By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com When bullets were fired in Dallas on November 22, 1963, many of the Secret Service agents hired to protect President John F. Kennedy failed in their duties, the Vanity Fair reports in an examination of the actions taken by the White House security detail. “Roy Kellerman, the leader of the security…
By Glenn Harlan Reynolds USA Today Column There’s a connection between the Secret Service’s Colombian hooker scandal and Americans’ increased worry about Ebola. Both have to do with trust. Until recently, if you’d asked Americans to pick government institutions characterized by efficiency and professionalism, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Secret Service…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Some members of Congress and other experts believe the next director of the Secret Service should come from outside because much of the agency’s problems are its insular culture, the USA Today reports. If the White House taps someone with no ties to the agency, it will be the first time…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Four former senior government officials will head up an independent review of the beleaguered Secret Service, Washington Times reports. The review panel will include two former officials for former President George W. Bush and two who have served under President Obama. The panel is expected to submit its findings and recommendations…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The Obama administration has repeatedly denied that anyone from his administration was involved with the Secret Service’s 2012 prostitution scandal in Columbia. But the Washington Post reports that new information suggests one of the presidential advance-team members was involved but never thorough investigated. In fact, the White House continued to say…
By Farah Stockman Boston Globe Here’s a quiz: Which crime is more likely to get you shot to death? A) Scaling the fence outside the White House, with a knife; B) Jaywalking in Ferguson, Mo., unarmed. The answer, of course, is B, at least if you’re a black man. And it’s not just in Ferguson….
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Hoping to address low morale and security blunders at the Secret Service, some congressional watchdogs are proposing to limit the agency’s role of protecting the president, Time reports. Perhaps most important, the proposal includes removing Secret Service from the Department of Homeland Security, which has struggled as a giant bureaucracy. “Long-term,…
By David Horsey The Baltimore Sun Secret Service agents should go to the movies more often. At least since the 1996 sci-fi film, “Independence Day,” in which an alien spaceship the size of Los Angeles incinerates the White House, attacks on the lovely old executive mansion have been a recurring cinematic theme. Last year, two…
