The Role of Federal Law Enforcement

Introduction

The federal law enforcement agency uses the department of justice to implement its law against terrorism. The department of justice is the United States government agency that is used to ensure national safety and protection of its citizens against terrorism while at home and away in foreign countries (Eisenstein, 1978).

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) refer to those weapons that can be harmful to so many people if applied in wars. They include massive atomic bombs and nuclear weapons.

The site study for the role of federal law enforcement agencies is the weapon ports in the Baghdad city in Iraq. This is where the federal government believes that most weapons for massive destruction were hidden during the error of the former president of the Iraq republic, Saddam Hussein. It's believed that in this city harmful weapons that pose danger to the whole world were being manufactured using nuclear materials (Lindorff, 1988).

The roles played by the department of justice in dealing with terrorism and uses of weapons of mass destruction are divided into three main categories, which include;

Prevention

The aftermaths of use these weapons is eminent because of its effects. Therefore the first way to tackle this situation is to take necessary measure for countering terrorist activities. Prevention requires high intelligence about terrorism and their plans and agendas.

Investigation

The federal government initiates investigations through the DOJ in regard to the possible use WMD and the likely violations of the federal law. The grand jury in some circumstances to carry out the investigations. Investigations can range from domestic use of live weapons like food contaminations in social places like bars and restaurants, extortions and hoaxes (Mark& Elaine,2001) The FBI can also be used to launch National Security Investigations through threat assessment and preliminary investigation.

Criminal prosecutions

(Reaves& Matthew, 2007)The DOJ together with the US Attorneys carry full responsibility in prosecuting domestic cases of terrorism. The counter terrorism section provides support in prosecution. DOJ is also responsible for reporting to the president on potential risks of WMD and give necessary advice.

The role of local and state law enforcement agencies

In the federal law, there are many state agencies that are used to fight crime and terrorism activities. It's generally recognized that it's only the government that has the capacity in terms of resources to do intelligence investigations and execute possible prosecutions on international terrorism. However, states and local agencies play a great role in fighting terrorism which includes emergency actions such as fire fight, police protection, and provisions of equipment and use of information technology to offer fast response to terrorism.

The role of local law enforcement agencies

The local law enforcement agencies take the responsibility of controlling any damage that may occur and the available ways that can be used to obtain resources to be used in controlling the situation.

The role of coordinators in notifying the public of terrorist attack

The first thing to be done by the coordinator is to identify the possible WMD threat and then evaluate the capacity of the agency in terms of intelligence (Walker& Charles, 2007).

The coordinator is also expected to explain various training needs and external activities that need to be performed in an event of terrorism.

As a coordinator, one is also expected to compile the information collected concerning the threats and asses the intelligence capability. There is also need for him to assist field officers in doing evaluations of threats and the intelligence required.

Coordinators can work together with the local police in order to obtain information in relation with the presence of WMD in a given locality. It's important that the field officers share information in order to establish standard procedures of collecting information.

Coordination between the FBI and the investigators can also be applied to facilitate the exercise of informing the public on a terrorist attack. A specific procedure should be applied to ensure that anxiety is not created thus causing more harm to the public members.

Intelligence collaboration must be well designed to allow information communication across the U.S. Intelligence community ought to come up with a well defined framework of making report to the public. This requires proper collaboration among all the involved parties including FBI programs and personnel divisions.