Norton Reassured of Security for D.C. Residents and Visitors after Briefing with Heads of FBI Washington Field Office and U.S. Capitol Police

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said she was reassured about security in the District of Columbia after a personal briefing with the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Washington Field Office, Paul Abbate, and U.S. Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine in her Capitol Hill office.

"Decisions just reported by a few schools to postpone their trips to the nation's capital are misguided," Norton said. "The briefing today showed that the District not only remains secure, but with police attached to every federal building and the full security forces of the federal government and local police riveted on the District, this city is the most secure city in the United States."

Norton had been concerned that at last night's classified congressional briefing, security officials confirmed that the District had been specifically identified by ISIL as a target city, but learned at today's briefing that ISIL videos calling out different countries or specific places are not uncommon, including a video released today that calls out New York City. Norton said she was further reassured by comprehensive radio interoperability that now links the law enforcement agencies throughout the District, including those attached to entities from Union Station to the Navy Yard.

Director Abbatte said that the security operations in the District always operate at the highest level of readiness, but even those levels have been ramped up since the Paris attacks. Norton plans to visit the FBI's Washington Field Office to see how the Washington Field Office Joint Terrorism Task Force, which involves all law enforcement agencies in the National Capital Region, operates.

Norton said nevertheless Congress has work to do because ISIL has taken to communicating using encrypted messages that are impossible for law enforcement to crack, and it would take congressional action to require telecommunications firms to create backend keys to provide law enforcement the authority consistent with the Fourth Amendment and the right to privacy in order to open encrypted messages.

Norton said that ISIL, unlike al-Qaeda, tends not to import terrorists as much as it uses people that are already on the ground. The United States has far fewer such individuals than Europe. For example, Syrian refugees accepted into the U.S. have overwhelmingly been women and children, with only 2% men, and almost all have relatives living in the U.S. Any new refugees from Syria and other parts of the Middle East must go through a vetting process that can take up to two years.