Free Republic

Who read Free Republic? Apparently the U.S. Secret Service does!This past weekend, I posted an article alerting the Secret Service that members of the terrorist supporting group Code Pink were using fake presses to gain access to events headlined by Secret Service protectees like presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (AZ).This morning, McCain spoke at the LULAC convention in Washington, D.C. Usually when he speaks at an event in D.C., McCain can expect to have his speech disrupted by Code Pink activists who rush the stage and heckle him from the audience and the press section.That didn't happen today....

We have another thing about which to worry. I saw this photo from the Hillary sort of concession speech today and wondered. Yes, a cell gunphone exists. At these rallies, people get very close to the candidates and, in this case, a former impeached president. What if this had been a weapon? Do they take the time to actually x-ray your cell phone? This is pretty scary technology. Hitting the 5, 6, 7 and 8 buttons on the gunphone fires four .22 caliber rounds in quick succession. VIDEO AT THIS LINK At first sight it looks like a regular cell...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Sen. Hillary Clinton referred Friday to the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968 Democratic campaign as a reason she should continue to campaign despite increasingly long odds. Clinton was responding to a question from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader editorial board about calls for her to drop out of the race. "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it," she said, dismissing the idea of dropping...

WASHINGTON, May 9 (UPI) -- Supervisors in the U.S. Secret Service exchanged e-mails with racist jokes, some of them sexual, a document filed in federal court Friday said. The filing came in a discrimination lawsuit filed in 2000 by 10 black Secret Service agents, The New York Times reported.

McCain rejects Secret Service protection By Mike Soraghan Posted: 04/03/08 11:08 AM [ET] Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) may be the presumptive GOP nominee for president, but, by his own wishes, he is not being protected by the Secret Service. “He has not requested protection,” Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told a congressional subcommittee this morning. “We have no involvement at this point.” In opting not to take the protection, McCain is following through on plans he outlined to reporters late last year on his Straight Talk Express campaign bus. Members of the House Appropriations Homeland Security subcommittee were surprised by...

John McCain plans to take on Secret Service protection and will be meeting with agency officials next week, the GOP nominee-in-waiting told FOX News on Friday, a day after the director of Secret Service told Congress that McCain is the only major candidate to have declined the protection. “I think that it’s important as we get more and more visibility, that we recognize the inevitable,” McCain told FOX News’ Chris Wallace, in an interview to air on “FOX News Sunday.” “And so we will be talking with them early to arrange for very soon, some Secret Service protection.” Hillary Clinton...

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) may be the presumptive GOP nominee for president, but, by his own wishes, he is not being protected by the Secret Service. “He has not requested protection,” Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told a congressional subcommittee this morning. “We have no involvement at this point.” In opting not to take the protection, McCain is following through on plans he outlined to reporters late last year on his Straight Talk Express campaign bus. Members of the House Appropriations Homeland Security subcommittee were surprised by Sullivan’s revelation. Sullivan said his agency had been in contact with McCain’s staff....

A Texas state Capitol employee who police said wanted to go in the building Friday before a rally by presidential candidate Barack Obama threw a bowl of egg salad at a U.S. Secret Service agent who denied her access, according to an arrest affidavit. Tracy Firsching, 47, is charged with assault on a peace officer, a third-degree felony for which she faces up to 10 years in prison. According to the affidavit, Firsching started to go around police barriers when she was stopped by Secret Service agent Brian Sanders, who told her that she could not go in the secured...

Bulletin just flashed on the Chris Core news program at 10:45am EST. That's all they said. Checked the internet for news but nothing yet.

DALLAS -- Security details at Barack Obama's rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena. The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security. Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department's homeland security and special operations divisions, said the order -- apparently made by the U.S. Secret Service -- was meant to speed...

Guarding presidential candidates 24 hours a day, Secret Service agents know better than almost anyone what they are really like. Among Secret Service agents, no protectee evokes more disdain than Hillary Clinton. Secret Service agents assigned at various points to guarding Hillary during her campaign for the Senate were dismayed to find her two-faced and perpetually angry. “During the listening tour, she planned ‘impromptu’ visits at diners and local hangouts,” a former Secret Service agent told me for my book “A Matter of Character: Inside the White House of George W. Bush.” [Editor's Note: Get Ronald Kessler's book — go...

A former Secret Service officer who helped thwart the attempted assassination of President Harry Truman has died. Floyd Boring, 92, died Feb. 1 of congestive heart failure at his home in Silver Spring, Md. Boring changed the course of history when he and White House police officers took on two armed men during a shootout near Blair House, where Truman was staying during White House renovations. Boring had just gotten to work Nov. 1, 1950, when the Puerto Rican nationalists arrived to kill Truman. One of the would-be assassins, Oscar Collazo, shot a White House police officer. When they heard...

DENVER -- No one can agree on what exactly happened the day a Colorado man spotted Dick Cheney strolling the streets of a ski resort town and decided to give the vice president a piece of his mind. Steve Howards, 55, says he walked up to Cheney and delivered his message -- "Your policies in Iraq are disgusting" -- then lightly touched the vice president's shoulder. The White House photographer says he saw Howards slap Cheney on the back. Cheney's personal aide remembers Howards placing his hand on Cheney's arm and shaking his hand. As for the Secret Service agents...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- A man who made threats against President Bush and had a suspicious package was arrested Monday outside the north fence of the White House, the Secret Service said.

Suspicious package found at the gates of the White House..press corps being rushed out of the area by SS

Obama gets beefed-up protection By Joseph Curl January 7, 2008 MANCHESTER, N.H. — Secret Service presence has increased for Sen. Barack Obama since his dramatic win in Iowa, amid fears over the safety of the man seeking to become America's first black president. The Illinois senator's security now rivals that of President Bush, with a dozen Secret Service agents wearing dark suits and earpieces leading bomb-sniffing dogs through event venues, sweeping all equipment brought by journalists and flanking the candidate as he plunges into crowds of supporters. "For many black supporters, there is a lot of anxiety that he will...

TEL AVIV — The U.S. military has arrived in Israel to prepare for the visit of President George Bush. The sources said Bush would be accompanied by a huge military force during his visit to Israel and tour of the Middle East. They said the president would be supported by at least four air transports that would contain special equipment as well as nearly 2,000 troops and bodyguards. Officials said police would deploy 3,500 officers and army troops to protect Bush, Middle East Newsline reported. They said large areas of Jerusalem would be closed to traffic during Bush's visit. Security...

In the last few days there were multiple threads on terrorist forums calling for the assassination of President Bush during his coming visit to the Middle East. They are calling for suicide bombers and others to act and kill the President. Most probably those are all empty threats but the terrorist rhetoric on these forums is very dangerous and may be some terrorist who wants to prove himself for his brethren on these terrorists forums may try to commit violent act including the attempt to assassinate President Bush. The danger of these terrorist forums is so great and there must...

< >The burglaries occurred on Dec. 13 while the FBI was holding an annual holiday party in a Pittsburgh brewery. Authorities say the equipment taken from three cars belongs to FBI and Secret Service agents.< >

YOU WILL FIND THE SECRET SERVICE VIEWS ON THE PERSONALITIES OF PAST PRESIDENTS TO BE QUITE INTERESTING. For those who don't know... Capt. Denny Keast flies for UAL and flew many SAM's (Special Air Mission's) for the White House. Some of us flew these Presidential Support Mission. The only thing they left out was the pain in the ass communication people..........Shem I flew 4 Presidential support missions in the C-141 out of Dover AFB, DE.. Two for President Johnson and two for President Nixon. Johnson was a first class jerk and on the two occasions I flew for him, if...

Jared Dullum appeared to epitomize the Secret Service motto, "Worthy of trust and confidence." He was, after all, a former Eagle Scout and a leader in his Mormon church in addition to his work as a special agent. But Dullum used that trust -- and financial know-how gained from his work as a fraud investigator -- to pilfer nearly $30,000 from a dead woman's estate by forging her will. Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton chastised Dullum, 33, for the "shame you brought the Secret Service" and also fined him $40,000 and ordered him to repay the money he stole...

U.S. Secret Service agents arrested a 32-year-old woman who was sharpening a 13-inch machete outside the White House. Passersby alerted police that the woman was sitting on the sidewalk, and had pulled the blade out of a leather sheath and was sharpening it on the edge of the sidewalk Sunday afternoon.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A 32-year-old woman wielding a machete was arrested Sunday outside the White House, the Secret Service said. Spokeswoman Kim Bruce said Ashwak Saleh was taken into custody and charged with possession of a prohibited weapon after she displayed a 13-inch machete on the sidewalk outside the White House. Saleh was arrested at 2:20 p.m. and taken to Washington Metro Police Department 3rd district for processing. Witnesses said Saleh was sitting on the sidewalk when she pulled the machete out of a leather sleeve and began sharpening it on the edge of the sidewalk. The witnesses said passersby...

Fox News just broke with a "snippet" that a woman (who is in custody) tried to ingite a small explosive, according to Uniformed Secret Service and either place it or throw it at the White House. She was taken into custody.

WASHINGTON - The Secret Service on Friday revealed four more visits to the White House in 2001 by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, including one to see a domestic policy aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. The newly released records of Abramoff's access to the White House bring the total number of his known visits to seven. One Abramoff White House visit, according to Secret Service logs, was on April 20, 2001, to see Cesar Conda, at the time Cheney's assistant for domestic policy. Five days after the Conda meeting, one of Abramoff's former lobbying colleagues, Patrick Pizzella, was nominated by...

06.04.2006, 01:47 PM The Secret Service apprehended a man who was trying to jump the fence on the south side of the White House Sunday. Secret Service spokesman Tom Mazur identified the man as Roger Witmer, 44, of Washington, who faces charges of unlawful entry and disorderly conduct. Mazur said members of the uniformed division captured Witmer before he got over the fence. But he threw over a package, and officials shut down traffic on the south side of the White House so it could be examined.

The abrupt resignation (ouster?) of Porter Goss as director of the Central Intelligence Agency lays bare the rocky state of America’s most prestigious secret service amid critical missions on three fronts, Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on al Qaeda. The White House quickly denied US media reports that the CIA chief, entrusted 20 months ago with reforming the agency after the twin intelligence failures of 9/11 and Iraq, had been forced to quit. At a hastily called press conference Friday, President George W. praised Goss for his “help to make this country a safe place and help us win the...

DENVER -- Passengers aboard a United Airlines flight had some help when they had to take matters into their own hands to prevent Jose Manuel Pelayo-Ortega from bringing their plane down. Three Secret Service agents headed west to join President Bush's entourage joined with passengers to subdue Pelayo-Ortega when he tried to open one of the doors on the Airbus A-320. "Had he opened the door, we'd all be dead," passenger Donna Bell of Visalia, Calif., told the Sacramento Bee after the plane was searched and allowed to continue westward. Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahensaid three agents between assignments help...

April 22, 2006 (by Lieven Dewitte) - A passenger who claimed to have a bomb aboard a United Airlines flight was subdued by passengers as the California-bound plane was diverted to Denver International Airport. Two F-16 fighter jets from Buckley Air Force Base scrambled to escort the plane. The A-320 Airbus heading to Sacramento, Calif., from Chicago flew into Denver Friday. The F-16s followed to make sure nothing untoward was going to happen. Jose Manuel Pelayo-Ortega tried to open an door on the Airbus A-320 en route from Chicago to Sacramento, Calif., and then claimed to have a bomb forcing...

United Airlines Flight Diverted to DenverDENVER - A passenger who claimed to have a bomb aboard a United Airlines flight was subdued by passengers as the California-bound plane was diverted to Denver International Airport, airport officials said. Two F-16 fighter jets from Buckley Air Force Base scrambled to escort the plane as it flew into Denver Friday, according to Lt. Commander Sean Kelly, a spokesman for NORAD. "They followed to make sure nothing untoward was going to happen," he said. Jose Manuel Pelayo-Ortega was arrested after the plane landed around 4:30 p.m., FBI spokeswoman Monique Kelso said. Three Secret Service...

EAST ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A Palestinian man faces federal charges of threatening President Bush over comments made while getting mental-health care, according to an indictment made public this week. News of the indictment raised questions Friday about how to treat such comments by mental patients. Federal grand jurors indicted Arafat Nijmeh on March 23 on two felony counts of "knowingly and willfully" threatening to harm Bush -- first by telling two workers at his treatment center that he wanted to castrate Bush, then a day later to Secret Service agents notified by the center. The indictment says Nijmeh told...

WASHINGTON - A screaming intruder made it onto the front lawn of the White House Sunday while President Bush was at home before being apprehended by Secret Service officers. Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren identified the man as 40-year-old Brian Lee Patterson, whose last known address was in Albuquerque, N.M. Patterson has been caught trying to get onto the White House grounds at least three times before, Zahren said. The bearded man, wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt that said "God Bless America," jumped the fence outside the White House and ran across the north lawn while repeatedly yelling,...

An unidentified intruder, right, shouts as he is approached by a member of the Secret Service Emergency Response Team on the North Lawn of the White House, Sunday, April 9, 2006 in Washington. The man was later taken into custody by the Secret Service. President Bush was in the White House at the time. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) The bearded man, wearing a ragged T-shirt that said "God Bless America," scaled the White House fence and ran onto the front lawn, waving his arms and screaming "I am a victim of terrorism," before Secret Service officers chased him down.

A screaming intruder made it onto the front lawn of the White House Sunday while President Bush was at home before being apprehended by Secret Service officers. Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren described the man as "someone who has come to our attention in the past as a fence jumper." The bearded man, wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt that said "God Bless America," jumped the fence outside the White House and ran across the north lawn while repeatedly yelling, "I am a victim of terrorism!" Members of the Secret Service emergency response team, including one holding a barking...

Breaking

Whenever the president travels, security is a prime consideration. Motorcade routes are kept secret, and premature release of information about a presidential trip aboard one of the twin Air Force One planes can result in the Secret Service canceling a visit. Thus, the Air Force reacted with alarm last week after The Chronicle told the Secret Service that a government document containing specific information about the anti-missile defenses on Air Force One and detailed interior maps of the two planes -- including the location of Secret Service agents within the planes -- was posted on the Web site of an...

US teen charged with threatening Bush Wednesday Mar 29 19:47 AEDT AP - A 13-year-old American boy was charged with threatening US President George W Bush in two emails sent to his mayor. Investigators did not find anything in a search of the boy's Florence, Kentucky home to make them think he was planning to carry out the alleged threats, police Captain Linny Cloyd said. The boy was in the custody of his mother at their home. He faces one felony count of making a terroristic threat and is to appear in Boone County Family Court within two weeks. The...

MARS HILL (AP) — A college student who used modified song lyrics to describe the violent death of President Bush on a Web site said he meant no harm — but the U.S. Secret Service seized his computer nonetheless. Tim Willis, a freshman at Mars Hill College, said he made the posting to myspace.com in late February in response to a posting by a friend, whose computer also was seized. The lyrics were from "Bullet," a 1978 song by the punk band The Misfits. Willis replaced references to President Kennedy with Bush's name. "Even though I don't like the president...

While US President George W Bush was checking into the presidential suite at one of Delhi's top hotels, a group of canines belonging to his security detail were enjoying similar comfort nearby. Some 17 dogs belonging the K-9 squad of the US Secret Service have also been put up at top Delhi five-star hotels, Indian media reports say. Special rooms have apparently been booked in the Sheraton hotel, where Mr Bush is staying, and at the equally plush Le Meridien hotel. The German Shepherds and Labradors are staying in rooms which cost more than $200 a night. Early on Thursday,...

NEW DELHI: An argument broke out between US security personnel and the management of the Le Meridien Hotel in New Delhi on Wednesday over the accommodation of 60 sniffer dogs that are part of President George W Bush’s security entourage. The US Embassy booked 70 rooms in the hotel in the Indian capital, where Bush will travel on Thursday. However, the hotel management was surprised to find that the rooms had been reserved for dogs. US security personnel accompanying the sniffer dogs were offended when the management told them that dogs were not allowed on the hotel premises, saying that...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A man who claimed to have a cellphone implanted in his head was convicted Friday of jumping a White House fence in a bid to meet former president Bill Clinton's daughter Chelsea. Shawn Cox, 29, of Mammoth Spring, Ark., was sentenced to 150 days in jail but a District of Columbia Superior Court judge suspended the sentence - with the stipulation Cox stay at least one block away from the executive mansion. He also was fined $50. Cox was arrested Dec. 4 after he scaled the spiked wrought-iron fence on the northern side of the White House....

A man who claimed to have a cell phone implanted in his head was convicted Friday of jumping a White House fence in a bid to meet Chelsea Clinton. Shawn A. Cox, 29, of Mammoth Spring, Ark., was sentenced to 150 days in jail, but a District of Columbia Superior Court judge suspended the sentence — with the stipulation that Cox stay at least one block away from the executive mansion. He also was fined $50. Cox was arrested Dec. 4 after he scaled the spiked wrought iron fence on the north side of the White House. The incident occurred...

WACO, Texas — Two fighter jets forced a small plane to land after the pilot flew too close to President Bush's ranch in central Texas while he was spending the weekend there

WEST WARWICK, R.I. --A seventh-grader who wrote an essay saying his perfect day would involve doing violence to President Bush is being investigated by the Secret Service.The unidentified boy from West Warwick turned in the essay on Tuesday, and his teacher alerted school officials. The assignment was to write about what he would do on a perfect day.Thomas M. Powers, Secret Service resident agent in charge in Providence, said the investigation is ongoing but the essay may have been a "cry for help." Threatening the president is a felony, he said.The one-page essay also said the student wanted to kill...

We had a neighbor when I lived in DC who was part of the secret service presidential detail for many years. His stories of Kennedy and Johnson were the same as those I heard from the guys who flew the presidents' plane. Yes, Kennedy did have Marilyn Monroe flown in for secret "dates," and LBJ was a typical Texas "good ole boy" womanizer. Nixon, Bush 41, and Carter never cheated on their wives. Clinton cheated, but couldn't match Kennedy or LBJ in style or variety. The information below is accurate: The elder Bush and current president Bush make it a...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal from an anti-war protester who was convicted of violating the boundaries of a "restricted area" established during President Bush's visit to South Carolina in 2002. Brett Bursey had urged the justices to hear the appeal of a $500 fine he was assessed for entering an airport hangar in Columbia on Oct. 24, 2002. Bursey's lawyers said in court papers that he was exercising his free-speech rights when he carried a megaphone and a placard reading "No more war for oil, don't invade Iraq" into the restricted area.

A series of internal documents from the U.S. Secret Service obtained by this newspaper provide details of a project involving the transfer of thousands of telephone and bank records to a government database with the help of U.S. telephone and financial company executives. The detailed field notes were prepared by a special agent who once headed the Electronic Crimes Branch of the Secret Service, where the agent was responsible for case coordination of all telecommunications and computer network investigations conducted by Secret Service field offices. During her tenure as a Secret Service agent, Ms. Mary Riley coordinated the forensic analysis...

"What sort of assignments did you get?" I asked. "Well, there's one I probably shouldn't tell you about," he said. My reaction: I have to know. "We were asked to kill the president," he said.

LITTLE ROCK - Court documents show an Arkansas man who jumped the fence at the White House was preoccupied with Chelsea Clinton, not any current occupants of the White House. A court-ordered mental report on 29-year-old Shawn Cox of Mammoth Spring says he believed that Chelsea Clinton still lived at the White House, and that he was destined to marry her. Clinton is the daughter of former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton. Cox was arrested Sunday at the White House by the Secret Service after scaling the fence separating the mansion's north lawn from public sidewalks....