The most
substantial domestic response to the disastrous debacle that was 9/11 seems to
have been the creation of the Dept. Of Homeland Security – DHS.
I think I
may have actually physically groaned upon hearing that the response to this
dreadful security failure out of D.C. was to create a new, larger bureaucracy.
In typically absurd reasoning the Washington, D.C. solution to too much
bureaucracy was more bureaucracy.
Key findings emerging from post-event 9/11
analysis was not that the U.S. Government Administration did not have enough
information about the impending attacks; apparently there was plenty of
disturbing information around Government Agencies about looming disaster, but
that that information was not usefully distributed to the appropriate security
services. Thus; DHS.
As we enter
into an autopsy of the disaster that was the 1/6/21 Capitol Insurrection, the
immediate emerging theme is once again that there was plenty of disturbing
information around, but that that information, despite the mammoth information
super-store that is the obviously ineffective DHS, that information was not appropriately
distributed to, and managed amongst, the frontline security services. So much
for the dramatic creation for yet another massive, bumbling D.C. behemoth. It was stated today that we need to ‘Re-imagine’
the handling of timely, sensitive Security Intel. Hmmm…. Where have we heard
that one before? It’s time now, 20 Years
later, to ’Re-imagine’ the same thing over, again.
Early testimony in Senate hearings into the pro-Trump Capitol Insurrection, determined to disrupt the peaceful transfer of Presidential Power, including quite possibly lynching Vice-President Pence, and the assassination of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seems to indicate that despite the discovery and possession of information about the looming insurrection, the ‘Right Customers’ did not get the ‘Right Information’ in a manner sufficient to adequately address and manage the threat.
Today, the ex-Chief
of the Capitol Police gave sworn testimony that on January 4th, the
FBI had information that a large armed and dangerous gang of extremists was
gathering for the January 6 ‘Protest’. He got that information yesterday, Feb,22.
An FBI
Warning was sent to a Sergeant at the Intelligence Unit of the Capitol Police Department,
and went no further. According to then- Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, no
Command Chief Officer of the Capitol Police Dept., or the D.C. Metropolitan
Police were notified of the report. Nor were the Sergeant-At-Arms of either the
U.S. House of Representatives or the Senate. Homeland Security anyone?
Within the
elaborate structure of the massive DHS; someone, somewhere, somehow, should
have created a protocol where information shared among Security Agencies is
then distributed to appropriate
Command-Level Officers; some sort of Digital Return Receipt. If someone sends
me time-sensitive, important information it arrives by Certified Mail, requiring
signature receipt. Shouldn’t the same sort of e-verification be required for
timely ‘Homeland Security’ information?
In an
unfolding Domestic Security Disaster every second counts. Despite Pre-planning
Conferences and exercises, which require Commanding Officers remain present at
an Agency’s Designated Command Post, Command Chiefs were instead On-scene,
On-the-ground amidst the calamitous Riot at The Capitol. Predictably, there is
confusion about exactly when Chiefs of each Police Department met to discuss requesting National Guard assistance. D.C Metropolitan Police Department Chief Peter Newsham
testified that the conversation occurred at 1:10 PM. Capitol Police Chief Sund said it was 2:19 PM,
an Hour and Twenty Minute Difference.
If each
Commander had been at their proper respective Command Post, instead in the
middle of a Riot, there would undoubtedly be an accurate record of the conversation.20
Years after 9/11, after Hundreds of Millions of Dollars, Thousands of Employees
at DHS, 2 Police Chiefs cannot agree about what time a vitally important
conversation about managing a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol took
place. Wonderful.
