In 1995, a domestic terrorist detonated a rental truck filled with a potent, home-made bomb built from fertilizer and other easily available chemicals, killing 168 people, including 19 children, and wounding hundreds more. Successful attacks on that scale are rare in the U.S., although the threat remains. As recently as last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) arrested an individual with anti-government views in an undercover operation after the individual allegedly attempted to detonate a car bomb in downtown Oklahoma City.
To mitigate the risks from threats such as these, the Interagency Security Committee (ISC) was established by Presidential Executive Order (E.O.) 12977 six months after the 1995 bombing. Today, the ISC is a robust, 60-agency organization that applies the full complement of federal knowledge and capability to the challenge of securing all federal facilities and the people who work at and visit them.