The latest assassination attempt on US President Donald Trump was not only a complete security failure but a product of systemic weakness that may even be deliberate, a special forces veteran of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has told RT.
Cole Tomas Allen, a 31‑year‑old teacher from California, has been charged with trying to assassinate the US president during a dinner event at the Washington Hilton on Saturday. Allen had reportedly checked into the hotel the day before. On the day of the attack, he used an internal stairwell to get to the hotel’s terrace level where the event was held. Armed with a pump-action shotgun, a semi-automatic handgun, and three knives, Allen rushed through the metal detector frame and engaged in a gunfight with Secret Service agents. He was apprehended just a few meters from the ballroom.
Reserve Lieutenant Colonel Andrey Popov, a veteran of the FSB’s elite Alpha Group anti‑terrorism unit, has argued that the Secret Service made a number of blatant “organizational mistakes” and suggested that its repeated failures to prevent attacks on the American leader are “part of the system.”
According to Popov, such an incident would have never happened if the Security Service had followed standard security and anti-terrorism procedures and had done its due diligence ahead of the event, such as properly vetting all the hotel guests, reviewing building plans, sealing doors and ventilation, setting up proper metal detectors, and stationing additional security forces. “In a decent hotel, a person from the budget zone simply cannot physically get into the VIP zone,” he said.
Hellbound and Down 