Posted on 11/28/2009 1:02:58 PM PST by Schnucki
WASHINGTON: This time, the picture is the story. After the Secret Service insisted that US president Barack Obama was never endangered by a security breach that allowed a couple to crash his first state dinner, the White House has released a photo showing that not only did the pair get close to Obama, they actually shook hands and talked to him.
The revelation underscored the seriousness of the security breach and prompted an abject apology from the Secret Service.
A White House spokesman said that the couple, Michaele and Tareq Salahi of Virginia, met and shook hands with the president and the first lady in the receiving line in the Blue Room, as the Obamas greeted each of their 400 invited guests on Tuesday night before moving to a tent on the South Lawn for dinner. That disclosure coincided with a statement from the director of the Secret Service, Mark Sullivan, saying that his agency was “deeply concerned and embarrassed” by the events. Secret Service officials said the agency wanted to interview everyone connected with the episode, including the Salahis, and had not ruled out criminal charges.
Secret Service on Friday acknowledged that its officers never checked whether the two were on the guest list before letting them onto the White House grounds. The Salahis were not on the guest list and should have been barred from entering last Tuesday’s dinner on the White House South Lawn for the Prime Minister of India, said Sullivan.
“Although these individuals went through magnetometers and other levels of screening, they should have been prohibited from entering the event entirely,” Sullivan said. “That failing is ours.”
What, a handshake is “endangering?” Not if they used Purell.
What if she had some ricin on her
I wouldn’t want to be the director of the Secret Service right now. He might want to be dusting off his resume.
I wouldn’t want to be the director of the Secret Service right now. He might want to be dusting off his resume. Or his copy of Obama COLB
Joe Biden would be POTUS and Obwahahama a martyr. And we’d REALLY be in deep doo-doo.
Evidently you didn’t see Bat Man with Jack Nicholson
Nothing more that deadbeat con artist, god I just don't know how many SS people should be fired.
Incompetence oozes from the top.
This is a severe breach in security for a sitting President. The Secret Service should be ashamed of themselves.
The President seems to be enjoying whatever is being done to his thumb.
they both look like they subsist on a diet of watery oatmeal.
Can anyone shed light on how it was discovered that these people crashed the party? I missed that part of the story.
Rattled me too. I knew he was a wuss, but, seeing this limp-wristed form close up scares me.
Is that a soldier of allah handshake?
Agreed. His smile seems a little weird...odd...queer.
From what I've heard she posted pictures on Facebook and some how it was discovered by the press....I know, doesn't make sense but that's the story I heard.
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