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NYT: Secret Service Director to Resign


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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/us/julia-pierson-secret-service.html?smid=tw-share

Secret Service Director to Resign

 

Julia Pierson, the director of the Secret Service, is resigning in the wake of several security breaches, according to administration officials.

 

The resignation came less than a day after lawmakers from both parties assailed Ms. Pierson’s leadership and said they feared for the lives of the president and others in the protection of the agency.

 

A 30-year veteran of the Secret Service, Ms. Pierson was supposed to have been the one to repair the agency’s reputation after scandals that raised questions about a culture that gave rise to incidents involving drinking and prostitution during overseas trips.

 

But her tenure has been rocked by more serious allegations that her agents and officers have not been performing their primary job competently. Under intense questioning on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Ms. Pierson admitted that those charged with securing the White House had failed to follow numerous security protocols, allowing a man armed with a knife to penetrate deep inside the mansion.

 

And late Tuesday, the agency acknowledged that just days before the White House breach, an armed man was allowed to ride in an elevator with the president during an event at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

 

Through the last two weeks, Mr. Obama’s aides had repeatedly declared that he retained full confidence in the agency and in Ms. Pierson’s ability to lead it. But the disclosures in the past few days — including revelations that the Secret Service had not been fully forthcoming about the details of the incidents — appear to have been too much.

With all the media coverage this has gotten I'm surprised there hasn't been a thread about the Secret Service yet. 

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My initial thought?

 

Duh

 

I mean, your organization allowed a man to run across the lawn, into and through the White House. And they also allowed the President to ride an elevator with an armed, convicted felon. If that isn't incompetence from the top down, not sure what is...

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http://www.insidesources.com/is-exclusive-secret-service-agent-leaked-presidents-campaign-stops/

 

 
IS Exclusive: Secret Service Agent Leaked President’s Campaign Stops
 
In the closing weeks of the 2012 campaign, a Secret Service agent was on the ground in a key swing state to coordinate security ahead of several campaign stops by the President. The agent, who was married, made advances towards a Romney campaign staff member.

 

InsideSources spoke with two staffers who witnessed the events in question. Each spoke on condition of anonymity and independently confirmed the details.

In one particular incident at a bar in late October 2012, the Secret Service agent, who had a number of drinks during the meeting, unprompted and in an apparent attempt to impress one of the staffers, began providing details of President Obama’s schedule. The information included times and locations of the

 

President’s events in the final days of the election. The President’s campaign would not release these details of the President’s schedule publicly until several days later.

 

The sources state that the same agent on a separate occasion provided joy rides in a Secret Service vehicle with the lights flashing.

 

The leaked schedule was later passed on within the campaign. Others inside the campaign recall seeing the schedule, but the source of the information was not revealed. The schedule, therefore, was met only with skepticism. The details of the President’s schedule later proved to be accurate.

 

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Years ago my wife was working in a hospital a few block from the White House when DC got hit with almost 2 feet of snow. Since nobody could get into town to relieve them all the staff was required to stay and the hospital put them up in a nearby hotel (not that they could have gotten home anyway). In the hotel bar was several guys getting hammered who claimed to be Secret Service. To impress the ladies these guys invited them all to an impromptu tour of the WH. All three women were married and so they declined (although one was very interested - that marriage didn't last long). But I couldn't believe a bunch of drunks with WH passes were willing to cpromise the President's security just to maybe get laid.

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Years ago my wife was working in a hospital a few block from the White House when DC got hit with almost 2 feet of snow. Since nobody could get into town to relieve them all the staff was required to stay and the hospital put them up in a nearby hotel (not that they could have gotten home anyway). In the hotel bar was several guys getting hammered who claimed to be Secret Service. To impress the ladies these guys invited them all to an impromptu tour of the WH. All three women were married and so they declined (although one was very interested - that marriage didn't last long). But I couldn't believe a bunch of drunks with WH passes were willing to cpromise the President's security just to maybe get laid.

Really?  Think about how many dumb things you and your guy friends have over the years just to try and get laid.  Offering a tour of the WH seems pale in comparison to some of the crap I've seen guys do chasing women.

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Really?  Think about how many dumb things you and your guy friends have over the years just to try and get laid.  Offering a tour of the WH seems pale in comparison to some of the crap I've seen guys do chasing women.

 I know for a fact that you're on point. I've had some fun in my day, LOL :)

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I remember thinking that the secret service was this team of super agents always ready to smash anything that threatened the President almost as soon as it presented itself.  Then some guy managed to throw two shoes at President Bush.  Amazingly things have gotten worse during the Obama administration. 

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I remember thinking that the secret service was this team of super agents always ready to smash anything that threatened the President almost as soon as it presented itself.  Then some guy managed to throw two shoes at President Bush.  Amazingly things have gotten worse during the Obama administration. 

There was decent article in the Post the other day about the height of Service competency after the attempt on Reagan's life that scared them into doing their jobs properly and its long, slow decline back into mediocrity, I'm trying to track it down. Not that anyone here will give the post a click, but it was a fun look at how we got here.

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I remember thinking that the secret service was this team of super agents always ready to smash anything that threatened the President almost as soon as it presented itself.  Then some guy managed to throw two shoes at President Bush.  Amazingly things have gotten worse during the Obama administration. 

It's not like they thought anyone would throw shoes at POTUS.  Can't really pin that on them.  I mean, they see a guy in there that was cleared to be there, patted down, metal detector, etc.  messing with his shoe, probably thinking guy has athletes foot or something going on.  

 

It's disturbing, but man can you imagine if they had unloaded a few rounds or a clip in that guy.  He was also detained and facing assault charges back then, if my memory serves.  Never know what the final outcome though.

There was decent article in the Post the other day about the height of Service competency after the attempt on Reagan's life that scared them into doing their jobs properly and its long, slow decline back into mediocrity, I'm trying to track it down. Not that anyone here will give the post a click, but it was a fun look at how we got here.

That's sad too EMB.  It's not like they don't know what they are signing up for when they apply and land that detail.  What's more amazing is they are putting agents on that detail that are scared.  It's actually sickening.  

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That's sad too EMB.  It's not like they don't know what they are signing up for when they apply and land that detail.  What's more amazing is they are putting agents on that detail that are scared.  It's actually sickening.  

When I started hearing radio ads in the DC area looking for recruits I knew they were in really bad shape. 

Here's the article I mentioned. It's brief but it goes over the shoe incident, and also touches on the struggle between staffs who want their president to be visible vs. the people paid to keep him.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/09/24/the-secret-service-should-be-more-scared-about-an-assassination-attempt-a-taller-fence-just-wont-cut-it/

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Years ago my wife was working in a hospital a few block from the White House when DC got hit with almost 2 feet of snow. Since nobody could get into town to relieve them all the staff was required to stay and the hospital put them up in a nearby hotel (not that they could have gotten home anyway). In the hotel bar was several guys getting hammered who claimed to be Secret Service. To impress the ladies these guys invited them all to an impromptu tour of the WH. All three women were married and so they declined (although one was very interested - that marriage didn't last long). But I couldn't believe a bunch of drunks with WH passes were willing to cpromise the President's security just to maybe get laid.

 

 

I did that midnight West Wing thing a couple of times - my friend was a White House staffer for Clinton.   Prior to 9/11 it really was no big deal.  They ran a security check on you at the Executive Office Building gate, searched and scanned the heck out of you, and you were on multiple cameras at all times.  You got to peek into the Oval Office, and sit in a chair in the Cabinet room and the Roosevelt room, and stand at the podium in the Press Briefing Room.   The President was in the other half of the White House and never was in any danger, and it was really fun to see the corridors of power.

 

I assumed that after 9/11, they didn't do any of that anymore.   

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  • 3 weeks later...

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/22/politics/white-house-fence-jumper/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

White House fence jumper quickly detained by Secret Service

 

A man jumped over the White House fence on Wednesday night, but this time, the man barely made it onto the lawn before being taken down by two police dogs and quickly detained by Secret Service agents.

 

"Dog got him," a Secret Service spokesman said.

 

The Secret Service identified the man as 32-year-old Dominic Adesanya of Bel Air, Maryland, and said charges against him are pending.

 

The two dogs with the K-9 unit were taken to a vet for injuries they suffered in the incident.

 

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I grew up with an image of the Secret Service that was my old neighbor Clint Hill laying his life on the line for Jackie O.  Seeing him cry on 60 minutes about not having saved JFK or at least dieing in the attempt was heart breaking.  His life was filled with an overwhelming sense of duty and his perceived failure.  He was a nice guy still (mid 1970's), and remained an agent for some time after those events, but even as a little kid his sadness and the fact that something was broken in him was obvious to me. 

 

I don't know what rot got into that agency but it's pretty apparent at this point that it is pervasive.  Is it partisanship?  I really don't want to think so.

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