Posted on 09/30/2014 6:33:49 AM PDT by Textide
Secret Service Director Julia Pierson testifies before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about Secret Service security protocols following a September 19 White House intruder breach.
Hearing starts at 10am Eastern.
C-Span Live: http://www.c-span.org/live/
Fox News article: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/09/30/white-house-intruder-made-it-to-east-room-officials-say/
Committee on Oversight and Government reform: http://oversight.house.gov/
Chairman Issa Preview Statement: http://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Chairman-Issa-Preview-Statement.pdf
We've got a number of movies that have come out about people taking over the white house. As with everything in hollywood, the difficulty of that task I believe has been overstated in the movies.
Ralph Basham, Former Secret Service Director under George W. Bush from 2003-2006 is one of the other witnesses. Now giving a bio of himself and speaking about the latest incident.
Stated that we could very easily be discussing why an Iraq war veteran was shot dead on the White House lawn while the first family were not on the premises. Mentioned that split second decisions are part of their job.
Never saw someone blink so much.She must have a hair in her eye.
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Very nervous ..... also, with the whistle blower leak yesterday that blows out of the water the lie that has already been told about the incident by the Secret Service, she’s majorly on the hot seat ... and under oath.
She says she takes “full responsibility” and will make sure it never happens again (?). Unless she patrols the WH herself, she’s got to rely on her people to do it and as a supervisor, you are only as good as your people - they can make you look very bad or very good. She’s looking very bad right now and she needs to discipline and/or fire some folks and make it clear that she won’t tolerate this..... until there are major consequences, this crap will continue. The supervisors that report to her are first on the list - word has it one of them is overweight, can’t do anything and doesn’t enforce standards with those under her. If this is true, major cleanup needs to happen. Many people claim the title of supervisor, but of those people, very few are actually good at performing that job - unfortunately, many poor supervisors are tolerated and the results filter down the ranks and are predictable. Julia herself may be a poor supervisor, but under Obama, nobody loses their job.
Shoot the next fence jumper right on the WH lawn! The next would be fence jumper would be thinking three times about his next move!
3 bureaucrats testifying. Give them all three 12 hour a day jobs at lowes selling self installed home security systems. Pay them minimum wage... and if they don’t like that offer them a jail cell and move on to something else.
Issa just shut down Basham’s self aggrandizing opening statement!
Todd Keil, the third witness, now speaking. He’s the “Former Infrastructure Protection Assistant Secretary, Homeland Security Department, Obama Admin., 2009-2012”.
Every organization “must be willing to learn”. “Time tends to unknowingly blunt the tip of the spear. Management can have the attitude of, ‘This is the way we’ve always done it’.” Money is not the answer. It will magnify management weaknesses.
Yeah... that statement might have earned him a management position at Loews.
Keil seems like he is apt to be going on and on like Basham.
Peter Principle.
The next would be fence jumper would be thinking three times about his next move!
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There are particular people who have stated their aim of flying their flag over the WH. I’m guessing they’re paying close attention and if I were the SS with crap like this going on, I’d be more than a little worried.
As for the optics of ‘shooting’ somebody who has jumped the fence and is headed for the WH, to me it’s like an intruder in my house. The very act of breaking in gives me enough “intent” to feel justified in shooting first instead of onducting a question and answer session to see if they might be a little “off”. Somebody jumping the fence and heading for the WH is showing intent ... doesn’t matter if mentally ill or not because they are just as capable of killing as somebody totally clear mentally.
No automatic crash button to lock down the front door! Must be hand locked. Amazing!
Peter Principle
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My version: you can’t fall off the floor.
Mizz Pierson now answering direct questions about the front door.
He’s asking why the Federal Complaint said he was apprehended at the front door.
She says Omar and the front door officer crossed the east hall together into the East Room where another officer assisted the door guard in subduing him.
I hate it when everyone reads their statements.
Can’t anyone talk extemperaneously?
Having had responsibility for the security of over 4,000 people in a corporate headquarters complex in a major urban city known for crime, I’ll tell you that this breach of security represents a complete collapse of what should have been a layered security system.
The old belts and suspenders theory. You don’t rely on just one layer of defense.
This was NOT an unforseeable event. This is an event that could and should have been anticipated, and there should have been training against it.
What if there were not one, but MULTIPLE simultaneous threats occurring?
Mr. Basham even said we could be here talking about why the SS shot and killed an Iraq War veteran suffering from PTSD.
Really? So what?
We could just as well be talking about why half the White House was blown up by someone wearing a suicide vest right now.
The director should resign just out of sheer incompetence and what is left of her honor.
A promise to do better next time is not going to cut it.
There is no acceptable excuse for what occurred, and the same people cannot be left in charge to figure out how it does not happen again.
Yep. Security is part optics.
Next jumper dead on lawn, even if a bat-crap crazy nobody, will give others an idea of what awaits them should they try the same exercise.
This witch is going to lose her job. They are not going to allow parsing words testimony here....
She wants to filibuster each answer and Issa shuts her down each time. Good on Issa!
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