Just yesterday we noted the latest undercover video from Project Veritas which revealed anarchist groups plotting to disrupt the Trump inauguration by dumping butyric acid into the heating and ventilation systems of buildings expected to be used for this weekend's festivities. Add to that, the fact that ~750,000 protesters are expected to descend upon Washington D.C. with a stated intent to "paralyze the city" and Obama's "extremely unusual" move to fire the D.C. National Guard Chief just days before the inauguration ceremonies and you have a recipe for disaster.

Describing the situation to Washington Top News, Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy acknowledged that the threat level at this ingratiation is "different" from previous ones saying that, after a contentious 2016 campaign cycle, people "are willing to do things they may not have been willing to do in the past."

“I think people today are willing to do things they may not have been willing to do in the past,” Clancy said. He cited several episodes that took place during the campaign, “where people jumped over those bike racks or security zones into our buffer. In the past, it was very rare for somebody to do that. Today, in this past campaign, people were willing to do it.” Maness says, however, “From what we have seen the security measures and first-responder preparations have been excellent for the event.”

In addition to D.C. being a perpetual high-profile target for terrorist attacks, Clancy notes that, as confirmed by the latest Project Veritas video, the bigger threat is likely coming from anarchist groups who will stop at nothing to disrupt the inauguration ceremonies in some way.

“We know that this (Washington region) is a high-profile [terror] target. It’s been attacked in the past, historically,” said Paul Abbate, the FBI’s executive assistant director for the Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch. "The bigger threat is probably coming from anti-government/anarchist groups who are likely to try and disrupt the inauguration, and may engage in violence to do so,” said Mike Maness, director of Trapwire. Other FBI officials have confirmed that Washington is mentioned on a daily basis as a potential target in intercepted terrorist chatter and communications. “We, from the FBI standpoint, are ready to counter terrorist attacks and are working with our partners in building out the intelligence picture,” Abbate said. On Friday, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson spoke to reporters about preparations for the inauguration. “We know of no specific credible threat directed toward the inauguration,” he said. But in the same statement, he acknowledged, “that is only part of the story.” Other parts of that story include the unknown, according to Clancy, and that is causing him to lose sleep. “Every night I wake up and I wonder do we have some issue covered,” Clancy said.

Of course, extraordinary threats call for extraordinary preparations and countermeasures as this year's inauguration will include large perimeters that will be heavily fortified with "trucks, dumpsters, buses and the like" to defend against terrorist attacks similar to those that struck Nice, France and Berlin, Germany in 2016 as rogue trucks plowed through masses of people.



Soft perimeters will permit access to only those vehicles belonging to people who live or work in the area. Hard vehicle perimeters will be off limits to all but official vehicles. This year in particular, Johnson said, “The hard vehicle perimeter will be heavily fortified by trucks, dumpsters, buses and the like, given the current threat environment.” That environment he spoke of is created by terror groups’ constant online prodding of sympathizers to conduct not just spectacular attacks like those in Paris, Brussels, Turkey, Germany and Orlando in the past year, but single-casualty attacks as well. Another key part of Secret Service attack prevention planning started months ago, and is designed to cover large and small incidents.

And, if all else fails, we're sure the "Bikers For Trump" will be available on short order to form a "wall of meat" to protect the President-elect.