Individual decisions, not tolerance by their superiors, were behind the misconduct of 12 service members working in Colombia to prepare for President Barack Obama’s visit last April, the U.S. Southern Command reported Friday. The misconduct, it said, ranged from having prostitutes at their hotel rooms to propositioning college-age greeters at their hotel and even allowing bomb-sniffing dogs to sleep in hotel beds and defecate on bed sheets. 

"Military and civilian leaders did not create or foster an atmosphere of tolerance for prostitution or marital infidelity," investigators said in the report, part of which was released to the public.

The misconduct prior to the Summit of the Americas resulted from "individual decisions," and not a single, coordinated party or event condoned by superiors, it added. 

---

The scandal unfolded when the hotel where the 12 men were staying notified the U.S. Embassy of concerns, the report noted. Those were:

• Keeping their female companions past the allowable hour of 6 a.m. on April 12.
• Drinking alcohol at the pool.
• Allowing bomb-detection dogs to sleep in the beds, soil the linens and go to the bathroom in inappropriate areas around the hotel.
• Propositioning college-age female greeters at the hotel who were working with the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

Prostitution is legal in Colombia but it is prohibited under the Uniform Code of Military Conduct.

And, despite the fact that the rules for the U.S. military assigned to the Summit of the Americas included a curfew and restriction on alcohol consumption, they did not prohibit the U.S. military members from visiting specific locations, such as prostitute bars, or from having foreign nationals in their hotel rooms. 

The report concluded that the actions did not compromise national security. "No sensitive items were stored or permitted in the individual military members' hotel rooms," it stated.

Seven Army soldiers and two Marines have received administrative punishments. Three of them have requested courts martial, which would give them a public trial to contest the punishments.

A dozen Secret Service officers, agents and supervisors were also implicated. Eight have been forced out of the agency, three were cleared of serious misconduct, and at least two are fighting to get their jobs back. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Seven American soldiers and two Marines received administrative punishment but were not charged criminally in the prostitution scandal that involved members of the Secret Service in Cartagena, Colombia. One airmen has also received a letter of reprimand.

Three soldiers who received non-judicial punishment have asked to face court martial in an effort to clear their names, defense officials told NBC News.

Two sailors implicated in the scandal remain under investigation.

---

The 12 servicemembers accused of consorting with prostitutes were in Colombia to help provide security and communications for an upcoming visit by President Obama. They were charged in a military investigation that was ordered after several Secret Service agents were caught in an explosive scandal, accused of taking prostitutes back to their hotel rooms.

Related: Prostitute's $50 fee for two agents triggered Secret Service scandal

The agents were ordered to return to the U.S. before President Obama arrived in Colombia.

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Three U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents are under investigation after a Secret Service agent said the trio had hired prostitutes in Colombia, Justice Department officials confirmed to NBC News.

But the allegation of their activity was said to be separate from the incident involving Secret Service personnel, who also were in Cartagena, Colombia, for President Barack Obama's visit in mid-April and hired prostitutes, according to NBC News.

---

"The Drug Enforcement Administration was provided information from the Secret Service unrelated to the Cartagena hotel Secret Service incident, which DEA immediately followed up on, making DEA employees available to be interviewed by the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General," a DEA spokesman said. "DEA takes allegations of misconduct very seriously and will take appropriate personnel action, if warranted, upon the conclusion of the OIG investigation."

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a statement that she had been briefed about the involvement of two or more DEA agents on May 4 but was asked to withhold public comment until the agents could be taken out of Colombia and questioned.

"It's disturbing that we may be uncovering a troubling culture that spans more than one law enforcement agency," Collins said.

Rep. King says he won't meet with Colombian prostitute at center of Secret Service scandal

According to CBS, the Justice Department is working with the DEA, the U.S. Secret Service, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service on the investigation.

Unlike the Secret Service, the DEA has permanent offices in Colombia.

Prostitution is legal in Colombia.

The Associated Press and NBC's Pete Williams contributed to this report.

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Updated at 8:16 a.m. ET: MADRID, Spain -- A woman identifying herself as the Colombian prostitute at the center of a scandal involving U.S. Secret Service personnel has called the group of agents "stupid brutes" who put partying above President Barack Obama's security. 

"These seem like completely stupid, idiotic people," Dania Londono Suarez said in an interview which aired on Monday's TODAY. "I don't know how Obama had them in his security force."

She also accused the agents of "leaving their duty behind" and described them as "stupid brutes."

---

The scandal broke in April when, in advance of Obama's arrival at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, agents allegedly brought prostitutes to their hotel rooms.  One of the men, Suarez told NBC News, refused to pay her for sex so she went to the police.

So far, eight agents have lost their jobs as a result of the incident.

Suarez, 24, said three men who approached and propositioned her and her friends were drinking vodka like it was water.

"They liked to show off their bodies, great bodies, well-defined abs," Saurez said of the men she first met at a nightclub. "They liked attention." 

The mother of a nine-year-old son said she made it perfectly clear to one that a night with her would cost $800.

"And he accepted. And it was clear," she said. 

But in the morning after they had had sex, the man gave her only $50 and ordered her out of the room, Suarez said. 

"I am not to blame for being attractive," she told TODAY. "They are to blame -- for leaving their duty behind."

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Colombia hookers not tied to cartels, terrorists, source tells NBC

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Members of elite unit among those suspended in Colombia

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Prostitutes in Colombia who were paid for sex by Secret Service personnel last month days before President Barack Obama visited the South American country had no ties to drug cartels or terrorist organizations, a source with knowledge of the investigation tells NBC News. 

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the information was included in a 24-page written response from Secret Service officials to congressional committees investigating a recent prostitution scandal involving members of Obama’s advance security team.

---

As first reported earlier Wednesday by the Washington Post, the response indicated that bureau investigators have determined that nine of the 12 women who accompanied the Secret Service personnel to their rooms at the El Caribe hotel in Cartagena were paid for sex, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. The women were picked up at four different clubs, the source said. 

 

Investigators still are trying to interview two other women involved in the incident, which occurred prior to the Summit of the Americas on April 14-15, the source said. 

Watch the most-viewed videos on msnbc.com

Seven of the Secret Service personnel at the center of the probe have resigned, one has been terminated and one has retired, NBC News has reported previously. Three others have been cleared of serious misconduct but given administrative punishment.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and ranking Democratic Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., issued a joint statement in response to the letter received late Tuesday from U.S. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan. 

"We appreciate the Secret Services' detailed responses to our questions,” it said. "Director Sullivan's cooperation with our oversight efforts underscores his commitment to understand the extent of the problem and ensure that this unacceptable conduct does not occur again.” 

Related stories:

Some Secret Service agents agree to lie detector tests in prostitution scandal

NBC: Prostitute's $50 fee for two agents triggered Secret Service scandal

Members of elite unit among those suspended in Colombia

The 12 Secret Service personnel at the center of the investigation were among 175 members of the service in Colombia during Obama’s visit. They were among 135 staying at the hotel El Caribe, the source said. 

The source also confirmed that bureau investigators are looking into a separate report by a Seattle-based investigative reporter that Secret Service personnel may have engaged in similar misconduct in El Salvador prior to a visit by Obama in 2011.  

According to the source, investigators looked through records from the trip, spoke to supervisors and gone through timelines, but so far have found no evidence of misconduct. They are also trying to talk to Chris Halsne, the reporter who wrote the story, but he was unwilling to divulge his sources, the source said. 

NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent Kelly O'Donnell contributed to this report.

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Heavy drinking and bringing foreign nationals back to hotel rooms on trips abroad is now banned by the U.S. Secret Service in the wake of a growing scandal over allegations that agents consorted with prostitutes in Colombia this month.

The new rules of conduct issued on Friday also ban visits to "non-reputable establishments," presumably including strip clubs, and say staff must obey U.S. laws even while abroad. A copy was provided to Reuters by the Secret Service, and a spokesman said they were effective immediately.

---

The new rules were issued two weeks after the scandal erupted over allegations that Secret Service agents and military personnel brought prostitutes to their hotels during a night of drinking and carousing in the Colombian city of Cartagena, just before President Barack Obama arrived for a summit.

The Secret Service this week began looking into allegations of similar misbehavior before a 2011 presidential trip to El Salvador, a report that would appear to contradict official government arguments that the Colombian episode must have been an aberration.

The rules were issued as the agency sought to close a chapter in its worst case of alleged misconduct in decades, which embarrassed the United States and overshadowed Obama's participation in the Summit of the Americas.

The new rules issued on Friday say that "foreign nationals, excluding hotel staff and official counterparts, are prohibited in your hotel room."

Alcohol limits
"Alcohol may only be consumed in moderate amounts while off-duty on a TDY (temporary duty) assignment, and alcohol use is prohibited within 10 hours of reporting or duty," the rules say.

Furthermore, alcohol may not be consumed at all at the hotel where the person being protected by the Secret Service is staying once that person has arrived.

From now on, a member of the agency's professional responsibility section will accompany staff who travel on "car planes," and give staff ethics briefings before they leave, the rules say. The employees in Cartagena were support personnel who came over on the plane to Colombia that brought the president's armored vehicles. 

Secret Service investigates new report of debauchery

Twelve Secret Service employees were implicated in the Colombia matter. Eight have left the agency, three were cleared of serious misconduct and one is being stripped of his security clearance. Twelve members of the military were also implicated and that investigation is ongoing.

House may send investigators to Colombia
Earlier, a senior lawmaker said his committee is considering sending investigators to Colombia in the coming weeks to gather information in an expanded probe of the misconduct.

Representative Peter King, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said his staff will move to a "full-scale" investigation after it receives answers to 50 questions the panel posed to Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan about this month's incident.

Neither King nor another senior House lawmaker, Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings, said they saw a weakening of support for Sullivan in Congress despite reports of other Secret Service misbehavior.

"In my estimation, he is doing all he can do. ... Rumors are coming in and he's following each one of them. He's looking into every single rumor that comes in," Cummings told Reuters.

Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which also is looking into the matter, said Sullivan plans to have 100 top Secret Service employees participate in a "very intense" ethics course next week.

'Morality cop'
"I'm not into being a morality cop, but what happened in Colombia was clearly wrong because it put security at risk," King said outside the House chamber, adding that his committee "probably in the next few weeks" would send investigators to Colombia as part of the probe.

The Secret Service so far has not been able to validate the allegations about El Salvador made in a report Thursday by KIRO-TV news in Seattle, King said. The station is part of the CBS-Cox media group.

"They have gone through the trip file, and spoke with some of the people who were on the trip, the supervisors, and so far it's nothing," King said. "And they are talking to the reporter and trying to find out who his sources are."

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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

The Secret Service says it’s looking into a new report that a group of its agents and U.S. military specialists partied hard at a strip club in El Salvador, with some hiring prostitutes, prior to a visit by President Barack Obama last year.

The report Thursday by Seattle’s KIRO-TV comes on the heels of an agency scandal involving allegations that Secret Service employees hired prostitutes and took them back to their hotel rooms earlier this month in Cartagena, Colombia. Twelve agency personnel who were investigated in that incident have been dealt with: eight were forced out, the agency is trying to permanently revoke the security clearance of one, and three others have been cleared of serious wrongdoing but will face administrative discipline, according to The Associated Press.

In the KIRO-TV report, investigative reporter Chris Halsne said he interviewed a government subcontractor who worked with a Secret Service advance team in the El Salvadoran capital, San Salvador, prior to a March 2011 visit by Obama to meet with the new president of the Central American country.

---

The subcontractor, who was not named, said he joined about a dozen Secret Service employees and a few U.S. military specialists in a visit to a strip club a few days before Obama’s arrival.

According to the KIRO report:

This source witnessed the majority of the men drink heavily ("wasted," "heavily intoxicated") at the strip club. He says most of the Secret Service "advance-team" members also paid extra for access to the VIP section of the club where they were provided a number of sexual favors in return for their cash. Although our source says he told the agents it was a "really bad idea" to take the strippers back to their hotel rooms, several agents bragged that they "did this all the time" and "not to worry about it." Our source says at least two agents had escorts check into their rooms. It is unclear whether the escorts who returned to the hotels were some of the strippers from the same club.

The strip club’s owner confirmed that Secret Service agents and some military members visited the establishment the week prior to Obama’s visit, KIRO reported. The owner reportedly also told Halsne that FBI and DEA agents and U.S. Embassy employees in San Salvador also frequented the club.

The Secret Service said Thursday it is looking into the report.

“The recent investigation in Cartagena has generated several news stories that contain allegations by mostly unnamed sources. Any information that is brought to our attention that can be assessed as credible will be followed up on in an appropriate manner,” the agency said in a statement.

FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said in a statement: "We always take any allegation of employee misconduct seriously and, if proven to have merit, we will take swift and appropriate action." A spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said it had no comment.

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Updated at 6:28 p.m. ET: Three more Secret Service employees are being forced out and two others cleared of serious misconduct in the Colombia prostitution scandal that has tarnished the image of the agency.

In a written statement Tuesday, Assistant Director Pail S. Morrissey announced that the five remaining cases under investigation are being resolved.

---

Two Secret Service employees are resigning, Morrissey said, and one is having his national security clearance revoked. If the revocation is upheld on appeal that person must leave the agency.

One of the resigning employees stayed at the Hilton in Cartagena, the same hotel where President Barack Obama stayed, The Associated Press reported. The other Secret Service employees stayed at a nearby hotel.

Two others under investigation have been cleared of misconduct but will face "appropriate administrative action," Morrissey said.

All told, the Secret Service investigated 12 people in connection with the Colombia incident. The final outcome was seven resignations, three cleared with administrative punishment, one termination and one retirement, according to NBC News.

Six of the total were forced out last week while one employee was cleared.

In addition to the dozen Secret Service personnel, another 12 military personnel preparing for Obama's visit to Cartagena earlier this month for a summit are being investigated for cavorting with prostitutes. The Defense Department has suspended the security clearances of the military personnel.

Watch US News videos on msnbc.com

As many as 20 prostitutes were involved with the group, officials say, and none are believed to be underage.

The incident broke into public view when one of the prostitutes reportedly argued with a Secret Service agent over her payment in a hallway of the Hotel Caribe. Local law enforcement intervened on the prostitute's behalf. Paid sex is legal in Cartagena, but violates codes of conduct for U.S. personnel who were working there.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Tuesday revealed details of another incident involving U.S. military and prostitutes in South America -- in Brazil, according to NBC News.

The incident occurred in the capital Brasilia in December. Three Marines assigned to the U.S. embassy were accused of throwing an alleged prostitute out of their car, NBC News reported. The woman suffered minor injuries.

Two Marines were demoted in rank; the third was not permitted to re-enlist, Panetta said.  An embassy staffer who was allegedly involved was returned to the United States. 

President Barack Obama on Tuesday blamed the Secret Service scandal in Colombia on the misconduct of a "couple of knuckleheads" and insisted that the vast majority of agents perform their work admirably.

"What these guys were thinking, I don't know. That's why they're not there anymore," Obama said during a taping of an appearance on NBC's "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" program while on a visit to North Carolina.

Obama talks Secret Service 'knuckleheads' with Fallon

Obama's comments appeared to play down the extent of the controversy, the worst in decades to hit the agency responsible for protecting the president, his family and other senior officials.

But there were signs of a widening scope of the inquiries stemming from the allegations.

Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said "whistleblower people" had called his office with allegations about past misconduct by Secret Service personnel and "we're beginning to talk to them."

Lieberman said he plans hearings on the scandal.

"Some of it seems credible, or at least worth investigating more," he told reporters outside the Senate. 

A committee aide said just one call had been received so far, Reuters reported.

Lieberman said the focus of his committee's probe would not be events in Cartagena, which is being investigated by the Secret Service, but any incidents in recent years.

"I want to ask questions about whether there was any other evidence of misconduct by Secret Service agents in the last five or 10 years," he said. "If so, what was done about it? Could something have been done to have prevented what happened in Cartagena? And now that it has happened, what do they intend to do?"

The leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin and John McCain, said they expected to get a briefing on Wednesday from the Pentagon on the part played by military service members in the scandal.

This article includes reporting from The Associated Press, Reuters and NBC's Kristen Welker, Kelly O'Donnell and Courtney Kube.

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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.

 

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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Updated at 6:53 p.m. ET: A 12th Secret Service agent is under investigation in the Colombian prostitution scandal, the agency said Friday. Meanwhile, three more agents resigned and one was cleared of "serious" misconduct.

The agency had previously announced the resignation of one agent and the retirement of another in connection with the procurement of women during President Barack Obama's trip to Cartagena, Colombia, last week. A third was listed to be fired.

---

In a statement Friday evening, the agency confirmed a report by NBC News' Kristen Welker that the inquiry had expanded to include a 12th agent. Like the 11 others, the agent was placed on administrative leave and stripped of their security clearances, it said.

One of those was cleared of "serious misconduct" but faces undisclosed "administrative action," it said, meaning five agents remained under active investigation after Friday's dust had settled.

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan briefed Obama on the investigation earlier in the day, a White House official said. Sullivan has been praised by some lawmakers for his forthrightness and quick action in the case and still has some support in Congress, but "these things can turn on a dime," an official said.

The unfolding scandal has prompted the agency to review its policies on contact with foreign nationals. White House press secretary Jay Carney said Friday that the administration intended to resolve the current investigation "before we look more broadly," but he stressed that "the president has high regard for the agency."

"The Secret Service has stated quite clearly and the president believes that his security and the overall security of the trip was never compromised," Carney said.

The Defense Department, meanwhile, clarified Friday that 11 members of the U.S. military were also involved in the scandal, not 10, as had previously been reported. 

The service members span four branches of the military:

• Six members of the Army's Special Forces.
• Two Navy explosive ordnance disposal team members.
• Two Marine dog handlers.
• One airman.

The earlier reports included only five soldiers.

Following is the full Secret Service statement:

The Secret Service's comprehensive investigation into allegations of misconduct by its employees in Cartagena, Colombia continues.

In addition to the previously announced personnel actions, three additional employees have chosen to resign.  

As a result of the ongoing investigation in Cartagena, a twelfth employee has been implicated. He has been placed on administrative leave and his security clearance has been temporarily suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.   One of the employees involved has been cleared of serious misconduct, but will face appropriate administrative action.

At this point, five employees continue to be on administrative leave and their security clearances remain suspended pending the outcome of this investigation." 

The Secret Service continues to conduct a full, thorough and fair investigation, utilizing all investigative techniques available to our agency. This includes polygraph examinations, interviews with the employees involved, and witness interviews, to include interviews being conducted by our Office of Professional Responsibility in Cartagena, Colombia. 

Since these allegations were first reported, the Secret Service has actively pursued this investigation, and has acted to ensure that appropriate action is affected. We demand that all of our employees adhere to the highest professional and ethical standards and are committed to a full review of this matter.

Kristen Welker, Luke Russert, Ali Weinberg, Libby Leist and Courtney Kube of NBC News in Washington and M. Alex Johnson of msnbc.com contributed to this report. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

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Updated at 7:03 p.m. ET: Three Secret Service agents implicated in the scandal involving the procurement of women during President Barack Obama's trip to Colombia are leaving the agency, a spokesman said Wednesday.

In a statement, the spokesman, Paul Morrissey, said a supervisory employee was allowed to retire, a second supervisory employee was listed for "removal for cause" and a non-supervisory employee had resigned.

Eight other agency employees remain on administrative leave without their security clearances, Morrissey said.

---

The statement confirmed a report earlier Wednesday by NBC News that the implicated agents were "offered" the opportunity to submit to polygraph tests. A U.S. official told NBC News that some of them had agreed.

New details of the scandal emerged after a round of congressional briefings Wednesday.

Eleven women were involved with 11 Secret Service personnel, a Senate source told NBC News. Investigators are looking into reports of drug use but haven't found any evidence yet, the source said.

None of the 11 men had guns, radios, equipment or schedules in their rooms, the source said, clarifying questions raised on Capitol Hill about whether operations or presidential security may have been compromised.

As a result of the scandal, the agency is undertaking a review of its policies regulating contact with foreign nationals, the source said.

NYT: Escort recounts quarrel with Secret Service agent

"We demand that all of our employees adhere to the highest professional and ethical standards and are committed to a full review of this matter," the agency's statement said.

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan has told lawmakers that the 11 agents and 10 U.S. military personnel also implicated in the scandal are giving investigators conflicting stories, making it difficult to pin down the truth, according to several lawmakers who spoke to NBC News on Wednesday.

The Colombian government is separately investigating whether underage girls were part of the arrangements, but Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said Sullivan believes the youngest woman involved was about 20 or 21 years old.

Grassley said Judiciary Committee staff members would meet with agency representatives later this week for a more complete briefing. He said the committee would conduct its own investigation only if members concluded that the Secret Service inquiry "was not doing the job."

Regardless, Grassley said, "I think you'll find their heads are going to roll." He added that he was worried that there could be a culture of misbehavior at the Secret Service, a concern that was echoed by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who has also been briefed on the case.

Collins told NBC News that her "instinct" is that this wasn't an isolated incident. She said that she pressed Sullivan and that he had told her the agency was "scrubbing the files" for possible previous incidents.

The Defense Department is separately investigating the 10 military members who have been implicated. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday that "we let the boss down" in Colombia.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is expected to brief leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee in the next couple of days, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told NBC News on Wednesday.

Kristen Welker of NBC News and M. Alex Johnson of msnbc.com contributed to this report by Michael Isikoff and Libby Leist of NBC News.

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Some of the Secret Service agents under investigation in the Colombian prostitution scandal have agreed to take polygraph tests, a U.S. official told NBC News on Wednesday.

Eleven Secret Service agents were recalled from Colombia last week and have been stripped of their security clearances after reports emerged alleging that some of them had taken prostitutes to their hotel rooms before President Barack Obama arrived for the Latin American summit.

The U.S. official said the agents had been "offered" the opportunity to submit to polygraph tests and that some had accepted. The official didn't say how many had agreed.

---

Ed Donovan, a spokesman for the Secret Service, wouldn't confirm the information, saying only that the agency's Office of Professional Responsibility was using every investigative tool at its disposal.

NBC News: Prostitute's $50 fee for two agents triggered Secret Service scandal

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan has told lawmakers that the 11 agents and 10 U.S. military personnel also implicated in the scandal are giving investigators conflicting stories, making it difficult to pin down the truth, several lawmakers told NBC News.

The Colombian government is separately investigating whether underage girls were part of the arrangements, but Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, told NBC News that Sullivan believes the youngest woman involved was about 20 or 21 years old.

NBC News reported this week that some of the agents had copies of the president's schedule in their rooms, raising the possibility of a security breach. But Sullivan said none of the prostitutes ever had access to secure information, according to Grassley.

"I think that he feels that protocol was followed," Grassley told NBC News.

Grassley said Judiciary Committee staff members would meet with agency representatives later this week for a more complete briefing. He said the committee would conduct its own investigation only if members concluded that the Secret Service inquiry "was not doing the job."

Regardless, Grassley said, "I think you'll find their heads are going to roll." He added that he was worried that there could be a culture of misbehavior at the Secret Service, a concern that was echoed by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who has also been briefed on the case.

Collins told NBC News that her "instinct" is that this wasn't an isolated incident. She said that she pressed Sullivan and that he had told her the agency was "scrubbing the files" for possible previous incidents.

The Defense Department is separately investigating the 10 military members who have been implicated. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday that "we let the boss down" in Colombia.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is expected to brief leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee in the next couple of days, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told NBC News on Wednesday.

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