SECRET SERVICE SPEAKS: Hillary told secret service agent who refused to carry her bag to ‘get the f*** away from me’, and treated her detail like hired help but Bill was a softie . . . says former agent in bombshell book.
Bill is an extremely good politician. Hillary is the wife of an extremely good politician.
THE SECRET SERVICE IS A MESS, AND THERE’S NO ACCOUNTABILITY: Exclusive: Secret Service agents accused of ordering ‘Operation Moonlight’ remain on the job.
Two Secret Service officials responsible for diverting members of a special White House unit to protect the assistant and friend of the agency’s director are still on the job and have not been placed on administrative leave while the matter is under investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter.
David Beach and Jim Donaldson, the two agents in charge of the Washington field office, ordered members of the Secret Service’s Prowler unit, which is responsible for patrolling the White House perimeter, to leave their posts and travel to the southern Maryland town of La Plata, an hour’s drive from Washington. The Washington Post first reported the story May 11.
The agents were diverted to their new assignment, known internally as Operation Moonlight, because then-Director Mark Sullivan was worried that a neighbor was harassing his assistant, Lisa Chopey, and that she was in danger, the sources said.
I wonder if there’s more to this.
Related: Whistleblowers tell Senate panel of alleged sexual misconduct by Secret Service agents.
Secret Service agents and managers have engaged in sexual misconduct and other improprieties across a span of 17 countries in recent years, according to accounts given by whistleblowers to the Senate committee that oversees the department.
Sen. Ronald H. Johnson (Wis.), ranking Republican on a Homeland Security subcommittee, said Thursday that the accounts directly contradict repeated assertions by Secret Service leaders that the elite agency does not foster or tolerate sexually improper behavior.
Here at InstaPundit, I’ve been noting management problems with the Secret Service for over a decade. But the problems seem to be getting worse, not better.
MAYBE IT’S JUST TIME TO ABOLISH THIS TROUBLED AGENCY: Secret Service agents reportedly told to protect home of former director’s assistant. “Members of a top Secret Service unit responsible for patrolling the perimeter of the White House were reportedly pulled off their posts for several weeks in the summer of 2011 and ordered to protect the home of the assistant to the agency’s then-director. The Washington Post, citing three people familiar with the operation, reported late Saturday that the agents were sent to a rural area outside La Plata, Md. in what was known as Operation Moonlight. The paper said that agents were told that they were there because then-Secret Service director Mark Sullivan was concerned that his assistant, Lisa Chopey, was being harassed by her neighbor after an altercation.”
They certainly don’t seem to regard protecting the President as a priority.
TO BE FAIR, THE GUY WHO SAID THAT WAS PROBABLY DRUNK: Secret Service threatened to shoot Mr. Met if he got close to President Clinton, says book.
ACCOUNTABILITY IS FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE: Drunk Secret Service Agents Reassigned, Not Fired.
THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Secret Service incident in Netherlands was on heels of car wreck during Obama’s Miami trip. “As the U.S. Secret Service arrived in the Netherlands last weekend for a presidential trip, managers were already on high alert to avoid any further embarrassing incidents involving agents. The agency’s director had admonished supervisors after two counter-sniper officers suspected of drinking were involved in a March 7 car accident during a presidential visit to Miami, according to several people with knowledge of the incident. The driver passed a field sobriety test and was not arrested.”
THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Secret Service agents on Obama detail sent home from Netherlands after night of drinking. “Three Secret Service agents responsible for protecting President Obama in Amsterdam this week were sent home and put on administrative leave Sunday after going out for a night of drinking, according to three people familiar with the incident. One of the agents was found drunk and passed out in a hotel hallway, the people said. . . . The alleged behavior would violate Secret Service rules adopted in the wake of a damaging scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, in April 2012, when a dozen agents and officers had been drinking heavily and had brought prostitutes back to their hotel rooms before the president’s arrival for an economic summit.”
Remember, only trained law enforcement officers can be trusted with guns. Plus, from the comments: “It’s time for serious look at how the culture of government employment could get to a place where people in a life and death professional job could get so bombed that they are lying in a hallway.” A fish rots from the head.
REMEMBER WHEN WE THOUGHT THE SECRET SERVICE WAS ALMOST INFALLIBLE? Fake Sign Language Guy and the death of competence.
A fake sign-language interpreter is the sort of thing a reasonably savvy advance team would be on guard for, no matter how inept the local government might be. Is part of the problem here that everyone merely assumed the sanctified government of post-Mandela South Africa must be competently managed?
But now we learn the guy was potentially dangerous, his criminal case files “mysteriously empty,” with a tendency towards hallucinations and violence by his own account… hired by a shadowy fly-by-night firm that promptly flew by night and disappeared… and yet he managed to get onstage with the President of the United States. The Secret Service must be having some interesting closed-door meetings right about now.
But as far as I know, no one has been fired.
SO WAS THE SECRET SERVICE OFF CHASING HOOKERS AGAIN OR WHAT? Man who faked sign language at Mandela memorial has faced murder, other charges.
THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Two Secret Service agents cut from Obama’s detail after alleged misconduct. “The disruption at the Hay-Adams in May involved Ignacio Zamora Jr., a senior supervisor who oversaw about two dozen agents in the Secret Service’s most elite assignment — the president’s security detail. Zamora was allegedly discovered attempting to reenter a woman’s room after accidentally leaving behind a bullet from his service weapon. The incident has not been previously reported.”
How, exactly, do you leave behind a bullet from your service weapon? Like this: “The review found that Zamora had removed ammunition from the chamber of his government-issued handgun during his stay in the room and then left behind a single bullet. He returned to the room when he realized his mistake. The guest refused to let him back in.” But why? Shouldn’t it have just stayed in the holster, whatever hanky-panky went on?
ALL SHALL CELEBRATE, AND LIKE IT: Secret Service invents new “Unity Day” holiday.
UPDATE: Reader Corey Hall emails:
“Unity Day is an event comprised of various observances and activities designed to enhance cross-cultural awareness, and to encourage and promote interaction, inclusion, understanding, teamwork, harmony, pride and mutual respect within the Secret Service workforce.”
Yeah, but will it include Brazilian prostitutes?
Heh. The Secret service seems to have plenty of that kind of cross-cultural awareness.
SO MAYBE THERE’S NOTHING NEW HERE: “Our babysitter got laid by one of the Secret Service.”
THE SECRET SERVICE’S REPUTATION certainly seems to have taken a hit.
SECRET SERVICE AGENT KILLS SELF AMID AFFAIR PROBE.
JIM TREACHER: “Secret Service” doesn’t mean “get serviced, keep secrets.” “Hey, remember when the Secret Service got in trouble because of that hooker in Colombia? And then there was all that stuff about how the guys who are supposed to be protecting the President of the United States spend a lot of time partying really hard? Well, it’s only getting worse.”
SO IS THE SECRET SERVICE LOOKING INTO THIS? OR ARE THEY BUSY WITH CALL-GIRL STUFF? Post-presidential debate, Obama supporters renew vows to murder Mitt Romney.
REMEMBER HOW I SAID YOU CAN’T RELY ON “PROFESSIONALISM” IN THE AGE OF OBAMA? Secret Service Agent Arrested After Being Found Passed Out In Miami. “Law enforcement sources told CBS4 Engler told police he was an agent out of Washington and was part of the advance team for the president’s visit on Thursday. Once the President left Miami, Engler said he went drinking and got very drunk, law enforcement sources said. . . . It’s the latest black eye for the agency charged with protecting the life of the president. In April 2012, the agency was involved in a prostitution scandal in Colombia during the Summit of the Americas.”
UPDATE: Reader Drew Kelley writes: “Shouldn’t all of the errant SecSrvc agents be transferred to Valerie Jarrett’s detail? Then she would have the security level she rates!”
MANAGEMENT: Probe of Secret Service prostitution scandal may cite White House advance staff involvement.
Shocking to think that such attitudes reached that high:
Pictured on the left, above, is Jon Favreau, who still works for the White House at a salary of $172,200 a year. According to the linked article, Obama calls him his “mind reader.”
ANOTHER PROBLEM WITH ROMNEY’S SECRET SERVICE PROTECTION: Secret Service gun inadvertently left in Romney plane lavatory. Should he be hiring private security?
PRESIDENT DEADBEAT: Secret Service won’t pay Newport Beach for police at Obama event. “Newport Beach City Manager Dave Kiff billed the campaigns of President Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney for police security at their separate fundraisers this year in the city. Now that the Romney campaign paid its bill, the city is left in the awkward position of trying to collect from Obama.”
SECRET SERVICE UPDATE: Biden’s brawlers: Veep’s security team squared off in Nantucket melee. You know, it just doesn’t seem like you can rely so much on professionalism any more.
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