FBI Department of Justice Los angles Field office lapel pin from the west wind trading exercise from a pet and smoke free home

Training

In recognition of the importance of a WMD/counterterrorism response, FBILA management authorized the formation of special agent positions dedicated to WMD outreach, training, and response in 1998. During 1999, FBILA formed a squad encompassing those WMD responsibilities, as well as responsibilities for bomb response, training and outreach, and the NIPCI program. Currently, FBILA has a 25 member HAZMAT Response Team (HMRT) and a team of four bomb technicians who are cross-trained as HMRT members. These resources service the comprehensive FBILA efforts to work with state and local governments to prepare for a WMD attack.

As a point of explanation, the HMRT is composed of FBI Special Agents trained to gather evidence in a crime scene contaminated by either biological or chemical contamination utilizing Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) up to Level A. The cross-trained bomb technicians wear both PPE and a bomb suit, and they are able to "render safe" an explosive device used to disseminate chemical or biological materials.

Utilizing these dedicated resources, FBILA personnel have to date participated in five Nunn-Lugar sponsored WMD consequence management exercises which have taken place in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Anaheim, Santa Ana, and Huntington Beach. Two more exercises are scheduled for later in 2002, and FBILA will participate in those exercises as well.

The FBILA field training exercise codenamed "Westwind 99" warrants discussion. Held in February 1999, Westwind 99 combined the FBI's annual crisis management exercise with a Nunn-Lugar WMD consequence management exercise for Los Angeles City and County. Westwind 99 simulated a chemical attack on a local air show by a fictional domestic terrorist group, resulting in the simulated deaths of 2,000 victims. The exercise was all-inclusive, encompassing the pre-investigation phase, detecting the possibility of a terrorist attack, through a comprehensive consequence management response, an investigative response, and finally culminating in the tactical arrest of the "terrorists." An estimated 2000 participants included the FBI, county, state, and local law enforcement, regional fire and HAZMAT agencies, health agencies at all levels of government, emergency management agencies at all levels of government, the Department of Defense, the US Marine Corp, and a deployment of various Federal agencies from Washington, D.C. comprising the Domestic Emergency Support Team (DEST). Of the many lessons learned by participants at all levels of government, the most important was the lesson of working together in an effective and coordinated manner.