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Subscribe to RSSA 12th military official is now under investigation in the Cartagena, Colombia prostitution scandal. NBC's Kristen Welker reports.
The Secret Service scandal involving members of President Barack Obama's security contingent consorting with prostitutes widened on Monday amid several parallel investigations.
NBC News learned that another military member is now implicated in the incident, bringing the number of Defense Department staff who are under investigation to 12.
Six Secret Service employees have already lost their jobs and others are suspended as a result of a night out in Cartagena in which agents and other security personnel partied with prostitutes before President Obama's arrival on April 14 to attend the Summit of the Americas. Twelve Secret Service members are implicated in addition to the 12 military members.
"I think we can expect in the next day or so to see several more agents being forced to leave the agency," Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said Monday, speaking on NBC's "Today" show. King is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, which oversees the Secret Service program.
The 12th person, attached to the White House Communications Agency, has been relieved of his duties pending the outcome of an investigation, according to a U.S. defense official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The Secret Service has launched an internal probe — interviewing prostitutes, hotel personnel and others in cooperation with the Colombian police.
The Secret Service agents under scrutiny have been tested for drugs and those tests came back negative, NBC reported on Monday citing a source close to the investigation. This source said the polygraph tests were very helpful in the investigation and may have helped clear the one Secret Service employee last week.
In a letter to Mark Sullivan, director of the Secret Service, King demanded written responses by week’s end to 50 questions about agents’ alleged drinking and mingling with prostitutes on the eve of Obama’s trip.
King said his committee also had a parallel investigation under way.
He said the most important question was whether "any of those foreign nationals (prostitutes) had access at any time to any data or information that could have compromised the president of the United States or made an enemy force aware of the practices and procedures of the Secret Service."
King also said he wanted to find out whether the incident was part of a pattern. "Was it an aberration — something that happens once every 1,000 times — or something that is condoned?" King asked.
Meanwhile Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, speaking to reporters en route to Colombia for meetings with defense officials, said the Defense Department has suspended the security clearance of military members who are being investigated in the incident, the AP reported.
"My biggest concern is the issue of security and what could possibly have been jeopardized by virtue of this kind of behavior," Panetta told AP.
U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, weighs in on the Secret Service sex scandal, which has already resulted in six agents leaving the agency.
The White House also did an investigation to find out if any of its advance staff were involved in improprieties, but said Monday that they found no evidence that these personnel were involved, and said it was merely doing "due diligence."
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Give them a break! To be an S.S. agent in America is like expecting James Bond to take a chastity vow and 'behave' like some Catholic priest or the Pope!
These guys are supposed to be the most professional people we got. Real world is not James Bond move. I don't think anybody expect these guys to act like a saint or be a monk. It this really poor judgement that speaks volume. Any one of these guys could have take a vacation on his on time and do what ever he likes, but on the mission of this kind..
Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmm
How strange ..... previous reports allege that this was a night of drinking and carousing .... Alcohol is a drug ... or does the media or the Secret Service just not include it in "Their" personal list of "DRUGS?" Perhaps the statement would be more accurate if it stated "illegal drugs" Drugs are drugs .. and alcohol tops the list of "drugs" that people do stupid things under ...
Face the facts if these agents hadn't gotten involved in "DRUGS" they quite well might not have gotten themselves in this mess !
If these guys were in Congress, all they'd get would be a "censure." A joke.
Leave them be. Write them up, tell them not to do it again. Don't make them lose their job. Congress wouldn't.
The only thing secret about this whole secret service situation is who the agents were. Party boys for sure. America has become a laughing stock.
I doubt it any other country does this and it is just the everyday thing the news media in the United states makes a big thing of every peice of news that they find about the United States other countries are just given a day or TWO....
this was always going to ultimately turn partisan (along with all the republican witch hunts going on) and that's why its getting attention. unfortunately, it seems like quit a few police and other law enforcement types, including a few presidents of the United States apparently believe that laws don't pertain to them.
thank God for witch hunts!
Get more female agents on board of the Secret Service Agents. They are smarter and cooler and able to keep the zip up. They think clear, at least not thinking how to occupy the opportunity-day event, such as happy hour with prostitutes.
SO you think female agents won't use male escorts. I thought women wanted equal rights! Men let their zippers down the same way women let their skirts down. These guys were doing it with women, women do it with men, OK so may men won't talk as much! Maybe the women we get will do it with the women escorts that will make you happy? Women like sex just as much as men!
You need to make friends with a few Secret Service Agents, both male and female. Then you might arrive at the conclusion that these folks are just like men and women in your company, with ten times the stress.
I'm not judging I'm just saying adding female agents isn't going to make any difference, women have sex too.
"Women like sex just as much as men!"
No they don't. If they did, they would get in a lot more trouble over it, like men. Ever hear of Lesbians cruising the streets and the parks for sex? No, because they're women. Gay men don't cruise the streets and parks for sex because they're gay, but because they're men.
If straight guys thought that straight women were loitering in the park looking for anonymous sex, the traffic jams into the park would cause total gridlock.
Given the huge number of south american transgendered prostitutes, one might wonder how many of them were actually women. lol
POTUS - "If the allegations are true...I will be angry." NO word yet, after six firings/resignations and our being told to expect more, whether POTUS is livid, angry, steaming, a bit miffed or just enjoying a sunny day. I can wait. I'm still waiting for his "feelings" about AG E. Holder and the Fast and Furious fiasco, in which we can assume that guns across the boarder were used for distributing death.
That should be enough time for Mr. Uh uh uh Carney to come up with an appropriate "the White House knew nothing of what went on prior to Mr. Obama's visit" rebuttal.
Wait a minute....gotta wait and see how many White House "advance" team members were involved in a different hotel. Oh no, another egg in the face.
Maybe Mr. Obama will say...."hey, they would be acting just like my son."
lol, what, you expect an actual press conference or something for obama to say "yes, I was officially angry"? how silly.
people whined that nothing was done, now that people are being fired, now we're whining that he's not calling press conferences to officially express anger? :)
Verm, Republicans only believe something if it is in a press conference. Press Conference or it did not happen is their game. If they don't hear mum they assume nothing is being done. Kind of like the whole "Obama didn't do anything for the first x (varies upon who you ask) days of the BP spill!"
Yes, greenbear's comment made me actually laugh out loud. Picture a press conference held so Obama can look into the camera with a stern expression with the caption below. "Official Presidential Look of Disapproval" Don't forget your American flag lapel pin, Mr. President!
The scandal is wicking up from the bottom.
# 12 agent involved was staying at the same hotel as el presidente .
Can you say a " Berlusconi style " scandal.
Should be an interesting summer.
No ......The Pres. arrived well after this was done and over with . C'mon lets not get silly .
That's what the current story is.
except you are trying to finagle out of it that some how the Pres. was somehow involved. All that is in common is that they were at the same hotel.
Look people .....What if something were to happen to the President because these guys were chasing hoes around instead of doing there job? Which was to make sure everything was secure....... Then I suppose people would not be so quick to defend this behavior.
Then the Republican candidate wins by a larger margin than originally expected.
Look I'm not a fan of the of the guy .....but nothing good comes out of the President being harmed .
I feel sorry for their spouses! I wouldn't let them touch me ever!!! God know what they might bring home. And folks this ain't their first rodeo!!!! If you think it is, think again!
Prostitutes? Good thing we have Congress investigating.
Now that's FUNNY! Well played!!
right.....they know what they are looking for!!!!
How embarrassing for those stupid fools. I wonder how many of those prostitutes were actually "real" women? lol
Yeah, it's all the Republicans' fault that the SS can't keep their johnsons under control. Witch hunt? LOL! I'd love to see the shoe on the other foot - I'm sure the Dems would be properly decorous and forgiving. ROTFLMAO.
The two party (no pun intended) system is so badly broken it's pathetic, and all you trolls can do is throw partisan rocks at each other. What needs to happen is to clean house (White, Representatives, and throw the Senate in for good measure), then we can start peeling these corrupt, inefficient and wasteful agencies down to the bone. Harry Truman put his wife Bess in the car and drove home after his term; where the dickens are the statesmen today? Oh, yeah, I forgot; having their plumbing serviced, on our nickel.
Well said. Probably the smartest thing I have read in a comments section so far. I am not a government hater and I like our president, but one thing is for sure. . . . The system as it has been running is not working. I know a complete overhaul of our government is probably prohibitive in the short term (especially because it will likely be government employees doing it), but we should start taking steps to take the country back and get our government mess cleaned up. This is not going to be as simple as voting in a Republican, new Democrat, or even a Libertarian. Serious reform needs to be done. It will not happen overnight, or even in a few years, but in time maybe we can make it happen.
So we are going to fire people who in the call of duty, would take a bullet for the President to save his life? All because they partied and paid for sex before the President was in the country? Anyone who have ever been in the military knows this stuff goes on all the time overseas. The only real wrong doing was the agents refusing to pay the agreed upon fee.
yes we are and no we paid for the party!!!!
Is this what Obama calls stimulus money???
This is a typical American response (from most of the responders)....."Oh, it's just boys being boys".
I fully understand that this is a NEW generation that feels that they can do whatever they want.....I worked in a security detail years ago providing security for wealthy officials visiting the state department.
There were 27 of us, and we went through over 300 to get that professional 27.
The Secret Service is like any other govt. agency...Who you know, who you know,who you know.....Qualifications are second best at most.....Doesn't matter the party in power.
This is a management problem, not an agent problem.......Who was in charge of THIS detail?
Another connected political hack-thats who!
Keir Weimer believes this scandal should and needs to be fully investigated by a bipartisan panel or special investigator, and not simply by the entrenched Old Guard of both the White House and the Secret Service. Sure, face has been lost and damage rendered to each institution involved. However, we are not going to uncover the full truth unless someone without connection, from outside of either organization, conducts a thorough investigation into what happened in Cartagena, Columbia on that now-infamous trip.
Keir Weimer strongly believes that once this is done, faith and trust can begin to be regained and re-earned, and business can proceed again, with confidence in the system and the institutions.
-Keir Weimer
Is the president mad yet??
He assured us all that he would be really mad if all this was true.
LMAOAU
No laws were broken,the personel was off duty,all the festivities were consential, no spies in the beds, WHAT IS THE BIG DEAL? Sounds like a political dust up to me. Something for our reps. to worry about instead of the US (our country,jobs,seniors,debt,infrastructure,economy,education and the list is endless) Why do our represenatives worry about ballplayers,sex,lawfull drugs,accidental exposure, instead of real problems? GET OVER IT ,MOVE ON!!!
The News media of the United states can't move on, only if it had happened in another country would they forget it after a couple of days!!!!!!!!!!
you move on...like to Columbia....if you think this behaviour is okay from the Elite of the Elite! On our tax $$ never the less!
If your job is to take a bullet for the President, you should be able to get laid.
Do any of these men have wives/girlfriends? Twelve men - multiply how many times have they actually done such a thing - really put many women at risk. People in this forum have restricted vision, limiting the "harm" to just having some fun and not hurting anyone else.
None are so blind as those who will not see.
folks... look at the piece of shi- they are working for. oboma is the leader and he is a trashy liar so why are we condemning folks that work for him that are trashy liars.
they are following the so powerful oboma.
oboma liar-yes.... secret service liar-yes... they have seen how oboma twist things, why can't they do the same.
he has spent more money in the last 3 years than the last 10 presidents spent in the last 60 years.
he is a liar and a bully. these guys are following the example of a liar and a bully. why is so hard to believe that if you are around this for very long at all you start acting the same way he does.
they to are liars at this point. why ruin a new group of agents. let the same pieces of crap stay with their leader who is proven to be a piece of crap.
Honestly, I couldn't give a crap less about this. We have way bigger issues than secret service agents getting some from prostitutes. Bravo for them for being brave enough to solicit sex from dirty tramps. I believe this is a matter for their wives to handle. Not the government or the media to be blasting. This is pathetic news reporting. WHY IS THIS EVEN NEWS?!?!?!?! Men solicit prostitutes in other countries ALL THE TIME. COME ONE AMERICA. GAG. What about the starving, homeless, abused children, murders....can we get people to care about REAL problems in this country?
then why write a response if you could care less?
Because I'm tired of hearing about this stupid crap. This isn't news! Where are our priorities as a country?! We are so off the f'in right path here. Can we care about things that matter? Starving? Homeless? Stopping an unwinnable war?
Protect the president? Pretty soon we'll be down to Ralphie and his Red Ryder BB Gun.
Who gives a crap!! the whore who snitched on them was mad because she could not join! all that ass over there I would have been busted too.lol
I am no Peter King fan but the right message needs to be sent; fire them all, quickly and be done with it. It was entirely inappropriate; a complete breach of protocol. Whether or not any security breaches occured remains to be seen but they need to cut loose.