Secret Service dismissals "biggest scandal" for agency

(CBS News) Ronald Kessler, best-selling author of "In the President's Service" and a former reporter for The Washington Post, called the dismissal of 12 Secret Service members in Colombia prior to President Obama's arrival there "the biggest scandal in Secret Service history."

Secret Service confirms members' removal

A source in the Secret Service told CBS News that one or more of the officers was involved with prostitutes and that there was a dispute over payment. One prostitute went to the police, who notified the State Department.

According to sources two of the Secret Service personnel sent home were supervisors; the rest were part of a detail assigned to logistics. None of those relieved of duty was a member of the president's protective detail.

On "CBS This Morning: Saturday," Kessler said the Secret Service has a culture of corner-cutting.

"They don't have enough agents, they don't even put people through metal detectors sometimes because there's pressure to let everybody in," Kessler said. "It's like letting passengers in an airplane without putting them through metal detectors. They don't keep up-to-date with the latest firearms. They don't even do physical tests. So, it's a culture that leads to this kind of problem."

Kessler pointed to a couple crashing a White House state dinner without an invitation as an example of a potential security threat.

He said that Mark Sullivan, director of the Secret Service, should have been fired after the fiasco involving gate-crashers Michaele and Tareq Salahi, but has continued in the same position because of President Barack Obama's confidence in the agency.

"President Obama keeps saying, 'I have full confidence in the Secret Service,'" Kessler said. "You know, he deals with agents who are very admirable, so he thinks, 'Well, the Secret Service must be fine.' But, you know, in my book...I go into dozens and dozens of examples of poor management.

"For example, when [Dick Cheney's daughter] Mary Cheney was under protection, she wanted her agents to take her friends to restaurants. Well, they're not taxi drivers. They are law enforcement officers, they refused, as they should have, but because of that she got her detail leader removed.

"So the Secret Service management didn't back the guy who is doing his job. And that kind of culture is the sort that leads to this kind of incident, where there's poor morale, there's hostility toward management."

Kessler called this latest incident in Colombia "a very shocking scandal."

He added the situation may be a sign of a trend because it involved supervisors. Kessler called it "just unbelievable" and a "tremendous embarrassment to the U.S."

He said that the Secret Service personnel's liaising with prostitutes could expose them blackmail to acquire access to secure areas. "They could have led to an assassination. And if you have an assassination, you nullify democracy. That's how important the Secret Service is."

Kessler went so far as to say the president's safety is in jeopardy because the replacements didn't have time to get acclimated to the situation.

For more with Kessler, watch the video in the player above.

[SUZAMBA]

So the Secret Service got caught with their pants down (so to speak), seems they were only doing what the other elite people on the hill do?
And excuse me, do you really know what Bush was doing?

[ghostsouls]

Well, with the firing of these guys, obama can now add 12 more new jobs created to his list.

[kaysieverdin]

If you remember former federal judge Edward Nottingham was very involved with prostitutes. The USMS provided guards that were driving and guarding him 24/7. I think that is why the USMS arrested and detained me without a criminal charge in order to extort me into filing motions to dismiss my third party civil lawsuits. DOJ's position is that no criminal charge is needed to arrest and detain people for long periods of time as federal prisoners.

[credibility2]

That the Secret Service even placed themselves in potentially compromising situations, black mail, etc. is troubling. I agree with this guy that after the Salahi incident, the head of the agency should have been fired. This speaks poorly of the agency's preparedness to remain fully focused at the task at hand. While I'm not a fan of the president, I shutter to think what could happen with irresponsible agents who are sworn to protect the president and his family at all times...including when they're elsewhere awaiting a presence. The replacements one has to wonder, like this guy, aren't fully prepared in the detail minutia. Let's pray nothing serious happens to anyone in our government because of the stupidity and absurd laxity of the agents. And, fire the head guy...he's obviously not running a tight ship and is too lax in making sure the agents are always working and in protective mode.

[jimatmadison]

When I saw that the Secret Service was in trouble I thought that maybe they had run across one of W's cocaine stashes....


.... or found a Clinton-era bimbo hiding under a forgotten desk somewhere.

[HolyVoice]

"It's like letting passengers in an airplane without putting them through metal detectors.

I remember those long bygone days. We'll call them the innocent before presumed guilty period of American history. Ahhh

[uffdaron]

Such a sad mark on a previously unimpeachable organisation.

We never saw such disrespect when President Bush was in charge.