September 30, 2014

"A security contractor with a gun and three prior convictions for assault and battery was allowed on an elevator with President Obama during a Sept. 16 trip to Atlanta..."

"... violating Secret Service protocols, according to three people familiar with the incident."

And: "The man who jumped the White House fence this month and sprinted through the front door made it much farther into the building than previously known, overpowering one Secret Service officer and running through much of the main floor, according to three people familiar with the incident."

Both links go to The Washington Post, so I guess it's the same 3 people.

169 comments:

SomeoneHasToSayIt said...

Secret Service protection is just plan B.

Plan A: Joe Biden

Anonymous said...

Sad, that those closest to him feel it is OK to slack off on the job. I wonder where they would get that idea?

Left Bank of the Charles said...

The intruder did not jump the White House fence, he climbed over it, according to one person not at all familiar with the incident.

paminwi said...

What an effed up mess the Secret Service is. And did not our President just say he has complete confidence in them? Can't quite figure out what his thought process is. He has had numerous times he could have gotten rid of the woman in charge. Does this have to do with he can't dare fire a woman because it would look bad? Is this also why he can't get rid of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz?

LL said...

What the heck is going on? People in charge of the Secret Service need to get fired. This is disgraceful.

Anonymous said...

The fish rots from the head.

Revenant said...

It is worth noting that the President wasn't actually IN the White House when the fence-jumper broke in.

That probably had something to do with the half-hearted response.

Mark O said...

Well, apparently, there really is no one who wants Obama dead.

Thank God for Joe Biden.

ddh said...

The response of the Secret Service is to stop pedestrians and tourists outside the White House fence, when the real problem was the lack of Secret Service response to someone inside the fence. The head of the Secret Service should resign, but she is shamelessly staying on the job.

Tank said...

A word is missing from that account.

PC !

Hagar said...

The significant thing about the elevator man is that the Secret Service did not know who he was.

That he had a gun and 3 convictions for assault and battery is secondary, though it might be interesting to hear just what these convictions were about, since he still got a job as a "security guard."

As for the fence climber/jumper, I am tired of hearing that he had A KNIFE! With a 3 1/2 inch blade!!!
My Swiss Army knife has a 3 1/2 inch blade, and it is a very useful pocketknife, though a quite awkward weapon. One of those Special Forces ceramic Tommy Lee Jones thingies would, of course, be another thing altogether, but they do not say.

YoungHegelian said...

A security contractor with a gun and three prior convictions for assault and battery was allowed on an elevator with President Obama during a Sept. 16 trip to Atlanta...

Yeah, but the important question is: was the security contractor a member of the Tea Party or not?

To go back to being serious, the worst thing about this incident wasn't that it happened. The worst thing was that the president wasn't told about it & the lapse didn't go to the special investigative unit. That means that there's no assurance that steps were taken to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Julia Pierson's gotta go.

Rusty said...

Revenant said...
It is worth noting that the President wasn't actually IN the White House when the fence-jumper broke in.

That probably had something to do with the half-hearted response.

half hearted. half assed.Seems to be the theme of this administration.

RecChief said...

I read on a website, one that I rarely ever read, that one theory is that Valerie Jarret has engineered an "October Surprise" of a fake assassination attempt and the fence jumper was a practice run. I thought that theory was tin foil hat crazy but I have to admit that for a half-second it seemed within the realm of possibility.

But with this revelation, maybe it is just that Pierson provided such poor leadership that the agents have low morale which leads to slacking off in their duties.

YoungHegelian said...

@RecChief,

But with this revelation, maybe it is just that Pierson provided such poor leadership that the agents have low morale which leads to slacking off in their duties.

Then again, maybe morale is in the toilet because sequestration cut really deeply into the Colombian hooker funds.

Bad Lieutenant said...

I'm just gonna throw out some crackbait... The security guard was undoubtedly black. Crack will tell you that no black person would ever hurt Obama. So it didn't matter if he was a fire breathing dragon with a couple of UVA coeds under his belt. The president was perfectly safe.

PB said...

When you have a lying incompetent at the top, everything below starts to fall apart.

Whitey Sepulchre said...

That was Scott Walker jumping that fence. I just know it was. I know it, I know it, I know it, I know it, I know it. It just was!

I'm Full of Soup said...

Guvmint competence is quite the scarce commodity and little wonder the country is so f-ed up. Just look at who we have elected year after year after year: dolts like Biden, McCain, Shumer, McConnell, Pelosi, Wasserman-Schulz!

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Apparently the SS is comprised of Republican voters.

Anonymous said...

Things like this never happened when Reagan was President.

Oh wait. Nevermind

Revenant said...

I read on a website, one that I rarely ever read, that one theory is that Valerie Jarret has engineered an "October Surprise" of a fake assassination attempt and the fence jumper was a practice run.

Another theory is that the fence jumper was a space alien who was trying to tell Obama the real truth about 9/11.

Drago said...

madisonfella said...
Things like this never happened when Reagan was President.

A fence jumper made it into the White House when Reagan was President?

Do you have a link?

Drago said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wilbur said...

Just saw the video tonight.

The first sumbitch I'd fire is whoever drew down on Mr. Intruder from 10-20 feet on the front porch (I'm sure it's called a stoa or portico or something) and then let him go in the front door like he lived there. That's ridiculous.

If you pull the gun and he looks at you and just keeps going you have to drop him.

David said...

Perhaps the three people are President Obama, Michelle and Sasha. Presumably they no longer feel safe in their own home, nor should they, since the people charged with protecting them are manifestly negligent and incompetent. No doubt the usual internal reviews have been done as a result of past incidents. Those reviews have been ineffective.

Fire the people in charge at the White House. Replace them with people who are serious about the President's day to day security AND competent. Assume that overall the Secret Service is so incompetent that they are not up to the job, and get a military man or woman with some balls, experience and sense of accountability to reorganize Presidential protection from top to bottom.

This is no joke and it's not the President's fault. It will be worse after Obama is out of office. The ex-President, his wife and his children are going to be potential targets for radical Muslim terrorists for the remainder of their lives. We need to protect them from this threat.

As for the rest of us, perhaps the lefties will go a little easier on the anti gun demagoguery. We aren't in the same danger as the President and his family, but when we are in danger our initial protection is always ourselves. The usual self help personal protection will be of no use to the Obamas when the professional killers come after them.

Drago said...

Revenant: "Another theory is that the fence jumper was a space alien who was trying to tell Obama the real truth about 9/11."

I doubt very seriously that Robert Cook is a space alien.

Well, I doubt it seriously.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Drago said...
Do you have a link?


Where's Crack when you need him?



Drago said...

AReasonableMeltdown: "Where's Crack when you need him?"

Why? Did Crack hide madisonfella's link?

MayBee said...

I can't believe the guy made it into the East Room and the Secret Service tried to get away with congratulating themselves for restraint.

Drago said...

If the SS is anything like obama, there are sure to be awards aplenty given out after this incident.

David said...

Drago:

"A fence jumper made it into the White House when Reagan was President?

Do you have a link?"


Really, Drago. Note the similarities. Reagan survived his Presidency as a result of luck and some swift medical attention when he was shot. Nobody has shot Obama, but it's pretty easy to see that his survival is luck based too.

David said...

MayBee said...
I can't believe the guy made it into the East Room and the Secret Service tried to get away with congratulating themselves for restraint.


Tells you all you need to know about the Secret Service, doesn't it.

Drago said...

David: "Note the similarities."

What "similarities"?

Reagan was shot on a public street and an SS agent took a bullet to protect Reagan (we shouldn't forget the DC cop or Brady either but it was in the SS agent's line of duty).

How is that similar to this incident?

Scott M said...

Bet they still don't fire her. Has this administration fired any senior political appointee?

Scott M said...

Where's Crack when you need him?

When do you actually have a need for that?

garage mahal said...

garage mahal said...
That was Scott Walker jumping that fence. I just know it was. I know it, I know it, I know it, I know it, I know it. It just was!


Luckily, my impostor-detecting software caught this comment. Lame, I say!

While I appreciate creativity, this falls short of my editorial standards and I must report:

Impostor: https://www.blogger.com/profile/06298140918005799398

Me: https://www.blogger.com/profile/06485491995866513686

Impostor: If you had some real chops and asked me nicely I might have handed over to you the keys to My Kingdom. Just imagine posting on my behalf, for realz. Whoa!

CWJ said...

Garage - squirrel.
ARM - squirrel.
Madisonfella - squirrel.

Anything to avoid commenting on the post itself. All in less than 10 minutes.

Just another day in Grover's Corners.

Drago said...

garage: "Impostor: If you had some real chops and asked me nicely I might have handed over to you the keys to My Kingdom. Just imagine posting on my behalf, for realz. Whoa!"

Forget the nicely part garage, charge them for the privilege!

We could all use an extra revenue stream.

traditionalguy said...

The missing ingredient is the will to use the armed forces. Without the will they are just ornamental men in nice clothes.

Which is why men are better than women in armed force use. Men do not try to balance out the best way to stop a possible killer...they just shoot him.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

garage mahal said...
Luckily, my impostor-detecting software


That is weird and the profile is old, 2011. I would have thought that the blogger screen names would have to be unique.

CWJ said...

Yep Grover's Corners. Nothing much happens here.

Over there is the Middle School from which Garage graduated. Right behind it is the union hall. Madisonfella should be on the steps harangueing passersby any minute now. Oh look, there's ARM now. Hey, ARM! ARM? Oh well, people keep to themselves and never really talk about his drinking problem.

~ Gordon Pasha said...

Ken Burns didn't tell us that TR slept with a pistol under his pillow every night.

Drago said...

Steven said...
Ken Burns didn't tell us that TR slept with a pistol under his pillow every night.

What Ken Burns also didn't tell us is that TR had affirmative consent from his pistol for the pistol to be kept under that pillow.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

CWJ said...
Yep Grover's Corners.


Oh look, someone's come to help Drago. What a kindly old man.


Drago said...

AReasonableMeltdown: "Oh look, someone's come to help Drago. What a kindly old man."

Off topic, irrelevant. Troll.

Drago said...

Do note that none of CWJ's posts had anything to do with me, yet ARMeltdown insists that they do.

Reality. Disconnect.

Again.

Patrick said...

Fortunately the press has redacted the story from yesterday, when they let our slip that the agent who was over powered was a woman. Not convenient to have that out there.

Patrick said...

That Garage imposter could really throw is all for a loop. Imagine the calamity.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Valerie Jarrett couldn't engineer a simple omelet over a three day weekend.

garage mahal said...

Over there is the Middle School from which Garage graduated.

I do try to hide my elitism and appeal to the common working folk.

Michael K said...

"Apparently the SS is comprised of Republican voters."

The last Republican left DC about 20 years ago.

David said...

Drago said...
David: "Note the similarities."

What "similarities"?


Luck.

Paul said...

I see two possible causes for the SS problems with security.

1) Obama appointed a political hack to the post of head of the Secret Service. The woman in question, Julia Pierson, was appointed just cause she was a woman (she was a field agent for ONLY 5 years.) She was only appointed cause they needed to improve the image of the USSS, following the Summit of the Americas prostitution scandal.

and possibly...

The SS, like the Praetorian Guard of the Caesars, got fed up with Obama and sent him a message that he could go the way of some of the Caesars.Only they didn't have to do the dirty work, just let a nutjob do it.

Or it's a combination of both.

PB said...

Oh, and the military command structure has been infected with politically correct yes-men. The Obama-bots have gone through the upper ranks and cashiered anyone who disagreed with them.

RecChief said...

Oh, and the military command structure has been infected with politically correct yes-men."



NO shit. a bunch in the middle ranks too

Psota said...

I can't believe none of these security lapse stories have mentioned that schizo translator from the Mandela funeral!

jr565 said...

The White House is a stand in for the US and jumping th fence is a stand in for the people jumping out border. In the borders case there isn't even a fence to jump. But the outcome could be just as dire. And so, we should probably strengthen our borders just as the White House should strengthen its borders.

Dick Stanley said...

The last person who made a drive (literally) at the White House was shot dead. Miriam Carey.

MathMom said...

Obama wasn't in the WH when the guy got in, but what if he was carrying a vial of ebola, or anthrax, and splattered it against a wall?

I think I've found the real JV team.

jr565 said...

George a Will is turning into a moron. In response to this incident George Will had the following statements:

“There’s obviously something wrong with the culture of the Secret Service agency,” Will said on Special Report, then offered a counterintuitive take. The Secret Service’s cycle of deficiency “results in part because the Secret Service is the most uncontrolled bureaucracy in this town, because no one wants to say, ‘Enough security,’ because the axiom by which the Secret Service operates is, you can’t have too much safety — which of course is preposterous.”

That Washington has become a victim of this view of security is evident, Will observed: “That’s why Washington today looks like an armed camp with all kinds of weird security measures, disrupting pedestrian as well as vehicular traffic.”

His take on this is enough security? tis not the issue that there wasn't enough security or that they were Insufficient for the job at hand?
If any place is supposed to look like an armed security detail its the presidents armed security detail.
It must be the libertarian in Will. That's not just a counterintuitive take its a retarded take. And its completely off the subject. he's beating the straw man he created, just as libertarians similarly decided, in the midst of the brown riots decided to make their arguments about something that really had little to do with the incident at hand. Namely militarized police. The cop who shot Brown wasn't militarized, and the militarized police let the rioters loot stores rather than suggest they were going to crack down on rioters. And yet, THATS the issue libertarians wanted to argue.

jr565 said...

The secret service obviously has some up issues and so heads need to roll and security measures need to be tightened. We're not supposed to say, like dunderhead George Will, when there is a security breach, enough security. No, if there a security breach you need better security.
That's why the security breach occured in the first place. Someone wasn't doing their jobs.
Now I can't stand Obama, but for god sakes, he's the president. If anything is important its safeguarding the president and his house. So stop with the libertarian crap about how we have too much security.

Michael K said...

"If any place is supposed to look like an armed security detail its the presidents armed security detail.
It must be the libertarian in Will. That's not just a counterintuitive take its a retarded take."

So, you are a fan of the TSA ? I think his point is that massive bureaucracies have their own agenda and doing their job is not part of it. The WSJ has a good piece on the serial failures.

furious_a said...

It is worth noting that the President wasn't actually IN the White House when the fence-jumper broke in.

You play the way you practice. Any ten-year-old with a baseball glove knows that.

jr565 said...

Michael k wrote:
"So, you are a fan of the TSA ? I think his point is that massive bureaucracies have their own agenda and doing their job is not part of it. The WSJ has a good piece on the serial failures." I don't care who is doing the security so long as its thorough and doesn't allow someone to get on a plane with me and my family with a bomb.
But in this case, its an example of a security failure. How then can you say, enough security? If there was enough security they would have found the guy on the elevator with the gun. Clearly there is not enough security.,or the security in place is insufficient. And needs to be made more efficient.
Imagine if this guy was able to fire a gun at the president. Are libertarians really going to argue there was too much security?

Smilin' Jack said...

"The man who jumped the White House fence this month and sprinted through the front door made it much farther into the building than previously known, overpowering one Secret Service officer and running through much of the main floor, according to three people familiar with the incident."

As a Nobel Peace prize winner, I'm sure Obama would prefer that such problems be resolved through negotiation rather than the use of force. For example, this guy could have been given the East Wing or something, kind of like a Palestinian state.

Joe said...

Was it because the agents were hung over or was it because they weren't?

Revenant said...

You play the way you practice. Any ten-year-old with a baseball glove knows that.

Because I want to live in a world where government agents curb-stomp harmless nuts "for practice".

None of the people the Secret Service are charged with protecting were in any danger. What would their grounds for using lethal force against the guy have been -- that they were saving the life of an empty room?

Joe said...

George Will's point is that by trying to do everything, the secret service is doing worse at that which is most important. I see a similar thing all the time in my career--jacks of all trades working for companies trying to be everything to everyone resulting in extremely mediocre product.

And yes, you can have too much security. The white house fence could be increased to twenty feet and covered with concertina wire, the lawn land mined. Guards would be instructed to kill anyone who touches the fence or looks suspicious. When the president is moved, people would be ordered off the streets and shot if they didn't comply. An platoon of tanks would move the president.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

A tempest inside a molehill.

Wake me up when is over.

Joe said...

tis not the issue that there wasn't enough security or that they were Insufficient for the job at hand?

You are confusing better and more. Simply throwing more people and money at something rarely makes it better and often makes it worse. The Mythical Man month explained this decades ago, but I still see it happen all the time.

Annie said...

David, up thread said they should fire the SS and replace them with military men/women with balls/competence. Um, he pink slipped all of them.
Now he gets to live with what's left. Fools like himself.

Anonymous said...

"What would their grounds for using lethal force against the guy have been -- that they were saving the life of an empty room?"

Yes. Did they know for certain he did NOT have an explosive vest he was planning to set off once he was inside the building? If you cannot have enough security, as some have posted here, then the security you have should assume the worst about the intentions and motivations of any intruder. What the SS knows now is that when it comes to securing the WH and its occupants it's better to shoot first and apologize later if necessary.

PS: Even if the POTUS might not have been inside the WH, there were surely WH staff working there whose lives might have been in danger from this intruder. They deserve protection, too.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Goofing off on the job, and supervisors covering up problems - a lot of that going on, it seems.

Perhaps if the guy at the top took his job more seriously, set a better example....

I recommend delegating fewer tasks to Government, and more thoughtful selection of who is hired to do them.

Tina Trent said...

Err, why wasn't this guy in prison for his priors? We are, after all, a heartless prison state where merely breathing wrong causes police thugs to destroy your life, right?

tim in vermont said...

"If you like your president, you can keep your president." - The Secret Service.

FleetUSA said...

Maybe the Secret Service has given up on Choom too.

Diogenes of Sinope said...

Maybe, somehow Obama will take his personal security seriously and appoint the leaders needed to fix the Secret Service before something awful happens. I hope so.

tim in vermont said...

ISIS has to be slapping their foreheads that all they had to do was storm the WH with a dozen guys.

iowan2 said...

I,m I the only one? The only one that sees the govt at all levels, not doing compentaly what they are charged with doing, while all the while expanding into areas that are none of their business?
Public education that is debating if schools should or shouldn't be required to teach African/American history, in the same schools that turn out students that aren't ready for college, or work, and in many cases are barely literate. Cops that have Armored vehicles, but choke a suspect to death.
Our southern border is non-existent, yet we can provide cell phones to citizens. A President that cant make time to take his daily briefing, or oversee the response to armed assaults on our ambassadors, but plenty of time to campaign (because he is not running for public office).
NASA to longer has the ability to put an astronaut into space, because one of its primary missions is Muslim outreach, and is seems advancing a AWG, in spite of historical data.
The Secret Service, that is charged with protecting the President, cant keep a man from entering through the front door, in broad daylight.
The Obama administration trades a deserter for 4 high value terrorists, but cant get an active duty service man out of a Mexican jail, for the crime of accidentally finding himself in Mexico and admitting he had a gun in the trunk. That American is of no value for some reason.

I could go on but you get the idea.

This is the reason we need a govt, that is restricted to defined and enumerated powers.

Rusty said...

If this is the level of competency of the secret service now is the time to start competing with the United States Mint.

Brando said...

Has it been established exactly how a nut made it all the way into the White House? My impression was that the minute you crossed the fence onto the White House lawn, you were spotted and guards would emerge to tackle you or worse. Were a bunch of SS not at their posts? And don't they at least lock the doors to the White House?

Rusty said...


None of the people the Secret Service are charged with protecting were in any danger.


I'm just hoping you don't have a job that requires some real responsibility. You know, like surgeon or the guy in charge of fuel rods in a nuclear reactor.

tim in vermont said...

None of the people the Secret Service are charged with protecting were in any danger.

That one is Lois Lerneresque

tim maguire said...

I can't help but think there is a broader significance in the decline of the Secret Service. However careless we may think Obama is with the fate of the country, however hostile we think he may be to the fruits of the Enlightenment, it's quite another thing to accuse him of being careless with or hostile to his own safety.

But that's all it is is a thought. It feels significant not just as a symbol of government incompetence, but as something revealing about the man himself, but I can't go further than that hazy suspicion (and I'm not interested in easy or pert answers).

tim maguire said...

Revenant said..It is worth noting that the President wasn't actually IN the White House when the fence-jumper broke in.

That probably had something to do with the half-hearted response.


Right, because the White House itself and all the other people in it are not worth protecting.

Donatello Nobody said...

It is worth noting that the President wasn't actually IN the White House when the fence-jumper broke in.

You play the way you practice. Any ten-year-old with a baseball glove knows that.

This.

Anonymous said...

Now I can't stand Obama, but for god sakes, he's the president. If anything is important its safeguarding the president and his house. So stop with the libertarian crap about how we have too much security.

Will's point, likely because he is a local resident like me, is that every time the SS fails, it's because they didn't do what they already were supposed to do, like:

- let the dogs loose
- sound the alarm (it was turned off)
- lock the doors
- shoot the a$$hole

- run the names of all the staff at the event (security guard story)

Will's point is though the SS failed to do what would have worked, their solution is to push the WH security barrier back a 100 feet, so that they'll have more time to not do the stuff they were already supposed to be doing.

They fail, so the public is punished...
and nobody loses their job.

Like the SS boss, or the female guard with a gun who allowed a man to whoop her w/o drawing her piece.

PS: Most of the folks here aren't Obama fans, and most would like a smaller government, but in the area of security, we're appalled at the incompetence and want heads to roll and the POTUS protected. Joe Biden...

Anonymous said...

One last point.

One of the most important security features that protects the POTUS is the sense that the SS is competent. A reputation built up over a 150 years. Incidents like this destroy that legend and now bad people get the sense that the SS is weak.

Not good...

Anonymous said...

They don't want to protect a black president: it is as simple as that. It isn't even if they would take a bullet for him, they won't even lift a finger. They might as well 'guard' him while wearing white robes and hoods, you just have to bring your own rope. White people miss the obvious yet again...

It is turtles all the way down...

Anonymous said...

Patrick: Fortunately the press has redacted the story from yesterday, when they let our slip that the agent who was over powered was a woman. Not convenient to have that out there.

Yeah, I noticed that. Can't give the haters and bigots a reason to question whether women are actually qualified to do jobs that require tackling baddies.

iowan2: I,m I the only one? The only one that sees the govt at all levels, not doing compentaly what they are charged with doing, while all the while expanding into areas that are none of their business?

It's the nature of bureaucracies. Not terribly amenable to reform, perhaps an iron law. Though the credentialism and diversity-mongering infesting our system have no doubt accelerated the process of decay.

Anonymous said...

It is whites' idea of diversity: they want to show that a black president can be assassinated like any white one...

It is turtles all the way down...

MayBee said...

iowan2 said...
I,m I the only one? The only one that sees the govt at all levels, not doing compentaly what they are charged with doing, while all the while expanding into areas that are none of their business?


No, You aren't the only one.

Drill SGT- so right.

The SS will make every Los Angeles resident simply trying to drive home from work wait in traffic for hours because the presidential motorcade is within a few miles.
It will make flights in the Midwest and hour and a half late because Air Force One needs the airspace.

But it will not lock the front door of the White House or have the "annoying" front door alarm enabled.

Anything that inconveniences *us* is a go and apparently knows no limits. No need to actually do the job.

Anonymous said...

C'mon white people: how many of you have a special bottle of champagne on hand, just in case Obama happens to be shot? You can admit it: you're among white people...

It is turtles all the way down...

MayBee said...

Listening to the hearing yesterday was disheartening.
Like the IRS hearings are disheartening and the State Department hearings are disheartening.

The government operatives just sit at that table and praise themselves and talk about how hard their people work and take responsibility in that "as head of this department, it is my responsibility...." sort of way.

Nobody really wants to forthright. Nobody is interested in actually providing information.

Fritz said...

"Michael K said...
"Apparently the SS is comprised of Republican voters."

The last Republican left DC about 20 years ago."

They all moved 40 miles south to Calvert County and commute in.

Anonymous said...

Maybe whites can finally make a symbolic statement recognizing their inherent racism when Obama leaves Office: they'll give HIM Forty Acres and a Mule. See, we did it -- shut up now...

It is turtles all the way down...

Anonymous said...

Here is a WT lede that I want to comment on:

Secret Service managers told agents on the ground in Atlanta not to file a written report after discovering that a convict with a gun rode in an elevator with President Obama during his visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Sept. 16, according to two sources familiar with the case.

The president’s Secret Service protective detail and other agents routinely file written reports if anything even mildly suspicious happens during a presidential trip or in the course of protecting any member of the first family at the White House on any given day.

Agents became alarmed during Obama’s trip to Atlanta after discovering that a private security contractor working for the CDC with a criminal record had a gun within arms-length of the president, but superiors told them not to file "any paperwork" or initiate an investigation, according to two sources familiar with the case.

Secret Service Director Julia Pierson asked a senior officer to stay behind in Atlanta to handle the situation but there was no formal review of the matter.

Well before the president travels, Secret Service advance teams extensively screen anyone who comes in close proximity with the president for criminal records and no one but cleared law enforcement officers are allowed to carry guns.

Private security guards are barred from carrying firearms when the president is traveling to a building where they work – even if they routinely carry one during regular hours.


1. So they didn't screen the staff, per SOP
2. didn't disarm the security guards per SOP
3. Let the guy ride in the elevator? Why, Shouldn't the elevator been chock full of SS anyway?

4. and the Director of the SS directed a cover-up by not conducting an investigation...

They need to do a Brimley: James A. Wells, Assistant U.S. Attorney General: Now we'll talk all day if you want to. But, come sundown, there's gonna be two things true that ain't true now. One is that the United States Department of Justice is goin' to know what in the good Christ - e'scuse me, Angie - is goin' on around here. And the other's I'm gonna have somebody's ass in muh briefcase.

The Crack Emcee said...

eric,

"The fish rots from the head."

Still talking, talking, talking - like idiots - with no grasp of history, what-so-ever. Open a fucking book, you guys!

It's more like *some* of the American people (guess who?) have always been rotten fish who've tried getting into the White House since it was built, first because they mostly wanted somewhere to spit their nasty tobacco juice. That's why there's been barriers for decades.

The stupid, hyperbole-spouting, motherfuckers need to learn to get a grip.

That said, still, the Secret Service's head DOES need to go,...

MayBee said...

I don't understand why, of all things, Obama isn't all over them, demanding reform.

Civilis said...

The SS will make every Los Angeles resident simply trying to drive home from work wait in traffic for hours because the presidential motorcade is within a few miles.
It will make flights in the Midwest and hour and a half late because Air Force One needs the airspace.

But it will not lock the front door of the White House or have the "annoying" front door alarm enabled.


I've known a number of Secret Service agents, and over-protective tends to be a constant part of the mindset. I strongly suspect that this seeming inconsistency may come from the political leadership and not the secret service itself.

Presidents have long chafed at the restrictions placed on them in the name of security and have often defied those restrictions. It could very well be that some non-security staff at the White House with some authority ordered the Secret Service to leave the door unlocked so the POTUS can sneak out for a smoke or told the team in Atlanta to hurry it up so that the President could make his fundraiser or get back to DC quicker.

We already know that someone political has been ordering the Secret Service around; how else did Valerie Jarett get a security detail?

One place to look might be at rumors of how the President and those close to him treat the Secret Service. I've heard rumors that W and Bill Clinton were liked by their security people (probably indicating they were easy to protect) and Hillary was not well liked. I haven't heard rumors about the Obamas, perhaps because they are still in office.

MayBee said...

This guy was nutso. He refused to stop videotaping Obama when he was told to, when he was on security detail. Obama had to know this was going on. Obama knew about the State Dinner crashers. Obama knew about the hookers, knew about the bullets in the White House. Did they lie to him about the guy in the East Room?

Why does he not demand better? I don't get it.

Anonymous said...

Crack,

I'm glad you agree on the SS Director.

I agree with you that the rotting fish thing is off target, however:

1. There was that incident early in the first term where there was a WH party and the SS was checking ID's etc and Michelle's staff pressured them into skipping steps, and the result was that 2 gate crashers in formal clothes got next to Obama.

2. Morale is morale. Obama has not been seen as respectful of the military, but we don't know about his SS relations. Does he treat them well or poorly? morale can be impacted...

Hagar said...

Obviously, the Secret Service needs a 15% increase in its budget, so that it can hire 10% more people and give everyone a raise.

(Cf. the VA boondoggle.)

n.n said...

The Washington Post has a renewed interest in investigative reporting, but this time its target is not the president. Change, I suppose. Meanwhile, the porous border has left the "folks" at risk to suffer murder, rape, robbery, and displacement.

tim in vermont said...

I hope all of the smartphone records relating to what those guarding the President were doing at the time of this attack were doing with them. Candy Crush comes to mind.

Bob Ellison said...

Reasoning by analogy is a constant problem. So is reasoning by sloganeering (fish rotting from head).

Pierson has only been there since March of 2013. She cannot have been the cause of all of these problems.

But she sure needs PR help. Her testimony before Congress was atrocious. She came across as a bureaucratic idiot.

n.n said...

It sounds like the perfect setup for a Benghazi incident, or the security violations in Kuwait, Afghanistan, etc., which left pir soldiers and allies vulnerable to attack. Progressive Corruption (PC) aka Political Correctness has left Americans in harm's way.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

The Crack Emcee said...
The stupid, hyperbole-spouting, motherfuckers need to learn to get a grip.


Because they sound like a bunch of old women.

Anonymous said...

A black man trusting his life to a bureaucratic white woman: like anyone would expect THAT to go well. If anything does happen to Obama she can no doubt plead War-On-Women when criticized, and the white feminists will have her back...

It is turtles all the way down...

Bob Ellison said...

Can we agree that anyone who says "I take full responsibility" with regard to an egregious failure should be summarily dismissed? If you take full responsibility, you're fired.

Why does that stupid sentence absolve anyone? It should be a plea of guilt.

tim in vermont said...

CR

We are all racists, admit it, if this were Bush's Secret Service, none of us racists would have made a peep.

MayBee said...

Does Obama think if he takes proactive steps, people will know there are problems?

I think that's it. Obama is not proactive in changing the things for which he can be held responsible.
He is much more proactive in making others change- increasing CAFE standards for auto companies, for example.

tim in vermont said...

"All of the assholes are on the other side!" - Summary of the complete workds of ARM

Bob Ellison said...

"I take full responsibility for eating the last Twinkie and leaving the empty box in the cupboard."

Headless Blogger said...

I get paid daily to play the "what if?" game. What if the WH intruder was wearing a suicide vest? How much damage could he have done to the WH structure if he was? These are real questions that are embedded in regulations for US nuclear reactors.

Security at the WH appears to be poorly thought out and implemented. Rest assured that the security systems at nuke plants in the US are much more robust and the staffs better trained. Homer Simpson has apparently found new employment with the Secret Service.

Bob Ellison said...

No, it's "I take full responsibility for the fact that my department couldn't find its own ass in the shower, and thereby I absolve the whole shebang from guilt. And we need more money."

furious_a said...

In today's WSJ editorial page:

"Mr. Obama and his daughters had departed via helicopter only moments before."

So shaddup, Revenant.

tim in vermont said...

Well, we should just put ARM in charge of WH security, I guess, since the rest of us are all pantie waist cowards who can't live up to his vision of the perfect world we live in where there are not thousands of people sympathetic to ISIS in North America, and where we can tell on the fly whether somebody has a bomb or not and "restraint" is more important that protecting out democracy.

Isn't he the same guy who said cops shouldn't have the same rights to self defense as the rest of us? Or was it that nobody has a right to self defense on account of no cop is ever in danger they didn't create by trying to enforce illegitimate laws about property and suppressing the cultural norms of the oppressed.

The Crack Emcee said...

The Drill SGT,

"Crack,

I'm glad you agree on the SS Director."

And I'm glad you didn't take the bait - you're learning.

"I agree with you that the rotting fish thing is off target, however,..."

Many question anything the Obama's do - because they're there to change things for blacks - but the military and the Secret Service aren't supposed to be part of that discourse. If they are, then we've got a bigger problem, and there's nothing we can do about it:

We're already lost.

I wouldn't doubt it, considering,...

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

tim in vermont said...
Isn't he the same guy who said cops shouldn't have the same rights to self defense as the rest of us? Or was it that nobody has a right to self defense on account of no cop is ever in danger they didn't create by trying to enforce illegitimate laws about property and suppressing the cultural norms of the oppressed.


Just making shit up. Troll.

Civilis said...

1. There was that incident early in the first term where there was a WH party and the SS was checking ID's etc and Michelle's staff pressured them into skipping steps, and the result was that 2 gate crashers in formal clothes got next to Obama.

If Obama starts raising pressure on the Secret Service to protect him more, major celebrity Democratic donors get the TSA treatment at the White House and Barack and Michelle can't make a quick run out for dinner on the town anymore.

Security at the WH appears to be poorly thought out and implemented.

It's not so much this as much as it is people with conflicting goals. The goal of 'protect the President' comes into conflict with the goal of 'Let the President have a normal life', and ultimately the one calling the shots is the President himself. We could make the President more secure and at less cost by locking him and his family in an undisclosed location for his term in office, but there is no one that would agree to those restrictions, and no one with the power to force those restrictions on the President of the United States.

jr565 said...

"You are confusing better and more. Simply throwing more people and money at something rarely makes it better and often makes it worse. The Mythical Man month explained this decades ago, but I still see it happen all the time."
There is no official number that you can quantify to define TOO much security. There is only effective security and ineffective security. But if it's ineffective, then they need to do more to make it effective. When there is a security failure the first instinct shouldn't be "the problem is too much security"
When they put money into security no one is saying "let's just throw money into a hole and get really bad security" they are operating under the premise that more security would equal better security.
So if will wants less security, and the security we have now is letting a guy with a loaded gun onto an elevator with the president how is cutting security going to make it better. Are they going to allow someone with a loaded gun to also get on Air Force one with the president?
Less does not mean better. Less means less.

Paul said...

"Still talking, talking, talking - like idiots - with no grasp of history, what-so-ever. Open a fucking book, you guys!"

Crack,

The fish rots at the head, BLACK OR WHITE.

A black can be just as much a imbecile as any white, or brown, or Asian...Obama proves that.

It ain't about race, it's about competency and O does not cut it.

Sadly for you everything IS about race which pretty much does make you a racist.

Get a life crack. Get a job, get a family, and get off crack.

Tank said...

Bob Ellison said...

Can we agree that anyone who says "I take full responsibility" with regard to an egregious failure should be summarily dismissed? If you take full responsibility, you're fired.

Why does that stupid sentence absolve anyone? It should be a plea of guilt.


Bob, the left/progressive mindset is not one that favors maximum liberty and, on the flip side, responsibility for one's actions.

furious_a said...

TSA, at least, would have inconvenienced the WH intruder by making him empty,his pockets and remove his.belt and shoes before resuming his intrusion.

Tough to to brandish one's Spyderco Serrated Knife (order through the Althouse link) while holding up one's trousers.

The Crack Emcee said...

betamax3000,

"It is turtles all the way down..."

Honestly, dude - I get it - but you don't:

You're treating me like I'm the knee-jerk reactionary, rather than those advocating colorblind racism I mock. Thanks for the passive-aggressive attack. How it makes you different from the rest, you'll have to answer - I didn't stop being black for your joke's convenience, white man.

I'm an American. I study American history and more (I'm reading Tony Judt's "Postwar," now, about the end of WWII) to better understand what's happening to me today. I have a lot of help in my studies - from whites - online and off. I trust them implicitely, because they, too, "get it":

Whites DID SOMETHING to blacks and need to stop - that's not difficult to grasp.

Continuing to act like that admission is worthy of white ridicule is just more of the same.

Even if you don't consider yourself part of it,...

The Crack Emcee said...

Oh - and fuck a turtle,...

Megthered said...

Even if the president wasn't there, he lives there with his children. He should be concerned about their safety. SS are with them at their school, which has their own security, but what if someone tries to kidnap them, is the ss going to use deadly force to protect the children of the president? There were gunshots ar the WH and no one noticed or said anything about it? This is great for anyone wanting to storm the WH.

MayBee said...

Now there are calls to get the Secret Service out from under DHS.

Which is great, and should happen, but what about the rest of us? We still have to put up with security theatre and bureaucracy? Can this be a wake up call that DHS itself needs reform?

Civilis said...

TSA, at least, would have inconvenienced the WH intruder by making him empty,his pockets and remove his.belt and shoes before resuming his intrusion.

It's ok if you, I, Speaker Boehner, or J. Random Intruder get the 'turn your head and cough' TSA treatment, but could you imagine it happening to an important campaign contributor like Penny Pritzker?

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2011/04/13/4115/white-house-visitor-logs-riddled-holes

The Crack Emcee said...

tim in vermont,

"We are all racists, admit it, if this were Bush's Secret Service, none of us racists would have made a peep."

I wish I saw it that way - it would be so much easier - but I see you guys as just really confused, mostly because of that tendency to not even THINK about race (a total misreading of MLK).

I remember the desire some had to kill Bush and how it kept me up at night. (Remember that movie about shooting him?) I've imagined some of you colorblind types killing Obama so much I sleep well because I'm so tuned into the likelihood it's comforting. I know this country and it's a cesspool. A dirty murderous cesspool. That's why I've always called for critical thinking in schools:

Until we decide to clear the cobwebs out of our culture, anything ugly - at our own hands - is always a distinct possibility.

Reparations Now - including a Truth & Reconciliation Panel - Reparations Forever!

Tank said...

I thought we were talking about the Secret Service. No?

But, if you're looking for the answer Crack, it's 85.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hagar said...

Remember when the Queen of England woke up in the night with a strange man sitting on her bedside?
And the Queen, made of sterner stuff than the Washington press corps, kept her head and just had a nice chat with the man about the cost of maintaining all those castles and the difficulty of hiring competent help these days?

And the time when someone dressed as Batman scaled the walls of Buckingham Palace in broad daylight and in front of God and all those tourists?
And they finally just talked him down?

n.n said...

The problem may rest with ambiguous or restrictive ROE. The same leadership which left our diplomats, soldiers, border guards, and citizens vulnerable to attack. Well, now that the consequences of these policies have reached the White House, perhaps Americans can hope for change, positive change.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Hagar said...
Remember when the Queen of England woke up in the night with a strange man sitting on her bedside?
And the Queen, made of sterner stuff than the Washington press corps, kept her head and just had a nice chat with the man about the cost of maintaining all those castles and the difficulty of hiring competent help these days?


Yes. An actual old woman possesses greater sang froid.

Known Unknown said...

My comment never made it, but I see the Crack Attack is still in effect.

jr565 said...

Crack wrote:
'you're treating me like I'm the knee-jerk reactionary, rather than those advocating colorblind racism I mock.'

Who the cap fit, let him wear it.

RecChief said...

"A reputation built up over a 150 years. Incidents like this destroy that legend and now bad people get the sense that the SS is weak."

Fundamental Transformation

RecChief said...

Anglelyne said...
Patrick: Fortunately the press has redacted the story from yesterday, when they let our slip that the agent who was over powered was a woman. Not convenient to have that out there.

Yeah, I noticed that. Can't give the haters and bigots a reason to question whether women are actually qualified to do jobs that require tackling baddies.?


Actually, the more disconcerting thing is that, with only 5 years experience in the Secret Service (that's what I have seen reported), she was apparently put in that leadership role on the basis of her gender.

Tank said...

That is the missing word I referred to (way) above.

Female.

rhhardin said...

If I were in an elevator with Obama I'd bend his ear about economics and where wealth comes from.

Probably the secret service keeps him away from economists.

Fernandinande said...

betamax3000 said...
C'mon white people: how many of you have a special bottle of champagne on hand, just in case Obama happens to be shot? You can admit it: you're among white people...


No champagne (yuck), a PBR or two would suffice, but considering the potential for martyrdom and that clown Biden, I hope Obama keeps emitting greenhouse gasses. Because I'm mostly among Indians.

DanTheMan said...

Crack vs. BM3K

This is the JV vs. the NBA...

Of course, I'm 100% motivated by in this assessment by white animus, as Crack will explain below, I'm sure.





Bruce Hayden said...

I can't help but think there is a broader significance in the decline of the Secret Service. However careless we may think Obama is with the fate of the country, however hostile we think he may be to the fruits of the Enlightenment, it's quite another thing to accuse him of being careless with or hostile to his own safety.

But that's all it is is a thought. It feels significant not just as a symbol of government incompetence, but as something revealing about the man himself, but I can't go further than that hazy suspicion (and I'm not interested in easy or pert answers).


I think a lot of people here have made good points. My thoughts were similar to Tim's. I think that part of it is Obama's rank incompetence. He had never run anything bigger really than his Senate office until running for President, and likely had little to do with that. And, even if he had, a campaign teaches a lot of the wrong things - one of the biggest problems in government is entrenched bureaucracies, and a successful campaign often isn't entrenched yet.

So, you have total incompetence at the top, so no surprise that it has filtered down. And if the President ecan be elected despite gross incompetence, based on skin color and little more, should it be any surprise that they would pick a relatively inexperienced woman to lead the SS merely because of her sex? Little difference with many of his appointments.

The fact that things other than competence, hard work, and dedication are more important in getting ahead in the government these days doesn't help matters either. This is compounded by a culture of politicized corruption at the top. BATFE, IRS, State, CIA, etc employees are protected by the DoJ when violating the law, as long as their lawlessness, etc helps the regime,while the FBI, IRS, FEC, etc concentrate on silencing political opponents. Whistle blowers are hounded and demoted, while those the whistles were blown on get large bonuses and/or are promoted. The federal bureaucracy was pretty bad competence wise, before Obama, but this culture of corruption appears to have made it much worse under his watch.

And, one consequence of this may be that the SS now days may lack the sort of pride and dedication they had in the past. It is weird, but the little people around Republcan Presidents tend to like their big boss a lot more than recent Dem Presidents. WH staff is said to have not respected Bill Clinton, but actively despised his wife. Likely the same here for Michelle, while her husband may have both lack of personal respect and some loathing by WH and SS staff. Would the latter take a bullet for Obama? Maybe. But probably with a lot less enthusiasm I than they would have for predecessors who knew their names, asked about their families, etc. Probably a big incentive though would be seeing the senility of his Constitutional backup up close.

Anonymous said...

Would the latter take a bullet for Obama? Maybe.

10 generations ago, 1981 :)

it was tested and and two Irishmen take one for the Gipper. The video impresses me. The Lead agent is throwing Reagan into the Limo, most everybody is flinching away from the gunman and Timothy McCarthy, a SS agent looks like an NHL Goalie w/o pads stepping in front of Reagan and taking one in the gut. DC Cop Thomas Delahanty took the other bullet in the neck as he turned.

What are the odds today that a gunman will shoot the POTUS and hit four Irishmen???

The Crack Emcee said...

rhhardin,

"If I were in an elevator with Obama I'd bend his ear about economics and where wealth comes from."

I think he understands American slavery already, so you'd have to try something else,...

The Crack Emcee said...

DanTheMan,

"Of course, I'm 100% motivated by in this assessment by white animus, as Crack will explain below, I'm sure."

That you wouldn't even consider that - living in a racist white culture - is hilarious,...

gerry said...

Competent leadership breeds competent staff.

We are freaking doomed.

The Crack Emcee said...

gerry,

"Competent leadership breeds competent staff.

We are freaking doomed."

I said that about Scott Walker but you don't hear anybody agreeing there,...

furious_a said...

President Three-Putt would obviously be a better Presidential Detail Agent than his Presidential Detail Agents.

He simply can't hire people smarter than him because no one is.

Hagar said...

But then of course, there was the time when Prince Andrew went out back for a smoke after dinner, and the palace guards put him on the ground with pistols drawn.

gerry said...

The left is puzzled why the right doesn't want Obama dead.

The left, after all, clamored for, prayed for, and made motion pictures about Bush's demise. Maybe those on the left need to reflect upon their hate?

Rusty said...

Hagar said...
Remember when the Queen of England woke up in the night with a strange man sitting on her bedside?
And the Queen, made of sterner stuff than the Washington press corps, kept her head and just had a nice chat with the man about the cost of maintaining all those castles and the difficulty of hiring competent help these days?

And the time when someone dressed as Batman scaled the walls of Buckingham Palace in broad daylight and in front of God and all those tourists?
And they finally just talked him down?

And I'm willing to bet more than one security operative lost their job.

Anonymous said...

And I'm willing to bet more than one security operative lost their job.

When they move in public, the close in protection is SAS, and I suspect they have a liberal set of ROE given their heritage and the Provos

Drago said...

DanTheMan: ""Of course, I'm 100% motivated by in this assessment by white animus, as Crack will explain below, I'm sure."

Dan, simply wait for Betamax3000's take on it. It will be lightyears beyond anything crack could come up with.

damikesc said...

The Secret Service was effective because people THOUGHT they were extremely competent.

Losing the mystique of competence is going to make their job far more challenging.

And, yeah, why hasn't Obama shit-canned anybody over this?

Apparently the SS is comprised of Republican voters.

Willing work with/for somebody they disagree with and not bitch?

Yup, wouldn't be Democrats, clearly.

I can't help but think there is a broader significance in the decline of the Secret Service. However careless we may think Obama is with the fate of the country, however hostile we think he may be to the fruits of the Enlightenment, it's quite another thing to accuse him of being careless with or hostile to his own safety.

If nobody is turfed over this, then no, he is being careless about security also.

Is this incident his fault? Good lord, no. The RESULTS of this incident are on him, though. Heads should roll. People should cease being employed.

Can we agree that anyone who says "I take full responsibility" with regard to an egregious failure should be summarily dismissed? If you take full responsibility, you're fired.

No. They should resign. It should even get to "You're fired". If you take full responsibility, you quit because you did your job terribly.

Only recently has "I take full responsibility" meant "I don't take any actual responsibility or negative repurcussions for my failure."

Bruce Hayden said...

think he understands American slavery already, so you'd have to try something else,...

Why do you say that? His official Black father was African, and not a descendant of American slaves. More likely a descendant of slave owners who sold other Blacks into slavery to Muslims to transport here as slaves than actually slaves themselves. Unless you subscribe to the rumor that the actual father of OHB II was a certain American terrorist/communist long under surveillance by the FBI.

I have always found this attitude by so many Blacks hard to understand. President Obama probably has less experience being and living as a Black in this country than almost any other (part) Black putatively born here and old enough to be President: (Officially) not descended from American slaves; Raised in multiethnic Hawaii where he attended an exclusive prep school; Being raised almost exclusively by his White relatives; Etc. In short, raised much more as a dusky White than a light skinned Black.

furious_a said...

The left is puzzled why the right doesn't want Obama dead.

Cynically, because every day President Tee Time and his administration stumble through yet another off-teleprompter display of rank incompetence, weaponized bureaucratic malice and back-and-fill blame-storming is yet another demonstration of the failure of Blue State governance writ large.

Plus, Joe Biden.

The Crack Emcee said...

Paul,

"Get a life crack. Get a job, get a family, and get off crack."

Why don't you just say "Be a Mormon" and get it over with?

Brando said...

Looks like Pierson resigned. They need a shakeup at SS.

The Crack Emcee said...

Bruce Hayden,

"Why do you say that? His official Black father was African,..."

Which is all racists see - man, you guys give yourselves away so easily - ignoring Michelle's heritage, or even his white mother from Kansas who married the African.

Just that his daddy's from Africa - so racist it screams "RACISM!" with every word.

"I have always found this attitude by so many Blacks hard to understand."

Which you'll never admit when I tell you that's the case,...

Brando said...

"The left is puzzled why the right doesn't want Obama dead."

Why would they want him dead? If anything the Left should want him dead. He'd be far more valuable to them as a martyr, especially considering he's not really good at actually getting things done that they want.

For the Right, he's managed to energize their base, even while his initiatives either fail completely (card check, raising the minimum wage, carbon emissions law) or pass in such incompetent form that it basically advertizes the reason to keep the government out of things (Affordable Care Act).

Plus of course President Joe Biden, who is the same reason no one will impeach Obama.

Anonymous said...

The SS Director resigned

The Crack Emcee said...

Just saw it on Facebook:

A knife-welding man can enter the White House, but a black boy can't go to the store without getting killed by the cops,...

tim in vermont said...

"Just making shit up. Troll." - ARM

You are right, I can't find the original comment, I do find my reply, but I am pretty sure it was to Revenent, not you.

Curious George said...

"The Crack Emcee said...

A knife-welding man can enter the White House, but a black boy can't go to the store without getting killed by the cops,..."

You forgot:

The black boy was an adult, and went to the store to rob it, and while doing so roughed up an old woman, and then when assaulted a police officer, breaking a bone in his face, and then when confronted again went to attack the officer.

tim in vermont said...

Curious George, Do you really think he cares?