{"id":13747,"date":"2014-09-24T00:01:26","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T07:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=13747"},"modified":"2014-09-24T00:01:26","modified_gmt":"2014-09-24T07:01:26","slug":"secret-screw-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/24\/secret-screw-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Secret Screw-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most important jobs in the works is that of a Secret Service Agent in the Presidential Detail.  Our National Security depends on the President’s safety.  I therefor consider it horrendous that  mentally challenged individual was able to hop the White House fence, stroll across the lawn, and walk into the White House.  Lets start with the basics.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"0924lafayette-square\"<\/p>\n

Secret Service officers stopped Omar Jose Gonzalez last month as he carried a hatchet in front of the White House, but let him go<\/strong> even though he had been arrested this summer in Virginia with a mini-arsenal of semiautomatic weapons, a sniper rifle and a map clearly marking the White House\u2019s location<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors on Monday also said Mr. Gonzalez, 42, an Iraq war veteran who on Friday scaled an iron fence and made his way through the front door of the White House before he was apprehended, had 800 rounds of ammunition, two hatchets and a machete in his car when law enforcement officers searched it after Friday\u2019s incident.<\/p>\n

A judge on Monday agreed to a request by the prosecutors that Mr. Gonzalez, who is from Copperas Cove, Tex., and believed to have been living out of his car, remain in custody until a hearing next month because he posed a danger to President Obama.<\/p>\n

The disclosures raised further questions about whether the Secret Service, which has the responsibility for protecting the president, could have prevented the breach into the White House, one of the most secure facilities in the country<\/strong>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <NY Times<\/a>><\/p>\n

More than one Republican has called this incompetence on Obama\u2019s part.  That notion is absurd, but there have clearly ben a few blunders.  First, after apprehending Gonzales the first time, he should have been held for evaluation.  At all times every part of the White House grounds should be under direct observation. Every doorway into the White House should be locked and guarded.  Part of the reason these things were not done is negligence, and the parties responsible for that negligence should be reassigned to Sitka or Kiska.  However, part is also funding.<\/font><\/p>\n

Because of Republican cuts to Secret Service budget, they have a severe staffing shortage.  People are being used on the Presidential Detail who are not normally part of it. Although expenses are up, Republicans cut their funding by $5 million<\/a>, with even bigger cuts about to take place because of sequestration.<\/font><\/p>\n

Perhaps the shortfall should be made up by further cutting the Congressional security detail<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most important jobs in the works is that of a Secret Service Agent in the Presidential Detail.  Our National Security depends on the President’s safety.  I therefor consider it horrendous that  mentally challenged individual was able to hop the White House fence, stroll across the lawn, and walk into the White House.  […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}