ATF
TO PROVIDE EXPLOSIVES EXPERTISE TO MILITARY IN IRAQ
Effort to Be Part of Campaign Against Deadly Bombers
WASHINGTON
- The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced
today that it has signed a memorandum of agreement to help the multinational
forces fighting in Iraq counter the threat of deadly bomb attacks.
The
agreement, signed March 5 by ATF Director Carl J. Truscott and U.S.
Army Brig Gen. John Defreitas, will bring ATF's well-established expertise
in explosives investigations to bear in the deadly insurgency being
waged against multinational forces in Iraq. ATF was the agency that
discovered the critical piece of evidence in the 1993 World Trade Center
bombing and was instrumental in the investigation of the 1995 Oklahoma
City bombing.
The
agreement provides for ATF personnel to serve within the Combined Explosives
Exploitation Cell (CEXC) in Iraq with military and other law enforcement
agencies from the United States and Britain. CEXC's role is to provide
immediate, in-theater technical and operational analysis of the improvised
explosives devices (IEDs) that insurgents have used to such effect against
multinational forces, and develop measures to counter the insurgent
bombing campaign.
ATF
special agents who are also certified explosives specialists have been
deployed to Iraq since 2003, offering explosives training to the Iraqi
Police Service; assisting the Regime Crimes Liaison Office, a multi-agency
task force preparing the war crimes tribunals against leaders of the
ousted Sadaam Hussein regime; and as handlers of explosives detection
canine teams.
"This
agreement formalizes our assistance and gives ATF the opportunity to
help the multinational forces deal with a threat that we know a great
deal about," Truscott said. "ATF's mission is to prevent terrorism,
reduce violent crime and protect the public. We're proud and honored
to be able to join the multinational forces in doing that in Iraq."
Under
the agreement, ATF personnel will:
-
Attend,
investigate and report on all significant explosives incidents as
directed by CEXC.
-
Carry
out first-line exploitation of new devices and support their packaging
and dispatch to laboratories in the United States and Britain for
full technical evaluation.
-
Provide
exploitation reports on incidents involving explosives devices.
-
Provide
advice on explosives ordnance disposal and force protection and combat
tactics in regard to the threat posed by improvised explosives devices.
-
Assist
in the interviewing of suspected bomb makers taken into custody as
directed by CEXC.
-
Assist
multinational force troops in planning search operations of suspected
bomb factories, hideouts or bomb makers' houses as directed by CEXC.
-
Support
the information flow to military and intelligence components that
require it.
-
Participate
in technical analysis and CEXC report writing.
-
Forward
authorized CEXC reports and information for further processing and
dissemination to U.S. law enforcement agencies. This feature will
allow ATF, which has responsibility for collecting and maintaining
all Department of Justice databases on arson and explosives incidents,
to share the information it has obtained in Iraq with its state, local
and other federal law enforcement partners.
The
ATF personnel will serve under the operational control of the multinational
forces, but will not conduct operations to render explosives safe or
participate in search or raid operations.
More
information on ATF and its programs is at www.atf.gov.
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