Posted on 07/16/2024 9:24:20 PM PDT by george76
"See something, say something." After the 9/11 disaster, that phrase served as a terse marching order for alert American citizens willing to help stop terror attacks on U.S. soil.
"See something, say something" is superb national security advice. 9/11 demonstrated America is under attack. Every citizen can contribute to the defense effort.
On Saturday, July 13, several alert citizens attending a presidential campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, saw a young man lurking near a building adjacent to the fairground where presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump intended to deliver a speech. The young man was later seen on the building's roof.
Local and Global Security Point 1: Per 9/11, concerned citizens on the ground provided The See. Several informed law enforcement officers. Hence Point 2: Citizens provided The Say.
Good citizens also provide evidence. I've seen perhaps 10 different clips from phone videos of the man on the roof. One video may have been shot as early as 5:45 p.m. EDT, but that's not clear.
This is: The videos are damning glimpses of a suspicious man on the roof of a building authorities now report is 410 feet from the podium where Trump was scheduled to speak.
WPXI Channel 11 Pittsburgh (NBC TV affiliate) now has an online timeline for Thomas Matthew Crooks' attempted assassination of Trump. The timeline documents the crowd's See and Say. Trump took the podium at 6:03 p.m. EDT and began speaking. At 6:09 p.m., many citizens (scores?) in the audience began shouting to law enforcement personnel, pointing to the man on the roof.
At 6:11 pm, Crooks opened fire.
Point 3: The citizens provided time enough for alert Secret Service and local law enforcement personnel to act to stop the shooter.
But they didn't. Not before Crooks wounded Trump, critically wounded rally attendees James Copenhaver and David Dutch, and killed Corey Comperatore, a fireman. Mr. Comperatore may not have been Crooks' target, but his murder makes Crooks a successful assassin.
Secret Service snipers then killed Crooks.
Secret Service snipers are elite American paramilitary personnel. But their shots were too late.
The Secret Service agents around Trump protected him with their bodies. They did their duty.
Yet the evidence for Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security operational laxity and bureaucratic incompetence is mounting, to the point intentional neglect by senior DHS officials becomes a malign but plausible explanation. I'm not pushing that, but the possibility must be considered and investigated.
DHS directs the Secret Service. The Secret Service relies on the FBI and local law enforcement agencies for assistance in preparing for a visit by the president, vice president, speaker of the House and other senior officials as assigned. In a presidential campaign, bona fide major candidates receive Secret Service protection. (Which is why DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas' refusal to provide Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with protection was jaw-droppingly stupid. I understand RFK Jr. now has protection. He should have had it starting Jan. 1.)
My point: Presidential protection within the U.S. is a multi-jurisdictional effort, one requiring federal-state-local cooperation.
I suspect the imperious Mayorkas has made it a federal-state-local struggle, by neglect if not by intention.
An old proverb speaks to the difficulty of finding the rare and concealed amid the normal and visibly numerous: finding the needle in the haystack. Nine years ago, after two terrorists murdered 14 people in San Bernardino, California, I wrote a column about the difficulty of finding the assassin's dagger in the haystack.
A terrorist can select from a range of targets "distributed" throughout an area. They can attack geographically dispersed targets, a hospital in Nevada or a bus going to Yankee Stadium. The defense cannot protect everything.
But presidents and presidential candidates are known, specific targets. Their movements are planned and protected — or should be protected.
Mayorkas and Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle failed to execute fundamental duties. They should resign immediately.
The quirky Biden appointee......Kimberly Cheatle, head of the SS agency .......said she decided not to guard the roof from which Crooks opened fire on President Trump because it was “too slanted” and “there’s a safety factor about putting an agent up on a sloped roof,” she told ABC News in a startling admission.
So a “sloped roof” was a problem b/c a S/S agent might get hurt,
but the nitwit figured it was alright for Trump to get shot in the head
There was a a ladder he used to get into the roof. It apparently was too big for his car. Where did he get the ladder to get onto the roof?
They wanted this to happen.
Planned assassination. They wanted to JFK him.
My devout Dem friend agrees.
If Biden really wants to dial down the temperature, he should start by admitting
his own appalling contribution to it, and properly atone for the damage it’s done.
Democrats introduced a bill To Strip Trump’s Secret Service Protection
Biden tells donors: “Its time to put Trump in the Bullseye”
S/S Director Cheatle focuses on “diversity hires,” not protecting candidates.
NY Times’ John McWhorter declares “it’s a good thing” if somebody assassinated Trump
Cong Dan Goldman said “Trump must be eliminated”
Singer Bette Midler Suggested Biden’s FBI Use “Deadly Force.”
Madonna said she’s thought about “blowing up” the Trump WH.
And so on and so forth, ad infinitum, ad nauseaum.
So many nice words but you can’t spell “because”. Or Secret Service.
That Cheatle did NOT resign today was the tell:
They are going to milk this for all they can to distract from what was headlines LAST WEEK.
And just one key point about the so-called ‘Iranian plot:
I’ve always wondered what all that $$ was for...
And when did he get it?
And when did he place the ladder? When did he place the rifle?
Of particular interest to me right now is the statement that the author has seen about 10 clips from phones, of the shooter on the roof, and one of them might be taken at 5:45pm although that wasn’t clear. It seems like there should be some kind of timestamp on the phone so I’m not sure what wouldn’t be clear.
The reason this is of interest is because all day yesterday and today there was a news page that said the shooter had been reported on the roof 30 minutes before the first shots. Then quietly that page was changed, without any notation that it had been changed or explanation of why it had been changed. But it was changed to say that the shooter was reported through radio communications as having been seen near the entrance at that same time - a couple hundred yards away from the roof he was later seen on.
There was a lot of going back and forth to his car to get stuff, according to other reports.
Long story short, I’m wondering if both guys were there - Crooks and the guy that Roger Stone’s sources said was the shooter and whose facial features look more like the photographed dead shooter on the roof (I keep forgetting his name but he was an Antifa guy who had been arrested for violence at an anti-Trump protest).
It’s not helpful when a news page changes and they don’t note that it’s been updated or why. It just adds to the confusion. But I’m wondering if there were 2 guys similarly-dressed and looking alike, to confuse everybody at the time and to obfuscate what happened as people try to sort it out afterwards.
He was wearing camouflage and blended into the roof. Which was too steep for government employees to handle
These are all issues/questions that also make the timeline of the reported sightings and locations of the shooter seem sort of impossible if it was just one person.
We’re told he bought a 5’ ladder Saturday morning. Was that anywhere near the building? The ladder we see is taller than that. Or was the ladder still in his car? How far away was his car? How many trips would he have made, to come in without his rifle, get his rifle, get a ladder, get his backpace, etc?
I can’t help but wonder if they were both there.
(I keep forgetting his name but he was an Antifa guy who had been arrested for violence at an anti-Trump protest).
When I turned on the news to see what was going on, one of the first reports I heard was that the shooter was “Antifa”. But after that nothing more said about Antifa.
Maybe that’s got something to do with what you’re talking about.
SS ignored warnings as to where the shooter was but somehow knew instantly where to return fire. Bizarre
I’m worried for Trump’s safety. I wished he’d just hole up at MAL until election day.
He doesn’t need to be on the campaign trail anymore.
I’m praying for him.
The big problem for the Government is the American people were lied to about JFK and RFK senior and after Watergate and several other incidents they just will not accept the nonsense any longer.
As: Too dangerous for an agent to stake out a possible killer on a roof if the roof is sloped. But replacement roofing tile workers, chimney company crews and cable and phone line workers (in earlier years, few left today) routinely walked on the slanted roofs.
Idea: Get an electric utility company truck and use the lift bucket to get a good view of all the roofs and land. Called an aerial lift bucket truck or cherry picker.
Where did he stash the rifle? And when?
There, much clearer.
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