Secret Service agents sent home from Amsterdam after getting blitzed

Secret Service agents sent home from Amsterdam after getting blitzed

By Dan Calabrese (Bio and Archives)  Wednesday, March 26, 2014 Comments at bottom of page | Print friendly | Subscribe | Email Us

You know, even those of us who don’t like the policies of a given administration can still take pride in the fact that certain arms of the government remain at all times committed to professionalism, duty, honor and dignity. Like the Secret Service, whose agents recognize that their call to the duty of protecting the president rises above partisanship, and requires of them a level of responsibility and commitment that sets them apart and earns them our trust and respect.
Then again:

Three Secret Service agents responsible for protecting President Obama in Amsterdam this week were sent home and put on administrative leave Sunday after going out for a night of drinking, according to three people familiar with the incident. One of the agents was found drunk and passed out in a hotel hallway, the people said.
  The hotel staff alerted the U.S. Embassy in the Netherlands after finding the unconscious agent Sunday morning, a day before Obama arrived in the country, according to two of the people. The embassy then alerted Secret Service managers on the presidential trip, which included the agency’s director, Julia Pierson.

. . .
  According to two people familiar with the Amsterdam incident, the three are members of the Secret Service’s Counter Assault Team, known in the agency as CAT.
  The alleged behavior would violate Secret Service rules ­adopted in the wake of a damaging scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, in April 2012, when a dozen agents and officers had been drinking heavily and had brought prostitutes back to their hotel rooms before the president’s arrival for an economic summit.

I wonder if we will soon be hearing the defense that they’re under a lot of pressure and they just needed to blow off steam. Or that I’m a prude for thinking Secret Service agents on an official trip shouldn’t be getting anywhere near alcohol, let alone getting drunk and passing out in a hallway.
Honestly I’m surprised they even get this kind of time to themselves when they’re on an official trip, and I say that acknowledging full well that I have never had a job anything even remotely like this and I don’t really know what goes into the advance work or any of the field operations. Maybe it’s perfectly normal for them to perform their duties and then head out for a night on the town.
But given the level of skill, the precision of the reflexes, the level of attentiveness, that may be required to protect the president at a given moment, I know if it was me I would sure as hell not compromise my chances of effectiveness even the tiniest bit by drinking during the trip. Granted, I don’t drink at all, so maybe you’d argue I don’t really understand.
Then again, maybe I’d argue it’s you who doesn’t understand. And, apparently, many of those we trust to protect our president as well.

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