PHILIP MARCELO, Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) — A congressional report released yesterday suggests there’s been progress in how federal and local law enforcement officials share information following the deadly 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.
The House Committee on Homeland Security report, released on the eve of the second anniversary of the marathon attack, suggests more improvements are needed to avoid another attack on American soil.
The report, entitled “Preventing Another Boston Marathon Bombing,” says closing gaps in information-sharing is especially important with the rise of the Islamic State group and other extremist groups that have been successful at recruiting new members from the U.S. and other countries.
“The threat to the homeland from abroad and from homegrown self-inspired radicals calls for agility, and strengthening the web of relationships that exists between state, local and federal partners to form a nationwide enterprise where state and locals collaborate and complement federal counterterrorism capacity,” the report says.
The report is a follow-up to the homeland security committee’s March 2014 report, “The Road to Boston: Counterterrorism Challenges and Lessons from the Marathon Bombings.”
It comes as Boston prepares to commemorate the April 15, 2013, bombings, which killed three people and injured 260 others, on Wednesday. The city’s subdued remembrance is expected to include a moment of silence and a call to commit random acts of kindness and generosity.
Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, said the country is safer because of progress made following the committee’s 2014 report.
That report had generally called for expanded cooperation between federal and local law enforcement agencies, the development of more sophisticated efforts to mitigate terrorist threats and better policies around the screening of international travelers.
McCaul is slated to discuss the new report at a Wednesday roundtable on Capitol Hill with U.S. Rep. William Keating, a Massachusetts Democrat who also sits on the Homeland Security Committee, and others.
“The second anniversary of the Boston Marathon Bombings is not only a day to remember everyone directly impacted when the bombs went off, it is also a day to review the steps taken, and the steps still needed, to close the gaps that allowed this tragic event to occur,” McCaul said in a statement.
Meanwhile, jurors in the federal death penalty trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev must stay away from this year’s marathon and any events related to the anniversary of the 2013 attack, a judge warned yesterday.
Judge George O’Toole Jr. called jurors in to court to give them the warning as they wait for the penalty phase of the trial to begin April 21. The second anniversary of the bombings is today. This year’s marathon is scheduled for April 20.
O’Toole said he gave jurors the warning in court — despite the fact that most of them live outside Boston — to stress the importance of avoiding any events related to the marathon and media coverage of the events.
“I trust that you have been doing this all along,” O’Toole said.
The marathon is run on Patriots’ Day, a holiday in Massachusetts that commemorates the first battles of the Revolutionary War.
Last week, Tsarnaev was convicted of all 30 charges against him. O’Toole told the jury that the next phase of the trial — called the penalty phase — is expected to last about four weeks. The same jury will be asked to decide if Tsarnaev should be sentenced to death or spend the rest of his life in prison.
Three people were killed and more than 260 were injured when two bombs exploded near the finish line of the marathon April 15, 2013.
