
Capitol security officials point fingers over disastrous January 6 riot response
CNN
Law enforcement officials told lawmakers Tuesday they were prepared for the possibility of limited violence on January 6 at the US Capitol, but the intelligence available ahead of time did not warn of a violent coordinated attack like the insurrection that overwhelmed officers and led to multiple casualties.
"The breach of the United States Capitol was not the result of poor planning or failure to contain a demonstration gone wrong," former US Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund told two Senate committees at the first open hearing on the Capitol riot. This is the first time Americans are hearing in full why intelligence and operations failed dramatically on January 6 from the very people whose choices contributed to the crisis -- information that will likely help shape the search for new leaders and possibly a new security management structure on Capitol Hill.
More than two decades ago, on January 24, 2004, I landed in Baghdad as a legal adviser, assigned an office in what was then known as the Green Zone. It was raining and cold, and my duffle bag was thrown into a puddle off the C-130 aircraft that had just done a corkscrew dive to reach the runway without risk of ground fire. Young American soldiers greeted me as we piled into a vehicle, sped out of the airport complex and then along a road called the “Highway of Death” due to car bombs and snipers.












