Just got off a national security zoom mtg (Chatham House rules forbid saying who & where) -- very high level leaders of past mega events, reflecting on Wed #AssaultOnDemocracy at the Capitol.
Universal condemnation of intelligence failures. Some key comments follow.
MORE

2/
“worse than 9/11” (said by someone who had a command role on 9/11 in NYC)
“complete intelligence failure”
“Police across America are overly fixated on groups on the Left, and need to see the Right”
MORE

3/
“these people now have a martyr” (the woman who was shot) “expect to see her image everywhere”
“we are only at the beginning with these nuts”
“This isn’t about Trumpism. If you leave it at that you’re going to get blindsided”
MORE

4/
“we need a 9/11 Commission on this to pin down everything that went wrong”
“the Capitol Police had to let people go – there are no holding areas, jail cells or security pens on the Hill – no place to put them”
MORE

5/
“my biggest worry --- what were they planning to do with those?” (points at guy holding about plastic handcuff strips)
“this nut case used the American flag to disguise a lethal spear – when we see things like that in a crowd we should be on maximum police alert”
MORE

6/
“Capitol Police chief ordered all personnel on site in soft gear. Intel should have mandated hard gear – and one police officer is dead because of that decision”
“none of this is over. This is all going to get much worse...
MORE

7/
"...And if we have police officers that are buying into this stuff our forces are compromised”
"People are rightly saying this is a race issue -- proportions of response should not be greater or lesser, based on the complexion of the crowd."