That links here:
One of 11 elite agents assigned to ensure President Obama’s protection at a summit meeting in Cartagena, Colombia, was busted after his lady of the evening refused to leave his hotel room in the morning without her fee.Quite aside from whether prostitution is legal, whether anybody's married, and whether anyone is ripping anybody off, I don't see why Secret Service agents are engaging in any kind of partying at any time during at trip like this.
That woman was one of 11 hookers hired by the agents.... An expert on the Secret Service yesterday said that, although the agents involved in the scandal were not breaking Colombian law, most of them are married and could have been exposed to blackmail.
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71 comments:
Given that the story is coming from the Obama administration, you'll forgive me if I wait awhile to become outraged. Perhaps Obama has something to say to "Oogo" and the first team is not simpatico with his philosophies.
Quite aside from whether prostitution is legal, whether anybody's married, and whether anyone is ripping anybody off, I don't see why Secret Service agents are engaging in any kind of partying at any time during at trip like this.
I would never have the security of the President compromised in any way, but maybe they were doing this becuase it's government, after all, and they probably brought along three or four times as many people as was necessary to do the job at hand.
Human beans are corrupt. And it's not that the private sector is free of corruption. It's just that public sector corruption knows no bounds when the religion of the limitless benevolent state holds sway, as it does now.
Besides the fact that there will undoubtably be some reference to these things starting under the Bush Administration, not good, very not good.
The Secret Service hides their costs from us, supposedly in protection of the president. We aren't told how many agents go on a trip, how much they spend, or what their decision making process is. It's just...all expenses are fair in protection of the president.
It's the perfect way to foster corruption like this.
Putting aside the issue of "married men," this is just normal young men behavior. It is possible to work ten hours, do everything you were supposed to do, then go out, party, whatever.
I guess they could be reading a Nook, or commenting here.
Good job! End your careers because you were too cheap to pay for hookers in a 3rd world country. Enlisted men who make lots less money somehow manage to be able to pay for their hookers, but not these clowns.
Idiots.
Let's see--they sent 25 Secret Service Agents down to protect the President's daughter while on her vacation in Oaxaca. How many guys does it take to guard one young girl?
Surely there's some time off in a crew of 25 people. And I suspect that at least some of the crew in Colombia (or wherever these guys are being sent home from) trained under Billy Jeff Clinton. Sort of a case of "monkey see monkey do" as it were.
Boys will be boys.
Now some of you will say that calling these guys boys is somehow dismissive. You are right.
This should be career ending but won't be.
I don't see why Secret Service agents are engaging in any kind of partying at any time during at trip like this.
They know the job and what matters to it.
Attention peaks are higher if you're not at peak attention all the time.
Hence also jokes in the cockpit.
Never try to stiff a hooker.
Putting aside the issue of "married men," this is just normal young men behavior. It is possible to work ten hours, do everything you were supposed to do, then go out, party, whatever.
I've done the Protective Services mission for high ranking Generals. You don't pick idiot party boys for your team. And when you DO party, you keep it Top Secret.
By the time you have worked your way up to a Presidential Security gig with the Secret Service, you are supposed to be professional and experienced enough to know how to party AND keep it out of the news.
If anything, you pay the hookers MORE to keep them on your side and out of the news. This was Felony Stupid and 'boy will be boys' doesn't cut it. They made all of their comrades look like dopes for less than a tank of gas.
Was that $47 that would have been expensed or a personal $47?
Either way the guy is being responsible, either for not expensing it or for saving the taxpayer money.
Joke: How do you make a hormone?
Sgt
You're right of course. But, does not make it any less normal young men behavior. Look what guys like Clinton and Edwards risked. They weren't the security, they were the secured.
But national healthcare will run beautifully.
The State is not run by angels.
Laws are not written by angels.
Enforcement is not meted out by angels.
Our forefathers recognized that, and so designed a small government.
But FDR knew better.
The GSA bacchanals and the Secret Service whoring are just the beginning.
Once the State owns 1/6th of the economy, the corruption will accelerate.
I'm surprised that she didn't ask for the money up front instead of waiting until she was leaving. Have TV and movies mislead me again?
I was wondering if this was some sort of rebellion against Dictator Zero, but Insta says this has been going on longer than that.
Tank said...
Putting aside the issue of "married men," this is just normal young men behavior. It is possible to work ten hours, do everything you were supposed to do, then go out, party, whatever.
This is one of those jobs, as Ted notes, where your partying is strictly off duty, and I would assume that to mean in CONUS in your own home and completely after hours, etc.
PS Since Insta notes this goes back 30 years, wonder how many diversity hires are involved.
Yes, it is normal young man behavior that we also insist they show an uncommon amount of restraint from engaging in, being in the positions they hold.
This isn't "just about sex".
This is a classic Espionage 101 tactic; use sex to compromise security and gain access to secrets.
Any of those hookers could be a spy looking for blackmail material by fucking the married security agents of the POTUS.
And really, Professional Security Service, either Military or civilian, should NEVER use the amoral sexual activities of sociopathic politicians as their excuse to be idiots themselves and compromise their whole team for sex.
Althouse - you need a tag called "Govt Gone Wild".
“I had a breakfast meeting to discuss trade and drugs, but the only thing the other delegates wanted to talk about was the story of the agents and the hookers,” chuckled one Latin American diplomat.
Is it really that funny? Only if someone you hate is the butt of the joke. Even though Obama has a Nobel, they all still hate us. Thanks for nothing, loser.
SGT Ted; You are correct. It would appear that there is division among the managers of the Secret Service. I would hazard that there is a GSA mentality in the Secret Service that separates the old heads from the young turks who believe they are entitled as compared to the old-head professionals. Sounds like a set-up to me as an effort at house cleaning. There are liberals in the Secret Service and military who are held in low esteem by the people who know better. REMF ring a bell? Olangapo ca. 1968.
I would hope our next president, or the one after that, will have the balls to cut the Secret Service budget by about 75%.
That is what it is going to take to bring these bozos back to earth.
Rome crumbles
When Monica was servicing Bill, part of me was outraged and considered it dereliction of duty. The other part understood that the physical release of sexual tension could well keep him from ordering military action that might not be in America's best interests.
If the Secret Service had better funding, this wouldn't have happened, right?
Besides they probably thought, "Why should presidents have a monopoly on having hookers?"
vet66,
What's your Avatar, a 4-6-6-4 Challenger with a centipede tender?
They couldn't get jobs with the GSA??
"I'll never be under OIG investigation"
36; Correct. Shot westbound for Phoenix between Red Rock and Wymola stations. Retired after 42 years on the railroad in 2008. Those locomotives never get out of your blood. It was an Arizona Centennial Special.
vet66,
Very interesting. The Challengers and Big Boys were certainly awesome machines.
Being a Pennsy fan I have a fond spot for the GG1.
Regards.
If we don't already, we should have special forces units comprised of hot hookers. They appear to be unstoppable.
If a male soldier is in a foxhole and then in jumps a hooker brandishing her "weapons". He's toast. A single elite member of the hooker squad could decimate an entire unit of men. Imagine an army of them.
Of course the weakness of my plan is that the enemy may develop a Flavor Flav unit.
I dealt with the uniformed Secret Service on a daily basis from 1983 until 1991 at the Executive Office.
They were, basically, not a lot of fun to deal with. We would have to clear in visitors via an appointment with the SS. They would frequently "lose" our appointmentments, and we'd have to put the appointment in again while our visitor cooled his heels at the front door for about 30 minutes.
Well, they probably did this nonsense to the wrong honcho once too many times and the EO had a computerized appointment system put in (around 1988-89, I think). SS gave you an appointment number, so if they lost it, everyone knew where the blame lay.
We were always assured that the plain cloths men that protected the President were of a higher caliber, but I never had to to deal with them, so I have no experience. I just always felt like the uniformed SS acted like they could do no wrong, in spite of the fact they frequently did.
36; they had to switch the AC unit and extra tender to the rear of the train at Picacho account tonnage restrictions going across the Gila River trestle. It was a fine day of train watching. Keep up the good work in the Pennsylvania area. I have a photo of my wife in the engineer's seat on the Big Boy when it went through Eugene, Oregon years ago. The firebox looked like the front door to the gates of hell.
This is right in my professional wheelhouse.
The Secret Service Agents violated everything they were taught the first day about counter-intelligence. How not to put yourself in compromising positions, by not drinking too much and not whoring around or developing love relationships with foreign Nationals of any kind.
This is what the screening process when you hire or set up your team tries to weed out; idiots with no self restraint. Obviously too much "good ol' boys" going on in the Secret Service.
All of these guys/gals have Top Secret Clearances, as a routine matter. They just lost their clearances and thus their careers. For punanni.
Good. We found out we had some idiots in important positions who need to go flip burgers, instead. After the 15-6 investigation.
How many times have these guys been compromised before they got caught?
Deborah; Rumor has it that while Monica was servicing Bill one day one of his staff asked through the closed door if it was okay to bomb a factory in Sudan. When the aide heard Bill cry out "Yes, Yes, Oh GOD yes" they took that as an affirm and bombed the factory which was producing baby food. Could have happened...
@Sgt Ted,
And just think about how much it cost the Feds to get that whole whoring crew of guys clearances!
What's the cost now for a TS clearance to the Feds? I'd bet 30 - 35K for the first investigation & prob. about 10K for the 5 year follow-ups.
Multiple that by the number of agents involved.
Oh, vet66, that was awful. How's life in the magical mystery RV?
John Lynch said...
This should be career ending but won't be
===============
Why should that be career-ending? Are you a man-hating feminist or a Santorum wannabe?
1. Prostitution is legal in Columbia. The latinas there are beautiful. No local law was broken save perhaps "disturbing the peace" - and that was a dispute between one hooker and one SS "john".
2. To argue that the Secret Service must forgoe eating, sleeping, recreational downtime to stay awake and alert doing nothing but protecting the President and other VIPs for 96-120 hours straight is flat out stupid.
Save for "all hands" mustered, when the Prez is on the move or a threat emerges - the security people, like everyone else in a critical group job - works in shifts. Otherwise, you have exhausted zombies with lowered alertness.
3. Other federal employees overseas - diplomats, military, commerce officials, trade groups, etc., etc. - are hardly immune to the charms of not just Columbian latinas but pussy for sale globally.
I am sure the Secret Service people's lawyers will happily point this out. Not to mention any whores Obama's staff or Hillary's staffers have gone to...if push comes to shove over terminating them or disciplining them when no laws were broken.
In a sense, it would be huge fun to see fired Secret Service agents break the "omerta" and start shovelling the dirt on every illicit adulterous tryst or use of male or female prostitutes going back to when they started working the detail in the Clinton days.
It's time for a revamp of the "Secret Service." This wasn't the first incident of this type, to be sure. It's just the first to be publicized. It can't have been a secret to everyone. Someone is covering up.
Plus the gate crasher incident at the WH party, while blamed on some poor social secretary, was ultimately a Secret Service responsibility.
Obama passed on using the gate crasher as a spur to take a hard look at SS. He should not pass again.
Problem is, these agents have a lot of confidential information about this President and his team, and about former presidents as well. Expect some major hardball to be played.
SGT Ted said...
Good job! End your careers because you were too cheap to pay for hookers in a 3rd world country.
....
Ted said...
This is right in my professional wheelhouse.
The Secret Service Agents violated everything they were taught the first day about counter-intelligence.
All of these guys/gals have Top Secret Clearances, as a routine matter. They just lost their clearances and thus their careers. For punanni.
=========================
Given I was in the military and had a chance to see what US diplomat staff, 0-3 and above military, and government delegation members do in several countries overseas...(not to mention enlisteds, and us lowly 0-2s and warrant officers) I question SGT Ted's SHOCK!! and OUTRAGE!!! Not to mention his "professional wheelhouse" knowledge.
And question his prediction that patronizing legal hookers will cause a loss of top secret clearance and jobs.
I'd like to use this forum to again express my gratitude to Charle Sheen for getting involved in a sex scandal with good looking women. When we finally get to see pictures of the $47 hookers, this scandal will seem more sordid and far less salacious. The most common response to the Clinton, Strauss-Kahn, and Edwards scandals was WTF: you risked your career and reputation for that. I'm sure that Berlusconi survived as long as he did because he at least chose good looking women to make a fool of himself with....We all relish a good sex scandal, but, please, nothing involving Eleanor Roosevelt.
@Cedarford,
There's a big difference between the expected behavior of an ordinary citizen & one possessing a TS clearance. You know that!
The behavior of the SS agents was simply not consonant with the responsibilities of their office. It has now embarrassed the US government, and it put them in a position to be compromised.
What they did may be "legal", but they should have their clearances yanked. No TS -- No job!
And some asshole amongst them was so stupid he's put the whole crew at risked by pissing off a hooker for $47! Just how stupid are these guys!?
Deborah; That was tacky. LOL. Couldn't resist. The RV is ready to go with a full tank of diesel ($500), carpet cleaned, wood oiled, stocked and ready to go. Next magical Mystery tour will be to the Grand Canyon as soon as the RV parks open. Morning photo shoot and lunch at the El Tovar Lodge. Just snowed here in Tucson and the Grand Canyon. When the weather clears we are gone with a side trip through Flagstaff and Sedona. Thanks for asking...
The Secret Service has been known for its hard-partying culture since the JFK assassination.
I'm not shocked at all. That doesn't change my point or invalidate it one bit.
That Cedarford and all his comrades were idiots when it came to security doesn't surprise me, nor does his sneering about not doing his basic job; OPSEC. I expect that sort of attitude from the State Department civilian idiots. But, the Military side is supposed to be more squared away.
That Cedarford couldn't be bothered to obey those simple rules doesn't make it ok. But, he openly brags about his lack of professional conduct as an officer and violation of routine OPSEC rules, because "everybody else was doin' it." Good Lord, make the stupid stop.
Its fun to laugh as long as the buck stops with them.. not with POTUS..
in·flu·ence noun.. 1 the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others..
Its impossible to test my hypothesis.. but that's not going to stop me from making it, raising it, preaching it and smoking it.
This would have never happened in the Bush 43 White House!
Period.
No doubt in my mind that the Obama irresponsible laissez faire ( management, along with the party all the time atmosphere of the WH, were the leading contributing factors that led to these unfortunate events.
But we cant say that because everybody, well mostly everybody, is afraid of being marginalised by the race card Obama holds.. like a nuke.. there is not even a thought that he is going to it.. having it is victory manifested.
FU Obama and your race card.
Cody Ross just hit a three run homer.
That Cedarford couldn't be bothered to obey those simple rules doesn't make it ok. But, he openly brags about his lack of professional conduct as an officer and violation of routine OPSEC rules, because "everybody else was doin' it." Good Lord, make the stupid stop.
=====================
I know the difference between myself and an anally retentive martinet like SGT Ted, now going off in a self-righteous lather about this.
Get the job done, and done well. Maintain leadership and unit cohesion. There are regs that were overlooked by my SGT, I knew it, because he told me at least 1/3rd of the time what was going on that needed to be done to get the mission accomplished and the guys safe and in good spirits. Very important during the Gulf War...
About the only time I personally told an enlisted to shut up and go away was over a militant anti-gay out on a witch hunt against a discrete, but gay, top performer in my group. It helped the anti-gay was a total fuckup.
SGT Ted apparantly never learned what are hard and fast rules we had to have zero tolerance on, and what was chickenshit stuff having nothing to do with operational security, the mission, or flouting the UCMJ. My "expectations" from command were quite clear..do everything to keep the CO happy, the "gods" of air and satellite recon back in the states happy, the Naval Air and logistics liasons happy, any Saudi or Brit or French presence happy.. and the morale of the troops up.
In my experience the foibles of the Secret Service (and Diplomatic Security) agents tend to show through over the course of a long day once they settle in. They travel a lot, get lonely and like to party. I was taken aback when a female DS agent kinda hit on me to go out for drinks later with the male agents egging it on. We were surrounded by soldiers with machine guns in their backpacks waiting for Nelson Mandela to arrive when he toured the US right after his release from prison in South Africa. WTF?
Even the elite plainclothes members of the president's detail, at least in my experience during the Clinton period. Uncertain chain of command. Disgruntled older agents who hate the low status positions they are assigned by the preening upstarts, etc.
Just before the 1996 election and Monicagate, I watched Clinton (seated next to Ted Kennedy) ogle Don Henley's female backup singers at a John Kerry fundraiser. With them seated right in front of the stage, Henley had to notice their attention was off to the side and what the dog was up to.
Later, one member of the Secret Service detail (not in charge, but just seemed bossy) approach the female singers backstage -- not at Clinton's request, but on his own initiative. He recounted that he saw how they caught the president's attention, gave them his business card and told them they should drop by the hotel as the president was in town for the night.
For their part the female singers kind of said, yea sure.
Anyway, Clinton crossed the White House lawn from his helicopter at about 5am the next morning to deal with something in the Middle East, so I don't think anything went on.
Lol, I know :)
Keep us posted with pictures.
I think the crime was not venality but avarice. If you're getting the services of a competent professional for $47, what's the point of trying to bargain down on the price. Placed in such a circumstance, I would gladly overtip in the hope that the lady would find a way to recompense me for my generosity. Bonus rounds are not unheard of in such situations, and pleasant working conditions are just as pleasant for the employer as the employee. At any rate, if their judgement in such an elemental situation was flawed, perhaps one can look askance about their judgement in other areas of life.
Incompetence. Moral laxity. You're fired.
Secret Service positions are tip top. No man who isn't tip top himself may fill one.
Political institutions rot from the head down, When the head is totally corrupt and gets away lying about everything all of the time, then those under him will do the same. It's like gravity.
I'd just go with plain stupidity, Freem. $47 sounds like quite the bargain, to me.
Given their job, you'd think they'd put adequate value on keeping the servicing secret.
But just like with Clinton, the act is less important than the potential leverage...that err..comes out of it. Maybe the elite training needs a chapter from Jocelyn Elders.
By the way, the $47 bit seems a bit hard to believe. But the agents opened themselves up to this kind of thing and much more. Think DSK.
Nice. We wont trade with them but we will come down and fuck their women at a discount. Columbia has been our ally in this region through some tough times and this is how they are rewarded. What kind of scum doe we have working for us, "protecting" us?
Yes, Michael. The agent who refused to pay thought he was engaging in "free trade". But fear not, the economy was duly supported through purchases of food and booze.
Can we get a ruling from Ms. Rosen if these hookers are engaging in real work???
"Given I was in the military"
Right, playing Top Gun in your flophouse room. That's why you can't see a problem with not one, but a whole gang of SS agents getting caught with hookers.
They were just trying to bring back some of those good Colombian STDs as a present for their wives and fellow countrymen.
C-Fudd:
My "expectations" from command were quite clear..do everything to keep the CO happy, the "gods" of air and satellite recon back in the states happy, the Naval Air and logistics liasons happy, any Saudi or Brit or French presence happy.. and the morale of the troops up.
No mention of HUMINT? STFU.
My "expectations" from command were quite clear..do everything to keep the CO happy, the "gods" of air and satellite recon back in the states happy, the Naval Air and logistics liasons happy, any Saudi or Brit or French presence happy.. and the morale of the troops up.
I'm sure the foreign nationals around you were very happy. You and your team were easy marks. Either they knew you were a useless, puffed-up douchebag, or they were collecting on you like mad while smiling to your face the whole time.
The expectations of your command were quite clear - and they involved CI and HUMINT countermeasures. Obviously, you have no idea how that game is played. Foreign intelligence services are playing chess and you're playing Hungry Hungry Hippo, dumbass.
They do background checks for TS clearances for a reason. At the grown-ups table, they actually know how HUMINT is done, and how people get to our troops. We know it because we find them out once in a while, or we get to some of theirs the same way.
If they had truly gotten to one of your troops, dipshit, you wouldn't know about it.
But keep on preening and strutting like an ignoramus. Just don't do it in my command.
Nice post, Jason. C-fudd maintains his perfect record of being exposed as a fraud *every* time someone responds who has actual knowledge of the what Fudd claims in his BS "experience".
But I can understand why Fudd is sympathetic, since he's never had sex with a woman he didn't have to pay for.
Around every single military base in the world there whorehouses. They need sex and will look f or it. They are not in 24 for 24 hours service.
That is a reality of life. And a choice men d and deserve respect
Finally, a plausible explanation for why the secret service caved under Ken Starr's special prosecutorial pressure.
The Secret Service wouldn’t have this problem if they only recruited from the ranks of the Unsullied.
No mention of HUMINT? STFU.
Exactly. C-Fudd just revealed himself for the dud he was as a Commissioned Officer. What he did and got away with in the desert in a line unit has no bearing on a Presidential Security Detail and the expectations of not putting themselves in compromising positions with foreign nationals. This wasn't a pack of Boot Privates with a Junior Officer from a line unit on pass being stupid. This was an Presidential Security advance team, sent to neutralize security threats for the POTUS. Groping and short changing hookers wasn't part of the mission. When I did PSD, we always saved the party for after mission.
I love being called a "martinet" for obeying basic OPSEC/ CI/ HUMINT Rules for that sort of detail.
If C-Fudd can't tell the difference, no wonder he never got past O-3. Most strap hangers at least make Major, before they pop smoke. If you get out as a O-3 usually, it was because you were a dud.
Around every single military base in the world there whorehouses. They need sex and will look f or it. They are not in 24 for 24 hours service.
That is a reality of life. And a choice men d and deserve respect
The whore houses are how we separate the wheat from the chaffe when it comes to picking guys for TS missions. If all you can think about on your off time is getting your noodle wet from potentially diseased female strangers, chances are, you have other charatcer flaws that will keep you off that mission as too risky.
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