Senate Report Details Broad Failures Around Jan. 6 Attack WASHINGTON (AP) — a the Capitol" with Weapons Senate Investigation of the and Possibly Infiltrate the Jan
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Mangel Wednesday June 9, 2021 Halto is T: 582-7800 www.arubatoday.com screaming facebook.com/arubatoday instagram.com/arubatoday for help Aruba’s ONLY English newspaper Page 8 Senate report details broad failures around Jan. 6 attack WASHINGTON (AP) — A the Capitol" with weapons Senate investigation of the and possibly infiltrate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the tunnel system underneath U.S. Capitol found a broad the building. But that intel- intelligence breakdown ligence never made it up across multiple agencies, to top leadership. The re- along with widespread law sult was chaos. A Senate enforcement and military report released Tuesday failures that led to the vio- details how officers on the lent attack. front lines suffered chemi- There were clear warnings cal burns, brain injuries and tips that supporters and broken bones, among of former President Don- other injuries, after fighting In this Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol Police officers hold off rioters loyal to President Donald Trump at ald Trump, including right- the attackers, who quickly the Capitol in Washington. wing extremist groups, overwhelmed them and Associated Press were planning to "storm broke into the building. Continued on next page A2 WEDNESDAY 9 JUNE 2021 UP FRONT Continued from Front between life and death," Officers told the Senate in- the statement said. vestigators they were left During the attack, the re- with no leadership or direc- port says, Capitol Police tion when command sys- were compromised by bad tems broke down. intelligence, poor plan- The Senate report is the first ning, faulty equipment and — and could be the last — a lack of leadership. The bipartisan review of how force's incident command hundreds of Trump sup- system "broke down during porters were able to push the attack," leaving officers violently past security lines on the front lines without and break into the Capitol orders. There were no func- that day, interrupting the tional incident command- certification of Joe Biden's ers, and some senior offi- presidential election vic- cers were fighting instead tory. It recommends imme- of giving orders. Capitol Po- diate changes to give the lice "leadership never took Capitol Police chief more control of the radio system authority, to provide better to communicate orders to planning and equipment front-line officers," the in- for law enforcement and vestigation found. to streamline intelligence "I was horrified that NO gathering among federal deputy chief or above was agencies. In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo rioters break into the Capitol in Washington. on the radio or helping us," As a bipartisan effort, the Associated Press one officer told the com- report does not delve into mittee in an anonymous the root causes of the at- leader Mitch McConnell, Steven Sund, desperately unit within the Capitol Po- statement. "For hours the tack, including Trump's role who led the blockade begged for help. lice after widespread fail- screams on the radio were as he called for his support- against such a commission, It finds that the Pentagon ures from multiple agencies horrific(,) the sights were ers to "fight like hell" to over- said he's confident the on- spent hours "mission plan- that did not predict the unimaginable and there turn his election defeat that going reviews by lawmak- ning" and seeking mul- attack even though insur- was a complete loss of con- day. It does not call the at- ers and law enforcement tiple layers of approvals as rectionists were planning it trol. ... For hours NO Chief or tack an insurrection, even will be sufficient. Capitol Police were being openly on the internet. above took command and though it was. And it comes The House in May passed overwhelmed and brutally The police intelligence unit control. Officers were beg- two weeks after Republi- legislation to create a com- beaten by the attackers. "knew about social media ging and pleading for help cans blocked a bipartisan, mission that would be mod- It also says the Defense posts calling for violence at for medical triage." independent commission eled after a panel that in- Department's hesitant re- the Capitol on January 6, The acting chief, Yoganan- that would investigate the vestigated the Sept. 11 ter- sponse was influenced by including a plot to breach da Pittman, who replaced insurrection more broadly. rorist attack two decades criticism of its heavy-hand- the Capitol, the online shar- Sund after his resignation, "This report is important in ago. House Speaker Nan- ed response to protests in ing of maps of the Capitol told the committees that the fact that it allows us to cy Pelosi told colleagues in the summer of 2020 after Complex's tunnel systems, the lack of communica- make some immediate im- a letter Tuesday that if the the death of George Floyd and other specific threats tion resulted from "incident provements to the security Senate fails to approve the in police custody. of violence," the report commanders being over- situation here in the Capi- commission, her chamber The senators are heavily says, but agents did not whelmed and engaging tol," said Michigan Sen. will launch its own investi- critical of the Capitol Po- properly inform leaders of with rioters, rather than issu- Gary Peters, the chairman gations. lice Board, a three-mem- everything they had found. ing orders over the radio." of the Homeland Security The top Republican on the ber panel made up of the On Dec. 28, for example, The committee's interviews and Governmental Affairs rules panel, Missouri Sen. heads of security for the the report notes that some- with police officers detail Committee, which con- Roy Blunt, has opposed House and Senate and the one emailed a public Cap- "absolutely brutal" abuse ducted the probe along the commission, arguing Architect of the Capitol. itol Police account and from Trump's supporters as with the Senate Rules Com- that investigation would The board now is required warned about "countless they ran over them and mittee. "But it does not an- take too long. He said the to approve requests by the tweets from Trump sup- broke into the building. The swer some of the bigger recommendations made police chief, even in ur- porters saying they will be officers described hearing questions that we need in the Senate can be im- gent situations. The report armed on January 6th" racial slurs and seeing Nazi to face, quite frankly, as a plemented faster, such as recommends that its mem- and "tweets from people salutes. One officer trying country and as a democ- legislation that he and Min- bers "regularly review the organizing to 'storm the to evacuate the Senate racy." nesota Democratic Sen. policies and procedures" Capitol.'" There were also said he had stopped sever- Senate Majority Leader Amy Klobuchar, the rules after senators found that internal warnings of an up- al men in full tactical gear, Chuck Schumer said Tues- committee chair, intend to the three board members tick in posts on various sites one of whom said "You bet- day the findings show even introduce soon that would on Jan. 6 did not under- that showed maps of the ter get out of our way, boy, greater need for a biparti- give the chief of Capitol stand their own authority Capitol, including its under- or we'll go through you to san commission to investi- Police more authority to re- and could not detail the ground tunnels. But those get (the senators).'" The in- gate the root causes of the quest assistance from the statutory requirements for specifics were never dis- surrectionists told police of- attack, referring to Trump's National Guard. requesting National Guard seminated widely. ficers they would kill them, unfounded claims about The Senate report recounts assistance. In a response to the report, then members of Congress. the 2020 election. how the Guard was de- Two of the three board the Capitol Police acknowl- At the same time, the sena- "As the 'big lie' continues to layed for hours Jan. 6 as of- members, the House and edged the need for im- tors acknowledge the of- spread, as faith in our elec- ficials in multiple agencies Senate sergeants at arms, provements and said some ficers' bravery, noting that tions continues to decline, took bureaucratic steps to were pushed out in the are already being made. one officer told them, "The it is crucial — crucial — that release the troops. It details days after the attack. Sund, "Law enforcement agen- officers inside all behaved we establish a trusted, in- hours of calls between offi- the Capitol Police chief, re- cies across the country rely admirably and heroically dependent record of what cials in the Capitol and the signed under pressure. on intelligence, and the and, even outnumbered, transpired," Schumer said. Pentagon and as the then- The report recommends a quality of that intelligence went on the offensive and But Senate Republican chief of the Capitol Police, consolidated intelligence can mean the difference took the Capitol back."q A3 U.S. NEWS WEDNESDAY 9 JUNE 2021 U.S. identifies 3,900 children separated at border under Trump SAN DIEGO (AP) — The total cases examined to "We believe the negotia- Biden administration said 5,636, close to the ACLU tions we're having with the Tuesday that it has identi- tally. The discrepancy ap- administration are con- fied more than 3,900 chil- pears to stem largely from structive and being held dren separated from their a federal court ruling in San in good faith," Gelernt told parents at the U.S.-Mexico Diego that excluded 1,723 reporters. "Our hope is now border under former Presi- children who were separat- they've put in a process for dent Donald Trump's "zero- ed for reasons other than reunifying people it can be tolerance" policy on illegal Trump's zero-tolerance pol- scaled up." Gelernt said crossings, providing one icy, such as risk of child en- families not only need to of the more detailed ac- dangerment or questions be reunited but provided counts of a chapter in U.S.