By ICHI-E @Adobe StockAn Obvious Catastrophic Failure
The Manhattan Contrarian usually doesn’t cover assassination attempts. Like many other newsworthy events, explains Francis Menton, it’s not that it’s not important. It’s that the MC doesn’t have any special expertise or insights to offer.
There is something about the assassination attempt that seems terribly wrong, Mr. Menton?
Well, there is, agrees the Manhattan Contrarian:
The truly incredible failure of the Secret Service that enabled the shooter to gain access to the vantage point to shoot.
Mr. Menton, who has never been involved in the security business, admits to not having any particular knowledge about how to secure what they call the “protectee” at a campaign rally or other event. What is obvious to the Manhattan Contrarian, as it should be to anyone with an IQ above the temperature of blood, is that among the most important security precautions to be taken, if not the most important, would be “to restrict access to any nearby vantage points from which a would-be assassin could have a clear shot at the target.” In other words, secure the parameter.
Below is a map from the BBC website of Butler, PA, farm show venue, where the attempt on Trump’s life took place.
Trump was stationary during the rally, and there was only one nearby cluster of buildings that could potentially serve as an assassin’s nest.
Harsh Criticism of a Catastrophic Failure
From former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino:
“This is an obviously catastrophic failure and NO excuses should be made, or even attempted,” Bongino posted on X.
“The failures are profound and questions must be answered about ground surveillance, air surveillance, post-stander support, and counter-sniper advance work and response. We have ONE job, and we came within inches of a deadly failure today. An uneventful failure is NOT a success.”
A Failure to Secure Perimeter
Maybe Bongino is too partisan a critic, you’re thinking. Well then read on. F rom Eric Prince, founder of the Blackwater firm that has famously provided security services to the U.S. government in some of the most dangerous places in the world, continues Mr. Menton:
“DJT was not saved by USSS brilliance. The fact that USSS allowed a rifle armed shooter within 150yds to a preplanned event is either malice or massive incompetence. Clearly there was adequate uncontrolled dead space for a shooter to move into position and take multiple aimed shots. . . . In my old business of providing Diplomatic Security in two active war zones we were expected to execute the basics or we would be fired. Clearly USSS failed at the basics of a secure perimeter. . . .”
[O]nce shots were fired their extraction was clumsy and eft DJT highly exposed to follow on attacks. It looked like they had never drilled together because those responses should be effectively autonomic.
Mr. Prince, Do You Think There Be Accountability?
“That’s not the Washington way,” responds Eric Prince.
“Unserious and unworthy people in positions of authority got us to this near disaster.”
By refusing secret service protection to Robert Kennedy, Jr., clarifies Mr. Menton, Joe Biden/Mayorkas Homeland Security Department effectively prevents RFK, Jr. from holding big rallies.
So, Mr. Menton, I’m worried that there is something political in the Biden/Mayorkas decision to deny RFK, Jr. protection. Should I be?
The alternative hypothesis, reflects the Manhattan Contrarian, is that the Joe Biden administration is just trying to save the taxpayers a little money. That’s something the Biden administration “has shown no inclination to do in any other context for the past three plus years.”
