In Cartagena, Columbia, Secret Service agents, military personnel, journalists, and other White House employees had gathered for the Summit of the Americas. Unfortunately, the Summit has been overshadowed by allegations of misconduct from 11 Secret Service agents and 5 people with the U.S. Military. It has also been reported that at least two of the Secret Service members were supervisors.
“This is the worst scandal in the history of the Secret Service,” said Ron Kessler, the journalist who broke the story, on the Today Show on NBC.
The agents arrived in Columbia up to a week before President Obama and were staying at Cartagena’s Hotel Caribe. At the hotel, it is reported that the agents were drinking heavily, hiring prostitutes, having parties, and being a general disturbance to other guests. According to Kessler, the misconduct was brought to light when a prostitute refused to leave an agent’s room after a dispute over payment. The prostitute filed a complaint with local authorities who then alerted the State Department, which in turn alerted the White House. It should be noted that prostitution is legal in parts of Columbia.
Since the scandal hit the media, it has people asking “how was this allowed to happen?” and “how often does it happen?”. The Secret Service issued a statement that they “take all allegations of misconduct seriously” and that they will be launching a full scale internal investigation. They have also stated that the President’s safety was not compromised during this situation.
During Friday’s Summit, President Obama was to talk about immigration and trade, but was forced to answer tough questions about the scandal and stated:
“What happened here in Columbia is being investigated by the director the Secret Service. I expect that investigation to be thorough and I expect it to be rigorous. If it turns out that some of the allegations that have been made in the press are confirmed, then of course I’ll be angry.”
According to Kessler, this is deeper than men wanting prostitutes. He told CNN, “It goes back to a culture of laxness in the Secret Service… corner cutting. Just a lax attitude that contributes to this kind of thing.” The only other scandal that comes close to this is back in 2009 when Tareq and Michaele Salahi crashed a state dinner at the White House. Kessler also stated that “the Secret Service under Mark Sullivan, has gone from one debacle to another.”
This scandal has caused people to raise eyebrows at the Secret Service because it seems as if their focus is not on the safety of President Obama. With the safety of the President being questioned and terrorist threats at a high, there are now questions about the safety of the entire country.
Follow us on Twitter @HipHopEnqMag
