Security Officials Face the Possibility of a Threat from the Inside on Inauguration Day
The deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has prompted U.S. security officials to think the unthinkable as they scramble to secure Washington ahead of next week’s Inauguration: that the enemy is already inside the house.
More than a dozen law enforcement officers and current and former military officials are reported to have taken part in the violent Jan. 6 insurrection that killed a U.S. Capitol Police officer and cost four supporters of President Donald Trump their lives. One Navy and two Air Force veterans are among those being investigated by law enforcement for the attack, as is a junior Army officer by her superiors, while several U.S. Capitol Police officers have been suspended after video showed them appearing to assist some of the rioters...
... Current and former security officials say they are concerned that serving U.S. troops or law enforcement officers could pose a clear and present danger to the President- and Vice President-elect... Federal investigators are also trying to track down military and law enforcement members or veterans who took part on Jan. 6, and trace their wider network of associates who may be plotting to turn next week into the mayhem being called for on far-right forums.
But there are too many people to look at, and too little time to do it, says Mitch Silber, former Director of Intelligence Analysis at the New York City Police Department.
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“There is a crisis issue: the rise of extremism and white supremacy in the ranks.”—retired Army officer Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.)
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Of the nation’s roughly 800,000 police, it’s probably far less than one percent, says Mark Pitcavage of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism...
Nevertheless, that tiny fraction could still mean a sizable number of trained professionals could have the means and intent to cause serious harm or damage...
More worryingly, many troops seasoned from fighting terrorists overseas know insurgent tactics, such as communicating via encrypted apps rather than expressing their plots over the now-at-least-temporarily-defunct Parler app...
“I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that it’s extremely dangerous when you’re talking about people that have actual training in the military, or in law enforcement,” adds Colin Clarke, head of research for the Soufan Group. In reviewing video clips of the assault on the Capitol, he noticed rioters using specialized military tactics. “People were being commanded to move through a broken window in twos,” he noted, reminiscent of how U.S. troops in Iraq or Afghanistan to enter a building.
Frank Figliuzzi, former FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence, has also watched the videos, and says...there were a handful of people that seemed “very personal purposeful and seemed to know where to go and what to do, and came equipped with flexi ties and other, and other kinds of tactical gear.”
Some who entered the building wore the militia patch of the Oath Keepers, a group he says brags about having a number of military and law enforcement members in its ranks. “When you have a President who holds campaign rallies called ‘Cops for Trump,’ and they are heavily attended…all of this makes the challenge of securing Washington, securing the inauguration, even more difficult than it already is.”
... future plotters...say they want to take part in up to four days of further, possibly armed insurrection before and on Inauguration Day.
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Once the potential bad actors go dark, it’s harder for the FBI to trace their network, as the Constitution’s First Amendment arguably protects a wider universe of dark expression than an Islamic extremist sympathizer would be allowed under existing terrorist laws.
“The FBI cannot open an investigation without a threat of violence or alleged criminal activity,” FBI Washington Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Steven D’Antuono explained Tuesday. “We have to separate the aspirational from the intentional and determine which of the individuals saying despicable things on the internet are just practicing keyboard bravado, or they actually have the intent to do harm.”
Separately, the U.S. military is on alert for signs of extremism in its own ranks, spurred in part by a call from Rep. Crow to the Army Secretary after Jan. 6, in which the lawmaker asked him “to ensure that deployed members are not sympathetic to domestic terrorists.” The Army is working with the U.S. Secret Service to “determine which service members supporting the national special security event for the Inauguration require additional background screening,” an Army spokesman tells TIME.
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There’s a long history in this country of both active duty military and veterans becoming radicalized. Timothy McVeigh, a Gulf War Army veteran, conducted the largest domestic terror attack killing 168 people in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing... violent Islamic extremist U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan opened fire and killed 13 people at Ft. Hood....a former military member [took] part in the violent white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.
[My own brother attended a Ku Klux Klan rally in Mississippi in the 1960’s while an active serviceman in the Navy.]
Militia groups like the Oath Keepers draw in members from military and law enforcement ranks by playing on their patriotism and appealing to fears of federal government overreach like threats to gun rights, says Sam Jackson, an expert at the University of Albany in homegrown extremist groups.
The Oath Keepers, founded by former U.S. Army paratrooper Stewart Rhodes, claims to have tens of thousands of current and former military and law enforcement members, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Those with security training are especially sought after...
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“We’ve known for a while that the extremist right wing has infiltrated into various police departments around the country,” says terrorism expert [Mia] Bloom [Georgia State University], who says some violent extremists have even encouraged their children to serve as a way of penetrating U.S. security services. “That was purposeful…and it’s been going on for at least 20 years.”
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It is unclear whether there are any stepped-up measures to watch for insider threats among police assigned to provide security during Inauguration week in Washington. [That should be clear.]
(TIME)
