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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/14/2141740/-We-can-blame-Trump-administration-corruption-for-DHS-inability-to-warn-of-planned-Jan-6-violenceNew report shows frustration of those inside government who tried to warn of Jan. 6 violence
Hunter for Daily Kos
Daily Kos Staff
Wednesday December 14, 2022 · 9:30 AM EST
Department of Homeland Security threat analysts knew in advance of the far-right plan to attack the Capitol and kill lawmakers. But they couldn't get DHS to issue a warning to the law enforcement teams who would soon face that violence.
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Yahoo! News has gotten access to an unredacted version of the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General's report on the department's handling of identified far-right threats in the weeks and days before the Jan. 6, 2021 attempted coup. The Yahoo! News report adds a bit of meat to prior reporting on the subject, most substantively due to the uncovering of a four-page report from one of the DHS intelligence analysts who was trying frantically to get the department to warn relevant law enforcement offices of far-right plans to attack the U.S. Capitol, but the underlying story is one we've already known:
Intelligence officials inside DHS were aware of specific militia plans to capture or kill members of Congress. They were aware that maps of the tunnel systems lawmakers might escape from were being shared online. They learned of militia plans to smuggle weapons into Washington, D.C., and saw posts from extremists expecting to die in the planned-for firefight.
The DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis had been gathering a great deal of publicly accessible online data about a plan to violently attack the U.S. Capitol and kill lawmakers so as to create justification for Donald Trump to impose martial law and nullify the election lawmakers were gathering to certifyand that information went absolutely nowhere. No warnings were issued. Capitol police officers were flying blind on that day.
The obvious question remains why, and we're still publicly no closer to a satisfying answer to that question than we were in March. The Office of Inspector General's report blames miscommunications and confusion over new guidelines for data collection and report production, generally ascribing the lack of action to bureaucratic fumbles rather than an intent to brush threats of violence under the rug.
Institutional sluggishness is generally a far more likely reason for government incompetence than malice, and so the inspector general's report didn't exactly climb out onto thin ice when it ascribed the inability to warn law enforcement of the upcoming attack to internal confusion about what was reportable behavior and what was not. With that said, however, we know that the Department of Homeland Security under Trump was an absolute cesspool of malice; in fact, that's why the guidelines the analysts were frustrated by had changed in the first placeand you can blame Trump acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf in particular.
In the months leading up to the Jan. 6 coup attempt, the DHS group responsible for threat assessments was gutted by the Trump administration. The "slashing" of operations inside the department was a direct result of a Trump-era scandal in which top DHS officials used the department to promote known-false claims portraying Black Lives Matter protests as linked to organized "anarchist" and "antifa" extremism.
A internal DHS review blamed high-level officials for concocting false intelligence meant to support Donald Trump-pushed claims meant to discredit the protests. At the top of the scandal was Trump DHS "acting" secretary Chad Wolf, who aggressively pushed those false claims in public appearances.
At heart, the scandal revealed the abuse of the department's "threat assessment" capabilities in an attempt to boost partisan false messaging, the same sort of intentional hoax promotion that riddled Trumps government and that led directly to a hoax-premised attempted coup. It was that Wolf scandal that led to review and reform of threat assessment guidelines dictating what analysts could and couldn't use as evidence of a "threat," changes that left analysts confused, in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack, as to what Proud Boys and militia-linked messages they were allowed to cite in justifying the release of a threat assessment to be distributed across government.
The delay wasn't due to a lack of online evidence, though. Yahoo! News reveals one message from a frustrated threat viewer complaining: "I mean people are talking about storming Congress, bringing guns, willing to die for the cause, hanging politicians with ropes but still not meeting threshold lol."
The inability of the DHS threat assessment group to issue a warning to law enforcement about online plans to capture and kill lawmakers, therefore, can be directly traced back to Chad Wolf and the Trump administration's abuse of the program to falsely implicate protesters in Portland, Oregon and elsewhere in a supposed leftist plot that never existed. That's still not the only flag that Trump appointee mismanagement or outright corruption might have played a role in leaving Capitol Police in the dark about planned militia attacks on the Capitol, however.
Both Chad Wolf and his deputy, Ken Cuccinelli, were among the government officials whose text messages leading up to the coup were "accidentally" deleted in a phone "reset" that wiped out Congress-demanded data from DHS and the Secret Service. The DHS Inspector General was pointedly singled out for his own sluggishness in attempting to retrieve the data and for not notifying Congress of the deletions when he first learned of them.
None of that is conducive to settling the stomachs of those who believe that Wolf and other Trump appointees intentionally downplayed the threat of violence on Jan. 6 either to appease Trump, who orchestrated the event, or to assist him in provoking violence. Former DHS chief of staff Miles Taylor, who worked with Trump, is among those who believe Trump's aim on Jan. 6 was to manufacture such violence.
Taylor is not alone in believing Trump was looking to use the violence as justification for remaining in power. The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 coup attempt has assembled testimony from numerous individuals who confirmed that Trump resisted taking any action to quell the violence after telling his crowd to "march" to the Capitol, instead watching the attacks unfold on television. Trump sent a tweet singling out Vice President Mike Pence as an enemy as the crowd moved through Capitol hallways and offices; he did not send a video message telling rioters to disperse until after the violence had been largely quelled.
What we do not know is the full number of Republican allies in and out of government who took specific actions to help Trump achieve the violence he sought to use. With the discovery of albeit-incomplete text messages between the White House and those allies, however, we know that the number is not zero.
peppertree
(21,712 posts)History repeating: First as tragedy...then as farce.
Ford_Prefect
(7,927 posts)to disable any response or preparation to resist the intended attack and downplay the perception that there was any substantial threat.
Warpy
(111,431 posts)and how every violent Jesus Jumper for the white race and RWNJ in the whole country is planning to go to DC on Jan 6 and they're all spoiling for the next civil war and NOBODY IS DOING A DAMNED THING TO PREPARE FOR IT, there is something deeply and seriously wrong at the highest levels of government, and it's not restricted just to TFG and his inner circle.
So those of us who knew what was going on warned counter demonstrators to stay away. It was the best we could do and we did it. They stayed away and stayed safe.
That Chad Wolf asshole managed to neuter the DHS response and oh gawd why haven't I seen that little prick in the hot seat yet?
Who failed to issue riot gear to the Capitol Police? Who failed to bring extra manpower in? Just who was issuing all THOSE orders? After all, we saw the overblown response to peaceful BLM protesters. Nothing was going to be peaceful about Jan 6.
Too many people at the top have been protected, people outside the TFG gang of thieves and traitors. Why? Don't tell me they're irreplaceable. Nobody is. This was an inside job at multiple levels.
I am frustrated beyond belief at the incompleteness of the Jan 6 hearings. People levied war against the US and they're pussyfooting around all of them.
mjvpi
(1,406 posts)Well said. We all knew. Everybody knew. It was all over the internet, with printed brochures and maps no less.
"Be there. Will be wild!"
yonder
(9,685 posts)I knew something was bound to happen that day there had been an undercurrent of statements, rumors, and hints buzzing about for several weeks prior. It is probably why I was all eyes and ears, with respect to news, later that morning.
With all of the resources DHS had available, it is beyond believable they were left flat-footed without coordinated direction from the top.
I think the urban population is way more than half blind to what the rest of the country is up to.
Bizarro, is all I can say.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)crickets
(25,989 posts)Memo image included at linked page.
Miller's actions on January 6 faced scrutiny.[46] After rioters breached the Capitol Police perimeter, Miller waited more than three hours before authorizing the deployment of the National Guard.[13][46] Miller didn't provide that permission until 4:32 pm, after assets from Virginia had already entered the District, and Trump had instructed rioters to "go home".[47][13][46] Miller testified that he was trying to avoid a repeat of the Kent State shootings.[13] [snip]
According to Millers testimony, he did not speak with Trump at any time during the Capitol attack: "I didnt need to. I had all the authority I needed and I knew what had to happen," he said.[13] Miller rejects the notion that the Pentagon dragged their feet protecting the Capitol, calling that notion complete horseshit, and he insists they had their game together.[49] After reassessing what happened on January 6, Miller acknowledged something they were unaware of beforehand: It seems clear there was an organized conspiracy with assault elements.[13] Aside from whether that unawareness affected the Pentagons response, Miller says the conspiracy was organized and set in motion before Trump spoke on January 6, and thus should not be attributed solely to what Trump said on that date.[13]
Oh, there was definitely some horseshit involved. It still reeks to this day.
republianmushroom
(13,832 posts)22 months and counting DoJ
3auld6phart
(1,059 posts)Christ .its getting gawddamn scary.. it looks to me like another Civil War.. only this time its no t North versus South. I will be Government , Against other Depts. DHS against Everybody.Neighnour against those on the other side of the Street. What the
Hell is in the water down the..I know the weirdos are a minority, seemingly led
by an orange doofus.its bloody scary all the same.
Hekate
(91,003 posts)Bookmarked
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,544 posts)Hermit-The-Prog
(33,544 posts)Purge trumpists everywhere in government now.
3auld6phart
(1,059 posts)Christ .its getting gawddamn scary.. it looks to me like another Civil War.. only this time its no t North versus South. I will be Government , Against other Depts. DHS against Everybody.Neighnour against those on the other side of the Street. What the
Hell is in the water down there. I know the weirdos are a minority, seemingly led
by an orange doofus.its bloody scary all the same.