduct traditional forensics on
radiological and nuclear materials—in other words, to
perform the very forensic examinations for which the FBI Laboratory
is so well known. In this case, CBSU has also taken the lead,
both domestically and internationally, by developing and implementing
the Hazardous Evidence Analysis Team or HEAT program. That
program responds to the altered operational dynamic that prevails
when we investigate a crime or suspicious event involving
WMD. Normally, we transport evidence from a crime scene to
the FBI Laboratory. For WMD crimes, though, we have made the
conscious decision to refrain from transporting any such evidence
to our Laboratory in Quantico until we can demonstrate that
no residual WMD contamination exists.
But the
needs of the investigation to process the evidence for traditional
signatures of interest—such as latent fingerprints, human
DNA analysis, and trace evidence—are immediate. To ensure
we begin such traditional examinations promptly, we have flipped
the dynamic, and we transport the examiners to the evidence
at one of partner laboratories. The HEAT program takes our
trained and qualified forensic examiners and technicians from
across the Laboratory and provides additional training which
allows them to operate in a WMD laboratory, such as in a hot
cell for nuclear materials, a Biosafety Level 3 or 4 Suite
for biological pathogens, or a Chemical Surety Materiel laboratory
for toxic chemicals.
We certify
our personnel through the HEAT program as qualified examiners
and technicians in their discipline. We believe HEAT has been
a success, with more than 60 examiners and technicians trained
and certified, representing the various forensic disciplines
in our Laboratory. Our examiners and technicians profit, gaining
the confidence and skills needed to conduct their demanding
tasks in an altered environment. The investigation is supported
by ensuring we have a cadre of such trained and certified
personnel who are ready to deploy immediately when the need
arises. Through this training and certification process, we
are learning what modifications, if any, are needed to conduct
traditional forensic techniques when the work must be performed
in a radiological or nuclear laboratory or, in the more general
case, in any WMD laboratory, such as those of our partners
with DHS at the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures
Center and with DOD at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center.
Again,
as with our novel nuclear forensic examiner program, we are
unaware of any program similar to HEAT with any of our international
partners, but we are certainly anxious to share our experiences
with them.
Thank
you for time, I look forward to answering your questions.
Congressional
Testimony
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