http://washingtonexaminer.com/something-is-terribly-wrong-with-the-secret-service/article/2553800#!Something is terribly wrong with the Secret Service
By Byron York | September 22, 2014 | 6:05 pm
President Obama is supporting the Secret Service in the wake of a deeply troubling incident in which a disturbed man jumped the White House fence, sprinted across the North Lawn, and actually entered the White House Friday evening.
The man, 42 year-old Omar Gonzalez, had a folding knife in his pocket and had left 800 rounds of ammunition in his car not far from the White House. Gonzalez had also drawn the attention of authorities at least twice a few weeks ago — once in Virginia, when he was found with a sniper rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, and a map with the White House circled on it, and a second time when he walked near the White House fence with a hatchet in his waistband.
On Friday, Gonzalez was briefly in the White House itself.
Nevertheless, the president had nothing but praise for the agency responsible for his security. "The Secret Service does a great job," Obama said during an Oval Office meeting Monday. "I'm grateful for all the sacrifices they make on my behalf and on my family's behalf."
White House spokesman Josh Earnest added that the president has "complete confidence" in the Secret Service.
Despite all that positive talk, it appears something is very, very wrong with the Secret Service.
After the incident, the organization began to leak proposals for some major security changes around the White House. Some reports suggested the Secret Service would clear the area around the current White House fence and erect another barrier farther out. That would presumably make it impossible for a fence jumper make a long run to the White House door without being caught.
But the key question arising from Friday's incident is not whether the White House perimeter should be expanded, but why Secret Service agents did not act more quickly when Gonzalez jumped the fence and began running toward the mansion. Why was no agent able to catch him outside? Why did agents not release the dogs that are trained to stop intruders? And why did agents not lock the White House door once the perimeter had been breached?
Those were human failures, not design shortcomings. And to some members of Congress, those human failures have been going on for quite a while at the Secret Service.
Calling the breach "totally unacceptable" and expressing amazement that the White House door was open, Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, hinted there is more trouble than the public knows about. "This is not the first time Secret Service has shown too much vulnerability," Chaffetz tweeted after the incident. "There are other unreported incidents. I will continue to push."
"Been investigating the Secret Service for some time," Chaffetz continued. "Frustrating. Good men and women but HUGE question marks for their leadership." Lawmakers could hold a hearing on the matter soon.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent, also believes the Secret Service's problems go deeper than a new fence. In an interview Sunday, Rogers suggested that a guard's attention can wane when he is stationed in one place for long periods of time — a lapse that cannot be tolerated when the president's security is involved.
"It happens frequently in other places where there are static security forces," Rogers told CBS. "And it's just a matter of the Secret Service upping their game to make sure that they can maintain that every detail matters. A door locked, a quick reaction when somebody hits the fence and over the gate. I think they're going to have to reinstate some of these ongoing checks ... self-audits on their security."
Secret Service director Julia Pierson, appointed last year by President Obama to clean up the agency after the 2012 Colombia prostitution scandal, is starting an investigation. Pierson's boss, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, is trying to calm things down while asking for time to look into the incident.
"I encourage all of us to not rush to judgment about the event and not second-guess the judgment of security officers who had only seconds to act, until all the facts are in," Johnson said in a statement Monday.
But members of Congress are right to express deep concern. The Secret Service knew about Omar Gonzalez, who might as well have carried a sign saying "I AM A THREAT TO THE PRESIDENT." And yet he made it through the White House door.
It's not enough for the president and his aides to express confidence. They need to find out what is wrong with the Secret Service and fix it, fast.
