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Subscribe to RSSAfter a Colombian prostitute complained to police that members of the Secret Service hadn't paid her, a unit was replaced and flown home. NBC's Kristen Welker reports.
Updated 8:30 p.m. ET: The U.S. Secret Service put 11 employees on administrative leave Saturday as a congressman briefed on the situation gave details of their night with "presumed prostitutes" ahead of President Barack Obama's trip to a Colombia summit.
See the updated story here
Earlier, the Secret Service recalled a dozen personnel preparing for President Barack Obama’s arrival at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, after allegations surfaced that some may have brought prostitutes back to their hotel rooms, according to media reports.
Also removed from duty were five military service members assigned to a joint task force to assist the Secret Service members, the United States Southern Command said Saturday.
Ron Kessler, who wrote the book, "In the President's Secret Service," told NBC News that he had learned that Secret Service personnel brought prostitutes back to their hotel room. They typically stay in the same hotel as the president, NBC News reported. He said that most of the 12 recalled officials were involved in the incident.
Kessler said authorities found out about the incident after a prostitute filed a complaint that she wasn't paid. Kessler said that police then alerted the State Department, which then alerted the White House and the Secret Service.
The service members were staying at the same hotel as the Secret Service agents who were recalled, according to a release from U.S. Southern Command. The personnel are still in Colombia, confined to quarters and under orders not to speak with each other. They will return to the U.S. on Sunday.
The unit was replaced by other agents, which was possible because the service overstaffs on international trips by bringing more agents than needed should one become ill, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The dozen Secret Service personnel sent back to the United States from Colombia were part of agency's Uniformed Division and not part of the president's immediate security detail. NBC's Kristin Welker reports.
General Douglas Fraser said this behavior is “not in keeping with the professional standards expected of members of the United States military.”
The Secret Service employees had arrived about a week before Obama touched down and stayed at Cartagena's Hotel Caribe, according to The Associated Press. A hotel employee told the AP that they had been drinking heavily throughout the week. Several reporters and White House staff also had rooms booked at the hotel.
Obama arrived in Cartagena, a port city, on Friday and attended a leaders’ dinner that night at the city’s historic Spanish fortress. Thirty-three leaders from the Americas are gathered at the summit to discuss economic policy, trade and immigration. The president was scheduled to hold two days of meetings before heading back to Washington Sunday night.
Word of the allegations leaked out Friday. The Washington Post reported that former Post reporter Jon Adler, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, said the accusations relate to at least one officer being involved with prostitutes in Colombia.
Twelve members of the U.S. Secret Service have been excused from President Obama's trip to Cartagena, Colombia, amid speculation that misconduct involving a prostitute occurred. The Washington Post's David Nakamura joins MSNBC to discuss the situation.
Adler told the Post that the entire unit was being recalled for investigation.
He later told the AP that he had no specific knowledge of wrongdoing but had heard the accusations related to prostitution. Although prostitution is legal in Colombia when conducted in “tolerance zones,” soliciting prostitutes is considered inappropriate by the Secret Service, according to the Post. Additionally, the Post reported, several of the agents sent home are married.
Cartagena has a history of problems with sex trafficking, Politico reported, and there are nongovernmental organizations dedicated to the issue, Politico reported.
Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan would not confirm that prostitution was involved, saying only that there had been "allegations of misconduct" made against Secret Service personnel.
The matter was turned over to the agency's Office of Professional Responsibility, which handles the agency's internal affairs.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.
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HOW OLD WERE THOSE GIRLS.........That's what we need to know.
old enough to know better
8 before they were 7!
I agree that this is an embarrassment and a demonstration of moral decline in an environment that should maintain a high level of professionalism. An ugly mark on the Secret Service who most serve under distinction. I don't think it is the President's fault directly. But, 17 vacations since being in office, (once every 2 months average), could add to decline in professional standards over time. Perhaps yes, perhaps no- the secret service is always on the job so it probably is just a few bad apples. I think the media might have performed a random act of journalism, however. How does it feel on the Left to have the tables turned on a story that really has not much to do with the President but can be twisted to be blamed on him? It kind of sucks doesn't it?
Well a women scorn!! they should of paid her wages due and all this would of been legal in Columbia lol
Besides it is Columbia, how much would it have cost anyway. Or maybe she didn't take American Express (he,he, that is funny within its self). Get it, American Express. Oh, my!
tomorrow only on fox news the president hires prostitutes for the secret service.only on fox and family
hannity is going to have a ball with this one?
Fox news is going to be on this like a fat kid on a cup cake...to try and put blame on Obama
There is no way that a black man should be running this country !!! He is not smart enough to run a dog kennel !!!
oh so you are..i mean you can run a kennel right
bet you cant wait until fox news huh are you the fat kid with the cup cake
Tommy was it Bush or Cheney running the USA?..oh sorry destroying the USA
Every republican knows that blacks are stupid, Muslims are stupid, gays are stupid and women are stupid. It's in their handbook.
hahahaha
If these guys did this on their own time and money; so what. Our Commander and Chief works 24/7 around the clock and really does care. Is He suppose to know what off-duty Guys are doing; I don't think so.
Give me a break of men partaking in the oldest profession. They have and always will. It has nothing to do with conducting Government and the Cause for the Common Good.
We all should measure our own Morals.
Yes, Eve charged Adam 3 apples to do the deed. That's when it all started.
Look it is just plain bad not to tip for good service. But not to pay at all is a slap in the ( ) fill in the blank. This would not happen on the usual Mormon body guard watch. There are lots and lots of Mormons in the Secret Service, CIA, FBI, and many other gov. law enforcment agencies. They usually have no problem passing the drug test. And have no criminal history. For real check the facts.
oh yea ..tell that to Jimmy swaggered..the PTL club remember those christian people
oh a brother Payne..just because one belongs to a Church don't mean his zipper wont open
Oh, Elvis it opens very well in reguards to populating the Earth. It just knows where home is. The moral qualities adopted are , say just more. And yes people were born human before being born again in water. Also 99% of those Mormons in the justice system did two years as missionaries, then went to BYU, or BYUI and recuited right out of College by Gov. hirees. Many Mormons have been protecting the Presidents for a long time. Probably over 100 years. Check history. Interesting little know fact!!
all religions have been doing that and none religious people
obama ( lower case ) can't even spell or write his own speeches. He was voted in for ONE reason because he is BLACK !!! He has no background to even think about running this country.
you think he can borrow Bush's coloring book..
If he could save our gov. debt ridden azzes. I would not care it he wore a tin foil hat, had three eyes, and spoke with a India accent. We are reaching for someone that can turn this Country around. Someday, anytime now, lets not take too long, oh, Lord help us with a second comming soon or just kiss our tax slave butts good-bye.
Oh crap, my brother Payne has gone koo koo
You only think this because we have had so many black presidents. This is a form of logic shared only by those with an IQ south of 100.
My, my the secret service guy stiffed a prostitute
out of her just wages. Shame Shame.
It is not right to use the camel toe without paying.
I really can't argue with ignorance. Have a good fight.
waiting
MSNBC 'S Cover ----Attempt to show some negative coverage of Obama---but it isnt about Obama --
it needs to be about his radcal freinds/appointments/black panthers/etc. ect. but the liberial media once again got his back.they wont report anything negative on Obama but make up stuff against republicans and the white shooter of travon oops !! he wasnt white after all but Hispanic biased MSNBC and the BLACK PANTHERS owes America an apolagy
Marvin-2165440 - Obummer will get the title when he earns the title and as i see it right now Obummer has not earned anything but a ticket back to ILL,
as for the secret service taking women to their room will again if they respected this guy in the WHITE HOUSE then maybe they would not have done it , but you get what you sow, the only problem now is that Obummer is mad cause everyone is looking and now he can't pay for a real women to go to his room not like that ugly ho he left at home.
sorry bud this zipper thing..Obama will win.again
I would much prefer a hooker to the skanky blonde Gingrich was doing when he was married to wife #2.
bud, you are bad. Real bad. I love it! Besides, SS is protecting the biggest ho of all, at our expense. I see no problem.
Are you folks so naive that you think this is the FIRST time? Nope, it's just the first time they got caught is all. That angry black woman with the big hips better keep better tabs on her hubby - he might be playing hide the thingie with someone else....boys will be boys, right? I think this is a hoot!
Is it just me or do we have black super heroes now.
hey tea party coming soon super man will use his power and turn black and save the USA..scary huh..oh its Obama he is the super man he save us from a depression
What the right wing doesn't understand is that God made man in his own image. Earliest man was found in Africa. God is black. White people lost their skin pigment through a genetic defect. All racists are going to hell.
jim i am white..but yes i do believe Christ is black ..his legs were as bronze and his hair as wool.
I am also one of those who lost their skin pigment but it's something I just have to live with.
and alsoi never knew there were white pharaohs .because there were none..the Pharaohs took Israel as slave for over 400 years.black Pharaohs..took dark skin Jews as slaves
when i tell my christian friends it angers them because we were raised that all were white just look at the ten commandments that comes on every year on TV..moses married and Ethiopian..they are black
and also there are Ethiopian Jews..descendants from moses
Common sense will tell you the people in the Middle East are dark skin due to the hot sun which is the major reason. Being Jewish, you are a real whack job. No need to BS with all the other non sense.
I love hookers. I has spent over a million dollars on wives and $7.50 on prostitutes. And I've had more than one. At least one was for sure human and other probably was too. I was too drunk to care.
Sorry about the I has. I know it should have been I have but I just got back from a trip to Georgia and that's the way people talk there.
It only reflects on POTUS if he does nothing or says nothing about it. Is it clear the women referred to as prostitutes are doing this of their own free will? Or are they being forced by some thug or thugs in organized crime? If they are forced, it rises to the level of Human Trafficking. That and POTUS's response to possible human trafficking being encouraged by members of his staff, is the real story.
Carrying on the legacy of President Clinton. So whats new?
Talbott Gv- It was Bush's fault. Typical of the liberals to deny any wrong doings. This doesn't even involve Obama, so why do you people have to be so ignorant, negative, blaming the GOP, when they didn't do anything wrong. If anyone did anything wrong complain to the Secret Service. Liberals want to argue, just to argue. They argue, lie and deny anything and everything because they worry their ObamaBucks will stop coming. The time you need to worry, is when ALL the non libs stop working to bring money into the government. It's everyone else that supports you ignorant, uneducated, lazy, ungrateful people. "If you only had a brain!"
ps. As long as it didn't cost the taxpayers for them to get laid, more power to them. It's barry whose the biggest wh**e.
Obama was going to join the Military and Secret Service after the meeting, but Michelle Obama called the press on him!
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lmao.... she calls the cops when she doesn't get paid, they probably wish they paid those girls now LOL... i don't see what the big deal about this is, people do whatever on their free time and this was out of the country, plus they weren't hurting anybody... so...
If they didn't pay them, then they weren't prostitutes then were they?
anyone
WOULD have to be NUTS to want to put their penis in a paid for hole!
Whether it is paid for is not the issue. Some of the riskiest sex is with women who are not prostitutes. The legitimate question is whether or not people practice "safe sex", whether or not they are IV drug users, whether or not their sexual health is frequently tested, etc. The terms of the agreement between the sexual partner has very little direct impact on the risks.
Is prostitution illegal in Columbia?
It some areas, but not in others. It is illegal, however, to patronize prostitutes while travelling on behalf of the U.S. Govt.