Julia Pierson: Secret Service protection was clearly wanting in Gonzalez incident
Julia Pierson, director of the Secret Service while testifying before Congress took responsibility for the breach that allowed Omar Gonzalez to enter the White House and said she would make sure such a security collapse never happened again.
She’s right if she meant it would not happen under her watch. She’s now resigned after meeting with Jeh C. Johnson, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
The Secret Service acted like the Dukes of Hazard on September 19 when Gonzalez breached security. The Secret Service must tighten the security of the White House, the president and the presidential family; so further review is needed.
Some secret service agents may also have to be fired or re-assigned to other work.
Let’s begin with Gonzalez’s breach of the fence around the White House.
It’s an ordinary iron fence that is not electrified and doesn’t have barbed wire on the top because the White House, while being the residence and offices of the presidency, is also a tourist attraction. So it’s easy for a would-be intruder a to scale the fence.
However what’s inexplicable is that the guard dogs were not released or that the sharp shooters who are stationed on top of the White House never fired a warning shot, or at least shoot the intruder in the leg to impair him. This is clearly unpardonable. Mr. Gonzalez clearly was not dashing across the lawn towards the White House to deliver pizza.
Once insider he reportedly overpowered a secret service agent and made it into one of the rooms in the White House before the same agent together with another overpowered him.
What makes this case even much more troublesome is that on July 19 Gonzalez was arrested by Virginia State Police and found with a sawed off shotgun and a cache of weapons in the trunk of his car. He also had a map of Washington, D.C, with a line drawn to the White House. He had reportedly been driving erratically and refused to pull over.
How much investigating did the Virginia police conduct when Gonzalez was arrested?
Of course this is not the first time the Secret Service have been found wanting. Recall also that in November 2009, a couple, Michaele and Tareq Salahi, party-crashed a State Dinner hosted by President Obama. This was not as dangerous as Gonzalez’s break in given that he was armed and is reportedly mentally unstable.
Still, the White House is supposed to be secure. One possible measure to begin with is to electrify a portion of the White House lawn so that, rather than chasing after an intruder as she or he runs towards the White House, an agent could trigger the security feature on the grass from a hand-held device.
Julia Pierson did the right thing to resign.
The review must proceed and if others need resign then so be it.
