Escándalo expulsa tres agentes del Servicio Secreto

The Secret Service on Wednesday announced the departure of three employees connected to a prostitution scandal last week involving members of President Obama’s security detail who were in Cartagena, Colombia.

As the agency tried to manage the fallout from the embarrassing episode, it said in a statement that one agent is expected to resign and another, a supervisor, intends to retire. A third, also a supervisor, has been recommended for firing but will have an opportunity to appeal, dijeron las autoridades.

En total, 11 Secret Service employees — either agents or staff members of the agency’s uniformed division — and 10 military personnel are suspected of being involved in a night of carousing that included heavy drinking, visits to strip clubs and prostitutes on April 11, dos noches antes de que Obama fue a llegar a la ciudad costera de Cartagena durante una cumbre internacional.

La agencia y el Departamento de Defensa son cada investigar la supuesta mala conducta. Los ocho miembros del personal del Servicio Secreto restantes están en licencia administrativa, y sus de alto secreto las autorizaciones de seguridad han sido suspendidos. Los militares han regresado a sus miembros del servicio a sus bases.

"Exigimos que todos nuestros empleados se adhieren a los más altos estándares profesionales y éticos y el compromiso de una revisión completa de este asunto,", Dijo el Servicio Secreto en un comunicado.

Usted. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), presidente del subcomité de Asignaciones del Senado sobre seguridad nacional, llamada supuesta mala conducta de los hombres una "grave violación de la confianza pública."

The allegations — and accompanying negative publicity — have deeply angered rank-and-file members of the Secret Service, severely lowering morale at the agency.

In interviews, current and former agents said they are particularly outraged by the alleged involvement of the two senior supervisors, both of whom have two decades of experience and were sent on the trip to oversee the less-experienced members of the team. Both of those supervisors have spent significant time on presidential protective details, dating to the Clinton administration, according to current and former agents. The two are based in Washington.

“I was really disappointed. I’ve learned a lot from both of these guys,” said one agent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. “I was surprised they were involved. Especially because they are senior people.”

Those familiar with details of the investigation said the two supervisors were sent to Cartagena as leaders of Secret Service “jump teams,” squads made up of several dozen special agents and uniformed officers that are deployed to a site in the days before the president arrives.

It is customary for the jump teams to fly aboard giant Lockheed military transport aircraft, nicknamed “car planes,” which also carry the presidential limousine, Chevy Suburbans and other vehicles that make up the president’s motorcade.

Several of the agents reportedly were part of the elite counter-assault team, which reports to the special operations division, not the presidential protective detail. The rest were uniformed officers who work with bomb-sniffing dogs or magnetometers.

Fuente: Enashington Post