Markey: ‘Lessons to be learned’ from Boston Marathon bombings

Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey (D) on Sunday said last year’s Boston Marathon bombings have a lot to teach U.S. intelligence agencies as they seek to thwart future violent attacks.

{mosads}Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Markey said information about the bombers — Dzhokhar and the now-deceased Tamerlan Tsarnaev — was “not shared as widely as it could have been” among the agencies and “down to the local level.”

“There are lessons to be learned” from that, Markey said. He went on to praise Boston law enforcement and first responders for adapting their practices after September 11, 2001.

“We were Boston Strong because we were Boston Ready,” Markey said. “The lessons of 9/11 were remembered here and they were implemented and the equipment and the training and the coordination were put in place.”

The remarks were made during a special NBC segment to commemorate the tragedy, which took place on April 15, 2013. This year’s Boston Marathon is scheduled to take place next Monday.

The segment brought together Markey, former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis and a group of first responders to discuss the bombings and their aftermath.

Davis said that at the time of the attack, officials in Boston believed it was the work of a terrorist cell, not simply a pair of radicalized young men.

“That it was a much wider conspiracy, that is what we believed at the time,” Davis said.

He commended police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians who were on the scene that day.

“In 18 minutes the scene was clear of all the victims,” he said. “No one that was transported [to a hospital] died.”