More on Those Secret Service Agents and their Colombian Prostitutes

Via the NY Daily NewsSecret Service agents busted because they refused to pay hooker: source 

Most of the Secret Service agents embroiled in a prostitution scandal brought women back to their Colombia hotel rooms before President Obama arrived in town for an international summit, Rep. Pete King said Saturday.

King said the raunchy rendezvous involved 11 agents and went sour when an agent refused to pay one of the women, who were presumed to be hookers.

“The agent said, ‘I don’t owe you anything,’ but gave the woman some money,” said King (R-L.I.),the head of the House Homeland Security Committee, who was briefed on the matter. “I don’t know how much, and it was settled right there.”

As it turned out, the agents’ troubles were just beginning. Local cops were called to the hotel in Cartagena and, because the matter involved foreigners, a report was written up and sent to the U.S. Embassy, King said.

Embassy officials in turn notified the Secret Service, which immediately launched an investigation.

Ok, so partaking of prostitutes whilst you are supposed to be preparing for a presidential visit to a foreign country:  muy estúpido.

Doing so and then refusing to pay, thus almost guaranteeing attention to yourself:  mucho más estúpidoMucho, mucho más.

These are people entrusted with security?

On the personal trivia level, I am pretty sure I stayed at the hotel in question (the Hotel Caribe) back 1995.

FILED UNDER: Latin America, US Politics, , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. bk says:

    It’s either Obama’s fault, or Clinton’s. I’m pretty sure.

  2. Steven W. says:

    The USSS agents probably figure if Obamacare can force churches to give every woman $3000 in birth control & sex change operations, etc., demanded by Sandra Fluke, then the agents should at least get free hookers.

  3. bk says:

    Exactly! And Solyndra!

  4. Jenos Idanian says:

    I am reminded of Jerry Springer, who was first brought down after he paid a hooker with a personal check…

  5. Gustopher says:

    Wage theft. Just another case of those with power and money screwing the workers.

  6. John Peabody says:

    Oh, I had a cousin who used to ask for Solyndra when he visited Bogota.

  7. Neil Hudelson says:

    This was, hands down, the best headline to ever crossy twitter feed.

  8. Peter says:

    What useless cheapskates. Secret Service agents earn good money. According to a bit of Google research it costs only about twenty dollars to hire a ho in Colombia, and that’s for Full Service. These agents could very easily have afforded to pay.

  9. Tillman says:

    What kind of prick refuses to pay a prostitute?

    It’s either Obama’s fault, or Clinton’s. I’m pretty sure.

    Until the scandal comes out in the possible second term, or until books are written years later about Obama’s JFK-esque trysts in the White House, I’m thinking Clinton here. I mean, you can’t go wrong thinking Clinton was involved somehow.

    In fact, do we know if Clinton was in Colombia during this?

  10. Brummagem Joe says:

    Not only reckless and incompetent but cheap also. Who in the Secret Service was supervising these lame brains?

  11. Jenos Idanian says:

    @Brummagem Joe: Who in the Secret Service was supervising these lame brains?

    Well, the Secret Service is part of the Treasury Department, headed by noted tax cheat Timothy Geithner…

  12. Idunno says:

    @Jenos Idanian: Wrong. The Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security, not the Treasury Department.

  13. As someone noted on TV this morning, the problem with their actions isn’t just the prostitutes but the fact that they brought these women back to the hotel where Obama would be staying when he arrived, which had already been sealed off as a secure area.

    So, in addition to exposing themselves to potential blackmail, they arguably compromised Presidential security.

  14. An Interested Party says:

    It’s either Obama’s fault, or Clinton’s. I’m pretty sure.

    Yeah, but the twist is that it isn’t Bill’s fault, but Hillary’s!

    Wrong. The Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security, not the Treasury Department.

    Jenos got something wrong? I’m shocked…

  15. Tsar Nicholas II says:

    @Idunno: True, since that 2003 government reorg. the DHS controls the Secret Service, not Treasury. Meaning the buck stops with Janet Napolitano and then of course with Obama. FYI, that’s not necessarily a better scenario than Geithner and Obama.

  16. @Tsar Nicholas II: Because, of course, cabinet level Secretaries supervise Secret Service Agents in the field.

    This is, of course, rank silliness.

  17. Tsar Nicholas II says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: Obviously I’m aware that cabinet level Secretaries don’t supervise field agents. That reference to the buck stopping with Napolitano was to suggest that it’s her department and that as CEO of that department she’ll ultimately be responsible for the aftermath of this scandal; the same way, for example, that Donald Rumsfeld ultimately was responsible for the aftermath of Abu Ghraib. What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, no?

  18. An Interested Party says:

    …the same way, for example, that Donald Rumsfeld ultimately was responsible for the aftermath of Abu Ghraib.

    Oh my, so what happened at Abu Ghraib is comparable to this…

  19. Tsar Nicholas II says:

    @An Interested Party: I don’t know, you tell me. A bunch of grunts in their early 20’s in a war zone putting panties on the heads of EPWs and taking pictures vs. Secret Service agents bringing whores off the street in a third-world country into the very place in which the President of the United States will be staying, after said place was ruled to be secure and fit.

    That aside, read my comment again. Don’t you understand the difference between an analogy and a direct comparison? Don’t you get the underlying points I’m trying to make?

  20. An Interested Party says:

    A bunch of grunts in their early 20′s in a war zone putting panties on the heads of EPWs and taking pictures…

    Oh yeah, that’s all that it was…someone does have a comprehension problem here, but it isn’t me…

  21. Jenos Idanian says:

    @Idunno: Thank you. That whole DHS reorganization was so stupid, I missed large parts of it. So kindly strike “Timothy Geithner” and insert “Janet Napolitano.”