The
Secret Service sent three agents home from the Netherlands just before
President Barack Obama's arrival after one agent was found inebriated in an
Amsterdam hotel, the Secret Service said
The three agents were benched Sunday for
"disciplinary reasons," Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said
Tuesday, declining to elaborate. Donovan said the incident was prior to Obama's
arrival Monday in the country and did not compromise the president's security
in any way.
Still, the incident represents a fresh
blemish for an elite agency struggling to rehabilitate its reputation following
a high-profile prostitution scandal and other allegations of misconduct. An
inspector general's report in December concluded there was no evidence of
widespread misconduct, in line with the service's longstanding assertion that
it has no tolerance for inappropriate behavior.
The agents sent home from Amsterdam were
placed on administrative leave, according to The Washington Post, which first
reported the disciplinary action. The newspaper said all three were on the
Counter Assault Team, which defends the president if he comes under attack, and
that one agent was a "team leader."
One agent was discovered highly intoxicated
by staff at a hotel, who reported it to the U.S. Embassy, said a person
familiar with the situation, who wasn't authorized to discuss the alleged
behavior on the record and demanded anonymity. The other two agents were deemed
complicit because they didn't intervene despite being in a position to assist
the drunken agent or tamp down his behavior, the person said.
"It wasn't like a big, crazy
party," the person said.
Obama arrived in the Netherlands early
Monday on the first leg of a weeklong, four-country trip. He departed for
Brussels on Tuesday night, and there were no known security issues during his
stay in the Netherlands.
Before Obama travels anywhere abroad, a
slew of Secret Service and other government officials are dispatched in advance
to prepare the intense security operation needed to protect the president in
unfamiliar territory. Typically, counter assault teams travel with the
president in his motorcade and if he came under fire, the team would be called
upon to engage any attackers while the president was hustled to safety.
Stricter
rules implemented in the wake of a prostitution scandal involving secret
service agents in Colombia bar agents from drinking alcohol within 10 hours of
starting a shift. It's unclear whether the other two agents were drinking
heavily or what time any of them would have been expected to show up for a
shift.
The
Secret Service's reputation for rowdy, fraternity-like behavior snowballed in
April 2012 in the run-up to another Obama foreign trip, this one in the
Caribbean resort city of Cartagena, Colombia, where 13 agents and officers were
accused of carousing with female foreign nationals at a hotel where they were
staying before Obama's arrival.
After
a night of heavy partying in bars and clubs, the employees brought women,
including prostitutes, back to their hotel. Six of the employees eventually
resigned or retired, while others had their security clearances revoked or were
removed from duty.
Seeking
to turn a page on that chapter in the service's famed history, Obama last year
named veteran Secret Service agent Julia Pierson as the agency's first female
director and signaled his desire to change the culture at the male-dominated
service. Less than a year later, two additional officers were removed from
Obama's detail following allegations of sexually-related misconduct that came
to light after an incident at an upscale hotel next to the White House.
A 145-page report issued late last year by
the Homeland Security Department inspector general determined there was no
evidence of widespread misconduct within the Secret Service. Following the
South American prostitution scandal, the agency put new procedures in place,
including a ban on bringing foreign nationals to hotel rooms where agents and
officers are staying.
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