State Dinner Crashing

Forums: Politics, President Obama, Secret Service
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Quote:

State dinner crashers greeted President Obama

By Jason Horowitz, Roxanne Roberts and Michael Shear
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, November 27, 2009; 5:43 PM

Getting to the president is supposed to be tougher than this.

According to a White House official, Michaele and Tareq Salahi, the couple previously best known for auditioning for a Bravo reality television show, not only got through various Secret Service checkpoints at Tuesday night's state dinner but also went through the receiving line and personally greeted President Obama. Their high-profile home invasion penetrated the most vaunted security apparatus on Earth, and the Secret Service issued its apologia on the subject late Friday

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/27/AR2009112702650.html?hpid=artslot

I am now officially concerned about the quality of the Secret Service, about their ability to protect the President.

we have over the last 5 years had reports of too many quality people leaving the force, it is time to take this problem seriously.

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Type: Discussion • Score: 7 • Views: 2,910 • Replies: 49

[+3] - djjd62 - 11/28/2009it appears to be another case of home grown terrorism, a wide spread group called Re Ality TV, apparently much like Fal Acon and his father these folks wanted to subvert the minds of the American...

Some Secret Service heads will, no doubt, roll.

0 Replies

What I am wondering about is this: They got in. They mingled. But at some point they would sit down to dinner at an assigned table. There were no seats with their names attached. How did they make that happen?

1 Reply

@realjohnboy,

they departed at that point, the point was made, dinner was not required.

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

oh. I didn't know that.

1 Reply

@realjohnboy,

Apparently they just went through the receiving line, shook hands with the prez, were photographed and escorted out.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/27/state.dinner.couple/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn

That link has a photograph of the couple.

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Okay. Many people are invited for the reception, but only a much smaller number are invited to actually chow down.
My mother had tea with Bess Truman, by the way.

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Maybe if they had been a arabic couple they would have been stopped.

Perhaps there has been a over estimation on the effectiveness of profiling.

The couple was the very status quo attractive white pair.

T
K
O

1 Reply

@Diest TKO,

Diest TKO wrote:

Maybe if they had been a arabic couple they would have been stopped.

Perhaps there has been a over estimation on the effectiveness of profiling.

The couple was the very status quo attractive white pair.

T
K
O

The man's name was Tareq Salahi. That sure sounds middle eastern to me. His wife was named Michelle, so I shall assume that she was not middle eastern.

The point is that there is a vulnerable hole in the presidential security, that you could drive a truck through.

1 Reply

@Phoenix32890,

I was mostly making a jest. I've only seen photos. This is a pretty bad example of presidential security.

T
K
O

0 Replies

it appears to be another case of home grown terrorism, a wide spread group called Re Ality TV, apparently much like Fal Acon and his father these folks wanted to subvert the minds of the American populace with more bad television

we must stop this threat to world peace (of mind)

1 Reply

I expect Secret Service to begin testing its own security
as is done at airports, with imitation boms smuggled in.

Years ago, I was on my way to a dinner for the Governors of NY
and NJ, inter alia. I was requested to take a box of printed materials
to the dinner. I did. I did not know where to put the box.
I asked the NY State Troopers who were on-the-job for security,
who pushed a curtain aside for me to go thru. I was dressed in
an ordinary woolen 3 piece suit, with no badge displayed.
I kept asking around where to leave the box.

No one knew nor cared. (This was well before 9/11/1.)
I coud easily have left it under the dining tables on the raised dais.
No one had looked inside the box. There coud have been a bom in there.

David

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The couple might have been assassins. They weren't, but only by luck, and they got right up to both the president and the vice president. What's the Secret Service for? It's a pity, but people should be fired over this. If the agency doesn't protect the president, then they have no reason to exist. Everyone culpable for this incident should be fired at once.

1 Reply

@Brandon9000,

Brandon9000 wrote:

The couple might have been assassins. They weren't, but only by luck,
and they got right up to both the president and the vice president.
What's the Secret Service for? It's a pity, but people should be
fired over this. If the agency doesn't protect the president,
then they have no reason to exist. Everyone culpable for this incident should be fired at once.

I don 't agree about firing them.
Maybe thay were only keeping their service very secret.
This incident may cause all of them to be motivated to improve
their service. Firing them woud be pointless naked vengeance.
I am willing to be merciful.
Forgive and forget, I say.

David

1 Reply

Was Nancy Pelosi in attendance at the party ?

0 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

Brandon9000 wrote:

The couple might have been assassins. They weren't, but only by luck,
and they got right up to both the president and the vice president.
What's the Secret Service for? It's a pity, but people should be
fired over this. If the agency doesn't protect the president,
then they have no reason to exist. Everyone culpable for this incident should be fired at once.

I don 't agree about firing them.
Maybe thay were only keeping their service very secret.
This incident may cause all of them to be motivated to improve
their service. Firing them woud be pointless naked vengeance.
I am willing to be merciful.
Forgive and forget, I say.

David

A case of negligence so severe must have serious consequences. The fact that they weren't assassins was nothing more than luck. What kind of message would it send to other agents if dereliction of duty so extreme were punished only with a slap on the wrists?

1 Reply

A practical concern here should be that those people who might be crazy enough to try and kill a/the President might feel emboldened to try given the example this makes.

I'm not saying they would be successful, but it's not like we need a bunch of attempted assassinations either.

T
K
O

0 Replies

@djjd62,

djjd62 wrote:

it appears to be another case of home grown terrorism, a wide spread group called Re Ality TV, apparently much like Fal Acon and his father these folks wanted to subvert the minds of the American populace with more bad television

we must stop this threat to world peace (of mind)

Hear, hear!!

0 Replies

@Brandon9000,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

Brandon9000 wrote:

The couple might have been assassins. They weren't, but only by luck,
and they got right up to both the president and the vice president.
What's the Secret Service for? It's a pity, but people should be
fired over this. If the agency doesn't protect the president,
then they have no reason to exist. Everyone culpable for this incident should be fired at once.

I don 't agree about firing them.
Maybe thay were only keeping their service very secret.
This incident may cause all of them to be motivated to improve
their service. Firing them woud be pointless naked vengeance.
I am willing to be merciful.
Forgive and forget, I say.

David

Quote:

A case of negligence so severe must have serious consequences.
The fact that they weren't assassins was nothing more than luck.

No, no, no; don 't be so gloom n doom about it.

Quote:

What kind of message would it send to other agents if dereliction
of duty so extreme were punished only with a slap on the wrists?

Relax; its not that important.

David

0 Replies

The question of whether they should be fired or merely reprimanded is moot. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that some, at least, will get the axe.

0 Replies

State Dinner Crashing

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