A January 6th National Commission of Domestic Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
After 9/11, the National Commission of Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States was formed as an independent, bipartisan commission tasked to deep dive into the circumstances surrounding 9/11. The goal was to understand every aspect of the attacks from their planning, financing, preparations, execution, the US intelligence, law enforcement and security failures, and responses that made us vulnerable. Most importantly the Commission issued a comprehensive and transparent report making specific recommendations to prevent such tragedies from happening again.
It is crucial that Congress and the new Biden administration do the same around the events of January 6th. The more we understand where each failure and breakdown occurred, it’s coordination, financing, collaborators and the intelligence, police and communication the quicker we can implement the necessary changes on a structural level in order to safeguard against similar attacks from the same or other extremist or international foes.
Peaceful protest must always be protected. Its very purpose and effect are threatened when used as cover for violence because it confuses and delegitimize the cause and is a unique public safety threat. Particularly when we’re dealing with domestic extremists there is often foreign support and influence. Already we have seen Chainalysis’ reports of large sum deposits from a French computer programmer were distributed to numerous domestic extremists. Not only that, but most foreign influence tends to come through multi-channels which would not, on the surface, appear to be coming from abroad in the first place. The FBI already has departments and individuals tasked with uncovering these kinds of transactions, but it is imperative that they also work under the microscope of January 6th and tie both foreign and corporate backers to individuals and groups. We must follow the money just like after 9/11.
Comprehensive analysis and understanding are needed for us to successfully move forward.
Unbiased, independent, expert, bipartisan insight is needed to rebuild trust with the American people.
Detailed reporting is needed in order to strengthen the American foundation.
All athletes, all soldiers, all agents know that training is useless if it does not include assessment of successful and, more importantly, unsuccessful races, missions, or cases. Lives and credibility were lost. The January 6th attack could have been much worse but for the heroic actions. Thankfully there is an opportunity in this crisis to properly memorialize the sacrifice.
From an FBI vantage point, not only are they gaining an unprecedented number of civilian digital evidence hits, but are gaining knowledge and insight to how their established systems are working under such volumes. Without reflecting and adding this insight, then we are missing an opportunity to create stronger databases in the future and new ways to vantage civilian contributions.
More importantly though, there were both astounding acts of heroism and bravery shown on January 6th, as well as, clear failures in protocol, in response, and in communication. Knowing how and why this happened – not just on a superficial level (failure to execute previously stated orders), but on a foundational level (why any particular person or agency didn't execute said order) – will show us where our opportunities to make long lasting, impactful changes in addressing threats to public safety are and where we have the chance to dive deeper into undercurrent strengths and problems of our agencies.