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... a French police official responsible for public security in a key section of central Paris, and two intelligence officials from NATO countries who directly work in counterterrorism and counterintelligence operations... said the circumstantial evidence available pointed to what would be openly called a coup attempt in any other nation.
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One NATO source set the stage, using terms more commonly used to describe unrest in developing countries.
“The defeated president gives a speech to a group of supporters where he tells them he was robbed of the election, denounces his own administration’s members and party as traitors, and tells his supporters to storm the building where the voting is being held,” the NATO intelligence official said.
“The supporters, many dressed in military attire and waving revolutionary-style flags, then storm the building where the federal law-enforcement agencies controlled by the current president do not establish a security cordon, and the protesters quickly overwhelm the last line of police.
“The president then makes a public statement to the supporters attacking the Capitol that he loves them but doesn’t really tell them to stop,” the official said. “Today I am briefing my government that we believe with a reasonable level of certainty that Donald Trump attempted a coup that failed when the system did not buckle.
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The French police official said they believed that an investigation would find that someone interfered with the deployment of additional federal law-enforcement officials on the perimeter of the Capitol complex; the official has direct knowledge of the proper procedures for security of the facility.
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It is routine for the Capitol Police to coordinate with the federal Secret Service and the Park Police and local police in Washington, DC, before large demonstrations. The National Guard, commanded by the Department of Defence, is often on standby too.On Wednesday, however, that coordination was late or absent.
“You cannot tell me I don’t know what they should have done. I can fly to Washington tomorrow and do that job, just as any police official in Washington can fly to Paris and do mine,” the official said. The official directs public security in a central Paris police district filled with government buildings and tourist sites.
“These are not subtle principles” for managing demonstrations, “and they transfer to every situation,” the official said. “This is why we train alongside the US federal law enforcement to handle these very matters, and it’s obvious that large parts of any successful plan were just ignored.”
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The third official, who works in counterintelligence for a NATO member, agreed that the situation could only be seen as a coup attempt, no matter how poorly considered and likely to fail, and said its implications might be too huge to immediately fathom.
“Thank God it didn’t work, because I can’t imagine how hard it would be to sanction the US financial system,” the official said. By sanctions, he means the imposition of the diplomatic, military, and trade blockages that democratic nations usually reserve for dictatorships.
“The broader damage around the world will be extensive in terms of reputation, and that’s why Putin doesn’t mind at all that Trump lost. He’s got to be happy to take his chips and count his winnings, which from the Trump era will be a shockingly quick decline in American prestige and moral high ground.
“Every moment the Americans spend on their own self-inflicted chaos helps China, it helps Putin, and, to a lesser extent, it helps the mini-dictators like [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and [Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor] Orban, who breathe cynicism about politics, human rights, and democracy as their air,” the official said. “They won’t miss Trump; they will be glad to see his drama leave so they can enjoy the poisoned political climate.”
(Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 14 2021, @07:42AM
Basically there is an immense amount of pressure put on politicians behind the scenes from the "establishment". Many politicians have been in congress pretty much their whole lives. For instance Biden has been in politics for about 50 years. And the establishment is also very much intertwined with corporate interests which is one reason "public service" is a bit of a misnomer since it's really a great path to becoming a multi-millionaire. These interests includes commercial corporations like Google, Apple, Disney (who owns ABC), Comcast (who owns NBC), the military industrial complex like Boeing, Lockheed, Raytheon, as well as banking interests like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, etc. And finally there are also our intelligence agencies who effectively work as a tool for the establishment.
Collectively this group (the "establishment") has an amount of influence and control that simply cannot be overstated. Trump made it extremely clear that the goal of the protests was to give their politicians the courage and support needed to do whatever they feel is the just and constitutionally correct thing to do. Right now those establishment interests are currently working to completely destroy any politician who did not support Biden, and every single congressman in DC knew this would happen. Going against the establishment in US politics is *extremely* dangerous and takes immense bravery.
And this applies not just to the right. Why do you think Sanders goes far left only to jump right back under the umbrella of the establishment, like a trained dog? I don't think it's because of some nonsense like "controlled opposition." It's simply because he knows that if he persists acting in a way that might genuinely imperil the establishment, then they will relentlessly destroy him. And so he probably rationalizes that he can help make 'baby step' changes from the inside. Of course he won't be able to, but at least he's able to lead a comfortable life while still occasionally espousing his views convincing himself that this is better than nothing. Or similarly why do you think democrats lined up to sign away their rights to even vote on the Transpacific Partnership trade agreement when Obama was trying to shove it through in such an undemocratic way?
Trump obviously knew there would be some violence at the protests, much how democratic leaders obviously also know there will be some violence at BLM related protests. But I think he himself was also caught off guard by the protesters effectively being let into the House. And let in they were. The doors of the House are going to be deeply reinforced. Simply shut and lock the doors and nobody's getting in. But once the protesters were in, the entire image, shape, and character of the protests changed. And I think that was entirely intentional. Just keep this mind as our new mono-government introduces Patriot Act 2.0, under whatever name they will give it.