An FBI “red cell” report predicted that law enforcement action and a “lack of coordination” between groups would prevent widespread violence in response to a disputed election.

One week before Election Day 2020 and just over two months before the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, an internal FBI analysis concluded that domestic violent extremists were “very willing to take action” in response to a disputed election but that “law enforcement preemption” and the “disorganization” of extremist groups “likely would hinder widespread violence.”

The so-called red cell report — the type of exercise that became widespread after the federal government’s Sept. 11 intelligence failures and are meant to challenge conventional wisdom and encourage outside-the-box thinking — was titled “Alternative Analysis: Potential Scenarios for Reactions of Domestic Violent Extremists to a Disputed 2020 US Presidential Election.” NBC News obtained a redacted copy of the report through a Freedom of Information Act request.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Trump and his cult are the single greatest argument for 2A rights this country has ever seen.

      • nxfsi@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        A fascist once said that all power comes from the barrel of a gun. That’s why they want to ban guns make sure only the police have guns.

          • nxfsi@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Yes they do. They want guns for their “civil militia”, but not for Black people.

          • kboy101222@lemm.ee
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            9 months ago

            Find yourself a right wing gun community and make a comment asking if POC and trans people should have guns too. Guarantee you'll have several fashy but jobs saying yes no

            Edit: don't Lemmy while tired, kids

    • Refurbished Refurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org
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      9 months ago

      It’s definitely one of the biggest immediate threats, but it is a symptom. Corporations buying out our politicians and generally being less democratic led to this.

      For reference, FDR got elected 4 times. He wasn’t elected a 5th tine because he died in office. Republicans had to invent term limits for the presidency and came up with McCarthyism (the red scare) to force the country and political discourse back to the right. Now it’s just so far right that it devolved into straight fascism.

      A good chunk of the American people are latching onto any politician that claims to have a solution to their economic problems, even if they are brazzenly lying about what they actually believe. Trump was in office 4 years, tanked the economy in the process, gave a massive bailout to corpos, and tried to overthrow democracy, and his supporters still believe his bullshit.

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    9 months ago

    I mean everyone knew there was going to be a rally on Jan 6th even 2 months ahead of time. I heard about it and knew it’d only be the nuttiest of the nuts that showed up. I didn’t think it would be a shit show for the law enforcement though. They definitely needed more cops or something to help, could’ve saved some lives by being more prepared.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      In other words, you didn’t count on the Capitol Police being compromised by the traitors and directed to deploy only a token force.

      (Look at the difference between how they responded on Jan 6 vs. how they responded to the Black Lives Matter protests the summer before, then try to tell me I’m wrong.)

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        It isn’t just the capitol police who were compromised. It was a pre-planned coup that required multiple compromises in high places. That means the FBI and all other agencies who had jurisdiction over the capitol, intelligence, and terrorist activity.

        People all over the world knew a coup attempt was likely, weeks in advance, solely from the extremist rhetoric on social media. I was one of them. Acting like it was a case of a few “dropping the ball” is insanity. Are we all to believe I’m more informed than a multi-trillion dollar surveillance state? If so, I offer my services as national security adviser. My salary is 5 million. Have your people call my people.

        • Nobody@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          The Secret Service was in on January 6, or at least a faction within the Secret Service. Pence was aware of it. That’s why he refused to get in a car with other agents and only trusted his own personal detail.

          • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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            9 months ago

            Pointedly, Pence refused to let the Secret Service evacuate him from the Capitol, and he hasn’t given a straight, full, and honest answer explaining why he refused. And there’s a LOT of unconfirmed speculation that he refused because he was suspicious that Trump has co-opted his detail, and he had no idea where they’d take him or what they’d do, which is pretty fucking insane if there’s even a shred of truth to it.

            • Aviandelight @mander.xyz
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              9 months ago

              Reminds me of the scene in Goodfellas where De Niro’s character tried to lure Karen into the warehouse to look at some dresses and she runs away scared because she knows she’s going to be killed. I really hope Pence felt like that.

  • foggy@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Good thing we did all that work to predict and nothing to prevent.

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    9 months ago

    Same issue as the “Bin Laden determined to attack US” report from before 9/11. Looking back on it, there was a report that seems to predict exactly what happened, but this was one of many reports, and vague enough that it could have been confirmed with a bomb threat in Atlanta just as easily as Jan 6th.

    • tacosplease@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Except this one was obvious to everyone before it happened.

      Look at reddit posts from Jan 3-5. Everyone was saying progressives should stay home because the conservatives were going to get violent.

      We all knew J6 was coming. We didn’t all know 9/11 was coming.

      • Ducks@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I have discord logs with my friend from Jan 3rd talking about what will likely happen on Jan 6. Everyone knew what was gonna happen.

  • Rapidcreek@reddthat.com
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    9 months ago

    The same problem with every large foul up: communication across agencies. It’s as if they’re enemies.