In theory, despite the CIA’s constitutional prohibition on domestic activities – which the Agency regularly breaches with impunity in any event – there is nothing necessarily suspicious about its covert presence in Washington DC on January 6th. As an official factsheet notes, Langley’s “K9 unit” has been routinely deployed to “external events” on US soil, including Super Bowls, Miss Universe Pageants, Major League Baseball Games, and the Olympics. Moreover, there were numerous pipebombs secreted in the US capital, requiring expert removal.

However, the factsheet reveals bomb disposal isn’t the CIA K9 Unit’s sole, or even prime responsibility. Its avowed “mission” is to: “protect the worldwide assets and personnel of the CIA [emphasis added]. K9 teams are trained to detect all types of explosives by searching delivery trucks, buildings, vehicles, packages, and assisting CIA police officers [emphasis added].” When one considers that whoever laid pipebombs in DC remains at large, suspicions about clandestine federal machinations on January 6th can only multiply.

Phantom Bomber

The FBI announced that it had difused “viable” pipebombs left at the Democratic and Republican National Committee buildings in DC mere hours after the Capitol’s breach on January 6th, and before the National Guard arrived on the scene. The Bureau subsequently published “images and video of the suspect, the suspect’s backpack, the suspect’s shoes, the explosive devices, and a map of the route the suspect walked the night the pipe bombs were placed.”

A $500,000 reward was offered for information leading to the suspect’s prosecution. Fast forward three years, and the sum remains unclaimed. A renewed call for witnesses issued by the FBI January 4th 2024 noted that in the intervening time, “a dedicated team of FBI agents, analysts, data scientists, and law enforcement partners has worked thousands of hours conducting interviews, reviewing physical and digital evidence, and assessing tips from the public.” These leads reportedly helped the Bureau “advance the investigation.”

It is unclear how, given the culprit hasn’t been caught. Why pipebombs were placed at the DNC and RNC is likewise uncertain. Then-Capitol police chief Steven Sund, and several US lawmakers, have speculated that the purpose was to divert law enforcement from the site of the looming “insurrection”. As it was, three separate police teams posted there were dispatched to the RNC, leaving just one squad at the Capitol building, right when Trump supporters were massing at barricades.

Curiously, the RNC pipebomb was, apparently, found via pure happenstance. A local US Department of Commerce employee working remotely decided to use her lunch hour to do laundry. Her apartment block’s laundry room was situated at the back of the building, accessible via an alleyway shared with the RNC. Having dropped her clothes off and returned home at noon, she went back to use a dryer at around 12:45pm, when she spotted the device, 20 minutes before its allegedly timed detonation.

Once alerted, police arrived almost immediately, a crew of ATF and FBI agents in tow. If the bomber’s objective truly was to divert law enforcement from the Capitol, this can only be considered miraculous timing, given at 12:54pm, heavily surveilled Proud Boys activist Ryan Samsel breached the barricades, leading to a deluge of Trump supporters following suit, and the subsequent “insurrection”. Were it not for a US government employee’s chance find minutes before, January 6th may have proceeded rather differently.

‘Proper Outcome’

The DNC pipebomb was discovered at roughly 13:15pm, authorities having had the foresight to check that building’s grounds too, on a whim. Given it didn’t explode in the intervening minutes, its timer was apparently set later. The FBI states the two devices were laid “between approximately 7:30pm and 8:30pm” on January 5th. This lack of clarity is peculiar, given extensive footage of the suspect planting the pipebombs, and the Bureau mapping their movements to and from the area with precision.

Washington DC is the second-most CCTV-saturated US city by some margin, which is remarkable given its small size. There are 35,082 local surveillance cameras in total, or 55.5 cameras per 1,000 citizens. Evidently, the feeds are not monitored in real-time, for the suspect made no attempt whatsoever to conceal their activities. A hooded and masked individual openly secreting something at two highly sensitive, well-protected political sites in succession would surely arouse some suspicion if so.

That the pipebomber placed highly destructive payloads at the DNC and RNC so brazenly on January 5th 2021 without incident, entirely unnoticed, before disappearing into the ether is extraordinary. With Trump’s “Save America” rally scheduled for the next day, DC was filling up with his supporters. That evening, they staged a demonstration in Freedom Plaza, which turned violent when Antifa and Black Lives Matter counter-protesters arrived, producing clashes, broken up by police. The city was already on high alert.

Over the prior week, the FBI and its field offices consistently warned of armed protests in every state, and plans by Trump supporters that included violence. On January 5th, the Bureau’s Norfolk, Virginia HQ emailed Capitol police an internal Situational Information Report, subject line: “potential criminal activities in the Washington DC area planned for tomorrow.” It contained multiple social media posts indicating some “Save America” attendees had unambiguously malign intentions. One boldly declared:

This FBI warning may account for why, according to mainstream media reports published in the immediate aftermath of January 6th, Capitol Hill staffers were urged by supervisors not to attend work that day, due to greatly heightened risk levels. But it does not explain DC authorities simultaneously failing to deploy basic precautions, such as frozen zones and hardened barriers, commonly used for major events in the area.

By contrast, it seems the outgoing administration was highly security conscious on January 6th. In January 2022, Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff Anthony Ornato told House Select Committee on the January 6th Attack investigators that his superior, Mark Meadows, pressured DC Mayor Muriel Bowser to request a sizeable National Guard presence on the day, in the event of violent clashes with counterprotesters erupting again. He claimed Trump suggested up to 10,000 peacekeepers would be necessary.

Ornato also revealed Trump administration frustration with Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller’s slow deployment of the National Guard on the afternoon of January 6th. Once the Capitol was breached, Meadows ordered Miller, “get them in here, get them in here to secure the Capitol now.” Ornato’s exculpatory testimony was concealed until March 8th this year. Two months earlier, Committee chair Liz Cheney falsely claimed there was “no evidence” Trump ordered the Capitol to be protected.

[…]

Via https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/secret-cia-presence-on-january-6th?r=83qir