Obama guards recalled over scandal

TEL

New York, 15 April 2012: A dozen Secret Service agents sent to Colombia to provide security for President Barack Obama at an international summit have been relieved of duty over alleged misconduct.

 

They are the stern-faced besuited agents, earphones in place, eyes scouring crowds for potential threats, who accompany US leaders across the world to protect their safety, ready to lay down their lives if necessary.

 

But an advance party of Secret Service agents deployed to Colombia to oversee security for President Barack Obama’s visit this weekend also apparently found time to pursue some local diversions.

 

About 12 agents have been sent home in disgrace in a prostitution scandal after at least one woman complained to police in the city of Cartagena, which is hosting the Summit of the Americas, that she had not been paid.

 

The agents, some of whom are married and including at least two supervisors, brought several prostitutes back to rooms in their hotel, which is also housing US delegation members and media. “This is the worst scandal in the history of the agency,” said Ronald Kessler, author of In The President’s Secret Service, who broke the story after receiving a tip from an agency source.

 

Although prostitution is legal in Colombia inside so-called “tolerance zones”, the agents could still have been exposed to blackmail and the business is closely connected to crime and drug gangs. The Colombian police contacted American diplomats, who tried to mediate the dispute and keep a lid on the crisis as a new crew of agents were rushed to the country from the US. American officials insisted that there was no danger to Obama and that the shamed agents had already been replaced by the time the President arrived in Cartagena last evening.

 

But two explosions from home-made pipe-bombs in the city last evening and two more blasts in the capital in Bogota, were a reminder of the security dangers in Colombia.

 

Despite marked improvements in recent years, the country has long been plagued by far-Left political terrorism, drug cartel violence and kidnappings. “This is a very bad security breach is being taken extremely seriously inside the agency,” Kessler told The Daily Telegraph.

 

“Aside from the morality issues, even if prostitution is legal, this conduct opened these men up to the threat of blackmail. Terrorists could have gained access to secure areas and that could have resulted in an assassination attempt.

 

The consequences could have been extremely serious”.

 

The incident also threatened to overshadow Obama’s efforts to focus on the economy and boosting trade ties with fast-growing Latin America.

 

With Hispanic voters in the US crucial to his re-election hopes in November, the President has been keen to use the summit.