Army secretary warns of potential increase in domestic terror threats

January 11, 2021 KT1 US 0

WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 03: Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill December 03, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 12:45 PM PT – Monday, January 11, 2021

As the country begins to recover from a week of chaos, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy is wary of potential future threats.

In a conversation with Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) on Sunday, McCarthy relayed the timeline of events from the days leading up to the Capitol Hill protest, to the initial call for back-up from police.

Moments ago, I spoke with Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy about the military response to the January 6 Capitol attack and ongoing security measures.

Here are the notes from my call: pic.twitter.com/WB155iJoJn

— Rep. Jason Crow (@RepJasonCrow) January 10, 2021

The call followed a letter sent from Crow and Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) to McCarthy last week, which requested a briefing regarding the response of the DOD and the National Guard as they first received information that the Capitol had been breached.

According to the secretary’s report, authorities prepared for a demonstration roughly equal to the ones in mid-November and mid-December.

“There was no intelligence that suggested that there would be a breach of the U.S. Capitol,” Chief Robert Contee of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department said. “The intelligence leading up to that, we won’t talk specifically about the intelligence that we had, but we anticipated certainly that there would be an increased number of people into our city in comparison to the previous two demonstrations. We certainly knew that.”

Officials recognized that they faced a much larger problem than a few angry voters as the crowds swarmed the building, some carrying Molotov cocktails, zip ties and various other explosives.

McCarthy said since the incident at the Capitol, 25 domestic terrorism cases have been opened.

Though the FBI is still working to comb through the hours of footage to track down the individuals who joined in on the incident in order to ensure they pose no further threat, one group has not receded to the corners of social media.

Lawmakers and law enforcement officers have continued to express their concern about the radical leftist group Antifa. The President made steps to classify the group as a domestic terror organization even before the group reportedly contributed to the chaos.

Despite being under active investigation by federal, state and local authorities, the group’s violent message quickly spread from Capitol Hill to major cities such as New York City and San Diego.

In a written summary of the conversation, Crow wrote that McCarthy indicated he would be completely willing to testify before Congress. He also explained the DOD is coordinating a large scale effort to defend the nation’s Capitol as inauguration day approaches and as the nation continues to move forward from this tragedy.