Message from the FBI Laboratory director.(Federal Bureau of Investigation )

During 2003 the FBI Laboratory focused its efforts on the war against terrorism, strengthening its operational response programs and expanding its forensic capabilities to include the analysis of chemical and biological weapons.

The Laboratory's Hazardous Materials Response Unit trains, equips, and provides support to 21 FBI response teams operating across the United States. These teams have responded to numerous threats involving hazardous materials and weapons of mass destruction. The Laboratory's new ChemBio Sciences Unit is working with the U.S. military and national laboratories to provide forensic examinations of hazardous chemical, biological, and nuclear materials. These initiatives are being supported by an intensive counterterrorism research effort aimed at developing groundbreaking technologies for field-portable hazardous materials detection, microbial genetics, and databases for determining the source of chemical and biological terrorist attacks.

This year the Laboratory began developing the multiagency Terrorist Explosive Devices Analytical Center. When fully operational, the Center will provide comprehensive forensic analysis and intelligence on explosive devices used by terrorists to the U.S. military and other federal and international agencies.

The Laboratory also began a significant upgrade to the Bomb Data Center's Hazardous Devices School at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. This is the only facility providing training for the 460 state and local bomb squads in the United States.

The Evidence Response Team Unit trains the 139 FBI Evidence Response Teams throughout the United States and coordinates deployments to major incidents, including the Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, bombings and the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster.

The FBI's new Laboratory was selected by President George W. Bush as the backdrop for his nationally televised, live speech on the eve of the two-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. President Bush was joined by Attorney General John Ashcroft, Homeland Security Secretary Thomas J. Ridge, Homeland Security Advisor General John A. Gordon, and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller as he highlighted the progress the United States and our allies have made in the war against terrorism.

During the past year, the Laboratory hosted broadcasts of ABC's Good Morning America and the History Channel's Modern Marvels. The shows described the capabilities and successes of forensic science and the FBI Laboratory to national television audiences.