Free Republic

Saturday Night Live's take on the State Dinner party crashers

Desiree Rogers is under scrutiny for her office's role in the infamous security breakdown at the state dinner. A woman with a reputation as a consummate perfectionist is being criticized for dropping the ball — and, by some, for putting her own aggrandizement over her job. The White House social secretary under fire for her office's role in the security breakdown that let an invited couple into a state dinner once joked that she regularly allowed party crashers at White House events. Desiree Rogers made the claim in an interview with the trade magazine BizBash at the Creative Coalition's annual...

The head of the Secret Service accepted full responsibility Thursday for last week's security breach at President Barack Obama's first state dinner, but he said that the president and Vice President Joe Biden were never in danger from a party-crashing couple who shook hands and posed for pictures with them. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told the House Homeland Security Committee that his agents were at fault for allowing uninvited Washington socialites Tareq and Michaele Salahi into a lavish state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Sullivan told the committee that three uniformed agents had been put on administrative...

WASHINGTON — The brazen reality TV hopefuls who managed to crash the White House state dinner earlier this week may face criminal charges, the Secret Service said today. Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin says the agency is moving closer to beginning a criminal investigation. He says that’s one reason the Secret Service hasn’t yet explained what happened when Michaele and Tareq Salahi arrived at the security checkpoint Tuesday for the dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Mackin says there’s less the Secret Service can say as the probe moves closer to a criminal investigation. He says the agency isn’t...

It’s one of the most secure places on earth, but two Washington area socialites and reality TV wannabes were apparently able to get behind the gates at the White House and mingle with the crowd at the State Dinner in honor of India last night. The Washington Post has the dish on Tareq and Michaele Salahi, below: The First Lady’s office told ABC they would have no comment on the crashers and referred all inquiries to the Secret Service. Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan confirms that the agency is looking “into a report that two individuals not on the guest...

Univited couple get through Security last night at the White House and attend the White House State Dinner, not only that, they got their picture with Vice President Joe Biden, (Video from CNN + Photo with Biden)

Tareq and Michaele Salahi SNIP "Honored to be at the White House for the state dinner in honor of India with President Obama and our First Lady!" one of them wrote on their joint Facebook page at 9:08 p.m. SNIP While the White House offered no official explanation, it appears to be the first time in modern history that anyone has crashed a White House state dinner. The uninvited guests were in the same room as President Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, although it is unknown whether they met the Obamas and the guest...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Secret Service is investigating how an uninvited couple was admitted to U.S. President Barack Obama's White House state dinner, penetrating layers of security and mingling with VIP guests. The couple from northern Virginia was not invited to the dinner, not included on the official guest list, and were never seated at a table in the South Lawn tent where the dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was held, The Washington Post reported, citing a White House official it did not identify. A Secret Service spokesman told the Post that no one was under any risk...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Secret Service says it's looking into its own security procedures after determining that two people crashed Tuesday night's state dinner at the White House. Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan says that President Barack Obama was never in any danger. Donovan says the party crashers went through the same security screening as the 300-plus people actually invited to the dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Pastor James David Manning, one of President Obama’s most vocal and outspoken critics, has just released a video in which he claims that on the afternoon of November 16th, 2009, while at his ATLAH World Missionary Church, he was visited by two CIA agents. Manning says the agents claimed that they were from Homeland Security and were accompanied by two NYPD Detectives. Pastor Manning also said he expects to be arrested within the next few days and charged with “the threat against the life of a U.S. President”, and that he believes that his arrest is “imminent”. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6OEDFCvNns Church...

<p>Three unmarked police vehicles, with their lights and sirens on, were travelling 5 to 10 minutes ahead of the motorcade on Manhattan's West Side and were checking traffic before Biden passed en route to a television appearance on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," chief police spokesman Paul Browne said.</p>

Vice President Joe Biden was in midtown today for a taping of the John Stewart show, and his security detail hit a bit of a snag while paving his way to the show. Three advance vehicles belonging to the NYPD were moving down 49th Street near 10th Avenue when they slammed into the back of a livery cab, officials said. The cars apparently had lights and sirens on at the time, officials said. Four people -- two NYPD officers and two civilians -- were injured, NYPD spokeswoman Barbara Chen said. Mr. Biden wasn't in the trail of cars at the...

<p>Vice President Biden’s motorcade was involved in a West Side collision that sent three people to the hospital today, sources said.</p> <p>Biden, who was headed to an appearance on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," was not hurt. It was the second accident for Biden’s motorcade in two days.</p>

VP Biden's Motorcade Involved In Midtown Crash Witness: Livery Cab Cut Off Unmarked Police Car Escorting Vice President To 'Daily Show With Jon Stewart' Taping Crash Is The Third Involving Vice President's Detail In Last Week NEW YORK (CBS) ― CBS 2 HD has learned three people, including two members of Vice President Joe Biden's advance team, suffered minor injuries in a Midtown car accident on Tuesday evening. The two-car crash happened at approximately 5:40 p.m. at 49th Street and 10th Avenue. The victims and a police officer were taken to Roosevelt and New York hospitals. Biden was unharmed. According...

Two armored U.S. Secret Service vehicles, including a limousine sometimes used by Vice President Biden, struck and killed a man hours before dawn Wednesday as he was crossing rain-slicked Suitland Parkway near the District-Maryland border, authorities said. The pedestrian, whose name was withheld by police pending notification of his next of kin, was struck by the limousine and a Chevrolet Suburban at 2:27 a.m. at Naylor Road, just over the District line in Prince George's County, according to the Secret Service and U.S. Park Police. The two vehicles, each driven by a Secret Service employee, had just arrived by military...

MARLOW HEIGHTS, Md. - U.S. Park Police say a man was fatally struck by two U.S. Secret Service vehicles at a Suitland Parkway intersection. Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley says the two armored vehicles were traveling from Andrews Air Force Base to a Washington garage when the pedestrian was hit around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday at the intersection of Suitland Parkway and Naylor Road in Temple Hills. Wiley says the vehicles were returning from a vice presidential trip to Fort Lewis in Washington state. He says the Secret Service employees driving the vehicles immediately stopped to help the man.

An internal congressional report questioning the ability of the Secret Service to continue fulfilling its duties was leaked to the Boston Globe. The report says the Secret Service is strained by a drastic increase in threats to President Obama, coupled with deep budget cuts. Snip ---- Talking Points Memo noted that Ronald Kessler, the author of a recently released book on the Secret Service's protection of U.S. presidents, recently said that threats against President Obama are up 400 percent from the number of threats levied against former President George W. Bush, while the size of the agency's staff has only...

NEWARK, N.J. -- A private security guard at Newark Liberty International Airport was arrested on charges of threatening Barack Obama the night before the president was to fly there. A Continental Airlines employee reported overhearing John Brek make threatening comments at an airport coffee cart Tuesday afternoon. The 55-year-old security guard was arrested several hours later, Port Authority spokesman John Kelly said. He denied making the threats, said Malcolm Wiley, a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service. Obama will be in New Jersey on Wednesday to campaign for New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine.

NEWARK, N.J. — A private security guard at Newark airport in New Jersey has been arrested on charges of threatening President Barack Obama. Obama is scheduled to land at Newark Liberty International Airport around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. He is campaigning for Gov. Jon Corzine. Port Authority spokesman John Kelly says 55-year-old John Breck allowed police to search his Linden home. He says officers found 43 firearms. An official with knowledge of the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity says someone reported overhearing Breck making threatening comments at an airport coffee cart Wednesday morning. The official was not authorized to...

WASHINGTON - The unprecedented number of death threats against President Obama, a rise in racist hate groups, and a new wave of antigovernment fervor threaten to overwhelm the US Secret Service, according to government officials and reports, raising new questions about the 144-year-old agency’s overall mission. The Secret Service is tracking a far broader range of possible threats to the nation’s leaders, the officials said, even as it also investigates financial crimes such as counterfeiting as part of its original mandate. The new demands are leading some officials, both inside and outside the agency, to raise the possibility of the...

Former Secret Service agent opens window into private lives of presidents October 14th, 2009 Jamie Weinstein In his In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents they Protect, journalist Ronald Kessler gives us a peek inside the intimate lives of our presidents. Through interviews with over 100 secret service agents from the past and present—dating all the way back to John F. Kennedy—Kessler paints a picture of what our presidents are like when no one is looking. They're always watching. We learn from the agents Kessler interviews that John F....

Obama Assassination Poll Rocks Facebook September 28th, 2009 by Adam Ostrow Politics and social media can sometimes be an explosive combination. But now, a poll posted to Facebook through a third-party application has gone so far as to draw the attention of the US Secret Service. The poll, which has since been pulled, asked the question: “Should Obama be killed?” and offered users four multiple choice answers. According to Talking Points Memo, who obtained a screenshot of the poll, more than 750 users voted in the poll before it was pulled by Facebook. Facebook, meanwhile, offered the following statement to...

The poll, set up by a Facebook member, asked if the president should be assassinated. It's been taken down, and the seriousness of the threat is being evaluated. Reporting from Washington - Facebook, the popular social networking website, moved quickly Monday to take down a member's poll asking if President Obama should be assassinated. The question, "Should Obama be killed?" had received 730 responses since its posting on Saturday. The four possible answers: Yes. Maybe. If he cuts my healthcare. No. The Secret Service launched an investigation into the threat against the president. A Facebook spokesman said the Palo Alto-based...

Hi-Ho, the Derry-O Let's say you're preparing dinner and you realize with dismay that you don't have any certified organic Tuscan kale. What to do?... snip She left the produce with an aide, who paid the cashier as Obama made her way back to the limousine. ...

The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. They swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs and installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with binoculars atop trucks. Though the produce stand was only a block or so from the White House, the first lady hopped into her armored limousine and pulled into the market amid the...

Guns near the president have started an "open-carry" debate. Gun owners may be arguing among themselves and with gun-control activists about it, but for Mustapha Kassou, there’s no debate over the “open-carry” movement thrust into nationwide controversy this month when pistol- and rifle-packing citizens showed up near several public appearances by President Barack Obama. Kassou was working the cash register in the Richmond, Va., market he owns on July 11 when a gunman stormed the store with robbery on his mind. In an incident captured on surveillance video, the bandit ordered the eight customers to the floor and pumped two...

Heard this AM on the Michael Graham show, WTKK. Haven't seen posted elsewhere. Obama and his lovely bride have created a Romulan Neutral Zone around themselves while on "Marxist Vineyard." Accordingly, as tourists tried to get within eyesight of the Obamas and their girls having hamburgers at a restaurant, the Secret Service confiscated all cell phones and cameras from everyone in and near the restaurant so that The Royal Couple was not disturbed by the riff raff on the Island. Further, the cook at the restaurant -- some sort of minor celebrity -- had to make the hamburgers, fries, and...

Kennedy family sources tell ABC News that the Secret Service was at the family compound on Cape Cod earlier today and returned in the early evening, possibly preparing for a presidential visit with Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. Kennedy, a leading voice for decades in the push for health care reform, has missed much of the debate as he battles a brain tumor. He has not been in Washington, D.C., since April. Hyannis, where the Kennedy family has had homes for over 50 years, is just a short helicopter ride away from Martha’s Vineyard, where the president is staying on his...

From a former Air Force Colonel.... Subject: The Date First, let me say that I've moved three presidents up to now and I've seenincredible waste. But, the "new" guy really takes the cake. I don't havean issue with the President promising his wife dinner and a show or that heeven takes his wife out. But, when I saw the news say that the date cost $24,000, here's what youDON'T know. Three days before "dinner" a C-17 flew Marines and the helicoptermaintenance equipment to JFK Airport . The day before "dinner" I flew the US Secret Service (USSS) and themotorcade to...

Apparently, Michelle Obama arms can move some water. “Mrs. Obama was an incredible paddler,” said Jaye Gibb, raft guide with Gallatin Gateway-based Geyser Whitewater Expeditions and a kindergarten teacher at Heck/Quaw Elementary School in Belgrade. “She was even better than some of the Secret Service out there.” While President Barack Obama held a town meeting in Belgrade on Friday, Michelle Obama and daughters Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8, along with some other relatives went whitewater rafting on the Gallatin River. The group took four rafts in all, also accommodating Secret Service and other White House staff.

(WHERE WAS THE MEDIA WITH ALL THE BUSH DEATH THREATS!!!!???? This is ridiculous---if ANYTHING ever happened to Obama --the media will blame the right, it is a foregone conclusion--and all this because we dare stand up to this incompetent, dishonest man that is trying to reshape our country against will!) article: Fear for Obama's Safety Grows as Hate Groups Thrive on Racial Backlash Violent Signs, Gun, Standoff Latest in Emerging Anger Towards the President By BRIAN ROSS, ANNA SCHECTER and MEGAN CHUCHMACH August 14, 2009 Experts who track hate groups across the U.S. are growing increasingly concerned over violent rhetoric...

There were signs comparing President Barack Obama to a Nazi and showing him with an Adolf Hitler-style mustache, but federal officials believe another sign referencing the president and his family went too far. A man who was holding a sign reading "Death to Obama" Wednesday outside a town hall meeting on health care reform in Hagerstown, Md., has been turned over to the Secret Service. Washington County Sheriff's Capt. Peter Lazich said the sign also read, "Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids." Lazich said U.S. Secret Service agents took the unidentified 51-year-old man into custody Wednesday afternoon after...

LOS ANGELES (CNS)- A person possibly suspected of threatening the White House led police on a chase from Westchester to West Los Angeles today then holed up inside a car near the Westwood federal building, prompting a standoff that forced the evacuation of a nearby apartment building. Citing an anonymous law enforcement official, the Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site that the person was wanted for questioning by federal authorities for allegedly making an unspecified threat against the White House. Broadcast reports also indicated that the person may have been wanted on a misdemeanor warrant.

HAGERSTOWN, Md. – A man is in custody after authorities said he held a sign reading "Death to Obama" outside a town hall meeting on health care reform in western Maryland. Washington County Sheriff's Capt. Peter Lazich (LAWZ'-itch) says the sign also read, "Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids." He says U.S. Secret Service agents took the unidentified 51-year-old man into custody Wednesday afternoon after deputies detained him.

Police stationed at Portsmouth High School for President Barack Obama's visit this afternoon have had their hands full this morning. According to Detective Lt. Corey MacDonald, one person has already been arrested for allegedly sneaking into the high school. MacDonald, who is also assigned to work as the city's "intelligence officer," as a liaison to the Secret Service, told Foster's that police have also encountered a situation where a protestor was armed with some type of firearm. It is unclear if the person has been arrested. A shift commander on duty at the Portsmouth Police Station has also confirmed one...

The nation has not endured a presidential assassination since John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas in 1963. That is largely because of the dedication of Secret Service agents. But since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) took over the Secret Service in 2003, the agency has been cutting corners to the point where the lives of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and other protectees are endangered. That is the opinion of a number of current Secret Service agents who have told me for my book, “In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the...

President Obama has gotten more death threats in a shorter period of time than any other president in US history. The legion of right side talk radio gabbers, the GOP induced professional mobsters who commit orchestrated mayhem at health care townhalls, the birthers, the countless websites and chatrooms that crackle with anti Obama venom, and the endless montage of race baiting cartoons, characterizations and depictions of Obama and First Lady Michelle have created a viperous climate of hate and that knows no bounds. The stock assumption is that race is the reason that Obama is a bigger target than any...

Secret Service looking into Obama-Joker fax By Eric Messinger Posted: 08/07/09 05:03 PM [ET] The Secret Service may investigate a fax sent to a Democratic lawmaker that depicts President Barack Obama as the Joker and warns of “death to all Marxists.” The black-and-white fax portrays Obama in makeup similar to that worn by actor Heath Ledger in his portrayal of the Joker in last summer’s “The Dark Knight.” On Obama’s forehead is a communist hammer-and-sickle insignia, and beneath the image is the text: “Death to All Marxists! Foreign and Domestic!” Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) received the fax and passed it...

Jimmy Carter was the "least likeable" president, Ronald Kessler reveals in his new book about the Secret Service that chronicles the agency’s activities guarding every president from Kennedy to Obama. "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect," already an Amazon.com best-seller since its publication on Tuesday, features startling disclosures about the presidents and their families. Newsmax Chief Washington Correspondent Kessler, the first journalist to penetrate the wall of secrecy that surrounds the U.S. Secret Service, based his book on interviews with more than 100 current and former...

Jimmy Carter was the "least likeable" president, Ronald Kessler reveals in his new book about the Secret Service that chronicles the agency’s activities guarding every president from Kennedy to Obama. "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect," already an Amazon.com best-seller since its publication on Tuesday, features startling disclosures about the presidents and their families. Newsmax Chief Washington Correspondent Kessler, the first journalist to penetrate the wall of secrecy that surrounds the U.S. Secret Service, based his book on interviews with more than 100 current and former...

President John F. Kennedy had secret trysts with Marilyn Monroe in a loft above the office of his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Ronald Kessler reveals in his new book about the Secret Service. "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect," released Tuesday, features startling disclosures about presidents from JFK to Barack Obama.

Since Mr Obama took office, the rate of threats against the president has increased 400 per cent from the 3,000 a year or so under President George W. Bush, according to Ronald Kessler, author of In the President's Secret Service. Some threats to Mr Obama, whose Secret Service codename is Renegade, have been publicised, including an alleged plot by white supremacists in Tennessee late last year to rob a gun store, shoot 88 black people, decapitate another 14 and then assassinate the first black president in American history.

A new book by Newsmax Chief Washington Correspondent Ronald Kessler features startling revelations about current and former U.S. presidents, including Barack Obama. "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect," released Tuesday, August 4, discloses that threats against the president have increased dramatically – by a staggering 400 percent since Obama entered the White House. Kessler is the first journalist to penetrate the wall of secrecy that surrounds the U.S. Secret Service, and his book is based on interviews with more than 100 current and former agents.

This came in the email after Dear Leader's town hall event on Obamacare in Bristol, Virginia: Hey Gateway Pundit. I attended the town hall event in Bristol,VA today. Though very few were allowed inside, there was an amazing turnout outside of people protest healthcare reform, among other things. I hope to send you pictures soon of some great signs I saw. It was expected that those in opposition to the bill would outnumber those in favor by 10-1, but I feel it was much, much more. I do have a question I was hoping you could answer. During the motorcade...

Details about a U.S. Secret Service safe house for the First Family -- to be used in a national emergency -- were found to have leaked out on a LimeWire file-sharing network recently, members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee were told this morning.Also unearthed on LimeWire networks in recent days were presidential motorcade routes and a sensitive but unclassified document listing details on every nuclear facility in the country, Robert Boback, CEO of Tiversa Inc. told committee members. The disclosures prompted the chairman of the committee, Rep. Edolphus Towns, (D-N.Y.), to call for a ban on the...

Record-Courier staff writers The U.S. Secret Service delivered a federal search warrant at the home of a Kent State University professor Tuesday morning as part of an ongoing investigation. Kent police assisted in serving the warrant at the Morris Road home of Julio C. Pino. Neighbors saw several cars and law enforcement agents at Pino’s home shortly before 10 a.m. Tuesday. David Lee, a spokesman for the Secret Service’s Akron Bureau, declined to discuss what Secret Service agents were looking for at Pino’s home. “We have an ongoing investigation which involves (Pino), but since it has an ongoing status we...

WHEN it came to protecting Jenna and Barbara Bush, the Secret Service truly had its hands full, with President George W. Bush's wild and crazy daughters doing everything in their power to escape them, a new book reveals.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney's Secret Service protection has been extended for at least another six months, beginning Tuesday. Normally, ex-veeps only get six months of protection at taxpayer expense. But Cheney asked for an extension, and President Obama - whom Cheney has excoriated in several interviews since leaving office - recently signed off. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano signed the order extending Cheney's security detail, her spokeswoman Sara Kuban confirmed Monday. If the Obama administration hadn't gone along with Cheney's request, he would have been forced to hire his own security agents - or go without. Cheney's friends have...

<p>Dallas has scaled back some of the police protection it was providing at the home of former President George W. Bush — a cut some said was due to financial constraints.</p> <p>The city has been struggling with a $190 million budget deficit.</p>

L'AQUILA, Italy — The Secret Service is confident it can get President Barack Obama out of harm's way if there is any earthquake aftershock large enough to threaten safety at a summit meeting in Italy, a top aide said Wednesday. “They wouldn't let us do anything that put anybody in danger,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said as Air Force One flew to Italy from Russia. “And obviously there's plenty of planning, plenty of planning on what to do if by chance something were to happen.” After a stop in Rome, Obama was heading about 50 miles East to...