Did the intelligence services fail?
New allegations about the storm on the Capitol weigh heavily.
The National Guard is not doing well either.
Five people were killed in the riots outside and in the US Capitol.
Now the failure of the security forces is being dealt with before the US Senate.
The descriptions are drastic - the authorities blame each other.
Washington DC - Instead of a “large-scale demonstration with the potential for violence” one suddenly had to deal with a “militarily coordinated attack” - so a lack of intelligence information would have been partly responsible for the storming of the US Capitol *.
That said the ex-chief of the Capitol Police, Steven Sund, on Tuesday at a hearing in the US Senate.
“They had weapons, chemical ammunition, explosive devices, shields, protective vests,” explained Sund.
“These criminals were prepared for a war.” Compared to the radical Trump supporters, his officials were “clearly outnumbered”.
Sund emphasized that the police are dependent on information from the secret service apparatus.
"We rely on this information to be absolutely correct."
After the riot in the US Capitol: top security officials resign after criticism
Other high-ranking security officials from Congress also complained about the failures of the secret service authorities on the occasion: It was predicted that the events would resemble previous marches by supporters of the then US President Donald Trump *, said Paul Irving, former top security officer of the House of Representatives.
Irving, Sund and Michael Stenger, the then senior Senate security officer, had resigned from their posts after the violence attack * - faced with fierce criticism that the US parliamentary seat could be overrun in this way.
Storm on the US Capitol: Police officers are said to have "fought for their lives"
The police rushed to the aid of the security forces that day.
The security representatives also complained on Tuesday that the National Guard intervened too slowly, which had only arrived after hours.
Washington Police Chief Robert Contee said he was "stunned" at the Department of Defense's “reluctance” to send National Guardsmen.
His police officers “fought for their lives”.
Sund testified that when he requested the National Guard, a high-ranking military representative told him: "I don't like the picture of the National Guards lined up in front of the Capitol."
Five dead in attack by Trump supporters - ex-president wins impeachment process
Violent Trump supporters * stormed the Capitol on January 6, where the victory of Democrat Joe Biden * in the 2020 US election was to be finally confirmed.
Trump, who still does not acknowledge his electoral defeat, had previously called on his supporters to march on the Capitol and asked them to "fight the devil".
A police officer was killed in the attack and an attacker was shot dead by the police.
There were five dead in total.
A week after the incident, Trump was impeached for "inciting riot".
The two-thirds majority in the Senate required for a conviction was not achieved.
Biden replaced Trump in office on January 20.
(dpa / AFP / frs)
* Merkur.de is part of the Ippen digital editorial network.