BOSTON — A new report from the U.S. Department of Justice found efforts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to properly identify homegrown violent extremists through counterterrorism fell short.
In the report, officials remark attacks on U.S. soil were led by individuals who had previously presented behavior that led them to be assessed or investigated - and yet, they were still able to carry out devastating attacks. DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz points out they “found at least 6 attacks committed in the US by individuals who the FBI had previously assessed or investigated.”
Those include the 2009 Fort Hood attack, the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings and the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting.
Ever since those attacks, the FBI has been flooded with tips, some credible and others no so much, and weeding them out can make tracking data even more challenging.
“This is a particularly challenging area for the FBI because it will need to preserve constitutional protections while maintaining national security," said Horowitz.
In a tweet, Horowitz said:
“The FBI has decided to integrate criminal threat matters into its system for assessing counterterrorism threats; and is in the process of updating its protocols related to this change.”
The report makes seven recommendations to help the FBI address these issues, including in-house training, data inquiries and making the process of retrieving data more user-friendly, all which the agency has agreed with.