A View from the CT Foxhole: Five Years After the Boston Marathon Bombing – Combating Terrorism...

"One takeaway is a term often used in the military—train as you fight. We rely heavily on the use of table-top exercises. In some instances, we conduct Command Post Exercises to ensure communications work and are coordinated as necessary. We ensure interconnectivity, not only with our databases and systems, but also by having the right people assigned and trained to support our Joint Intelligence Center or prepared to participate in an FBI or partner agency Tactical Operations Center. Within our office, any time we can capitalize on even a smaller scale operation, whether arrest or search, we make sure we are including our partner agencies as appropriate to get the greatest benefit. That has proven to really build the interconnectivity to be able to deal with larger scale events.

The other takeaway is the importance of intelligence. Prior to 9/11, it’s not necessarily that the FBI didn’t use and push intelligence, but we didn’t do it well enough. In today’s threat environment, we’re really trying to stop something before it happens. The investigative side alone is not going to get you where you need to be. It’s the ability to not only develop, analyze, and share intelligence but also to integrate intelligence into all of our operations—and efficiently move this information to fusion centers and other departments. Whether in the planning for the marathon or other special events, we share intelligence and develop an intelligence assessment—a Special Event Threat Assessment. "