When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do? -- John Maynard Keynes

Saturday, April 28, 2012

The Secret Service and Strippers--Not Secret Anymore

"Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?"

New Secret Service scandal centers on strippers,... | www.kirotv.com: "Seattle-based Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne (KIROTV- CBS- COX MEDIA GROUP)  just returned from El Salvador, where he interviewed a U.S. government subcontractor who worked extensively with the Secret Service advance team (snipers, K-9 and explosives sweeps) in San Salvador prior to President Obama’s trip there in March of 2011.The eyewitness says he joined about a dozen Secret Service agents and a few U.S. military specialists at a strip club in San Salvador a few days before President Obama and his family arrived in El Salvador to meet with its new president, Mauricio Funes.This source witnessed the majority of the men drink heavily ("wasted," "heavily intoxicated") at the strip club. He says most of the Secret Service "advance-team" members also paid extra for access to the VIP section of the club where they were provided a number of sexual favors in return for their cash. Although our source says he told the agents it was a "really bad idea" to take the strippers back to their hotel rooms, several agents bragged that they "did this all the time" and "not to worry about it." Our source says at least two agents had escorts check into their rooms. It is unclear whether the escorts who returned to the hotels were some of the strippers from the same club.   These alleged incidents in El Salvador occurred a full year prior to recent revelations that secret service agents used prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, on a presidential trip this month. . . .  "

While President Obama is  apparently in denial about the extent of the systemic problem obviously present within the Secret Service--

President Obama slow jams the news with Jimmy Fallon - The Washington Post: "“The Secret Service, these guys are incredible,” Obama said, according to the White House press pool report on the interview. “They protect me, they protect our girls. A couple of knuckleheads shouldn’t detract from what they do. . . . "  A couple?

Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, appears entirely clueless and inept:

Prostitute scandal posed no risk to Obama: Napolitano | Reuters: "Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano assured senators Wednesday. "There was no risk to the president," Napolitano told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in the first public questioning of an administration official since the scandal broke. Napolitano said that a review of Secret Service records showed no similar episodes of misconduct that might have warned of brewing problems at the agency. The Office of Professional Responsibility has looked back at two-and-a-half years of complaints and found "there was nothing in the record to suggest that this behavior would happen," she said."

Really Secretary Napolitano? You mean an investigative reporter (see above) knows more about malfeasance within the Secret Service than you do?

I wonder how much in "taxpayer funds" were used to pay for strippers, etc., for Secret Service Agents and U.S. "military specialists" in their "escapades" in foreign lands?  Maybe Representative Issa and his committee will find out--

Rep. Issa: Secret Service scandal could 'lead to blackmail' [video] - Los Angeles Times: "Issa, the chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has already pledged to monitor the allegations that members of the Secret Service and U.S. military were caught with prostitutes during preparations for President Barack Obama’s visit to the Summit of the Americas."

   

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