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classicman

11-27-2009 09:15 PM

Party Crashers met Obama

Quote:

WASHINGTON – The Virginia couple who crashed a presidential dinner met President Barack Obama in the receiving line, the White House said Friday, as a "deeply concerned and embarrassed" Secret Service acknowledged its officers failed to check whether the couple was on the guest list.

The White House released a photo showing the Salahis in the receiving line in the Blue Room with Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in whose honor the dinner was held. Obama and Michaele Salahi are smiling as she grasps his right hand with both of hers as her husband, Tareq, looks on. Singh is standing to the left of Obama.

The Secret Service earlier this week had said the president was not in danger because the couple — like others at the dinner — had gone through magnetometers. But in light of their close proximity to the president, no such claim was made Friday.

The Salahis were not on the guest list and should have been prohibited from entering last Tuesday's dinner on the White House South Lawn for the prime minister of India, said Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan.

On Friday, Sullivan was apologetic in a written statement, saying the agency that protects the president is "deeply concerned and embarrassed" that procedures were not followed.

"As our investigation continues, appropriate measures have been taken to ensure this is not repeated," Sullivan said.

Wow - How the hell does that happen? I bet a few heads are gonna roll for this one.
Link

Quote:

The couple was swept by security at that point but no longer had to show identification once they were in the White House, a source familiar with the procedure said.

The Virginia socialites then walked by a crew of photographers and reporters about 45 minutes before the dinner started, posed for pictures and then likely went upstairs to the reception. The White House said they were never seated at the dinner.

Criminal charges against the couple, who posted pictures of themselves posing in the tent on the South Lawn with chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel, are still a possibility.

"We are not ruling anything out we just need to let the investigation proceed," Mackin said. "We need to verify and make sure we talk to everybody involved."

Mackin stressed that the couple was swept for weapons, yet Ronald Kessler, author of "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect," said a metal detector search couldn’t offer full protection.

"There are so many ways to kill a person other than coming in with a weapon," Kessler said on CNN. "Once they were in, they could have grabbed a knife and put it through the heart of the president."

Link

ZenGum

11-27-2009 10:23 PM

Well, that makes me feel a bit better about our incompetence at the APEC summit a while back.

TheMercenary

11-28-2009 06:53 AM

If it wasn't such a serious security breech it would be pretty funny. They could have hit Obama with a pie to make it more profound.

Griff

11-28-2009 07:42 AM

This helps make the point that security is mostly illusion.

Spexxvet

11-28-2009 07:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by classicman (Post 613006)

Wow - How the hell does that happen? ...

It's a vast right-wing conspiracy, I tell ya!:rolleyes:

TheMercenary

11-28-2009 07:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Griff (Post 613107)

This helps make the point that security is mostly illusion.

I don't know. Good security is about a game of chances. I don't think you can ever achieve a zero chance of eliminating danger, but you can get pretty close and should be when talking about the President. It could have turned out tragically if someone had a more nefarious intent.

skysidhe

12-01-2009 09:27 AM

I am just catching up with this today from the net.
Today's headline about this includes other information that this couple had been to other functions, uninvited, where Obama was speaking.

The story raises more questions than answers then and if this fox news story is true then I wonder what that the game is. They act as if they are being set up? I somehow doubt that.

I am prejudiced against Fox and it's affiliates but here is the statement anyway.

WTTG-TV, the Fox affiliate in Washington, reported on a similar incident a month before, in which the Salahis sneaked in through a back entrance to a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Awards dinner at which Obama spoke. A guest complained that the couple didn't belong at his table.
"I double-checked my (guest) list and when they weren't on that list we escorted them out," a foundation representative, Lance Jones, said in an interview early Tuesday.
The Salahis insisted that they had, indeed, been invited to the Black Caucus dinner, saying they'd gotten the invitation from the Gardner Law Group.
The Salahis' lawyer, Paul Gardner, is the managing partner of the Baltimore law firm, which handles corporate and entertainment law. A message left early Tuesday at the law firm was not immediately returned.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_uninvited_guests

xoxoxoBruce

12-01-2009 10:08 AM

The White house needs me, to strip search all the female attendees.
No, boob jobs shouldn't have a fuse.:headshake

glatt

12-01-2009 10:14 AM

The Washington Post has been reporting on this every day since the dinner. This couple's hobby is apparently to meet as many famous people as possible. They have wormed their way into meeting a lot of important and famous people. The Post ran a few pictures of previous celebs they have met. I think Prince Charles, Huey Lewis, and one or two others I can't remember.

If you dress the part, and act confident, you can bluff your way through a lot of situations. The Secret Service screwed up, but there was never any real danger. They had to go through security to get in.

classicman

12-01-2009 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glatt (Post 613916)

The Secret Service screwed up, but there was never any real danger. They had to go through security to get in.

From the original post . . .

Quote:

Ronald Kessler, author of "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect," said a metal detector search couldn’t offer full protection.

"There are so many ways to kill a person other than coming in with a weapon," Kessler said on CNN. "Once they were in, they could have grabbed a knife and put it through the heart of the president."

lookout123

12-01-2009 03:46 PM

Quote:

"There are so many ways to kill a person other than coming in with a weapon," Kessler said on CNN. "Once they were in, they could have grabbed a knife and put it through the heart of the president."

he said wistfully.

casimendocina

12-01-2009 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lookout123 (Post 613989)

he said wistfully.

Would the world really want Bush as president again?

The Opposition leader has just changed here in Australia. I wasn't a fan of Malcolm Turnbull, but I'm even less a fan of Tony Abbott (even if he does surf).

richlevy

12-01-2009 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lookout123 (Post 613989)

he said wistfully.

He must be a huge Biden fan.

Elspode

12-01-2009 08:01 PM

You know what pisses me off? That reality TV, and the chance to be on it, is so much more important than even the facade of security at the White House. Do these fuckers give a shit about anything other than their chance at fame and fortune? Nope. Not even a little bit. In fact, they're more than happy to lie through their teeth until such time as someone slaps them down for their trouble.

People suck.

richlevy

12-01-2009 08:43 PM

What's really annoying is when asked if they were invited, the couple said that they are 'working with' the secret service.

Sort of like how Bernie Madoff was 'working with' the SEC.

ZenGum

12-01-2009 09:19 PM

Oh come on, no terrorist would say something like that. They must be okay. :right:

classicman

12-06-2009 09:55 PM

Quote:

Michaele and Tareq Salahi face a subpoena from the House Homeland Security Committee after skipping Thursday's hearing on how they passed through Secret Service checkpoints to crash President Obama's Nov. 24 state dinner and ended up shaking hands with him.

The Democratic chairman of the panel brushed aside a request from the ranking Republican to issue a subpoena forcing social secretary Desiree Rogers also to testify.
» Click to enlarge image
Lynn Sweet.

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told the House panel that three Secret Service officers who failed to stop the Salahis have been placed on administrative leave with pay.

Throughout the hearing, Sullivan took the blame for the breach, saying the Secret Service -- not Rogers' operation -- was responsible for security. The Salahis were not stopped -- but should have been, Sullivan said -- at the first of two checkpoints when the Secret Service officer on duty could not find their names on the guest list for the dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife.

Instead of following the protocol -- to call a supervisor who would touch base with the social office -- the officer let the Salahis continue, and they sailed past a second checkpoint.

"I mean pure and simple. This is a human error. We could have the best technology, we could have had all the funding that we'd ever want, but this still would not have prevented this from happening," Sullivan told the committee. He said Obama was never in any danger and this was an "isolated incident . . . due to just poor judgment."

The Salahis are the subject of a criminal investigation in an incident that embarrassed the Secret Service. Even though the Secret Service last week said the breach was its fault, the White House on Wednesday issued new guidelines calling for a White House staffer to be with each officer checking people in for parties, to catch party crashers. Sullivan testified that Rogers' office did have personnel roving the area, but his officers made a mistake by not contacting them.

Sullivan was the only witness. Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said he would ask the committee to subpoena the Salahis. The White House blocked Rogers from testifying -- asserting it was a separation-of-powers issue -- but that did not stop several lawmakers from criticizing her for not having more staffers working more closely with the officers. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who invited Rogers to testify, said he wanted the committee to also subpoena her. Thompson rebuffed King's bid as Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) argued that Rogers' office was not responsible for security -- the Secret Service was -- and that dragging her in as a witness was "muddying the waters."

I would think this transparent administration would have . . . oh nevermind. This is just another reason I hate politicians.

ZenGum

12-06-2009 09:58 PM

Quote:

Throughout the hearing, Sullivan took the blame for the breach,

For that, I'd let him keep his job.

ETA: This time.

classicman

12-16-2009 01:42 PM

Quote:

WASHINGTON (AP) - It wasn't a state dinner, and they didn't crash it on purpose.

Still, a Georgia couple who showed up at the White House a day early for a tour somehow wound up at an invitation-only breakfast with President Barack Obama and the first lady. It left the White House once again explaining how people who were not on an event guest list wound up being ushered into the presidential mansion anyway.

The improbable adventure of Harvey and Paula Darden, Obama supporters from Hogansville, Ga., took place on Veterans Day, two weeks before Virginia socialites Tareq and Michaele Salahi infamously crashed the Obamas' state dinner for the prime minister of India.

The Dardens mistakenly showed up a day early for a tour scheduled through their congressman.

The White House and Secret Service both said the Dardens went through the appropriate security screenings and were allowed into the breakfast as a courtesy because there were no public tours the day they arrived.

That explanation was news to Harvey Darden, 67, a retired pharmacist, who said he and his wife never were told about the breakfast. They thought they were simply starting their tour until they were ushered into the East Room, offered a buffet spread and told they'd be meeting the president.

"The further we got into the White House, the more surprised we were," Darden told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "My wife looked at me and I looked at her, and I said, 'You know, I don't know if we're in the right place.'"

They approached a White House aide with their concern that they had veered off course but were told to "just go with the flow," Darden said.

"I felt kind of funny because I was the only man in the room that wasn't dressed in a coat and tie," he added. "I was just a plain tourist."

Link

They sound like a nice couple.

Sundae

12-16-2009 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by classicman (Post 618088)

They sound like a nice couple.

Silvio Berlesconi should have been so lucky....:smashfrea

classicman

01-04-2010 10:05 PM

Third Gate Crasher Emerges

Quote:

WASHINGTON -- A third person attended President Barack Obama's state dinner in November without an invitation, the Secret Service said, raising new questions about White House security procedures.

The Secret Service said Monday that it discovered the breach during its probe into security problems at the dinner for the Indian prime minister. A Virginia couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, were earlier found to have entered the event uninvited and are currently under investigation.

According to the Secret Service, the third individual had traveled from a local hotel, where the official Indian delegation was staying, and arrived at the dinner with the group. It said the individual "went through all required security measures" at the hotel with the rest of the official delegation, and then boarded a bus or van with the group to the White House. The Secret Service said it had no indication that the individual went through the receiving line or met with the president or first lady.

Rahul Chhabra, a spokesman for the Indian Embassy in Washington, said the individual wasn't a member of the Indian delegation and that the Indian Embassy "did not arrange his access" to the dinner. The Associated Press quoted a State Department official saying the individual was a U.S. citizen who was with a group of Indian business leaders before the state dinner.

The discovery of the third uninvited guest who entered the White House event spotlights another potential weakness in the White House security protocol. The Salahis entered through the main entrance along with other individual guests.

On Monday, it sparked some finger-pointing among federal agencies, with the Secret Service statement noting that the Indian delegation had been "under or the responsibility of the Department of State."

Typically, the State Department submits names of members of official delegations meeting with the president to the Secret Service for vetting. Members of such delegations could then enter the White House without having to show an invitation.

A person familiar with the investigation suggested that the State Department apparently mistakenly let the individual join the Indian delegation. He said the Secret Service was taking greater control of security procedures involving official foreign delegations.

A State Department spokesman said the incident was under investigation, and declined to comment further. The White House declined to comment.

Link

Oops

classicman

02-27-2010 09:15 PM

NEXT

Quote:

WASHINGTON (AP)—A White House aide says Desiree Rogers is resigning her post as social secretary, effective sometime next month.

Rogers recently came under criticism for her handling of the administration's first state dinner. A celebrity-seeking couple from northern Virginia got into the exclusive Nov. 24 affair on the South Lawn without a formal invitation, despite heavy White House security.

Rogers later acknowledged not having staff from her office at security checkpoints to help identify guests. Lawmakers had demanded that she testify to Congress about her handling of the event. The White House would not allow it.
The White House aide spoke on condition of anonymity because a formal announcement had not been made.

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