Was Gannon also a 'guest' at Camp David and Crawford?

[enid602]

Today's Raw Story article featured the log kept on visitors to the White House. I imagine that the same Secret Service also protects the Preznit when he's so frequently away at one of his many vacation spots. Does the SS keep a log of comings and goings at Camp David, Crawford or Kennebunkport? How would one go about finding who had visited the Preznit at these locations?

[LeftyMom]

1. The Crawford and Keenbunkport records are probably impossible to get

since they're private property and have a higher expectation of privacy than the White House.

[MADem]

3. They can be gotten....

Camp David is maintained by the military, it is taxpayer property. I have friends who were once stationed there. But even the private residences have a whiff of public about them.

The Secret Service pays Presidential and ex-presidential property owners an annual rental fee to set up their little guard shacks, their security perimeter (monitoring system, paid for by the taxpayers) and a trailer (or a room in a large home, like say, the basement) that they use as their HQ while their protectee is in residence. When GSA pays rent, that's taxpayer/gubmint property, same as a recruiting office in a strip mall for the military.

There is no expectation of privacy for records created in these circumstances, in the context of official business, in those cases. Those records are "gettable"--they may want to do some redacting, but they can't keep that shit in the dark forever. They belong to the SS, an agency of the government, they are not the personal property of the protectee.

[LeftyMom]

5. I didn't know about the rent

That probably makes all the difference. I'm betting it would take a legal fight and they'd stall like crazy, though.

[MADem]

6. The real issue is the records, though

They are the property of the SS, not the family. People who pass through the protective layer of the SS are logged, and if they are logged, the documents are maintained for a period of at least two years, more if a President is involved (libraries, archives--key info for historians). The public has an absolute right to those records, but there may be room for some long term stalling on chimp's part.

But hey, when you stall, or stonewall, or BS, that's worse than admitting it. The conspiracy theorists have a field day, speculating that Ole bin hidin' was in the guest room, or whatever!

[Frances]

2. Do all of those long visits suggest that something

along the lines of Monica's visits was going on?

[MADem]

4. Who knows?

Bettie Currie used the same technique to get her in a few times...send someone down with a day pass, and Bob's yer uncle.

[enid602]

7. Gannon

If they were not Monica visits, they probalbly involved far more sinister projects. Let's see, what can you do with a prositute? Blackmail politicans? World leaders?

[MADem]

8. Get help from someone who can write a press release?

So your Talon News screeds are at least literate, and your posts at a conservative website send the message that is desired? This guy is part and parcel of the Armstrong Williams chain--paid reporters, just like they have paid trolls. It's how you acquire power without appearing to use force.

[H2O Man]

9. I would suggest

that people consider the chance that his visits were not to see the president, but are more closely connected to those around the VP.

[Disturbed]

10. Some posters have stated that this is a non-story.

I feel that it is an important lead to the real story, one that the Rethugs and Fundies don't want the public to know about. Notice how quite they are about it?

[H2O Man]

11. Yep.

The level of clearance a person needs to be authorized to come and go as Mr. Gannon appears to have done is higher than that of a part-time reporter. Think of what it takes to be able to keep the media from finding out anything about one's past.

In a sense I understand why some people feel this is not going to result in any serious consequence for the White House. And your point that the media is silent is extremely important. But we have to convince people -- on DU and in our homes and workplace -- that democracy is not something that is limited to what "leaders" do, or what the media defines. It's inside us. It's what we do. The corporate media may not touch this today, but that should not change how we view it. Our behavior should correspond to what we recognize in our own mind, rather than to what the media tells us we should think.

Ideas are powerful.

[jimshoes]

12. Same here

Only the MSM probably won't go near it. That means it will have to be investigated by independent journo's and bloggers which is OK too. There weren't too many media outlets that were interested in the Watergate break-in either. Thankfully at least 2 investigative reporters took the story on. The rest as they say is history. But even they had some inside help. Deep Throat, you still around?

[enid602]

13. Cheney

But does the VP spend that much time at the WH? I know his official residence is at the Blair House down the stree, but I don't know where Cheney's offices are.

[earth mom]

14. Hmmm...that IS the question, now isn't it?! eom

[brettdale]

15. Freedom of information act

Could you get it under the freedom of information act?

[brettdale]

16. kick

kick