Secret Service agents are being forced out of their positions as officials investigate the alleged hiring of prostitutes and other questionable behavior during a presidential visit to Colombia.
"Although the Secret Service's investigation into allegations of misconduct by its employees in Cartagena, Colombia, is in its early stages, and is still ongoing, three of the individuals involved will separate or are in the process of separating from the agency," said Paul S. Morrissey, the assistant director of the U.S. Secret Service Office of Government and Public Affairs, in a written statement.
One supervisory employee was allowed to retire and another was "proposed for removal for cause," the statement said. In addition, a non-supervisory employee resigned. Eight other Secret Service employees remain on administrative leave with suspended security clearances.
In addition, some Secret Service personnel are now under investigation for possible drug use in Colombia, ABC News confirmed.
U.S. inspectors are now on the ground in Colombia canvassing night clubs, interviewing hotel employees and collecting hotel surveillance video. Many of the suspected prostitutes have been identified and will be interviewed, officials told ABC News. Prostitution is legal in Colombia, but officials are concerned about the use of prostitutes by U.S. personnel for ethical and security reasons.
"Since these allegations were first reported, the Secret Service has actively pursued this investigation, and has acted to ensure that appropriate disciplinary action is effected," Morrissey said. "We demand that all of our employees adhere to the highest professional and ethical standards and are committed to a full review of this matter."
The news of the employee removals comes as Congressional committees are lining up to review the Secret Service's actions and culture that led to the scandal. On Wednesday, the chairman and ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., wrote to Mark J. Sullivan, the director of the U.S. Secret Service, about potential security concerns.
This might be the first truly bipartisan hearing in a decade...
"The facts as you described them raised questions about the agency's culture," Issa and Cummings wrote. "The incident in Cartagena is troubling because Secret Service agents and officers made a range of bad decisions, from drinking too much, to engaging with prostitutes, to bringing foreign nationals into contact with sensitive security information, to exposing themselves to blackmail and other forms of potential compromise."
Next week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is expected to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a previously planned oversight hearing. Today, in a statement provided to ABC News, she voiced her support for Secret Service Director Sullivan.
He'll be gone after the hearings. Spend more time with the family...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/19/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Let's not be too hard on the Secret Service on all of this. They have been through a HELL of a 5 years here. In all honesty, I may need a line of coke every time POTUS needs to go somewhere - anywhere from the Whitehouse. And yes, he is a DICK.
"Lets have a round of golf at 6 different courses this week, take my daughter Sas..*** to ***, Michelle needs to go shopping at ****, I want BO to have his shots.... *Flyonwallism deleted*"
#3
They should be happy nobody took advantage of them all being so STUPID. They watch who watches them all drunk and messed up in one place like shooting fish in a barrel or worse. What does it cost in South America to buy off some brothel employees and crooked cops? Some people would get off more by carrying than out then buying some sun baked trout!
Posted by: Ebbeamp Spawn of the Lutherans2504 ||
04/19/2012 8:18 Comments ||
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#4
Ebbeamp Spawn of the Lutherans is very correct. This could have turned out very, very badly.
#6
This kind of ethical collapse always starts at the top of the Chain of Command - with the Secert Service these are political appointees. Also moving the SS to Homeland Security was a boneheaded move and it is startng to show. This is speculation but, too many idiots at DHS may have watered down the Agency's policys and organizational pride.
If the investigation bears it all out then the responsible parties need to be dealt with - but dont stop with with just agents and supervisors.
Now add in BO and Michelles endless summer and you are stressing the hell out of these people. The number of Agents who protect the POTUS and first family is not that large. Yeah Bush went to Crawford Tx a lot, but the SS already had 90% of the advance work done and the ranch was fairly isolated. BO and the family are total jet setters requiring vast amounts of time, money and energy to properly safeguard.
#8
I'd have more sympathy for them if they didn't investigate crazy stuff like Ted Nuggent's comments. They should be allowed to triage a bit of common sense into their workload.
#10
with the Secert Service these are political appointees
Since when are special agents political appointees? The job openings are advertised and are competitive.
Think about it - given the training and security clearance investigations required before they enter duty, it would be impossible to protect a candidate or newly elected President if they were appointed politically.
Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals an incredibly liberal appeals court ruled that Arizonas voter ID law was largely constitutional. Opponents of the law had argued that the fee to obtain an ID amounted to an impermissible poll tax; the Court thought otherwise.
The Court did rule, however, that Arizona cannot turn down federal voter registration forms, which simply ask applicants to check a box indicating that they are US citizens. Thats not because such provisions would be unconstitutional its because those provisions violate the federal National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (the so-called Motor Voter Act). Due to the supremacy clause of the Constitution, in areas where the federal government legislates, states cannot.
The case will likely move on to the Supreme Court.
Confronted with plunging polls and deserting allies, President Nicolas Sarkozy faces the prospect of a rout in the two-round French presidential election starting this weekend, with senior members of his government already said to be certain of defeat.
Supporters of the front-running Socialist candidate, François Hollande, could scarcely contain their euphoria when they gathered in Lille for their last big rally on Tuesday night before French electors go to the polls on Sunday. They interrupted the candidate's speech endlessly with chants of "François president, François president".
"You are well informed," Mr Hollande quipped. "It is possible we are going to win. It's not certain... but, yes, I feel the hope rising."
New polls published yesterday suggested that Mr Hollande, 57, was leading the field of 10 candidates in the first round with up to 29 per cent of the vote. He had extended his lead over Mr Sarkozy to between two and four points. In voting intentions for the two-candidate, second round on 6 May, Mr Hollande now leads the President by a "landslide" margin of 14 to 16 per cent.
In a series of damning, private remarks, reported by the Le Canard Enchainé newspaper, senior members of President Sarkozy's government said that defeat now seemed inevitable.
"The carrots are cooked," the Prime Minister, François Fillon, was quoted as saying. "[Sarkozy's] strategy of campaigning on hard-right issues was a serious mistake." The former centre-right prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, was reported to have said privately: "There is no chance of us winning."
The President has also suffered a series of desertions. It was reported earlier this week that the former President Jacques Chirac intended to switch sides and vote for Mr Hollande. A clutch of former Sarkozy ministers and supporters, from the right, left and centre of French politics, have also declared they will vote for the socialist. They include Martin Hirsch and Fadéla Amara, two of Mr Sarkozy's ministerial recruits from the Left after his 2007 election and three former centre-right Chirac-era ministers, Azouz Begag, Corinne Lepage and Brigitte Girardin.
The President has fought an energetic but erratic campaign. He began by warning that France needed tough medicine to escape recession. But he then switched to a hard-right message to reclaim votes from Marine Le Pen's National Front.
In recent weeks, Mr Sarkozy warned that French "identity" was menaced by a tide of illegal immigration, Islamist terrorism and halal meat. Last Sunday, he stole abruptly -- and without acknowledgement -- Mr Hollande's argument that the European Central Bank should be allowed to pump reflationary cash into Eurozone economies (a policy that Mr Sarkozy had opposed with Germany).
Mr Sarkozy's sharp right turn propelled him into a narrow lead in first- round opinion polls but that support now appears to have dribbled back to Ms Le Pen. In polls published yesterday, she regained third place with around 17 per cent of the vote.
The hard-left candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose lurid anti-capitalist rhetoric has illuminated an uninspiring campaign, fell back to fourth place with around 13-14 per cent.
Through all these twists and turns, Mr Hollande has held his nerve. At the Lille rally, he said he would bring a three-part approach to the economic crisis: "responsibility" (deficit cuts, mostly through tax rises); "growth" (EU capital investment programmes and the reflationary printing of euros); and "solidarity" (help for poorer people and poorer EU countries).
France is thereby boned...
But if enough of them choose to be boned, they have nothing to complain about later.
They're socialists for goodness sakes. Not only will they complain later, they'll blame others for their misery. Pro'ly us...
Still, the limitations of "Hollandism" were apparent. He failed to fill a giant pop-concert venue from which most seats had been cleared. The crowd of 15,000 cheered his rhetoric against "big finance" but became fidgety as Mr Hollande explained the minutiae of his plans.
The Socialist top brass, seated nearby, were, however, two steps ahead of Mr Hollande. Their chatter was not about the first or second rounds but the "third round": who would be "in" and who would be "out" in the first centre-left government for a decade. The favourite to be Mr Hollande's prime minister is the Socialist party leader, Martine Aubry, daughter of former European Commission President Jacques Delors.
All in the family, a familiar theme in Europe the past three thousand years...
Mr Hollande and Ms Aubry briefly held up one another's arms in a victory salute at the Lille rally. However, their stiff body language suggested the prime-ministerial choice has yet to be made.
The opening round of the presidential election this weekend is the first of four polling days in just over two months. On Sunday, French voters will choose between the 10 candidates. The top two go on to the second round on 6 May, after which the winner will hold office for five years, not seven as used to be the case.
He (never yet she) will be the ultimate arbiter of French policy but will not run the government day to day. To do that, the President will choose a Prime Minister. He, or possibly she, will seek to win a parliamentary majority in the lower house of parliament.
Then "legislative elections" will be fought, once again over two rounds, on 10 and 17 June.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/19/2012 00:00 ||
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This will be fun to watch.
The LEFT will gain power in Fwance just in time for the Spanish bonds to implode thus further ruining the Fwench banks already in great difficulty from their exposure to Greek bonds. This will also be just in time for the Greek mess to step up to the next level of awfulness.
Then the Fwench will go running to the Germans to DO something. The Germans will be happy to do something which will cause the Fwench to complain bitterly and blame the English/Italians/Greeks/Dutch/Norwegians/whomever for it all.
If you thought the Euro was in trouble a month or so ago, just wait for a month or more in the future.
Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals -- an incredibly liberal appeals court -- ruled that Arizona's voter ID law was largely constitutional. Opponents of the law had argued that the fee to obtain an ID amounted to an impermissible "poll tax"; the Court thought otherwise.
The Court did rule, however, that Arizona cannot turn down federal voter registration forms, which simply ask applicants to check a box indicating that they are US citizens. That's not because such provisions would be unconstitutional -- it's because those provisions violate the federal National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (the so-called Motor Voter Act). Due to the supremacy clause of the Constitution, in areas where the federal government legislates, states cannot.
The case will likely move on to the Supreme Court.
#1
Well that's a picnic. The Ninth Circus? Really?
Now it's time to strike down the motor voter law if it so has to be. It's time to regress. Driving does not make you a US citizen eligible to vote. Though, they would all have to go back and register to vote again. Cry me a storm.
#3
Go ahead, Holder. Take it to the SCOTUS. They'll smack you down too. That would give me pleasure.
JFM, I think newc is referring to malt liquor which, at least in my experience, is typically the choice of low life types who are looking for a cheap drunk.
#5
Thats what you get for scolding the Judicial's during your first State of the Union speech, and then trying to intimidate them regarding federal cases.
At a large post office right after Zero was elected, the mostly African-American tellers had a big picture of Big Zero in each cubical at the counter. Was not long before he said something derogatory about the Postal Service. Those pictures dissapeared faster than a fart in a fan factory.
And don't let me get started on what the 3 million member Black Chamber of Commerce thinks of him.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Republican challenger Mitt Romney ...whose real first name is actually, no kidding, Willard, was governor of Massachussetts and is currently the front-runner for president on the Publican ticket. He is the son of the former governor of Michigan, George Romney, who himself ran for president after saving American Motors from failure, though not permanently. Romney's foot is in an ideological bucket because of Romneycare, a state-level experiment that should have been a warning against Obamacare if anyone had been paying attention. Romney's charisma is best defined as soporific, which is probably why he is leading the Publican field... has closed the gap with US President Barack Obama Ready to Rule from Day One... and the two are now neck and neck in the White House race, a poll released Wednesday shows.
Romney, the party's presumptive nominee now that his main Republican rival has folded up his campaign, matched Obama 46-46 percent among registered voters who were asked in a CBS News/New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... poll who they would vote for if the election were today.
Last month, a survey by the same media outlets showed Obama with a 47-44 advantage.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/19/2012 00:00 ||
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#5
Uh, yeahhhh. That's what worries me...or at least part of it. Another part is I just plain don't believe him when he says he's gonna crack down on illegal immigration...just plain don't believe a lot of things. Experience has taught me not to.
#6
After watching what happened to Obama in the polls after Healthcare went through? From a political survival sense alone he'd never agree to keep healthcare.
#7
It would be nice to have someone more conservative but I'll pull the lever for Romney. Not because I'm voting for him but because I'm voting against the current disgrace in the WH.
Although the VP slot is rumored not to be worth a bucket of warm spit, it'll be interesting to see who he picks.
#8
Etch-a-sketch Tweedledee fights to repeal ObumerCare but goes down in the first round due to a phantom knockout punch from the minority Senate Dems.
#9
Although the VP slot is rumored not to be worth a bucket of warm spit, it'll be interesting to see who he picks.
I'm hearing whispers that the bucket of warm spit recipient will be Rand Paul.
Posted by: Secret Asian Man ||
04/19/2012 19:01 Comments ||
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#10
What if Tweedledee decides TweedledeeCare would be good for the nation?
The states have the power to do that. The Feds don't. I don't disagree with Romney trying it for MA. If it had worked well, then great! If it failed miserably, then great! Those states who are paying attention can learn the lessons and copy, decline, or modify and carry on. That is the nature of friendly competition. We all learn what is best from watching each other. Now if the Feds get involved, there is no competition, and that is not good for America. That for me is where the line is drawn. Obean when over the line because he doesn't get the nature of competition and capitalism.
#12
I did some soul searching, and caucused for Mitt Romney here in Nevada. I even gave a speach supporting him. I didn't have to - everybody knew he would take the state - but I felt it was necissary, and I'll tell all of you why.
Obama has been terrible for the country, and that's an objective fact. Mitt will do a better job as president. His presidency will be less harmful to all of us. He can also beat Obama in a national election, and has the money and organization to do it. It's as simple as that.
I'm not saying that Romeny will win. He could very well loose. But Santorum, Gingrich, and Paul were never going to beat Obama, and I think most of you know that. So you put on the long pants and make the hard choices.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Confronted with plunging polls and deserting allies, President Nicolas Sarkozy faces the prospect of a rout in the two-round French presidential election starting this weekend, with senior members of his government already said to be certain of defeat.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Republican challenger 
