WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - Washington's mayor has asked for increased security around the inauguration of United States President-elect Joe Biden after last week's storming of the US Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump. Describing last week's assault as an "unprecedented terrorist attack", Mayor Muriel Bowser said that Mr Biden's inauguration on Jan 20 will require a "different approach" compared with past inaugurations. "While I will be reaching out to a broad range of local, regional and federal partners to enhance cooperation among our bodies, I strongly urge the United States Department of Homeland Security to adjust its approach to the inauguration in several specific ways", Ms Bowser wrote in a letter to Mr Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the department. The letter was dated Saturday (Jan 9) and made available on Sunday. The storming of the Capitol building last week by Trump supporters delayed the certification of Mr Biden's election victory. Mr Trump, who has without evidence challenged the validity of Mr Biden's election win, initially praised his supporters but later condemned the violence. Lawmakers were forced to flee, as the building was mobbed by the President's supporters who
WASHINGTON (NYTIMES) - US President Joe Biden on Friday (Jan 22) ordered the director of national intelligence to work with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the threat from domestic violent extremism, a sign of how seriously the new administration is taking the issue in the aftermath of the Jan 6 riot at the Capitol. The request comes only days after Avril Haines, newly installed director of national intelligence, pledged to members of Congress during her confirmation hearing that she would help with just such an assessment. The new intelligence work began as people charged in the mob attack on the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump continued to appear in court. On Friday, a federal magistrate judge in Dayton, Ohio, ordered Donovan Crowl, an accused rioter linked to the far-right group the Oath Keepers, detained until his trial, citing the safety of the community. Domestic terrorism and violent groups are a thorny issue for intelligence agencies like the CIA, which are limited to tracking attempts by foreign governments or organisations to influence extremist groups in America. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have
Last week’s mayhem in Washington, the mendacious accusations of the Democrats notwithstanding, was not incited by President Trump. The wildly exaggerated “storming of the Capitol,” like the huge protest itself, was caused by the belief — shared by countless millions of Americans — that the voters no longer have any meaningful influence over the Washington establishment. This sense of powerlessness is by no means ameliorated when we see a small cadre of Big Tech oligarchs and the corporate media collude with the Democratic Party to crush dissent from “progressive” orthodoxy. Fortunately, Article V of the Constitution provides a legal remedy for the grotesque hubris of the Beltway ruling class that may prevent a genuine insurrection. Most Americans are familiar with the attempt by the Framers to create checks and balances between the branches of the federal government in order to prevent one of the three from gaining dominance over the other two. They were equally concerned by the possibility that the central government would contrive a way to gain a disproportionate amount of power over the states. This is why they reserved all power to the states not explicitly granted to the federal government. Yet their distrust of centralized power
