U.S. government agencies fail to act on information to prevent Capitol riots

WASHINGTON – A Senate investigation has found that U.S. government agencies failed to respond to a massive intelligence warning of an attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The report, released last week, said the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation either dismissed or downplayed the threats.

The report also found that the agencies did not communicate effectively with each other, resulting in a lack of coordination.

According to the report, this failure was similar to what occurred in the run-up to the September 11, 2001, attacks.

“During the violent attack, individuals dragged a police officer into the crowd and beat him, struck another officer with a flagpole attached to an American flag, hit another police officer with a fire extinguisher, and damaged the Capitol building,” the report said.

“Rioters committed hundreds of assaults on law enforcement officers, temporarily delayed the joint session of Congress, and contributed to the deaths of at least nine individuals,” it added. 

Some lawmakers believe that this report once again showed that there is a larger problem with the U.S. intelligence community.

They said agencies need to do a better job of gathering and sharing intelligence.

They also need to be more proactive in preventing future attacks.

During the attack on the Capitol, rioters committed hundreds of attacks on law enforcement officers.

They also temporarily delayed the joint session of Congress and contributed to the deaths of at least nine people.

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters said that this attack was essentially planned on social media.

In December 2020, there was also information that members of the neo-fascist group Proud Boys were planning to travel to Washington.

And the intelligence community did not act on publicly available information.