Members Of Military Involved In Secret Service Scandal

Politico is reporting that members of a U.S. military unit that were in Colombia to assist the Secret Service with security preparations have also become entangled in the prostitution scandal that has so far resulting in a dozen Secret Service members being put on administrative leave:

CARTAGENA, Colombia — Five U.S. military members have been ordered confined to quarters over possible involvement in inappropriate conduct at the same hotel here as the 11 Secret Service personnel sent home in anunfolding scandal involving local prostitutes.

Making the announcement Saturday, United States Southern Command commander Gen. Douglas Fraser said he is “disappointed by the entire incident and that this behavior is not in keeping with the professional standards expected of members of the United States military.

As I noted in a comment to Steven Taylor’s most recent post about this, the problems presented by what happened here go far beyond the fact that these agents became involved in prostitution, which happens to be legal in Cartagena. First of all, legalities aside, they potentially exposed themselves to blackmail. Second, they brought this women back to the hotel that the President would be arriving at in only 24 hours, this potentially creating a security breach. One doubts that these men will have a career with the agency after all of this is over.

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Bennett says:

    I assume the administration is actively vetting a new SS Director and will ask the current one to resign. How can you not fire the guy after some BS like this?

  2. walt moffett says:

    This story is drowning out the pre-conference chatter about drug legalization, the Falklands, Cuba etc. Always entertaining to read the yes-no-maybe-yes-no-what-a-nice-day responses to those issues.

  3. RM says:

    I thought I read this morning that they were actually staying in a different hotel than the one that President where the President would be staying.

    “The incident unfolded when the Americans brought a number of prostitutes back to a beachfront hotel near where Obama was due to stay when he arrived the following day, a local police source said.” – yahoo news

  4. @Bennett:

    I assume the administration is actively vetting a new SS Director and will ask the current one to resign. How can you not fire the guy after some BS like this?

    It should be noted that the current director of the SS is the same guy who let Tareq And Michaele Salahi waltz into a state dinner at the White House, and somehow managed to keep his job afterwards, so who knows.