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#1338414 - 04/13/12 11:16 PM
Secret Service agents sent home from Obama duty
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Chicago Jesus
Senior Member
Registered: 01/16/12
Posts: 6113
Loc: Cocktails with Regie and Tiger
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US Secret Service agents sent home from Obama duty over misconduct allegations
By Olivier Knox
An undisclosed number of Secret Service agents with President Barack Obama at an international summit in Colombia have been relieved of their assignments and face an investigation over alleged misconduct, a spokesman for the Secret Service said late Friday.
The Associated Press, citing an anonymous tip, reported that the allegations involved prostitutes in Cartagena, the city hosting the gathering. The AP also said 12 agents were involved. The Washington Post cited the president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, Jon Adler, as saying that the allegations were tied to at least one agent being involved with prostitutes in Cartagena.
Secret Service spokesman Edwin Donovan declined to confirm that the conduct involved prostitutes.
"There have been allegations of misconduct made against Secret Service personnel in Cartagena, Colombia prior to the President's trip. Because of this, those personnel are being relieved of their assignments, returned to their place of duty, and are being replaced by other Secret Service personnel. The Secret Service takes all allegations of misconduct seriously. This entire matter has been turned over to our Office of Professional Responsibility, which serves as the agency's internal affairs component," Donovan said in a statement sent to Yahoo News by email.
_________________________
Liberty anywhere is a threat to Collectivism everywhere.
Remember.... Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
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#1338416 - 04/13/12 11:20 PM
Re: Secret Service agents sent home from Obama duty
[Re: Chicago Jesus]
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Rascal
Gold Member
Registered: 06/05/00
Posts: 16944
Loc: Brewerton, NY, USA
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I wonder if their union will protect them...
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#1338423 - 04/14/12 12:14 AM
Re: Secret Service agents sent home from Obama duty
[Re: Chicago Jesus]
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Rascal
Gold Member
Registered: 06/05/00
Posts: 16944
Loc: Brewerton, NY, USA
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Sounds kind of like abstinence education.
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#1338457 - 04/14/12 10:06 AM
Re: Secret Service agents sent home from Obama duty
[Re: Rascal]
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past tense
Diamond Member
Registered: 03/05/03
Posts: 29608
Loc: Houston, TX
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I knew you guys would make this about the president somehow. Thanks for not letting me down!
On a serious note, given the history of the Secret Service and the elite status of the org w/in the Treasury Dept., this is practically unheard of. Those of us understand that this has little to do with domestic politics, and who love the history of government, are going to be watching this one closely. I gotta go pick up some new books on the Secret Service this weekend!
Some recs:
Non-fiction: The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an Engimatic Agency; In the President's Secret Service; Within Arm's Length
Fiction: Without Fail (Jack Reacher #6) by Lee Child
I'm fascinated by the Secret Service--obviously 
Edited by past tense (04/14/12 10:25 AM)
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#1338471 - 04/14/12 11:45 AM
Re: Secret Service agents sent home from Obama duty
[Re: twocats]
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VM Smith
Diamond Member
Registered: 11/28/05
Posts: 34281
Loc: Reality
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I have a question for any soldiers out there. Before a soldier is dishonorably discharged, is he or she entitled to a hearing? If so, doesn't that, in effect, mean that soldiers are protected by 'union rights'?
They are entitled to a court-martial, which is a trial, more than it is a hearing, not by anything analogous to "union rights", but by law: the Uniform Code of Military justice.
I've had only my 1st cup, which may explain my confusion about your question, and while PT may have studied the SS enough to split the hair better than I, SS members definitely aren't soldiers; I'd call the modern SS LE, instead.
1.
General Court-Martial
*
The general court-martial is one of three varieties of courts-martial and the only one capable of handing down a dishonorable discharge. While summary and special courts-martial have a number of restrictions upon what penalties they have the authority to impose, depending on the offense in question, the general court-martial is allowed to dispense any punishment permissible in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). While the special court-martial is often considered to be the "misdemeanor court," due to the relatively minor nature of the offenses dealt with there, the general court-martial is considered to be the military's "felony court," based upon the severity of the offenses brought before it. It is only these most severe, "felony-level" offenses, therefore, which warrant a dishonorable discharge.
Read more: Reasons for a Dishonorable Discharge | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_5396842_reasons-dishonorable-discharge.html#ixzz1s1v3MOwY"
_________________________
The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it.
John Hay (1872)
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#1338502 - 04/14/12 01:50 PM
Re: Secret Service agents sent home from Obama duty
[Re: twocats]
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VM Smith
Diamond Member
Registered: 11/28/05
Posts: 34281
Loc: Reality
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I do too, and am not sure that those dismissed don't have a right to appeal. If not a right in law or contract, they might may still have, by custom and tradition, and for reasons of public relations, a chance to. PT might know.
I'll say that all free people have a natural right to engage in free market transactions with prostitutes. Thus, I think that they didn't do anything immoral or "wrong", disgusting and silly though it may be, except insofar as it might potentially have interfered with the mission they were hired for and assigned to, which was protecting the POTUS, and that it wasn't a vacation for them; they did it on the taxpaying public's time and dime.
_________________________
The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it.
John Hay (1872)
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#1338514 - 04/14/12 04:05 PM
Re: Secret Service agents sent home from Obama duty
[Re: twocats]
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Chicago Jesus
Senior Member
Registered: 01/16/12
Posts: 6113
Loc: Cocktails with Regie and Tiger
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Secret Service dismissals "biggest scandal" for agency
(CBS News) Ronald Kessler, best-selling author of "In the President's Service" and a former reporter for The Washington Post, called the dismissal of 12 Secret Service members in Colombia prior to President Obama's arrival there "the biggest scandal in Secret Service history."
Secret Service confirms members' removal
A source in the Secret Service told CBS News that one or more of the officers was involved with prostitutes and that there was a dispute over payment. One prostitute went to the police, who notified the State Department.
According to sources two of the Secret Service personnel sent home were supervisors; the rest were part of a detail assigned to logistics. None of those relieved of duty was a member of the president's protective detail.
On "CBS This Morning: Saturday," Kessler said the Secret Service has a culture of corner-cutting.
"They don't have enough agents, they don't even put people through metal detectors sometimes because there's pressure to let everybody in," Kessler said. "It's like letting passengers in an airplane without putting them through metal detectors. They don't keep up-to-date with the latest firearms. They don't even do physical tests. So, it's a culture that leads to this kind of problem."
Kessler pointed to a couple crashing a White House state dinner without an invitation as an example of a potential security threat.
He said that Mark Sullivan, director of the Secret Service, should have been fired after the fiasco involving gate-crashers Michaele and Tareq Salahi, but has continued in the same position because of President Barack Obama's confidence in the agency.
"President Obama keeps saying, 'I have full confidence in the Secret Service,'" Kessler said. "You know, he deals with agents who are very admirable, so he thinks, 'Well, the Secret Service must be fine.' But, you know, in my book...I go into dozens and dozens of examples of poor management.
"For example, when [Dick Cheney's daughter] Mary Cheney was under protection, she wanted her agents to take her friends to restaurants. Well, they're not taxi drivers. They are law enforcement officers, they refused, as they should have, but because of that she got her detail leader removed.
"So the Secret Service management didn't back the guy who is doing his job. And that kind of culture is the sort that leads to this kind of incident, where there's poor morale, there's hostility toward management."
Kessler called this latest incident in Colombia "a very shocking scandal."
He added the situation may be a sign of a trend because it involved supervisors. Kessler called it "just unbelievable" and a "tremendous embarrassment to the U.S."
He said that the Secret Service personnel's liaising with prostitutes could expose them blackmail to acquire access to secure areas. "They could have led to an assassination. And if you have an assassination, you nullify democracy. That's how important the Secret Service is."
Kessler went so far as to say the president's safety is in jeopardy because the replacements didn't have time to get acclimated to the situation.
_________________________
Liberty anywhere is a threat to Collectivism everywhere.
Remember.... Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
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#1338522 - 04/14/12 04:41 PM
Re: Secret Service agents sent home from Obama duty
[Re: Chicago Jesus]
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VM Smith
Diamond Member
Registered: 11/28/05
Posts: 34281
Loc: Reality
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They don't have enough agents, they don't even put people through metal detectors sometimes because there's pressure to let everybody in," Kessler said. "It's like letting passengers in an airplane without putting them through metal detectors. They don't keep up-to-date with the latest firearms. They don't even do physical tests. So, it's a culture that leads to this kind of problem."
Not having proper tools, such as the right weapons, not having enough personnel, and having a culture of corner-cutting, leads to "this kind of a problem"? Specifically, patronizing hookers while on a taxpayer-funded mission?
LOL, that's a heavy load of BE (bovine excrement), even for a government bureaucrat.
_________________________
The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it.
John Hay (1872)
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#1338535 - 04/14/12 06:31 PM
Re: Secret Service agents sent home from Obama duty
[Re: VM Smith]
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DeadDave
Senior Member
Registered: 01/01/11
Posts: 571
Loc: 6 feet under
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They did have the rights tools ...that's what got them in trouble.
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#1338616 - 04/15/12 11:17 AM
Re: Secret Service agents sent home from Obama duty
[Re: Hard Corps]
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Chicago Jesus
Senior Member
Registered: 01/16/12
Posts: 6113
Loc: Cocktails with Regie and Tiger
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Do you people really think this is some big scandal? Or even the first time this has happened?
It's more of a hobby to poke fun at the elitist.
One Night of Sin: Secret Service Agent Stiffed the Hooker $47 — and Lost Everything
On the lighter side, perhaps this reprobate could use the opportunity to tell Obama what $47 means to him.
(NEW YORK POST) — A Secret Service agent shamed the United States after a wild night of babes and booze that ended in an argument with a Colombian hooker over as little as $47.
One of 11 elite agents assigned to ensure President Obama’s protection at a summit meeting in Cartagena, Colombia, was busted after his lady of the evening refused to leave his hotel room in the morning without her fee.
That woman was one of 11 hookers hired by the agents — and the only one who hadn’t left Cartagena’s swank Hotel Caribe, where White House staffers, members of the press and dignitaries are staying during the Summit of the Americas meeting, sources said.
President Obama’s Secret Service team was reeling from a prostitution scandal.
The confrontation occurred early last week, said Rep. Pete King, a Long Island Republican who was briefed on the incident yesterday.
One of the agents sent home after agency bosses in DC learned what was going on was “in a supervisory role,” said King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
A hotel employee told The Associated Press that agents arrived at the beachfront hotel a week ago and drank heavily during their stay.
Prostitution is legal in much of Colombia inside “tolerance zones” controlled by police. The going rate for hookers in Cartagena is around $47, according to Colombian TV.
The trouble began for the Secret Service after the agents’ night of carousing, when a hotel employee noticed a hooker’s ID was still at the front desk at 7 a.m., in violation of hotel policy on overnight guests, King said.
The manager went to the agent’s room where the woman had spent the night and saw the two inside arguing, King said.
“She said the agent owed her money,” King said. “He said he didn’t have to pay her.”
He eventually forked over the money and the situation was resolved. But the cops were called and they filed a report, which was sent to the US Embassy.
The probe widened yesterday to include five members of the US military who were allegedly involved in the same incident, officials said.
The service members, with the Southern Command, are still in Colombia “because of the expertise and the knowledge that these guys have,” a military spokesman told CBS News.
A statement released by the Southern Command said the service members “violated the curfew . . . and may have been involved in inappropriate conduct.”
An expert on the Secret Service yesterday said that, although the agents involved in the scandal were not breaking Colombian law, most of them are married and could have been exposed to blackmail.
“It could have resulted in a potential assassination attempt on the president,” said Ronald Kessler, author of “In the President’s Secret Service.”
“It the biggest scandal in the history of the Secret Service and the most basic breach of security,” the author said.
_________________________
Liberty anywhere is a threat to Collectivism everywhere.
Remember.... Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
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#1338721 - 04/15/12 06:11 PM
Re: Secret Service agents sent home from Obama duty
[Re: Chicago Jesus]
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Cuzi Sedso
Senior Member
Registered: 11/06/11
Posts: 1428
Loc: NY
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This just confirms my belief that anyone is capable of doing something incredibly stupid in the hubristic notion that they won't get caught, or that no one would challenge them. Such behavior is not uncommon, unfortunately, especially when the little head starts doing the thinking instead of the big head. It seems that it has nothing to do with political persuasion, career choice or social level, although this kind of sexual buffoonery also seems to be more of a guy thing, and we only read about it when it involves someone important. Think John Edwards, Herman Cain, Bill Clinton, Catholic clergy, etc. When the story first breaks and they deny it, you think to yourself, "yeah, of course he didn't do that -- who would be so stupid?" Well, we know that just about anybody, no matter how smart or talented they are can, in fact, be that stupid.
It's sad, in a way, that seven careers are now ruined. Although there may be some mitigating circumstances which would might be argued to lessen the penalty, I'd be surprised if all seven weren't dismissed.
Then there's the personal wreckage. I'll bet most, if not all, of these agents had wives or girlfriends. Imagine turning on the news or picking up the paper, or getting a tweet from someone who knows that your husband or boyfriend is in the Secret Service and was in Columbia....
How about the six who got dragged into the net because the one guy was haggling over price? I wonder what they must be feeling about their associate.
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#1338745 - 04/15/12 07:10 PM
Re: Secret Service agents sent home from Obama duty
[Re: Cuzi Sedso]
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Chicago Jesus
Senior Member
Registered: 01/16/12
Posts: 6113
Loc: Cocktails with Regie and Tiger
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This just confirms my belief that anyone is capable of doing something incredibly stupid in the hubristic notion that they won't get caught, or that no one would challenge them. Such behavior is not uncommon, unfortunately, especially when the little head starts doing the thinking instead of the big head. It seems that it has nothing to do with political persuasion, career choice or social level, although this kind of sexual buffoonery also seems to be more of a guy thing, and we only read about it when it involves someone important. Think John Edwards, Herman Cain, Bill Clinton, Catholic clergy, etc. When the story first breaks and they deny it, you think to yourself, "yeah, of course he didn't do that -- who would be so stupid?" Well, we know that just about anybody, no matter how smart or talented they are can, in fact, be that stupid.
It's sad, in a way, that seven careers are now ruined. Although there may be some mitigating circumstances which would might be argued to lessen the penalty, I'd be surprised if all seven weren't dismissed.
Then there's the personal wreckage. I'll bet most, if not all, of these agents had wives or girlfriends. Imagine turning on the news or picking up the paper, or getting a tweet from someone who knows that your husband or boyfriend is in the Secret Service and was in Columbia....
How about the six who got dragged into the net because the one guy was haggling over price? I wonder what they must be feeling about their associate.
Have you gotten popped for haggling over the price?
_________________________
Liberty anywhere is a threat to Collectivism everywhere.
Remember.... Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
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#1338777 - 04/15/12 08:44 PM
Re: Secret Service agents sent home from Obama duty
[Re: Chicago Jesus]
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Chicago Jesus
Senior Member
Registered: 01/16/12
Posts: 6113
Loc: Cocktails with Regie and Tiger
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Secret Service Agents Should be Allowed to Rent Hookers
Tim Cavanaugh | April 15, 2012
Not all the benefits are deferred.
The dust-up over 11 Secret Service agents who were patronizing Cartagena prostitutes has given some much-needed news value to another pointless multi-nation summit. The scandal broke, according to Rep. Peter King (R-New York), after police were called over some spirited hotel-room haggling about a $47 fee between a local hooker and an agent in town as part of the U.S. security detail.
This was a rare and laudable example of a Department of Homeland Security employee trying to save the taxpayers some money. It was also a demonstration of the truism that you don’t pay a hooker to have sex with you; you pay her to go away afterward. (The sex pro apparently refused to leave until she was paid, thus overstaying a 7 a.m. curfew for overnight visitors.)
The story may entail some actual issues with security: The agents in question reportedly spent much of their deployment drinking.
And of course, a dispute that ends with a police report being filed and sent to the U.S. embassy pretty clearly meets the definition of unprofessional behavior that is unbecoming of the department’s…that besmirches the good reputation of an agency that…that puts in jeopardy the sterling reputation of… Oh, all right: It’s completely in keeping with the history of the DHS, which has in the past few years generated scandals involving contracting scams, bribery, attempted statutory rape and even diploma fraud.
Ronald Kessler, tireless author of books about government agencies, tells CBS This Morning the scandal threatens the very fabric of our nation:
Kessler called this latest incident in Colombia "a very shocking scandal."
He added the situation may be a sign of a trend because it involved supervisors. Kessler called it "just unbelievable" and a "tremendous embarrassment to the U.S."
He said that the Secret Service personnel's liaising with prostitutes could expose them blackmail to acquire access to secure areas. "They could have led to an assassination. And if you have an assassination, you nullify democracy. That's how important the Secret Service is."
Great use of the irritating verb "liaising" there. But that blackmail stuff seems like a stretch. The value-add of prostitution is that it replaces the tiresome negotiations, performance and cajoling of a hookup with a business transaction that is relatively straightforward. At 47 bucks, it’s a good bet Agent Tightwad was getting a better deal financially than he would have gotten from a sexual liaison purchased with dinner and movie, drinks, dancing, flowers, feigned interest in small talk, and so on.
In this case, Colombia tolerates prostitution within certain areas, which apparently included the hotel. So where is the opportunity for blackmail? If the idea of Secret Service agents paying hookers is embarrassing, it’s because we have chosen to make it so. The scandal here — and the only reason the rest of us have now had to hear all about it — is that the agent didn’t want to pay the woman (presuming it was a woman) what she was asking for.
_________________________
Liberty anywhere is a threat to Collectivism everywhere.
Remember.... Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
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