The storming of the Capitol bears all the signs of a skilled military operation, experts now say. And finding out where the insurrectionists got their training is "a tier one priority" of investigators.
The evidence of military training is compelling.
Men in combat gear were captured on camera using a tactic known as ranger file to push through the crowd and make their way into the Capitol. Many rioters wore flak jackets and helmets. Others wore brightly colored clothing, making it easier to spot each other in the crowd. They also used military style hand gestures to signal one another.
"You can see by the way they move, the way they hold onto each other, the way they signal," Kroll Associates managing director Tim Gallagher told Inside Edition. "These aren't people who learn this in the woods playing paintball. They learn this from the finest military in the world."
The methods used by some rioters mirror small unit tactics used by the U.S. military in urban warfare.
Prosecutors say retired Air Force Lt. Col. Larry Rendell Brock, who was photographed in combat gear in the Senate chamber holding zip-tie handcuffs, planned to "take hostages, kidnap, restrain, perhaps execute members of the U.S. government."
"What we're seeing here is individuals who have received military training from the best military in the world," Gallagher said. "And then they turn around and use these very skills to attack the country that trained them. It absolutely shocks the conscience."
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