Friday, April 20, 2012

Secret Service Scandal

Let me take a shot before I sum up the South American summit:

"Cuba split ends summit with no declaration" Associated Press, April 16, 2012

CARTAGENA, Colombia - A summit of nearly 30 Western Hemisphere leaders has ended without a joint declaration because of divisions over Cuba and over Argentine claims to the Falkland Islands.

Yeah, the U.S. found itself isolated.

“There is no declaration because there is no consensus,’’ Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos, said at the summit’s closing news conference.  

Well, there is, but....

Washington, backed by Canada, stood fast against widespread demands to include in the meeting’s final declaration language specifying that Cuba be included in future hemispheric summits.  

Oh, I'm sorry; the appendage called Canada sided with us.

They had also balked at backing Argentina’s claims to the British-held Falkland Islands.

“All the countries here in Latin American and the Caribbean want Cuba to be present,’’ President Evo Morales of Bolivia told reporters late Saturday.

“But the United States won’t accept. It’s like a dictatorship.’’  

Well, when you behave like one....

Morales and other leftist leaders have been insistent that this weekend’s meeting in this Caribbean colonial port, which wrapped up at midday, will be the last regional summit under Organization of American States auspices unless Cuba is invited in the future.  

Well, our right-wing thugs, too, but never let that stop the propaganda machine known as the AmeriKan media from dividing and distorting. What an absolute piece-of-shit media. No wonder they are self-immolating as an industry.

But Santos said the leaders agreed to meet again in 2015 in Panama.

“Hopefully, within three years we can have Cuba’’ at the summit, Santos said.

President Obama’s peers lectured him Saturday over his unflagging opposition to Cuban participation due to US objections to the communist-governed Caribbean island’s lack of democracy.

But a senior US administration official said in a briefing for White House reporters Saturday evening that the subject did not come up in any of Obama’s brief meetings on the summit’s sidelines with the leaders of Guatemala, El Salvador, Argentina, and Peru.  

Rule of thumb, dear readers: ANYTHING the U.S. GOVERNMENT SAYS is a GOD-DAMNED LIE!!  A BRAZEN, BALD-FACED LIE right in your f***ing face!!!!!

Obama said he is hopeful about the prospect of a transition to freedom in Cuba and said there may be an opportunity in the coming years for communist-run island to start loosening up.

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Okay, now to the secret service:

"Lawmaker vows scrutiny of Secret Service" Associated Press, April 16, 2012

WASHINGTON - A Secret Service scandal involving prostitutes in Colombia that has overshadowed President Obama’s diplomatic mission in Latin American probably is not an isolated incident, and the agency should ensure it does not happen again, a leading House Republican said Sunday.  

Oh, no, it is NOT ISOLATED AT ALL! It is STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE according to the PROTOCOLS of GOOD GOVERNMENT!

California Representative Darrell Issa, chairman of a House investigative panel, said he does not know whether Congress would hold hearings on the misconduct. But lawmakers will be looking “over the shoulder’’ of the Secret Service, he said, to make sure that the agency’s method for training and screening agents is not endangering the nation’s VIPs.

“Things like this don’t happen once if they didn’t happen before,’’ said Issa, who leads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Eleven Secret Service employees are on administrative leave for misconduct and five military service members assigned to work with the agency are confined to quarters amid allegations that a group of personnel had a party with local prostitutes before Obama’s arrival in Colombia for the weekend summit with Latin American leaders.

In Cartegena, Colombia, the president said Sunday that he expects the investigation of Secret Service misconduct to be thorough and rigorous and added he will be upset if the allegations turn out to be true.

Obama said the men and women of the Secret Service perform extraordinary service for him, his family and US officials. He never directly mentioned the prostitution allegations but alluded to them, saying “of course I’ll be angry’’ if they are proven true.

Issa told CBS’s “Face the Nation’’ that lawmakers are trying to confirm the number of US personnel involved in the scandal. Of primary concern, he said, was that agents who behave badly are vulnerable to blackmail and therefore risk the security of the president and others under their protection.

“We have got to ask, ‘Where are the systems in place to prevent this in the future?’ ’’ Issa said. “It’s the reason that the investigation will not be about the 11 to 20 or more involved. It will be about how did this happen and how often has this happened before?’’

JFK instantly comes to mind. Those SS agents pawtied the night before.

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Related:

"MISDIRECTION

Assassination Columbia – What If It Ain’t About Whores?":

"The real deal is very probably this: 
At least one of the members of the presidential detail is suspected of working with foreign nationals to arrange the assassination of President Obama.
A certain nation comes to mind, one very close to former Governor Romney, the GOP candidate hopelessly behind in the polls, a candidate belonging to a religion seen as a dangerous sect, a candidate hated by most American women and women vote.
One country was told it wasn’t getting a war with Iran, has chosen to put all its weight behind an obvious loser and has no choice but to kill Obama or suffer the wrath of a president who has little to lose during a second term. There is no other reason such a hare brained story as this one would be foisted on the world during an election year."
The e-x-t-r-e-m-e unlikelihoods:
  1. All of these guys
  2. who are expressly ordered not to do this very thing
  3. and are under constant surveillance
  4. bring prostitutes to their rooms
  5. and the hotel rats them out.
On the other hand, if one of them is in the employ of a certain Bibi, explaining to this certain Bibi's local operatives - in a country filled to the brim with such operatives -  where the weak spots in Presidential security might be, and the Obama administration is terrified at even hinting that such a plot from America's bestest friend ever might exist, rounding up a bunch of people using a misleading sex scandal is just the way to remove the threat and the necessity of explaining what the real threat is.

The good news is that somebody running things is interested in keeping Berry's head free of Israeli bullets.

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That sounds like a MORE PLAUSIBLE SCENARIO to me!

Also seeSecret Service Sending Smoke Signals to U.S. Public

Bloggers also have your back, sir. 

"US general calls scandal embarrassing" Associated Press, April 17, 2012

WASHINGTON — The top US military officer said Monday the nation’s military leadership is embarrassed by allegations of misconduct against at least 10 US military members at a Colombia hotel on the eve of President Obama’s visit over the weekend.

“We let the boss down,’’ Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news conference. He said he regretted that the scandal, which also involved 11 Secret Service agents accused of cavorting with prostitutes at the hotel, diverted attention from Obama’s diplomacy at a Latin America summit.  

Well, DON'T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN -- EVER!!!! 

“I can speak for myself and my fellow chiefs: We’re embarrassed by what occurred in Colombia, though we’re not sure exactly what it is,’’ Dempsey added.

Pentagon officials said earlier Monday that the number of military members involved in the scandal appears to be greater than the five originally cited. One senior defense official said that at least 10 military members may have been involved. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is under investigation.

So NOT ONLY dos the GOVERNMENT FLAT-OUT LIE to you, they DOWNPLAY and DISTORT, too! Yup, you NEVER GET the TRUTH from THIS GOVERNMENT, Americans!

Pentagon spokesman George Little said military members who are being investigated were assigned to support the Secret Service in preparation for Obama’s official visit to Cartagena. He said they were not directly involved in presidential security.

The Secret Service sent 11 of its agents home from Colombia amid allegations that they had hired prostitutes at a Cartagena hotel. The military members being investigated were staying at the same hotel, Little said.

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And look where the New York Times is shining its light:

"The dual investigations have cast a light on the free-wheeling nightlife in Cartagena, where prostitutes walk the street and work in the bars and an array of private clubs, where they sometimes live and in some cases charge $300 or more to go out with customers....

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"3 agents in scandal are leaving the Secret Service" by Alicia A. Caldwell  |  Associated Press, April 19, 2012

WASHINGTON - The scandal has become an embarrassment for the Obama administration....

New details of the sordid night emerged Wednesday. A 24-year-old self-described prostitute told The New York Times that she met an agent at a discotheque in Cartagena and after a night of drinking, the pair agreed the agent would pay her $800 for sex at the hotel. The next morning, when the front desk called because the woman had not left, the pair argued over the price.

“I tell him, ‘Baby, my cash money,’ ’’ the woman told the newspaper in an interview in Colombia. She said the two argued after the agent initially offered to pay her about $30 and the situation escalated, eventually ending with Colombian law enforcement involved. She said she was eventually paid about $225....

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Also see: 

Secret Service lapses require a rigorous, independent probe

White House backs Secret Service head

Well, you wouldn't want those in charge of protecting you sore at you, would you? 

UPDATE: NSA Whistleblower Speaks Live: "The Government Is Lying To You"

Next Day Update: 

"Obama’s spokesman has assailed Republican criticism that has attempted to blame a lack of presidential leadership for the scandal and has said Obama would be angry if allegations published proved to be true....  

I take Obama's anger to be a message to Israel now, and the Republican criticism is so lame. I'm hard on Obama, but the guy can't have his nose in ever bureaucracy to make sure its being run right.

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Also see: Obama briefed on Secret Service scandal