NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS FLOOD WASHINGTON

Washington, Jan. 15: All through downtown Washington, the primary sound for several blocks was the beeping of forklifts unloading more fencing. There were no cars or scooters and seemingly no tourists on Wednesday, just the occasional jogger and multiple construction crews at work.

The US Capitol, which proved such a soft target last week, was visible only through lines of tall, black fence. Two blocks from the White House, a group of uniformed National Guard troops emerged from a tour bus and headed into a hotel as a state of lockdown descended on Washington that will last through the Jan. 20 inauguration.

The number of National Guard troops coming to Washington to assist with security has so far grown to about 21,000, but could increase as law enforcement agencies review the ongoing threats, officials said on Thursday.

A retired Air Force officer who was part of the mob that stormed the US Capitol last week carried plastic zip-tie handcuffs because he intended “to take hostages,” a prosecutor said in a Texas court. “He means to take hostages. He means to kidnap, restrain, perhaps try, perhaps execute members of the US government,” Assistant US Attorney Jay Weimer said of retired Lt Col Larry Rendall Brock Jr without providing specifics.

The prosecutor had argued that Brock should be detained, but Magistrate Judge Jeffrey L. Cureton said he would release Brock to home confinement. Cureton ordered Brock to surrender any firearms and said he could have only limited internet access as conditions of that release. “I need to put you on a very short rope,” Cureton said on Thursday.