Posted on 04/24/2008 12:38:48 PM PDT by pissant
You are not going to believe this story. It is really something else. The White House, I predict, will look the other way at the flagrant law-breaking by a Mexican official caught on tape by the Secret Service filching U.S. government property. After all, looking the other way at systemic law-breaking by Mexico is the official Bush policy. Fox News has the scoop:
Whether he was up to no good or simply desperate to play BrickBreaker, a Mexican press attaché was caught on camera by Secret Service pocketing several White House BlackBerries during a recent meeting in New Orleans, FOX News has learned.
Sources with knowledge of the incident said the official, Rafael Quintero Curiel, served as the lead press advance person for the Mexican Delegation and was responsible for handling logistics and guiding the Mexican media around at the conference. He took six or seven of the handheld devices from a table outside a special room in the hotel where the Mexican delegation was meeting with President Bush earlier this week.
Everyone entering the room was required to leave his or her cell phone, BlackBerry and other such devices on the table, a common practice when high-level meetings are held. American officials discovered their missing belongings when they were leaving the session.
It didn’t take long before Secret Service officials reviewed videotape taken by a surveillance camera and found footage showing Quintero Curiel absconding with the BlackBerries.
At first, Quintero Curiel denied the criminal acts. But when confronted with the tape, he chalked it up to an “accident”–then promptly invoked diplomatic immunity:
He initially denied taking the devices, but after agents showed him the DVD, Quintero Curiel said it was purely accidental, gave them back, claimed diplomatic immunity and left New Orleans with the Mexican delegation.
It is unclear what disciplinary measures, if any, await him in Mexico. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino refused to discuss the incident, telling FOX News, “We are aware of the situation, but as it’s under investigation by law enforcement officials, we will decline to comment.”
Just looting the White House electronic devices Americans won’t loot…
***
Now, imagine if it were an American government official caught south of the border stealing Mexican government property.
Did our taxes buy those blackberries? If so, he was stealing from We the People of the United States of America - every one of us.
The Whitehouse should bar this man from ever entering this country again. (and his little dog too!)
Don’t feel bad, I thought the same thing!
There was nobody available to guard the table where the Blackberries were placed? Wow.
Declare him persona non grata and never let him back in the country. Also, the Secret Service post the video on YouTube just for the laughs.
Another article said that between the didn't take them and "oops! it was an accident" he tried to claim that they were the Blackberries of the Mexican officials, not the American ones.
Just call me a Luddite.
He was just trying to put food on the table.
He probably wanted to read all the emails on the blackberries, if they weren't password protected.
-PJ
That is EXACTLY what I thought it was. LOL! Shows my age.
Our government may officially look the other way, but this guy will never get a visa to get into the US again, and I doubt any of his relatives will either. And there will be additional unofficial repercussions if the Mexican government doesn’t fire or greatly demote him.
The Secret Service certainly shouldn’t have left these Blackberries unguarded. They are embarrassed now, and there’s no telling what tricks they have up their sleeves for making this guy regret that he exposed their carelessness.
Stealing government things Sandy Burglar won’t steal.
1. He’s a spy. Did a good job, but got caught. Serving his country.
or
2. He’s a messenger. Team Bush leaks insider info to Mexicans interests in this manner. Slipped up. Makes more sense, why would the Black berries be left out so?
They would have worked nicely in the Mexican government’s stolen cars.
Mexicorruption. No wonder 60 percent of citizens (I read some place) wish to leave the government-created cesspool.
I can’t believe this isn’t being looked at as espionage. Imagine the information on a high-level official’s blackberry.
Same here. As I was reading it I was thinking “why in the hell would he put blackberries in his pocket? And what the hell are White House blackberries doing in New Orleans!”
“There was nobody available to guard the table “
And look what happened- a spy got caught! Naturally we’d never set a trap and bait it with blackberries.
LOL, me too! The first image that popped into my mind was the guy illegally picking wild blackberries from a bush out in the WH rose garden or something. I was thinking, what the heck, don't the guards have anything better to do...
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