The landscape in downtown Washington is bleak, haunting, tense, weird. There are concrete walls, metal fences, bars with coiled barbed wires, security checkpoints everywhere, armored vehicles and a mass of uniformed men that is deployed through the streets of the city, whose heart has become an unusual fortress to guard Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony.
The act of this Wednesday, which is usually a party in the city, will be historic and unprecedented this year not only due to the threat of the pandemic but also of violence.
From all corners of the United States, security forces have arrived in the country’s capital, whose center has already been blocked from traffic and turned into a militarized and ghost territory where no neighbors appear but men in camouflaged suits and long weapons.
In the area closest to the Capitol and the White House, and also the surroundings, businesses are closed these days and cars cannot enter. People are advised to stay at home.
For the inauguration of Biden and his vice Kamala Harris, which begins Wednesday morning, a total of 25,000 National Guard personnel will be deployed (two and a half times the number of previous assumptions) and thousands of police, FBI agents and other security forces. The tension about what may happen, following the precedent of the assault on the Capitol on January 6 by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump is enormous.
Members of the National Guard guard the Supreme Court building in Washington this Monday. Photo: DPA
The list of invitees to the inauguration has been drastically reduced Regarding other ceremonies and most of the acts this time will be virtual. There will be no massive parades or traditional dances. But it is also feared that the ultra-right and violent groups that acted on Three Kings Day will return to the city.
Alarm near the Capitol
A sample of this tense climate was experienced this Monday morning, when preparations for the ceremony were being carried out near Congress and there were workers and people rehearsing in the place of Biden’s oath, which will be outdoors on the outskirts of the building.
In an instant a emergency alarm for “external security threat” and the legislative palace was placed in “lockdown”, meaning that its doors were closed and those inside were ordered to stay away from windows and doors. Those outside were required to seek shelter quickly.
There were moments of anxiety, but shortly after it was learned that the alarm had been caused by a small fire several blocks from the place, under a bridge.
Defense officials’ fear does not stem only from possible actions by the far-right groups identified in the January 6 assault, but also from something even more delicate: a possible insider attack or other threat from service members involved in guarding the inauguration ceremony.
The White House prepares to host Joe Biden and his family on Wednesday. Photo: Bloomberg
This situation led the FBI to examine the 25,000 National Guard soldiers who entered Washington DC for the event. It is that it did not go unnoticed that in the assault on Congress there was a striking indifference from the security forces guarding the building and also that, among the violent protesters, there were some policemen and members of the security forces who came from different parts of the country.
Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy said officials are aware of the potential threat and warned commanders to be on the lookout for any problems within their ranks as the transfer of command approaches. “We are continually going through the process, and we vet second and third every single person assigned to this operation,” McCarthy said.
The FBI reported that it has received more than 200,000 digital clues from people who have documented the episodes on Capitol Hill. Some of them were even provided by relatives of the assailants.
Soldiers rehearse, this Monday in Washington, for the parade scheduled for Wednesday, when Joe Biden assumes the presidency of the United States. Photo: EFE
The investigation has led to dozens of arrests nationwide of people who have participated in the assault: this Monday a heavy metal musician, a paramilitary trainer and two members of a far-right Ohio militia were arrested. It also emerged that a woman who took the laptop of the leader of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, tried to sell it to Russian friends.
Trump, in silence
Meanwhile, President Trump remains silent at the White House and is expected to leave early Wednesday for his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, where he will settle in with his family.
Breaking a historical tradition, the tycoon will not witness the ceremony nor will he receive Biden at the mansion on Pennsylvania Avenue. His schedule in the last few days only says that he “works all day”, without specifications.
The incoming president chose to spend the Martin Luther King holiday away from this tense, militarized Washington on Monday.
He was outside of Philadelphia, where he helped distribute food to those who need it most amid the pandemic and economic crisis. “The service is an appropriate way to begin to heal, unite and rebuild this country that we love,” Biden said in a video posted on his Twitter account.
Washington, correspondent
CB
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source https://pledgetimes.com/washington-becomes-a-fortress-and-prepares-to-receive-joe-biden-in-a-climate-of-tension/
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