Intelligence report identified vulnerability before Boston bombing

[avaistheone1]

Source: Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON -- Five days before two bombs tore through crowds at the Boston Marathon, an intelligence report identified the finish line of the race as an "area of increased vulnerability" and warned Boston police that extremists may use "small scale bombings" to attack spectators and runners at the event.

The 18-page report was written by the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, a command center funded in part by the Department of Homeland Security that helps disseminate intelligence information to local police and first responders.

The "joint special event assessment" is dated April 10. It notes that at the time there was "no credible, specific information indicating an imminent threat" to the race.

"The FBI has not identified any specific lone offender or extremist group who pose a threat to the Boston marathon," the report reads.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-intelligence-report-vulnerability-boston-bombing-20130509,0,7305052.story

[onehandle]

1. Reads like a blanket CYA for just about any public event. nt

[avaistheone1]

2. Instead it reminds me of the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies —

which featured the now-infamous heading: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”

This time without the name of the specific individual or group.

[DallasNE]

4. Not Really

The PDB was much more specific as it listed the group and airline hijacking as one of the possibilities although it lacked a date and location. Instead it is pretty much identical to FBI offices in Minneapolis and Phoenix warning of people wanting to learn to fly but not interested in takeoff and landing training. The data got lost in the bureaucracy in both cases.

The Boston memo identified a higher risk target which had a specific date but no "determined to strike" warning. There was a significant police presence near the finish line -- a number of police were on the scene with drawn guns within seconds of the bomb going off. So who was this FBI memo sent, just DHS and what did DHS do with this. There should not be confusion on chain of custody for warnings of this nature. Also not known is how many warning of this nature are issued. I'm sure these warnings are graded with different action taken depending on the assessment on the level of warning. Remember the color code? Until answers to questions of this nature are answered we need to withhold final judgment. It has the potential to be pretty damning, especially for DHS but there is yet too much that we don't yet know.

[jakeXT]

3. I wonder if they mention a drill in that report ?

Two officials read parts of the report to a Washington Bureau reporter.

Reminds me of that video, that was described to Deval Patrick.