The secretive Secret Service
Why did it take so long for this story to come out?:
An armed man who jumped the White House fence this month made it far deeper into the mansion than previously disclosed, overpowering a Secret Service agent inside the North Portico entrance and running through the ceremonial East Room before he was tackled, according to a member of Congress familiar with the details of the incident.
The man, Omar J. Gonzalez, who had a knife, was stopped as he tried to enter the Green Room, a parlor used for receptions and teas, said the congressman, Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah, the Republican chairman of a subcommittee looking into the security breach. Earlier, Secret Service officials indicated that Mr. Gonzalez, 42, had only made it steps inside the North Portico after running through the door.
That wasn’t the only error made, not by a longshot. There were multiple slip-ups of basic protocol. What on earth is going on?
Well, there’s one thing going on, but you have to read deeper into the story to spot it:
Although the protocols call for an officer to be standing outside the North Portico door, there was no officer there as Mr. Gonzalez made his way up the steps. The officer who was stationed inside the door failed to lock it after an alarm was sounded that someone had jumped over the fence, the official said.
“At all times there is supposed to be someone at the outside and the inside of the door,” the official said. “The intruder was running so fast that he gets right past the woman who didn’t lock the door. She tries to catch him, and eventually she and another officer tackle the man to the ground, but by that time he was pretty far in.”
Excuse me but: WTF? A woman is stationed in a position where it could easily be expected to be sometimes necessary to physically tackle an intruder? I remember when Secret Service agents in such positions were burly men who looked like bouncers. This is no place for an affirmative action hire.
It also may or may not be relevant that a woman, Julia Pierson, is the current head of the agency. A woman director could certainly be competent in such a position, but it would have to be a very experienced and savvy woman to effectively direct a group that consists predominantly of men. Pierson is relatively new to the job; she was appointed in March of 2013 by President Obama, after the agency’s prostitution scandal.
More:
In addition, Mr. Chaffetz said a system designed to alert agents that a breach of security was in progress apparently did not work as intended, allowing Mr. Gonzalez to surprise the officer at the door. Mr. Chaffetz said that he was told the “crash box” had been silenced or muted at the request of White House ushers, who had complained the boxes were too noisy.
And then there’s the coverup:
In its initial briefings, the Secret Service did not inform the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency, that the intruder had made it so far inside the White House, according to an official familiar with the conversations…
White House officials also did nothing in the last week to correct the impression that Mr. Gonzalez had been stopped just inside the front door of the building. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, was asked repeatedly about the incident in the days after it happened and did not disclose the extent of the breach.
I can understand the motivation for not publicly disclosing how far this went, although I don’t agree with the decision. It could certainly be argued that it could further compromise security to let the entire world know how incompetent the Secret Service has become, and how easy it was to get that far inside the White House. But not telling the DHS? That’s absolutely unconscionable, if true.
Pierson is reported to be about to give a statement to the effect that the incident was unacceptable and will never happen again. It was much worse than unacceptable, however. And of course it won’t happen again, at least not exactly that way. But something similarly bad may happen again, or even worse, because these problems with the Secret Service seem deep and systemic.
This is hardly the first recent breach of a serious nature. In 2011, shots were fired that penetrated the president’s residence, and they weren’t responded to properly or in a timely fashion. The investigation of that incident was bungled as well.
Here’s more on the very recent incursion and how the coverup was uncovered. To learn the bigger story required whistleblowers:
The more detailed account of this month’s security breach comes from people who provided information about the incident to The Post and whistleblowers who contacted Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the oversight panel’s subcommittee on national security…
And those crash boxes that were turned off? They are very important aspects of the system rather than tangential ones:
The alarm boxes, which officers call “crash boxes,” are key pieces of the agency’s first-alert system, according to former agents and officials. If officers spot an intruder, they are trained to hit the large red button on the nearest box ”” sending an alert to every post on the complex about the location of an incursion and piping sound from that location to other boxes around the property.
On whose order were these turned off? And will that person be fired?
The article goes on to say the boxes were making the extra noise because they were malfunctioning. They couldn’t be fixed instead of turned off as a result? What actually happened is akin to disabling a smoke alarm because it’s beeping to let you know the battery’s dying. Turning an alarm off is not a solution—but hey, we can’t expect the Secret Service to know that, can we?
[NOTE: Read the whole thing and you will find multiple incidents of incompetence in the 2011 incident which are truly shocking, even if you think you’re already cynical and distrustful enough.]
[ADDENDUM: The agent who tackled the intruder? Off duty, just happened to be in the neighborhood; he hadn’t left yet for the night.]
[ADDENDUM II: Watching Fox News just now, I see that it’s being reported that no one was fired or reprimanded for the 2011 incident’s mishandling, and so far there’s no talk of anyone being fired for this one. It sounds as though the self-esteem movement has come to the Secret Service.]
Just wait- the next person at that door will be in a wheelchair with a white cane.
This is an administration that appointed the execrable team of John Kerry, Jen Psaki and Marie Harf as the public faces of the state department and Eric Holder as Atty General. Why should we expect competence in any other govt department?
To what extent has the safety of this president and recent past presidents been based on the myth of the deadly competence of the USSS? I suspect bad actors who had discounted any attempt based on that myth may now be thinking that it isn’t such a difficult task.
“Why did it take so long for this story to come out?”
Really and from the most transparent administration…
These aren’t ‘errors’ they are consequential results from a now dysfunctional agency, part and parcel of PC run wild in the federal government. Which makes this exactly the place for an affirmative action hire.
Appearance above all else, competency a distant consideration and a perfect reflection of the man pretending to be a President.
The fish rots from the head down.
These people (beginning at the top with the President) are amateurs across the board. This is what happens when you bend the culture to facilitate PC notions rather than principles and merit. Benghazi and all that it exposed is just more of the same. The only thing that matters is that it looks as though things are being taken care of and addressed. Just like the legislation that gave us Obamacare could not possibly have been read and properly debated, outcomes are not important. Only the present. Reminds me of how drug addicts think.
Lucky no suicide bomb vest.
GB-We both wrote essentially the same thing at the same time.
kaba,
The rot started with Clinton. But receded with Bush. Then flared into full bloom with Obama. Why would anyone think that the SS wants to protect either Obama or Biden? So they do their jobs, ‘working to the minimum’. It is ever so in any dysfunctional org. The DHS, under which the SS falls has the lowest morale of any federal department. I strongly suspect that is because the rank and file KNOW they are being prevented from protecting America by their bosses and this administration.
neo,
The current head of the SS was appointed by Obama, has no field experience whatsoever and was the prior head of the SS’s chief of staff, she’s an administrator. Since she has no field experience, it’s all ‘theory’ to her and thus gets no respect as a professional. Her assurance that “it won’t happen again” is proof positive that she’s in over her head, as it demonstrates her unwillingness to admit to the systemic problems but then, neither can Obama or his administration face that reality.
Sharon W,
The reality of an issue stands on its own, we all have the choice to recognize and acknowledge it or not. To the degree that denial harms others, to that degree do we stand culpable in the consequences of that denial. Many Americans have much to answer for and their culpability grows every day.
Geoffrey Britain:
I had read that Pierson had many years experience with the agency. I assumed that some of it was as part of the president’s protection staff. This profile says that “Ms. Pierson began her career in the Secret Service as a special agent assigned to the Miami and Orlando field offices.” It doesn’t say what she did, but it does mention prior to that she was a police officer in Orlando. At least that’s something in terms of practical experience rather than administrative experience.
The Republican party, as usual, is passing up a great opportunity to point out that the “border” to the White House is just as porous as the border with Mexico.
“This is no place for an affirmative action hire.”
I beg to differ. Placing, if only inadvertently, this Manchurian candidate president’s fate in the hands of – what is admittedly at this point only suspected of being an incompetent AfAct positioning – is, or would be, an instance of redounding karmic perfection.
Kind of like when a terrorist bomb maker is blown up by his own work.
neo,
I did some more research and it does appear, at least on paper, that she does have considerable field experience. If so, my mistake. That said, her predecessor had numerous SS scandals on his watch and her job was to return the agency to competence. This latest incident is prima facie evidence that, after nearly 6 years as head of the agency, she has utterly failed.
In fairness, given the PC already mentioned with this administration, no one might have the wherewithal to succeed.
Geoffrey Britain:
I was about to let you know that she DOES have field experience, as I discovered from a bit more Googling. But I see you’ve already discovered it yourself.
But she’s only been head of the agency for a year and a half. She was appointed in March of 2013 (as I believe I wrote in the post).
Ah. I continue to get the details wrong re: Pierson (sincerely, thanks for the correction) but am consoled in getting the underlying dysfunction right.
We’re using the SS to complain about the inadequacies of the Obama crowd? Are we nuts? Chafetz et al. are going to protect the Evildoers from their own inadequacies?
Yeah, I know, I know: it’s important for when we get another good man as POTUS. So we are going to use the Left’s stupidity and laziness to further strengthen the Imperial Presidency?
Truman used to take daily walks down Pennsylvania Ave. among the citizens, with only one SS guy along. In my lifetime. Now Baraq goes to dinner on the Vineyard and shuts down most of the island. We have spent over a billion bucks just on flying him around.
Don Carlos:
If presidents acted as they did in Truman’s day, every single one of them would probably be killed in office. That’s reality, and you need to accept it and not wish for a bygone time of greater innocence and safety.
Unless you think that one assassinated president after another is the price we have to pay. I certainly don’t want that to happen.
By the way, those bygone days weren’t quite as innocent as we may remember. Truman himself came extremely close to being assassinated. White House police officer Leslie Coffelt was killed defending Truman. Coffelt was a true hero, “Though mortally wounded by three bullets, Coffelt returned fire moments later and killed one of the attackers with a single shot to the head.”
The surviving would-be assassin was sentenced to death, but Truman commuted it to life imprisonment, and in 1979 Carter “commuted Collazo’s sentence to time served, and granted the man release. Collazo returned to Puerto Rico, where he died in 1994.”
I happen to think that trying to assassinate the president and killing a policeman guarding the president deserves more time than that.
Oh, and of course FDR was nearly assassinated, too, and Mayor Cermak of Chicago died in the incident.
You must be wrong Neo. Washington Post reporter Carol D. Leonnig makes no mention of the sex of the overpowered officer.
However the recounting does make it clear that the intruder was a “former army veteran” whatever that means.
See? Nothing there at all indicating a physical liability. The “former army veterans” are just that overpowering when matched up against the Secret Service or the decorative police or whatever or whomever it is that guards His The Oneness.
See for yourself: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-intruder-was-tackled-by-off-duty-secret-service-agent/2014/09/30/052fb86c-48b4-11e4-b72e-d60a9229cc10_story.html
DNW:
But somehow the information made it into the Times.
“Why did it take so long for this story to come out?”
Maybe it’s just a coinkydink that Obama needs a distraction from his ISIS incompetence right now.
Which isn’t to say that it doesn’t need reporting on, just that the timing is a bit convenient.
I read elsewhere the agent who tackled the guy was off-duty and there for some other reason.
“This is no place for an affirmative action hire.”
This administration will have set back affirmative action decades at least.
“Pierson is relatively new to the job; she was appointed in March of 2013 by President Obama, after the agency’s prostitution scandal.”
If it was an affirmative action hire, that’s probably at least part of the explanation: prostitution scandal, offended feminists, placating gesture.
This Administration is filled with second-raters and, its feckless and incompetent leader is, apparently, more interested in golf, partying and vacations, admiring his greatness in the mirror, and listening to the sound of his own voice than anything else.
So, what else besides incompetence did you really expect from this crew?
It seems that “job security” is part and parcel to all the employment regulations that have crept into our Republic over time. No firings following the 2011 incident, no firings following Benghazi? I guess we have reached the point where expectation and performance do not correlate to continuance of employment. As I look at the road repairs in our area, I often think, if this kind of work was done in the 1970’s, the people involved would have been fired. More evidence of a rotting Republic.
Neo: I knew that history; perhaps others don’t.
But I fear you miss my point, which is the GOP too appears to be moved to enhancing (by protecting & safeguarding) the Imperial Presidency, not just the Left.
My point about Truman is how fast–just a few decades–the curve of decency has been shifted, that a President must at all times be protected against his own people. This has been achieved principally by the policies and works the Left, the same Left that likes open borders sans any pretense of security, that bears at least partial responsibility for all violence against Presidents since Lincoln (excluding Reagan’s shooter, who was just nuts). The Prez, the Elite of the Elites, must be protected at all cost, but you peasants not so much.
But maybe it’s just me who’s nuts.
Don Carlos:
I don’t see safeguarding the president’s life and safeguarding the imperial presidency as one and the same.
It’s true that the former leads to more isolation from the people, and that can further the latter. But they are not inextricably entwined, and at any rate there is no turning back from needing that sort of protection for the president’s life.
Neo: “I see that it’s being reported that no one was fired or reprimanded for the 2011 incident’s mishandling”
Was there a reassignment off the President’s security detail at least?
Ms. Pierson said she took full responsibility for the screw up. If she is not fired or demoted, her statement is meaningless.
Yes it is an affirmative action hire. Making life fair is a high priority.
Don Carlos — don’t forget the brilliant decision by the Supremes in the Pennhurst case, which held you could no longer involuntarily confine the mentally ill unless they pose an imminent danger to themselves or others.
What’s imminent? What’s danger? Nada!
Y’know, gang, I care if something untoward happens to President Hopenchange, because I would genuinely hate for his two young daughters to suffer. That is the only reason I can bring myself to care. (Note that I am omitting First Lady Hopenchange from my caring horizon.)
And that’s all I have to say about that.
Well, this president and his cabinet left fellow Americans to die in Benghazi – so, maybe, just maybe, this isn’t incompetence.
Maybe it is more like “he ain’t got our back so we don’t have his.”
Is it cynical of me to think that Barry and his family are getting exactly the caliber of protection they deserve? The kind of protection given to someone who thinks a vague wave with a hand clutching a styrofoam cup is an appropriate response to a uniformed military salute?
One would hope the Secret Service, and the armed forces for that matter as well, would be serving a higher ideal than the Obama reality. But they’re only human, and humans under craptastic leadership (not just that of Barry himself but of everyone he’s appointed/surrounded himself with) will hardly turn in stellar performances.
As a young boy, the idea that Secret Service had people who actually threw themselves in front of bullet for a President gave me the kind of awe and respect that no adult needed to explain further.
I’m sorry the agency has fallen from grace, no matter who is President.
And people still think the US military and the Leftist alliance, under the command of these clowns, is undefeatable in war. Hah.
Self defeating defeatism out of people who lack the Will for war, as always.
Most security personnel started out as bouncers and doormen. It’s not a profession that’s based on credentials. They know how to handle crazy people not because some Ivy League wannabes trained them, but because they had to figure it out on their own or be put into the hospital.
Btw, the Left will execute black women with children for trying to back out of a concrete barricade in DC. But the Left’s minions can’t even stop crazy “Omars” from penetrating through. This is your country, you know.
If the Islamos could get enough Se[]tex across the US Mexican border, via tunnels, they can just walk into the White House and plant their flag.
What is Going to Stop Them?
Isn’t “Omar” an odd name for someone with the surname “Gonzalez”?
Just asking.
If Pierson had any integrity, she’d resign.
She just did.
By “most”, I refer to the competent ones. The ones that didn’t go through hard knocks practical school, tend to be rather wishy rashy on the performance platform.
Ymarsakar: “And people still think the US military and the Leftist alliance, under the command of these clowns, is undefeatable in war.”
Democrats and Left activists are not the same thing.