Party Crashers met Obama

[ZenGum]

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

[classicman]

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]

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

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


ETA: This time.

[classicman]

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]

Originally Posted by classicman

They sound like a nice couple.

Silvio Berlesconi should have been so lucky....

[classicman]

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]

NEXT

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.