Thursday, March 12, 2015

Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, March 12, 2015


Obama and Holder's Furguson...


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3 comments:

William R. Barker said...

* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-agents-disrupted-bomb-investigation-at-white-house/2015/03/12/0eb74590-c8c4-11e4-aa1a-86135599fb0f_story.html

Two Secret Service agents suspected of driving under the influence and striking a White House security barricade disrupted an active bomb investigation and may have driven over the suspicious package itself, according to current and former government officials familiar with the incident.

These and other new details about the March 4 incident emerged Thursday from interviews and police records obtained by The Washington Post.

* MARCH 4TH - AND FIRST I'M HEARING OF IT!

The episode has prompted questions from lawmakers about whether the newly appointed leaders of the Secret Service are capable of turning around the troubled agency.

* THAT'S A JOKE - RIGHT?

Among the lawmakers’ questions: Whether a Secret Service supervisor, as witnesses have alleged, ordered officers to let the agents go home without facing sobriety testing.

* NAME PLEASE! (IN FACT... MAKE THAT "NAMES"... PLURAL!)

An investigation by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general is centering on the possible misconduct of two senior agents, including a top supervisor on President Obama’s protective detail.

The "incident" unfolded on a hectic night for Secret Service officers guarding the White House.

About 10:25 that night, a Pennsylvania woman hopped out of her car at the southeast entrance of the White House on 15th Street NW and threw a package wrapped in a green shirt at the security post. She yelled at a police officer: “It’s a bomb,” according to a police report obtained by The Post.

* WAS THE WOMAN APPREHENDED?

Police quickly secured the area with tape and called an explosives inspection team to check the package for potential explosive materials or other dangers.

But shortly before 11 p.m., the two high-ranking Secret Service agents returning from a work party at a Chinatown bar about eight blocks from the White House drove their government car through the crime scene.

* "WORK PARTY..." MEANING... TAXPAYER FUNDED?

* "CHINATOWN BAR..." MEANING... PLACE WHERE ALCOHOL IS SOLD?

* "GOVERNMENT CAR..." MEANING... DRINKING AND DRIVING...??? (DRINKING TAXPAYER FINANCED BOOZE AND DRIVING CAR AFTER HAVING DONE SO...???)

According to people familiar with the incident...

* NAMES...???

...they drove through police tape and then hit a temporary barricade, using the car to push aside some barrels. An agency official said Thursday that the car was not damaged.

* AND HAS THIS BEEN VERIFIED?

The episode was caught on surveillance video. Investigators who have reviewed the tape of the incident say it is not clear if the pair drove very close to or over the suspicious item wrapped in the shirt, one law enforcement official said.

* SOME CRACKERJACK "INVESTIGATORS" THEY HAVE ON THE PAYROLL OVER AT SECRET SERVICE, HUH?

* TO BE CONTINUED...

March 12, 2015 at 3:45 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING...

Secret Service officers on duty considered the agents’ behavior to be erratic and suspected they were drunk, according to current and former officials familiar with the incident.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

The officers wanted to arrest the agents — but a more senior supervisor at the complex told them to let the agents go, the officials said.

* THE SUPERVISOR'S NAME, PLEASE?

At some point, the woman who was identified as throwing the item onto the White House property drove away in her car, a law enforcement official said. The official said the woman had fled before the agents disrupted the scene. Police had taken note of her license plate number.

* GEEZUS... FRIGGIN'... CHRIST...

Meanwhile, at 11:45 p.m. the police explosives team determined the suspicious item was not a threat and gave the complex the all clear. The item was a book.

Secret Service officers found the woman two days later to question her about her threats on the White House.

The agents under investigation are Mark Connolly, the second-in-command on Obama’s detail, and George Ogilvie, a senior supervisor in the Washington field office.

* AND... er... HOW'BOUT THE "SENIOR SUPERVISOR AT THE COMPLEX" WHO SENT THE APPARENTLY DRUNK AGENTS ON THEIR WAY...???

An agency official said the two employees had been moved to “non-supervisory, non-operational assignments.” They were not put on administrative leave, which has been a typical procedure when agents are under investigation for alleged misconduct.

* IT'S CALLED "CONSPIRACY."

The incident has presented an early test for Secret Service Director Joseph P. Clancy, who was appointed last month by Obama following a string of embarrassing agency missteps and security lapses.

On Thursday, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said he was concerned that the events of March 4 suggest some in the Secret Service feel they are above the law.

* APPARENTLY THEY ARE...

“The director needs to send a message. He needs to signal there is going to be new accountability in the agency,” Chaffetz said. “We’re still learning all the facts, but I’m still not very impressed by how this is going.”

March 12, 2015 at 3:45 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.wsj.com/articles/clinton-unclassified-1426116512

A friend of ours with long years of service in government asked a question raised by Mrs. Clinton’s defense:

How could she possibly do her job as Secretary of State without sending a single email that had classified information in it?

(*SILENCE*)

Mrs. Clinton insisted Tuesday that “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email."

(*SILENCE*)

"There is no classified material. So I’m certainly well aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material.”

(*PURSED LIPS*)

With the Clintons, you always have to parse the meaning of “is,” and Mrs. Clinton didn’t say she never received classified information via email. But if she meant both send and receive, then how could she have done her job given the hundreds of thousands of miles she traveled during her four years at Foggy Bottom?

Surely she had to inspect classified material on numerous occasions while she was on the road doing highly sensitive government business.

(*SILENCE*)

If some aide had to carry a separate device for classified communications, then that blows away her “convenience” excuse for using a personal email account because she only wanted to carry one device.

March 12, 2015 at 3:59 PM

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