Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community

Step Up the Security, Please

by BooMan
Wed Nov 25th, 2009 at 10:18:47 PM EST

I don't know whether to be more impressed by their audacity or their stupidity, but I got give credit to this couple that managed to get past the Secret Service and crash the White House state dinner last night. I guess they must have slipped out after a few cocktails because they didn't have assigned seats for the meal.

Step Up the Security, Please | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Step Up the Security, Please (4.00 / 3)

Style over substance: They looked like they belonged and that's all it took. As a publicity stunt, it's very impressive. As a breech of security, it's damned horrific. It's hard to believe no one was checking id's and comparing them to a guest list. That's a minimum requirement for getting into a backstage party at a rock concert, for goodness sake.

by sjct on Thu Nov 26th, 2009 at 07:44:09 AM EST

Famous Security Breaches (4.00 / 2)

Wearing a peach dress and impersonating Osama bin Laden.

Earlier the same year Aaron Barschak had evaded security at Windsor Castle west of London wearing a pink dress and an Osama bin Laden-styled beard to gatecrash the 21st birthday party of Prince William, second-in-line for the throne.

In 1982 unemployed labourer Michael Fagan scaled a Buckingham Palace drainpipe to enter the queen's bedroom. He sat chatting with her for 10 minutes before she was able to summon help.

Fake bomb placed under Queen's window

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

by Oui on Thu Nov 26th, 2009 at 11:07:10 AM EST

Is it a warning? (4.00 / 2)

Days after the anniversary of JFKs assassination
Days before Obama has the choice of defying the security establishment
A couple with a middle eastern last name waltz through Secret Service lines into a WH state dinner.

Interesting.

by rootless2 (sansracine_at_yahoo_dot_fr) on Thu Nov 26th, 2009 at 01:10:54 PM EST

Re: Step Up the Security, Please (4.00 / 2)

Once again, it just reinforces the fact that NOBODY is minding the store.

BTW, Brooksley Born = Genius, Alan Greenspan = class dunce.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aXcq.r6xLf4g&refer=home

by Superpole on Thu Nov 26th, 2009 at 01:59:00 PM EST

Re: Step Up the Security, Please (none / 1)

Makes you wonder.

I mean, what the hell? Wow. We almost have to strip down to get on an airplane or into a federal building and these folks just stroll into the WH aand rub shoulders with Obama and Biden? And no one noticed or checked ID or a guest list?

So you have a nice dress on and a tux and that let's you stroll into a state dinner?

What's wrong with this scenerio???

by Jan on Thu Nov 26th, 2009 at 08:52:46 AM EST

Re: Step Up the Security, Please (none / 1)

The next time someone is planning a terrorist act, purchasing evening gowns & tuxedoes will be on the list of things to do.

The difference between theists and atheists is that the atheists don't set the theists on fire for refusing to agree with them.

by KNUCKLEHEAD on Thu Nov 26th, 2009 at 10:31:31 AM EST

Re: Step Up the Security, Please (none / 0)

Have we closed down GitMo yet?

The Underground Railroad

by Oscar In Louisville on Thu Nov 26th, 2009 at 10:48:56 AM EST

Re: Step Up the Security, Please (none / 0)

On dKos, someone who has done security for a presidential event said that the admittance could have been approved by someone who made a mistake (the names were familiar, or something like that) but that security by the SS would follow, regardless of who approved their entrance. So, it may not be as serious a breach of security as it sounds. But certainly rattles one to hear about it.

by Heart of the Rockies on Thu Nov 26th, 2009 at 03:40:38 PM EST

Re: Step Up the Security, Please (none / 1)

Someone's going to get fired. Or, if SS, get sent to investigate penny forgeries in Billings, Montana.

by The Voice In The Wilderness on Thu Nov 26th, 2009 at 05:39:45 PM EST

Re: Step Up the Security, Please (none / 0)

The more benign conspiracy theory is that someone wants to make the Obama White House look incompetent. And, that someone inside the White House, who wants the same, helped them.

It's obvious that someone INSIDE HELPED THEM.

Now, you have the more sinister conspiracy theory of that this is a `dry run' for something altogether more heinous, and there is a leak in the Secret Service.

You can choose either one, but both are disturbing.

Who was at the State Dinner, and why was this breach a threat to national security?

Here is the Presidential Line of Succession
1 Vice President -- Joe Biden
2 Speaker of the House of Representatives- Nancy Pelosi
3 President pro tempore of the Senate - Robert Byrd
4 Secretary of State - Hillary Clinton
5 Secretary of the Treasury- Timothy Geithner
6 Secretary of Defense - Robert Gates
7 Attorney General - Eric Holder

Outside of Senator Byrd, everyone else was at the State Dinner.

There were two of them, and if they had more sinister motives, they could have divvied up the list, and set about causing instability in the United States Executive Branch.

by rikyrah on Fri Nov 27th, 2009 at 10:35:29 PM EST

Step Up the Security, Please | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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