House committee cites need for better information sharing in Boston Marathon report

Last month, the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee released a bipartisan report detailing the timeline of last year’s Boston Marathon terrorist attack. The report, The Road to Boston: Counterterrorism Challenges & Lessons from the Marathon Bombings, provides information on the terrorist networks in the Caucasus and the alleged-bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and makes recommendations for improving counterterrorism efforts in the future.

The report exposes shortcomings in interagency cooperation and information sharing on the Tsarnaev brothers between the FBI, Customs and Border Protection, and other US agencies leading up to the bombings. The report identifies four areas for continued improvement, including improved cooperation between federal and local law enforcement and increased information sharing involving various terror/travel watch lists at the federal level. For example, the report suggests fusion centers operated by state and local law enforcement agencies should by supplied with greater access to the FBI’s Guardian System terror database. The report also recommends that agencies provide all the information available to them in their nominations to terror watch lists and other databases.

For more information on the House Homeland Security Committee Report, please follow the links below.
Homeland Security Committee Releases Report on Boston Marathon Bombings, House Committee on Homeland Security
Congressional Report On Boston Bombings Critical Of Interagency Information Sharing, Homeland Security Today