Attorney General

These individuals also told us that they believed the Department’s operational response program lacks leadership and oversight. The EOUSA Attorney Advisor said the Department’s current state of response preparedness had no overarching structure to make it work. Similarly, the NSD National Crisis Management Coordinator stated that the Department’s response program lacked general leadership, centralization, and coordination. He added that nobody is looking at all of the components regarding response operations, particularly for responding to a WMD incident. He said that the Department “needs to get a better handle on this,” but “if you’re not at the Deputy [Attorney General] level no one is going to listen to you. You need clout.” EOUSA’s Counsel for Emergency Management and Crisis Response agreed, saying these issues need to be addressed at a Department level and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General or an Associate Deputy Attorney General needs to have the emergency planning portfolio.

in reference to: http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/plus/e1004.pdf (view on Google Sidewiki)