The American intelligence services had underestimated the risks weighing on the Capitol on January 6, so that the security apparatus was not adapted to counter
"criminals ready for war"
, admitted Tuesday February 23 of senior officials during a hearing in the Senate.
Read also: How Donald Trump watched imperturbably the assault on Capitol Hill
After the acquittal of Donald Trump, accused of having incited his supporters to attack the headquarters of American democracy, Congress opened a new phase of investigation, similar to what happened after the terrorist attacks in the United States. September 11, to understand how the unthinkable could have happened, to prevent this
“dark day”
from happening again.
On the first day of their efforts, the elected officials of two senatorial committees heard from senior security officials in the Capitol, some of whom had resigned and had never spoken publicly since this assault.
Beyond disagreements on their respective roles, they all blamed the failings of the intelligence services and the slowness of the Pentagon to deploy reinforcements.
They had weapons, chemical munitions, explosives.
These criminals were ready for war.
"
Paul Irving, Former House Sergeant-at-Arms
"Without the information to prepare adequately, the Capitol police were insufficiently staffed to cope with an extremely violent crowd
,
"
said its former chief Steven Sund.
"Based on the information we had, I mistakenly thought we were ready,"
said ex-House sergeant-at-arms Paul Irving.
"We now know that we had a bad plan,"
he added, saying he was
"deeply shaken"
by this deadly coup.
Steven Sund and Paul Irving recalled that a January 3 report deemed
"low or improbable"
the risk of
"acts of civil disobedience"
on the sidelines of the demonstration of supporters of Donald Trump, when Congress certified the victory of Democrat Joe Biden in the presidential election.
The federal intelligence services had pointed out
"a risk of violence" of
which
"Congress would be the target"
, but had
"never mentioned a coordinated assault"
, underlined Paul Irving.
However, the rioters
"arrived equipped for a violent insurrection"
, according to Steven Sund:
"they had weapons, chemical munitions, explosives.
These criminals were ready for war. ”
Five people died in the assault, including a police officer beaten with a fire extinguisher.
Read also: Assault on Capitol Hill: Trump acquitted by the Senate after a historic trial
The day before the attack, a report from a local FBI office had alerted to more specific calls to
"fight,"
but the document, transmitted that evening to the Capitol Police, had not circulated in intern, Steven Sund revealed.
"Just pressing
'send'
is not enough for a report of this nature,"
said Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, deeming this lack of communication
"very disturbing
.
"
"Stunned" by the answer
Witnesses also implicated the Pentagon, which waited several hours to deploy the National Guard.
Faced with the violence of the intruders, Steven Sund explained that he called for reinforcements very early on.
According to him, a high-ranking officer, Walter Piatt, would have replied:
"I do not like the image of the National Guard lined up in front of the Capitol."
Witness to the exchange, Washington City Police Chief Robert Contee said he was
"stunned"
by the response.
“It looked like we had to tick boxes when officers were fighting for their lives,”
he said.
"It is clear that the National Guard was not quick to respond,"
said Paul Irving.
Read also: United States: the story of our special envoy inside the Capitol
Dissonant note, Steven Sund accused the House Sergeant-at-Arms of having himself expressed, before the attack, his skepticism about the mobilization of soldiers.
“He was worried about the projected image
,” he said.
"It is wrong,"
replied Paul Irving.
"Image issues did not determine our choices."
Steven Sund also assured to have contacted Paul Irving at 1:09 p.m. on the day of the assault to get the green light for a request for reinforcement.
The latter said he did not remember it, and that he had no record of this call on his phone.
Senators have asked them to hand in the reports of their calls and messages.
The elected officials of the two parties, who will resume their work next week, have shown their willingness to work in a
"constructive" way
, putting aside the differences displayed during the trial of Donald Trump. On February 13, 57 of the 100 senators ruled that the former Republican president was guilty of
"inciting insurrection"
, but it would have taken a majority of 67 elected for him to be condemned. Most of his party's elected officials voted for acquittal.
