4 top Secret Service executives told to leave their posts in agency shake-up

[inanna]

Source: Washington Post

January 14 at 3:59 PM

The Secret Service has decided to remove four of its most senior officials while a fifth has decided to retire, the biggest management shake-up at the troubled agency since its director resigned in October after a string of security lapses, according to people familiar with internal discussions.

The departures would gut much of the Secret Service’s upper management, which has been criticized by lawmakers and administration officials in recent months for fostering a culture of distrust between agency leaders and its rank-and-file, and for making poor decisions that helped erode quality.

<snip>

The shake-up appears to be part of an ongoing effort to overhaul the agency in response to a string of embarrassing lapses and revelations last year, including the ability of a knife-wielding man to scale the White House fence and run through much of the mansion’s main floor. In addition, lawmakers were outraged over a series of revelations in a Washington Post report about the agency’s bungled response to a 2011 shooting attack at the White House.

<snip>

The current changes leave in place — at least for now — the agency’s second-in-command manager and one of the longest-serving leaders at the Service Service: Deputy Director Alvin T. Smith. He was the deputy to two previous directors, and he authorized a 2011 operation that took agents away from the White House to instead monitor the home of an administrative assistant during her dispute with a neighbor. An investigation found that the operation was improper and a misuse of agency resources.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/4-top-secret-service-executives-told-to-leave-their-posts-in-agency-shake-up/2015/01/14/a084b164-9c1f-11e4-96cc-e858eba91ced_story.html?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

[99th_Monkey]

1. Secret agencies are a cancer to both Justice and Democracy

of course i'm thinking more of CIA and NSA, but still.

Will we EVER grow the fuck up enough as a society so we don't even NEED
this kind of an agency, steeped in secrecy.

The problem is the age old very true saying

Power corrupts, and and absolute power corrupts absolutey

ON EDIT to be clear, I'm super happy the SS is getting their shit together, it's a great development; and polly
means a safer world for the Obamas and future POTUSs

[rhett o rick]

2. I hope they are "getting their shit together" and not just shaking things up. nm

[99th_Monkey]

5. Agreed, totally. nt

[MicaelS]

3. No, we never will.

All it takes is one kook, nut, mentally ill, disgruntled person to change history. Or a few if you believe in conspiracies.

It's like what the IRA was purported to have said to Thatcher...

"We only have to get lucky once, you have to get lucky all the time."

Change the words a bit, and you get the idea.

[99th_Monkey]

4. I can't help but notice

that certain countries are peace-loving, have little or no military to speak of, and surprise-surprise, they are NOT
being threatened & attacked by terrorists. (I'm thinking Sweden, Switzerland, Costa Rica, New Zealand, et. al.

It's the Imperialist/capitalist nations that are under attack, and so ipso facto "MUST have" big military and secret agencies that invariably become increasingly secretive, power-hungry & corrupt. If the USA hadn't been stirring shit up in the ME for decades, killing, torturing, decimating whole funerals, etc. creating more terrorists exponentially hand-over-fist, I seriously doubt we'd be under such fierce attack by so-called terrorists.

I'm hoping for a saner & brighter world someday in the not so near future, for my kids and grandkids. I'll never give up hoping for this and working for it however I can, non-violently of course.

[pscot]

9. The Swedish PM was assassinated in 1986

Olof Palme; it happens. Not to say that our security arrangement don't go way too far. And are getting worse. The CIA just exonerated itself in the matter of spying on Congress.

[99th_Monkey]

11. If I have to go back nearly 30 years to find a single incident of "terrorism"

that's not too bad, compared to USA, UK, France, et al.

But even with this ONE incident 30 years ago, how/why do you attribute the assassination to "terrorists"?
"Although more than 130 people have confessed to the murder, the case remains unsolved.."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Olof_Palme

[pscot]

13. I wasn't disagreeing with you

Just saying. And 28 years isn't a long time. Anyway you got a free trip to Wikipedia which is good.

[99th_Monkey]

16. Is all good

Hey, at my age, I cannot argue with 28 years not being such a long time.

[MicaelS]

18. You fail to get my point.

The assassinations of Lincoln, McKinley, Garfield, and JFK were not the result of Terrorism. They were the result of

one kook, nut, mentally ill, disgruntled person to change history. Or a few if you believe in conspiracies.

Thus, you will always need some type of ARMED protective detail for POTUS. Any other POV is simply a fantasy.

Now, as to the issue of the ME. You know perfectly well it is largely due to our support for Israel. And Israel came into existence because the Western Powers failed to prevent the Holocaust. Or ignored it when they could have done something, like bomb the camps like Jews of the time wanted Roosevelt to do. So Israel was the mea culpa for the Holocaust. Today WE could have "peace" in the ME if we were willing to throw Israel under the bus. Which I doubt will never happen.

[99th_Monkey]

19. Not really.

I completely understand your concerns, your argument, and it's "rational" basis.

Even if we got rid of all guns & military, and CIA, NSA, et, al. we might still want some
ninjas surrounding our President, granted,

You might say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

[Hekate]

6. I wonder if any or all of them were Bush hires? nt

[inanna]

7. Call me jaded

but I was wondering the exact same thing.

[tblue37]

8. I was wondering why Smith was kept on after *his* big screw up. nt

[Hekate]

12. BushCheney dug deep holes for their moles before they left, primarily by changing their status...

...from political appointee to Civil Service. If they were the former, their jobs would end with the exit of the president who appointed them. If the latter, they have Civil Service protections up the wazoo.

At the beginning, BushCheney had a purge of Civil Service employees. At the end, they did that. May they rot in that Hell Bush claims to believe in.

[pscot]

14. Do you often consign evil doers to perdition

from Democratic Underground? That last line sounded really final.

[Hekate]

15. I do when they put on a show of public piety the way Dubya did. Pagans have a saying....

...when cursed by Christians: "It's your Hell. You go there."

Pagans aren't the only ones who don't believe in Satan and Hell (Unitarians don't either), but there's a certain class of publicly pious Christian who likes to tell the rest of us how we are going to Hell for not believing as they do. (Then there's Pres. Jimmy Carter, Rev. Wallis, and my neighbors, who do good in the world and live and let live.)

Meantime, BushCheney did us terrible, terrible harm as a nation. So my feelings are very clear. Since they (or at least Dubya) claim to believe in Hell, I hope they end up there. With finality.

[pscot]

17. Cheney is a terrible man

Cold, amoral and unyielding. Consign him to the flames.

[Cha]

10. "If they do not resign or retire, they can report for a new assignment with the Secret Service’s..

"Acting Director Joseph P. Clancy on Tuesday informed the four assistant directors who oversee the Secret Service’s core missions of protection, investigations, technology and public affairs that they must leave their posts within 30 days.

If they do not resign or retire, they can report for a new assignment with the Secret Service’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, according to people familiar with the discussions.

From your link.. mahalo inanna~