SECRETS OF THE SECRET SERVICE

Capitol Hill lawmakers considering the president's plan for a cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security will want to look awfully hard at one particular flow-chart revision it contemplates--the new outfit's absorption of the Secret Service--in light of an eye-opening report in the June 17 issue of U.S. News and World Report. The story has so far inspired a handful of not-very-funny late-night television jokes. But for some reason it has otherwise largely escaped notice. Which is worse than a pity, because if reporter Chitra Ragavan and her colleagues are to be believed--and why shouldn't they be?--the federal agency charged with protecting our president's life is on the verge of abject functional and moral collapse.

U.S. News reports that a drug-abusing street criminal wound up dead in one Secret Service agent's apartment after an evening of sex. That agents have recently been convicted of embezzlement and welfare fraud. That a few months ago, four agents on Vice President Cheney's personal detail got into a drunken brawl with a large group of San Diego bar patrons--during which one agent bit off the tip of a local's ear. That in mid-February, another group of agents on Cheney's detail left the agents' printed plan for the vice president's trip to the Winter Olympics on a Salt Lake City store counter--and then abused the shopkeeper who conscientiously returned it to them.

Wait, we're just getting started. U.S. News reports that a Secret Service agent guarding former President Reagan has been convicted of statutory rape--involving a 16-year-old girl--and violently resisting arrest while in possession of methamphetamine. The magazine suggests that the Service has a notable alcoholism problem. That agents on the White House Counter Assault Team watch pornographic movies in the basement of the Executive Mansion. That Secret Service field offices have more than once been visited by professional strippers. And that morale problems--and resulting early retirements and resignations--have become so severe that the agency is having trouble staffing the sniper teams that patrol the White House roof.

There's even--predictably, The Scrapbook supposes--a Clinton angle. According to Ragavan & Co., it seems there is widespread suspicion among Secret Service line agents that their agency's notorious assertion of "protective function privilege" during Ken Starr's Lewinsky investigation was not designed to protect President Clinton from embarrassing sexual disclosures. No, the thinking goes, then-Secret Service chief Lew Merletti tried to block his employees from talking to the grand jury because he was afraid his own extramarital affair with a White House staffer might be revealed. U.S. News says that Merletti's successor, current Secret Service director Brian Stafford, is also "widely believed" to have had an adulterous fling with a Clinton staffer. And that yet another agent, A.T. Smith, was sleeping with yet another White House aide while he was in charge of Hillary Clinton's personal detail.

And so forth. This is the kind of thing we're going to build our Department of Homeland Security around? Not exactly confidence-inspiring.

All day on July 4 and well into the next day, FBI and local officials insisted the shooting in front of the El Al counter at Los Angeles Airport wasn't terrorism, that it was the act of a lone assailant. The media picked up and promoted both points. How did law enforcement officials and the press know this? They didn't. Either they were being politically correct to an egregious extent or they were just plain winging it. Either way, they were wrong and should have known better.

Consider what law enforcement officials found when they rushed the airport. A man with Middle Eastern looks had gotten in the line at El Al, the Israeli airline, and killed two people before being shot to death himself. He was armed with two guns, a knife, and plenty of bullets. So what did investigators quickly conclude? The Washington Post said they "were checking reports from witnesses that the gunman may have been a disgruntled former employee of the airline or the airport, or may have had a dispute over identification in the ticket line."

Huh? These would have been plausible, though only barely, if the shooting had occurred at the United or Continental counter. But at El Al on Independence Day? Please. It was obviously a terrorist act and officials should have recognized it even before the disclosure that the assailant was an Egyptian immigrant who was angry over America's response to September 11. He killed innocent people for political reasons: That's terrorism.

So what made the FBI and other officials think he acted alone? Nothing, except the terrorist didn't have an obvious accomplice at the airport. That hardly meant he acted alone. Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel carry out their deeds alone, but they are backed by dozens who arm, train, and dispatch them. For all the FBI knew on the day of the shooting, the LAX terrorist might have been working with Hamas, the Al-Aksa Brigade, or al Qaeda.

What we're facing here is not simply a refusal to face facts but also a ludicrous desire to avoid anything that resembles "ethnic profiling," even when a terrorist act has been carried out. Has the FBI really gotten serious about the war on terrorism?

Between now and the August recess, the Democratic party will have to come clean on its stance toward religion in the public square. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle will decide either to support the president's faith-based initiative, as embodied in the CARE Act, or to scuttle it.

The CARE Act provides tax relief to charities, both secular and religious, and is designed to level the playing field for faith-based organizations that apply for federal grants. It was coauthored by Senator Joseph Lieberman and counts Hillary Clinton among its cosponsors. It recently was passed by the Senate Finance Committee.

Daschle seems to like the bill. He wrote in an op-ed that "the CARE Act isn't a Republican or Democratic plan; it is a bipartisan proposal that strikes the right balance between harnessing the best forces of faith in our public life without infringing on the first amendment. . . . I look forward to working with President Bush to get this proposal signed into law."

Yet when the president last week urged an immediate vote on the CARE Act, he received a cold response from Daschle's office. The New York Times reported that "the Majority Leader is in no hurry to bring the bill to a vote, despite the President's call for the Senate to act quickly. 'Last I checked he wasn't the Majority Leader of the Senate,' Ranit Schmeltzer, a spokeswoman for Mr. Daschle, said of Mr. Bush."

Schmeltzer is right about one thing: Her boss controls the Senate schedule. It will be interesting to see if he now decides to use that power to put the Democratic party on record in favor of, or against, the faith-based initiative.

As if interns hadn't gotten enough bad press in recent years, along comes the Center for Constitutional Rights to make things worse. CCR, a non-profit legal group committed to the "creative use of law as a positive force for social change," has now established the Isabel and Alger Hiss Internship Program, honoring the man who famously made creative use of spying for social change.

The internship is being funded by the estate of Isabel Johnson Hiss, Alger's second wife. The new Hiss interns will assist CCR attorneys "working on government misconduct cases," since, as the Center's press release informs us, Alger Hiss, Stalin's man in Washington, was the victim of "one of the more infamous cases of governmental misconduct in the 20th century."

I guess they ought to hire Clint Eastwood to run the outfit. On second thought that might be a bad idea. Too many drug pushers ready to make his day.

Maybe a nice girl could apply for the Alger Hiss internship?

I love it- the Alger Hiss Internship! ROTFLMFAO!
As far as the Secret Service goes, I guess it was time for a splash of cold water. Every other gov't agency has been brought down to earth, it was time for the Secret Service. I'll admit, though, I bought a lot of that Tom Clancy noble-gov't-service-crap. Oh well.

Unfortunately, a few rotten eggs can sometimes taint the soup.

I do believe that the SS ran rampant during the Clinton years. They saw their boss getting away with murder, literally, and they were obviously tainted by it.

Also, I, like you, believe in the public service mantra - and I do believe that those SS who are now serving our President have been greatly affected by his attitude, his style and his honesty. However, it may take awhile to work its way down into the whole organization. Or ... several of them may end up being transferred or asked to leave if they cannot get with the program.

Chitra Ragavan and her colleagues are to be believed--and why shouldn't they be?

Um, because they work for NPR--National Pinko Radio?

...the federal agency charged with protecting our president's life is on the verge of abject functional and moral collapse.

Can you say "Clinton Legacy"?

I bought that stuff too. The country really suffered under our former National Role Model. I can only hope that it will recover under Dubya.

The USSS is getting a bad rap! This is all horse hockey..So there are some bad apples and some cheating apples. That makes the entire service bad? Thats the reason to move it to the new Homeland Defense Agency? Besides, lets talk about the press and the soap-opera style love affairs that go on there. Where does one start? ABC? CBS? NBC? CNN? FOX? MSNBC? NYTIMES? WASHPOST? LATIMES? TRIB? The old saying is correct, Fear not your enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better to fear the press, for they can steal your honor.

I do believe that the SS ran rampant during the Clinton years. They saw their boss getting away with murder, literally, and they were obviously tainted by it.

I think that had a lot to do with it, and I don't think that Ken Starr helped matters much when he subpoenaed some of them (his only action I opposed).

It says a lot when the Director of a high profile agency such as the Secret Service quits to go to work for a professional sports team. I've heard that Merletti was disgusted with Clinton but the subpoenas were the "last straw".

-Eric

"A lot you know. I have many friends in the SS and without doubt it is worse than even U.S. News says."

I also have many friends in the service. It has no where near the problems that the FBI, ATF, Marshals, GSA, and other federal law enforcement agencies have. Matter of fact it's way ahead of them. Yeah it's got problems, but what law enforcement agency doesn't?

Can you say "Clinton Legacy"?

You got that right! Yes I can say "Clinton Legacy." It's going to take a while to clean up after that pervert.

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