What ever happened to the Joint Terrorism Task Force?

[DoYouEverWonder]

They were very involved in the response and investigations of the Oklahoma Bombing and the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing. They even take credit for apprehending the bombers - 'Within a month of the blast, the JTTF apprehended four individuals responsible for the attack.'

http://www.adl.org/learn/jttf/wtcb_jttf.asp


However they make no mention of the 9-11 Attack on their website. Did they go out of business or something?

[Make7]

1. Joint Terrorism Task Forces

Congressional Testimony

Statement of
Robert S. Mueller, III
Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation Division
Before the
Senate Judiciary Committee
December 6, 2006

         -snip-

Joint Terrorism Task Forces

Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) team up police officers, FBI agents, and officials from over 20 federal law enforcement agencies to investigate terrorism cases. We have increased multi-agency JTTFs from 35 to 101 since 2001 and have increased the number of agents and law enforcement serving on JTTFs from under 1,000 to nearly 4,000. To support the JTTFs, thousands of clearances have been processed for state/local JTTF officers. The JTTFs have been a resounding success, and they play a central role in virtually every terrorism investigation, prevention, or interdiction within the U.S.

These local force multipliers are mirrored at FBI Headquarters with the National Joint Terrorism Task Force (NJTTF). Immediately following the attacks of September 11, an ad hoc group of representatives from federal agencies began meeting, sharing information, and working together in the FBI’s Strategic Information Operations Center. In July 2002, we formally created the NJTTF to act as a liaison and conduit for information on threats and leads from FBI Headquarters to the local JTTFs and to 40 participating agencies.

The NJTTF now includes representatives from members of the Intelligence Community; components of the departments of Homeland Security, Defense, Justice, Treasury, Transportation, Commerce, Energy, State, and the Interior; the City of New York Police Department; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Railroad Police; U.S. Capitol Police; and others. All members are provided with access to the FBI intranet, including its internal e-mail system, and to the FBI’s investigative database for purposes of counterterrorism investigations. In turn, members provide access to their organizations’ respective databases consistent with applicable laws and regulations.

http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress06/mueller120606.htm

I imagine that if there was a specific JTTF that was set-up to investigate the 1993 WTC bombing it would no longer be active. However, the 1993 bombing might have been investigated by the New York City Joint Terrorism Task Force, which I believe is still active.

- Make7
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel06/transportation_threat070706.htm

[ftr23532]

2. There was at least one joint terrorism task force set up after 9/11 for terror financing

Here's a http://www.gao.gov/htext/d04464r.html">GAO report from 2004 that gives an overview:

...
On September 13, 2001, the FBI formed a multi-agency task force--
which is now known as the Terrorist Financing Operations Section
(TFOS)--to combat terrorist financing. The mission of TFOS has evolved
into a broad role to identify, investigate, prosecute, disrupt, and
dismantle all terrorist-related financial and fundraising activities.
The FBI also took action to expand the antiterrorist financing focus of
its Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs)--teams of local and state law
enforcement officials, FBI agents, and other federal agents and
personnel whose mission is to investigate and prevent acts of
terrorism. In 2002, the FBI created a national JTTF in
Washington, D.C., to collect terrorism information and intelligence and
funnel it to the field JTTFs, various terrorism units within the FBI,
and partner agencies.

Following September 11, representatives of the FBI and Operation
Green Quest met on several occasions to attempt to delineate
antiterrorist financing roles and responsibilities. However, such
efforts were largely unsuccessful. The resulting lack of clearly
defined roles and coordination procedures contributed to duplication of
efforts and disagreements over which agency should lead
investigations. To help resolve these long-standing
jurisdictional issues, in May 2003, the Attorney General and the
Secretary of Homeland Security signed a Memorandum of Agreement on
terrorist financing investigations. According to the Agreement, the
Department of Justice will lead federal law enforcement efforts against
terrorist financing. The Agreement specifies that the FBI
is to lead terrorist financing investigations and operations, utilizing
the intergovernmental and intra-agency national JTTF at FBI
headquarters and the JTTFs in the field. The Agreement also specifies
that, through TFOS, the FBI is to provide overall operational command
to the national JTTF and the field JTTFs.
...

This http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/2005/Jan/clunanJan05.asp">2005 article makes it sound like that the 2003 agreement that gave the FBI control of the the terror financing investigations consisted of an additional Joint Terrorism Task Force:

...
Another bureaucratic battle took place between the U.S. Customs Service and the FBI TFOS over Customs Service’s Operation Green Quest. Both had interagency groups to investigate terrorist financing that overlapped. These were resolved in 2003 with the formation of an FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force, but under an agreement to ensure the continued participation of experts at Customs (now the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) branch of the Department of Homeland Security).<85>
...

So it's a little murky as to whether or not that 2003 agreement constituted a new JTTF or not. ,Regardless the source of the conflict between the FBI and the other agencies involved is pretty interesting because one of the main cases that caused the dispute between the FBI and the other agencies involved is the investigation resulting from the Operation Greenquest raids of 2002 on the SAAR network/Safa Trust web of Saudi/Muslim Brotherhood charities. Another source of conflict between the FBI and other agencies was the Ptech investigation. Here's a http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3068377/">December 2003 Newsweek article that discusses these tensions. And http://fortherecordessays.blogspot.com/2006/11/part-1-operation-green-quest-and_11.html">here's an essay that covers some how many different agencies were assembled and sort of merged and died off in the wake of 9/11.

http://fortherecordessays.blogspot.com/2006/11/part-4-american-brotherhood-we-just_11.html">Here's some info on the Greenquest raids and the larger network that was targeted by them. And http://fortherecordessays.blogspot.com/2006/11/part-12-slick-powerful-brotherhood_11.html">here and http://fortherecordessays.blogspot.com/2006/11/part-13-its-jungle-in-here-and-it_11.html">here you can find some more info on the various obstructions of the Operation Greenquest and Ptech investigations and how interrelated the figures in the two cases are. The gist of it is that there was protection before and after 9/11 of groups in this country operated by the Muslim Brotherhood and Saudis (and their affiliates) that were involved with terrorist groups, and the high-level obstruction of investigations into these groups riled a lot of feathers within the various agencies in charge of looking into these things.

Another observation that comes from this particular terror financing JTTF is that it appears that JTTF's can be useful not only for coordinating investigations by agencies with overlapping jurisdictions, but for also killing an investigation by tranfsering control of the JTTF to an agency that, for whatever reason, is less than likely to do a complete investion.